Finis
back to indexOne day on the desert, they stood bareheaded when a great man said to them: "Take off your hats, men. I want to look at you." Gazing over the ranks, he told them: "I am proud of you and I know I always will be." General Wood probably saw in the faces of. these men something that told him that they were to earn their name in battle. Later they remembered and often repeated the slogan that he coined that day, — feeling pride in having heard him predict: "You will be known by your deeds alone."
This pride, this cockiness and even smugness that so characterized the division was indisputably justified, because the Fourth Armored Division built a record that was unsurpassed by any other unit. They had the most audacious tank battalions, the most courageous infantry battalions and the most aggressive artillery battalions in any goddamn division in any goddamn army.
The 94th Field itself played no small part in building this reputation. It was known by the tankers and the doughboys as the "94th Infantry." It never failed to give support in any situation. It never received orders to be ready to support the tanks and infantry in any situation; it was already there giving them fire support before it was called for. It never needed or asked for support to clear its own position or to protect its flanks. The men had the teamwork and the knowledge of how to do the job, whether it was giving fire support or acting as infantry in mopping-up operations or in outposting an open flank.
Much of their confidence was based on their leaders (officers like Patton, Wood, Clarke, Abrams, and Battalion Commanders like Graham, Powers, and Parker automatically instill confidence) and in their training which had been exhaustive and in their superior equipment, but most of all in themselves and in each other. They knew each other as brothers know one another. They were proud of themselves, of each other, of their battalion and division.
There were leaders and equipment and training, but the men themselves carried the fight. They drove the tanks and fired the guns. They did the killing and were killed. They froze in their slit trenches and roasted in their tanks. They lost their friends and their limbs and their lives and their minds. But they never lost courage and pride and they made it go. Men made this battalion. Great men.