773rd Tank Destroyer Battalion The 773rd Tank Destroyer Battalion was a tank destroyer battalion of the United States Army active during the Second World War . Early service . The battalion was activated in July 1941 , as the 73rd Provisional Anti - Tank Battalion , to take part in the Louisiana maneuvers that summer as part of the 2nd Provisional Anti - Tank Group . The battalion was formed from AT batteries from the 141st and 166th Field Artillery Regiment s , as well as personnel from the 190th Field Artillery Regiment ; the 141st was drawn from the Louisiana Army National Guard , with the 166th and 190th coming from the Pennsylvania Army National Guard . In December 1941 , it was formally converted to a tank destroyer unit , becoming the 773rd Tank Destroyer Battalion . It remained in the United States until January 1944 , when it was shipped to the United Kingdom aboard the liner " Aquitania " . Through April and June it operated three marshaling camps in southern England , providing accommodation and administration for combat troops being prepared for the Normandy landings . Normandy and France . After a brief retraining period , the battalion landed in Normandy on 8 August , equipped with M10 Wolverine tank destroyers , and was assigned to XV Corps . It entered combat on 17 August , fighting at the southern tip of the Falaise pocket outside Argentan ; over four days it accounted for 41 tanks and 80 other vehicles , and was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation . It moved up to the Seine in late August , establishing a bridgehead over the river on the 27th , before being withdrawn to Paris for rest . It returned to the line on 10 September , attached to the 79th Infantry Division , and fought along the Moselle River until the 29th , when it was directed to help clear the Parroy Forest near the town of Parroy , Lunéville district in the Lorraine region . After intense combat , this was cleared on 9 October . The bodies of three MIA ' s killed in action during the battle , but were not identified until recently , were buried in Arlington National Cemetery on July 20 , 2011 . On the 19th the battalion was returned to XV Corps reserve . It was moved north to join XX Corps on the 16th , and attached to the 95th Infantry Division on the 25th . It was briefly in the line outside Metz , holding defensive positions , but was withdrawn on 7 November ( being replaced by the 818th Tank Destroyer Battalion ) , and moved northwards to join the 90th Infantry Division . It crossed the Moselle for the third time north of Metz on the 12th , helping shore up a fragile bridgehead , then pushed south ; on the 19th , elements of the battalion linked up with the 5th Infantry Division , sealing off the Metz garrison , then pushed east towards the Saar River . The Ardennes and Germany . The battalion crossed the Saar outside Dillingen on 10 December , where a force of infantry from the 90th Division had established a hard - pressed bridgehead . It supported the push into the town on 15 December , but with the German offensive in the Ardennes the bridgehead was evacuated , and the 90th Division established defensive positions on the west bank . On 6 January it was ordered north to Luxembourg , on the southern flank of the German salient , and entered combat on the 9th . On 17 January , holding positions at Oberwampach , east of Bastogne , the battalion destroyed a large number of vehicles from the 1st SS Panzer Division ; at the end of the day , the battalion ' s total number of tank kills for the war stood at 102 , making them the first tank destroyer battalion to knock out more than a hundred tanks . On 26 January the battalion moved to Biwisch , crossing the Our River into Germany on the 30th and fighting through the Siegfried Line . It pushed east through February and March , and on 14 March crossed the Moselle for the fourth time , opening a bridgehead for the 4th Armored Division . On 16 March , the battalion reached the Rhine River at its confluence with the Moselle near Koblenz . The battalion crossed the Rhine on 23 March , near Oppenheim , and captured Darmstadt on the 25th . It pushed north - east towards the River Main , and followed behind the 4th Armored Division clearing up small pockets of resistance which had been bypassed . On 1 April , it arrived in Bad Hersfeld and moved east towards the Czech border ; a company was left in Merkers to provide security for the salt mine there , which contained the German financial reserves – a hundred tons of gold , as well as a large amount of looted artwork . Elements of the battalion entered Czechoslovakia on 18 April , the first American troops to reach the country , and the battalion pushed south along the border , protecting the left flank of XII Corps as it moved into southern Germany . The battalion ended the war just inside Czechoslovakia , and on 14 May withdrew to Tirschenreuth in Bavaria , to take up occupation duties . By the end of hostilities , the battalion had seen 254 days of combat , and taken 356 casualties . It had destroyed 138 tanks and self - propelled guns , as well as over a hundred pillboxes , and taken almost 2 , 000 prisoners of war . In the early 21st century , the unit exists as the redesignated 773rd Military Police Bn . Louisiana Army National Guard .