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Sidney (Reuben) Shearer, Sr was born in Birmingham Alabama (Wenonah #7 Mining Camp) on 15 October 1921. He was the fourth child of Martin and Iphenia Lawson Shearer. He died in Cleveland Ohio in March 1976. Sidney entered the Army in WWII on 24 March 1943 at Ft Bennings Georgia. He was a Tank Commander in WWII and was a member of the 761st Tank Battalion that participated in the Battle of the Bulge and was attached to General Patton's Third Army. The 761st Tank Battalion is probably the most famous of the World War II tank battalions organized using African-American personnel. Constituted 15 March 1942 in the Army of the United States, the battalion was activated 1 April 1942 at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. After training in the United States at Camp Hood, Texas, and a short stay in England, the tankers arrived in France on 10 October 1944 on Omaha Beach during the Normandy Invasion. In the following months the unit participated in the Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe campaigns, before inactivating 1 June 1946 in Germany. He told how he and his brother Levi (Rock) met up in France. Levi was a Truck Driver with the 3439 Quartermaster Truck Company, which was part of the "Red Ball Express". Their job was to keep the tanks of Patton's rapidly advancing Army supplied with gasoline.
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le 761eme bataillon de char , debarque a omaha beach en octobre 44.ils ont combatu sur tout les theatres d'operation en europe,France , belgique,hollande,allemagne.
il fut activé le 1er avril 1942 au camp clairborne en Louisiane.
plus tard ils furent appellés les black panthers. Units in the Normandy Invasion
761st Tank Batallion
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James E Carden, Jr
Great movie. Saw it first in about 1954. First time I have seen it since. I have been searching for the DVD version for some time. I have since learned a lot of WWII history as it relates to two of my uncles. I was about 8 years old when they returned from the war. I remember very clearly that my oldest uncle had a Black Panther (761st Tank Batallion) shoulder patch on his uniform. I also remember them talking about meeting in France. They were African American and I have recently connected the dots. One was a tank commander attached to Gen Patton's tankers (761st) and the other was assigned to the 3439 Quartermaster Truck Company, (which was sssigned to the Red Ball Express). Considering, that the roles of African Americans in WWII was almost non-existant in movies in those days, I remember the pride I felt seeing the movie with Blacks playing iimportant roles along side white actors (first movie I saw starring Sidney Portier). I always admired Jeff Chandler for his role because I felt white actors did not want roles that showed blacks as equals. I spent 38 years in the military (3 years Army and 35 years Air Force. I have always felt the pride I felt when my uncles returned home and how well the looked in their uniforms was the primary motivating factor in me choosing to devote the major portion of my life to the military. I was not disappointed!