The Black Tanker "Iron Man" Who Killed SS Across Europe To Avenge His Best Friend
World War Archives
42,798 views
#761stTankBattalion #WW2 #MilitaryHistory
On the night of November 8, 1944, in a cold field in eastern France, two best friends from Texas ate cold rations on a tarp. One smoked a Lucky Strike. The other smoked a Chesterfield. They said see you in the morning. By the next nightfall, one of them was dead in a burning Sherman on a road outside Morville-lès-Vic. The other one would spend the next 32 years of his life trying to balance an unbalanceable ledger. The battalion historian started calling him Iron Man. He stopped trying to count the kills.
This documentary reveals the true story of Sergeant Warren G.H. Crecy of the 761st Tank Battalion — the first Black American armored unit ever to fight in a war — and the friendship that broke him into the most lethal individual soldier the battalion ever produced. While the United States Army spent two and a half years refusing to commit a Black tank unit to combat, while Jackie Robinson sat in a military stockade in Texas for refusing to move to the back of a bus, while General Patton told them their whole race was looking forward to their success — Warren Crecy and Horatio Scott trained together at Camp Hood, shipped to England together, and landed at Omaha Beach together in October 1944.
Discover the polite, soft-spoken boy in horn-rimmed glasses from Corpus Christi who once carried flowers and ice cream three blocks to ask permission to marry a nine-year-old girl — and how grief turned him into a tank gunner who fired a .50 caliber until the barrel turned cherry red, took out anti-tank guns on foot with an abandoned jeep machine gun, and walked alone into German lines at night with a dead infantryman's Garand.
🔥 In this video:
The Bookends of Camp Hood: How a tank gunner from Crockett and a driver from Texas became inseparable through two and a half years of waiting for a war their country didn't want them to fight.
Patton in the Rain: The October 1944 speech at Saint-Nicolas-de-Port and the general who didn't ask for color, he asked for tankers.
The Road Outside Morville-lès-Vic: November 9, 1944 — one anti-tank round, one burning Sherman, and the moment that broke Warren Crecy in two.
The Three Days That Made the Iron Man: The jeep, the disabled Sherman, the cherry-red .50 caliber, and the kill count that battalion historian Trezzvant Anderson stopped writing down.
Tillet: Five days in the snow against the Führer Begleit Brigade with eleven tanks, two of which walked out.
The Medal That Never Came: The Silver Star handed over in a tent, the Medal of Honor recommendation downgraded, and the 1990s review panel that ruled his actions fell short.
Sources of Where I get my facts:
Anderson, T.W. (1945) Come Out Fighting: The Epic Tale of the 761st Tank Battalion, 1942–1945. Salzburger Druckerei, Salzburg.
Wilson, J.B. (1992) The 761st "Black Panther" Tank Battalion in World War II. Office of the Chief of Military History, Washington D.C.
Abdul-Jabbar, K. and Walton, A. (2004) Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes. Broadway Books, New York.
Wilson, J.M. (1997) Honoring the Heroes: The Re-evaluation of the Medal of Honor for African American Soldiers of World War II. Department of the Army, Washington D.C.
Sasser, C.W. (2004) Patton's Panthers: The African-American 761st Tank Battalion in World War II. Pocket Books, New York.
Disclaimer: This video is a historical documentary intended for educational purposes.
#761stTankBattalion #WW2 #MilitaryHistory #WarrenCrecy #BlackPanthers #BattleOfTheBulge #Sherman #Patton #WorldWar2 #History
17 Comments
but they went up the hill anyhow and made it possible for him to come down .
The Black Tanker "Iron Man" Who Killed SS Across Europe To Avenge His Best Friend
World War Archives
42,798 views
#761stTankBattalion #WW2 #MilitaryHistory
On the night of November 8, 1944, in a cold field in eastern France, two best friends from Texas ate cold rations on a tarp. One smoked a Lucky Strike. The other smoked a Chesterfield. They said see you in the morning. By the next nightfall, one of them was dead in a burning Sherman on a road outside Morville-lès-Vic. The other one would spend the next 32 years of his life trying to balance an unbalanceable ledger. The battalion historian started calling him Iron Man. He stopped trying to count the kills.
This documentary reveals the true story of Sergeant Warren G.H. Crecy of the 761st Tank Battalion — the first Black American armored unit ever to fight in a war — and the friendship that broke him into the most lethal individual soldier the battalion ever produced. While the United States Army spent two and a half years refusing to commit a Black tank unit to combat, while Jackie Robinson sat in a military stockade in Texas for refusing to move to the back of a bus, while General Patton told them their whole race was looking forward to their success — Warren Crecy and Horatio Scott trained together at Camp Hood, shipped to England together, and landed at Omaha Beach together in October 1944.
Discover the polite, soft-spoken boy in horn-rimmed glasses from Corpus Christi who once carried flowers and ice cream three blocks to ask permission to marry a nine-year-old girl — and how grief turned him into a tank gunner who fired a .50 caliber until the barrel turned cherry red, took out anti-tank guns on foot with an abandoned jeep machine gun, and walked alone into German lines at night with a dead infantryman's Garand.
🔥 In this video:
The Bookends of Camp Hood: How a tank gunner from Crockett and a driver from Texas became inseparable through two and a half years of waiting for a war their country didn't want them to fight.
Patton in the Rain: The October 1944 speech at Saint-Nicolas-de-Port and the general who didn't ask for color, he asked for tankers.
The Road Outside Morville-lès-Vic: November 9, 1944 — one anti-tank round, one burning Sherman, and the moment that broke Warren Crecy in two.
The Three Days That Made the Iron Man: The jeep, the disabled Sherman, the cherry-red .50 caliber, and the kill count that battalion historian Trezzvant Anderson stopped writing down.
Tillet: Five days in the snow against the Führer Begleit Brigade with eleven tanks, two of which walked out.
The Medal That Never Came: The Silver Star handed over in a tent, the Medal of Honor recommendation downgraded, and the 1990s review panel that ruled his actions fell short.
Sources of Where I get my facts:
Anderson, T.W. (1945) Come Out Fighting: The Epic Tale of the 761st Tank Battalion, 1942–1945. Salzburger Druckerei, Salzburg.
Wilson, J.B. (1992) The 761st "Black Panther" Tank Battalion in World War II. Office of the Chief of Military History, Washington D.C.
Abdul-Jabbar, K. and Walton, A. (2004) Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes. Broadway Books, New York.
Wilson, J.M. (1997) Honoring the Heroes: The Re-evaluation of the Medal of Honor for African American Soldiers of World War II. Department of the Army, Washington D.C.
Sasser, C.W. (2004) Patton's Panthers: The African-American 761st Tank Battalion in World War II. Pocket Books, New York.
Disclaimer: This video is a historical documentary intended for educational purposes.
#761stTankBattalion #WW2 #MilitaryHistory #WarrenCrecy #BlackPanthers #BattleOfTheBulge #Sherman #Patton #WorldWar2 #History