page_title: 747th Tank Battalion (United States)
section_title: 723rd Tank Battalion and Operation Teapot
hierarchical_section_title: 747th Tank Battalion (United States) / 723rd Tank Battalion and Operation Teapot
caption_attribution_description: Operation Teapot, APPLE-2 Event - Nevada Test Site, NV - The APPLE-2 Event, a 29-kiloton tower test, was detonated on 5 May 1955 at the Nevada Test Site.
context_page_description: The 747th Tank Battalion was an independent tank battalion that participated in the European Theater of Operations with the United States Army in World War II. It was credited with an assault landing at Normandy, landing the morning after the initial D-Day landings. The battalion participated in combat operations throughout northern Europe until V-E Day, primarily attached to the 29th Infantry Division. After the war it was briefly engaged in occupation duties. Redesignated the 747th Amphibian Tank Battalion on 10 July 1945, it was inactivated in March 1946.
  The battalion was reactivated in December 1946 as a reserve unit. The unit was called into active military service as the 747th Amphibious Tank and Tractor Battalion at the start of the Korean War but did not deploy overseas. It was released from active duty in September 1953 and inactivated in January 1954. It was redesignated the 723rd Tank Battalion and activated in October 1954. While active, it served as the test unit for a maneuver exercise in conjunction with Operation Teapot Shot Apple-2 atomic testing in May 1955. The 723rd Tank Battalion was inactivated in September 1956.
context_section_description: The battalion was inactive for only a short time, but when reactivated bore a new number. On 7 October 1954, the battalion was redesignated as the 723rd Tank Battalion and allotted to the Regular Army and assigned to the 71st Infantry Division and activated at Camp Irwin, California.
  The 723rd was used as the core unit of an atomic test in the Operation Teapot series of nuclear test explosions at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). In a project sponsored by the United States Army Armor School, the test was designed to demonstrate the capability of a reinforced tank battalion (Task Force RAZOR) to conduct offensive operations immediately after and in the immediate vicinity of a nuclear attack. The battalion, reinforced with armored infantry, field artillery and engineer units from the 4th Armored Division at Fort Hood, Texas, assembled at Camp Irwin between 9–13 March 1955 and began training together in preparation for the test. On 18 April, Task Force RAZOR conducted a 250 km tactical march from Camp Irwin to the NTS, arriving on 21 April 1955. Upon arriving, the units rehearsed their maneuver in the test area. They set up in assembly areas in Yucca Flats three times to prepare for the test, but the test was postponed due to bad weather each time. Finally, on 4 May, Shot APPLE-2 was fired at 0510. The task force vehicles were positioned from 3 to 5 kilometers from ground zero. There was no significant damage to the vehicles, and the task force began moving 8 minutes after the shot. When the tanks closest to ground zero reached a reading inside the vehicle of 1 R/h, they turned away from ground zero and proceeded to their objective about 6.4 km from their original positions. Upon completion of the test, the 723rd and its attached elements  departed the NTS and marched overland back to Camp Irwin, arriving on 9 May. At Camp Irwin they conducted a chemical warfare exercise before the task force was dissolved.
  The 723rd was inactivated along with the rest of the 71st Infantry Division on 15 September 1956.
caption: Shot Apple-2, where the 723rd Tank Battalion participated in a tactical maneuver test as part of the nuclear test
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