Into the Breach

December 1944. When the Daredevil Tankers of the 740th Tank Battalion moved into the breach against Kampfgruppe Peiper in the ice and snow of the Belgian Ardennes, the ferociousness of their attack sent the elite panzers of Hitler's 1st SS Panzer Division reeling. In bastard tanks pieced together from the scrapheap only the night before, the 740th plunged awkwardly into the war, spearheading lead elements of the 30th "Old Hickory" Division. It was the first good news to come out of the Battle of the Bulge. The 740th tankers rumbled on to crack the famed Siegfried Line twice, in some of the most bitter fighting of the war.