1st Battalion 35th Armored Regiment
"Conqueror"
1-35 Armor has a long and proud tradition as one of Americas foremost tank battalions in the European theater.
It was first constituted on January 13, 1941, as the Fifth Armored Regiment and assigned to the 4th Armored Division. On April 15, 1941, the Fourth Armored Division was activated at Pine Camp, New York. On May 8, 1941, the 5th Armored Regt. was redesignated as the 35th Armored Regiment and spent most of 1942 in Tennessee performing training maneuvers and California conducting desert training. In 1943, the 35th Armored Regiment continued training in California and later moved to Massachusetts. On September 10, 1943, the regiment broke up, reorganized, and its component units redesignated. The 1st Battalion, 35th Armored Regiment became the 771st Tank Battalion and was relieved from assignment to the 4th Armored Division. It became a corps asset, an independent tank battalion providing armor support to infantry divisions, which had no organic tanks at the time. The 771st moved to the UK in 1944 in preparation for the Normandy invasion. The battalion landed at Utah beach on July 11, 1944. The 771st swept across Europe, fighting in the Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe campaigns, including the famous Battle of the Bulge.
After World War II, on May 1, 1946, the 771st Tank Battalion was converted and redesignated as Troop A, 71st Constabulary Squadron. On September 20, 1947, Troop A was inactivated at Augsburg, Germany. On December 11, 1951, it was reactivated and redesignated as Company A, 771st Tank Battalion. On April 1, 1957, the 771st was redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Medium Tank Battalion (Patton), 35th Armor under the Combat Arms Regimental System. It was concurrently assigned to 4th Armored Division and activated at Fort Hood, Texas. Later that year it moved as part of the division to Erlangen, Germany.
In 1963 the unit was redesignated 1st Battalion, 35th Armor. 1-35 joined the First Armored Division when the Fourth Armored Division was inactivated on May 10, 1971. 1-35 Armor served with distinction in 1990 and 1991 as part of Operation Desert Shield/Storm. 1-35 Armor was deactivated shortly after Desert Storm and remained inactive until 1997, when 2-68 Armor in Baumholder deactivated and reactivated as 1st Battalion, 35th Armored Regiment.
From February 1998 to September 1998, 1-35 participated in SFOR, the Stabilization force in Bosnia-Herzegovenia, enforcing the Dayton Peace Accords. In May 1999, Charlie Company became the first airlifted heavy tank company in U.S. Army history when they deployed as part of Task Force Hawk to Tirane, Albania. As 1-35 prepares for its deployment to Kosovo as part of KFOR, it remains the only active battalion of the 35th Armored Regiment and as such is the home unit for the Regiment.
C Company, the Comanches, was the first American ground force to enter Kosovo in June 1999. In addition to leading the way into Kosovo, Comanche tanks were responsible for clearing mines from the land that is now Camp Bondsteel. In the past two years the Comanches have participated in the Bosnia and Kosovo peacekeeping missions, three tank gunnery rotations, two CMTC rotations, and a six month training cycle in preparation for another peacekeeping mission to Kosovo in 2001. The company held honors for the highest average Tank Table VIII and XII scores, and the high individual tank score for Tank Table VIII.
