Tanker's Tuesday: 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion

In September 1942, the entire Battalion was moved by rail to the newly formed Tank Destroyer Center at Camp Hood, Texas, to undergo advanced unit training in Tank Destroyer tactics. After progressing through the infiltration course, street and village fighting to platoon and company tactics, a Battalion field problem was finally held and successfully passed. It was here in November 1942, after fifteen months of diligent training with dummy guns, that the Battalion gun crews had their first opportunity to fire live ammunition, using borrowed 75-MM guns on half tracks, the original TD Vehicle and weapon. It was here also that the Battalion received its last large group of inductees, over 300 in all, for basic training and assignment in the Battalion. Early in December 1942, the Battalion moved to Camp Bowie, Texas, for additional tactical training and for completion of the First Army Ground Force test. It was successfully passed after the most complicated dead reckoning motor march through Texas sage brush ever experienced by the Battalion. On January 3 1943, the Battalion furnished a complete officer and enlisted cadre of about 85 men who later formed the 648th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

628TH Tank Destroyer Battalion