page_title: 37th Armor Regiment
section_title: Battle of the Bulge
hierarchical_section_title: 37th Armor Regiment / World War II and the Cold War / World War II / Battle of the Bulge
caption_attribution_description: English: Black and white battlefield photo of Cobra King, a Sherman tank which was the first tank into Bastogne. Crew is outside the tank.
context_page_description: The 37th Armor is an armor regiment of the United States Army. It is often remembered as the successor to the 37th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division, commanded by then Lieutenant Colonel Creighton Abrams during World War II.
context_section_description: On 16 December 1944, Sherman tanks of Company A, 37th Tank Battalion were the first 4th Armored Division vehicles to enter Germany when they chased several German tanks back into the woods near Rimling. The same day Company A entered the Reich, Hitler had played his last trump north of where the 4th Armored Division was resting from its five months in action. The German 5th Panzer Army, the last of the German strategic reserves, spearheaded the attack by Field Marshal Model's Army Group B that opened the "Battle of the Bulge". Its objective was the port of Antwerp and allied depots nearby.
  On 18 December 1944, the 37th got its march order—to move north against the German penetration, which was causing alarm to the Allied High Command. On the same day, the 101st Airborne Division was moved by truck to establish a strongpoint at the key road and rail junction of Bastogne, in Belgium. By the time the 37th arrived at the south flank of the German penetration, the 101st Airborne was cut off on all sides by the enemy drive. The 37th became the spearhead of the 4th Armored Division's drive to relieve the paratroopers in Bastogne. The 37th moved out in a feathery snowfall at 0600 hours on 22 December 1944, attacking northward against German airborne troops. The 37th Tank Battalion and the 53rd Armored Infantry Battalion made up the 4th Armored Division's Combat Command-B (CCB). In a bloody engagement against German paratroopers wearing American uniforms, CCB took Bigonville.
  At 0200 Christmas morning, CCB marched thirty miles west to the 4th Armored Division's left flank. At 0700 the 37th jumped off from Bercheaux and swiftly took Bauxles-Rosieres, Nives and Remoiville. At dawn on 26 December 1944, the 37th struck again, taking Remichampagne, and then seizing the high ground near Chochiment, only three miles from Bastogne. Announcing the plan to relieve the surrounded 101st Airborne Division, LTC Abrams, commanding the 37th, made the undramatic statement, "We're going in to those people now." The lead vehicle in that attack was a Sherman tank nicknamed "Cobra King" and commanded by 1st Lt. Charles Boggess Jr., of Greenville, Illinois. Boggess was the commanding officer of Company C, 37th Tank Battalion. There were but eight other tanks in Company C when the "move out" order came, but at 1515 hours all nine sets of sprockets turned, leading the 37th northward to the embattled 101st Airborne Division.
  Two towns lay between the 37th and Bastogne, Clochimont and Assenois, and they were both heavily defended by German troops. Beyond Assenois was a heavy wood, concealing the blockhouses that enclosed the road to Bastogne. Company C's mission was to barge through these defenses in high gear, stopping for nothing and leaving the mopping up to the companies following, which were supported by the 53d Armored Infantry Battalion. At 1645 Lt. Boggess shook hands with 2nd Lt. Webster of Company A, 326th Airborne Engineer Battalion, 101st Airborne Division and in twenty-five minutes Lt.Col. Abrams and his S3, Capt. William Dwight, reported to BG Anthony C. McAuliffe, acting Commanding General of the 101st Airborne Division.
  The fight was not over. Lt. Boggess' tank company now consisted of just four M4 Sherman tanks, and the rest of the 37th suffered similarly. By now the 37th was joined by elements of the 26th Infantry Division in fighting to hold the corridor open to Bastogne. Counterattack followed counterattack, until on 9 January 1945, the German penetration had been pushed to the east of Bastogne. The shattered German forces began to withdraw to their homeland. For its relief of Bastogne, the 37th was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation (4th AD cited).
  On 10 January 1945, the 37th was attacking east of Bastogne when the order came to halt. After a masterful disengagement and an icy road march south to Luxembourg, the 37th again found itself in the Third Army reserve, ready to answer a fire call.
caption: The tank Cobra King, which was operated by Company C of the 37th Tank Battalion during the Battle of the Bulge, and was the first tank to enter the Bastogne perimeter
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