**NO RESERVE**

A RARE WWII 759th Tank Battalion patch.  US made machine embroidered cut edge. 

When the armored divisions were re-organized in 1943 a number of independent tank battalions became available.  

Once deployed the battalions were generally permanently assigned to infantry divisions rather than the Armored Divisions.  

The 759th was organized in June of 1941 at Ft. Knox, Kentucky and was designated as a light tank battalion equipped with the M3 Stuart Light tank.  It left the US in August of 1942 and was landed in Iceland for garrison duty.

It arrived in the UK in August of 1943 to begin training for the D-Day landings where it landed on 16 June 1944 attached to the 2nd Infantry Division and was engaged in the combat around St. Lo.

By August of 1944 the Army determined that the M3 tank was relatively fast but was too light  for use other than as an armored reconnaissance vehicle, the 759th was attached to the 4th Cavalry Group and entered Belgium in early September and Germany on 14 September screening 9th Infantry Division’s flank.

Held sections along Siegfried Line until early November and then into the Hürtgen Forest

It saw action during the Battle of the Bulge, and was the fist unit to receive the new M24 Chaffe tank.

The 759th crossed the Rhine at the Remagan Bridgehead in mid March and continued through Germany until April of 1945 when operations were halted as a result of Germany's surrender.  After a very brief term on occupation duty it returned to the US in December of 1945. 

Patches for these independent tank units are fairly rare since these units were relatively small and not many of these were made. The 759th was organized very early in the war was one of a handful of units first deployed to Iceland along with some British forces and then saw a lot of action in the ETO. 

Most of these were "unauthorzed" by the Army Board of Heraldry but most of the individual unit patches and pocket patches were approved by the commanders for "local wear" and were likely purchased via the PX.  In researching these I did find some photos showing billboard signs incorporating these designs on the signage so there is evidence of wartime "unofficial" approval. If you are a collector of  various versions and variants of WWII patches here is a chance to add one of the more unusual ones to your collection. .