It was realized rather quickly specialized training was needed.
As the Tank Destroyer arm of the American army was being developed, Major Noble J. Wiley, Jr. and Executive Officer and Colonel Richard G. Tindall (later Brigadier General) knew the TD Battalions would need specialized training. The concept developed more fully as Camp Hood took shape. Both of these men were involved in the preliminary antitank maneuvers of the 1st army in the Carolinas during October-November 1941.
The Enlisted Mans' Oath
I, John Doe, do solemnly swear or affirm
to bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America, and
to serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies or
opposers whomsoever, and to observe and obey the orders of the president
of the United States of America, and the orders of the officers
appointed over me, according to the articles of war.
The mission of the Tank Destroyer Unit Training Center became that of
training tank destroyer units to the point of blotting out and
erasing any fear of armored forces; establishing superiority in
maneuver and gunfire.
The specialized training program for TDs provided for 19 weeks of
training. 6 weeks of basic and 13 weeks technical and tactical training.
The basic training was comparable to that of a replacement training
center.
The technical instruction was designed to make all personnel expert with
their principal weapons or expert in their specialist duties.
In the tactical phase, the coordinated action of the squad, section,
platoon, company and battalion, was taught.
Captain Gordon T. Kimbrell (later Lieutenant Colonel) designed and
executed an innovative method at Camp Hood for the TD Battalions. The
use of Commando tactics, battle conditioning. His training method became
a model for similar courses throughout the Army.
Specialized Training for Tank Destroyers
Training Hazards
Among the known and expected hazards of training American
boys to act in unison to seek, strike and destroy. Black widow spiders,
mosquitoes, chiggers and poisonous snakes were common hazards. As were
sunstroke and heat exhaustion. Yet, even with all this against them,
this Specialized Arm of the Army, known as Tank Destroyers, were able to
produce human fighting machines that were capable of wiping out the
enemy's armored vehicles which were preventing Allied victory in WWII.
Firing by Ear Rather than Sight
In June 1943, a new method of night target designation was developed by
the Second Training Group. Range was determined by machine gun tracer
fire and announced to a tank destroyer section. One gun was laid at the
announced range and the other in the section at a range 100 yards short.
A delayed fuse setting was used. Both gunners observed the tracers and
fired at will. In a test of this method, three targets were destroyed
with the expenditure of only three rounds per gun for each target.
In conjunction with the above training (and the training below) the tank
destroyer battle firing position was developed -
a crouch with the pistol held directly in front of the belt
buckle or with the butt of shoulder weapons resting on the pit of the
stomach, aimed by ear rather than by sight,
fire from this position was phenomenally accurate in daylight as well as
in darkness. Units firing in the darkened tunnels of the battle
conditioning course consistently averaged 85% hits as compared to an
average of 50% hits on similar targets with aimed fire in daylight.
Two additional Battle Conditioning courses were constructed during the
latter part of 1942 and January 1943 to provide facilities for all tank
destroyer organizations.
Tank Destroyers Set the Pace
Early in April, 1943, permission was received from the Tank Destroyer
Center to experiment with the use of live ammunition in training. For
the first time in the history of the United States Army, troops
were subjected to grazing machine gun fire twelve to eighteen inches
above their heads while they crawled across an open field in
which explosives were detonated in their midst. This was the origin of
the infiltration course, now standard throughout the Army as preparation
for combat. The methods of street fighting, woods fighting, and close
combat firing - taught by the battle conditioning department of the Unit
Training Center - were copied extensively by other training
installations.
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