Operation Mjölnir: US Independent Tank Battalion

It's been a while since my last blog post, but real life happened and I have not been able to spend any time with my hobbies. I do plan on starting the blog back up however and I have the first battle of Operation Mjölnir lined up for next week. In preparation for this battle, I want to talk a bit about (drumroll).....

The US Independent Tank Battalion

As the name implies, the independent tank battalions of the US Army were an independent formation and not a permanent part of an armored division like the regular tank battalions. Instead the idea was to attach independent tank battalions to infantry divisions according to needs. 

An example of such a formation can be seen in the 741st Tank Battalion which was attached to the 1st Infantry Division for the D-day landings and was then later attached to the 2nd Infantry Division.

For operation Mjölnir the US force will have an Independent Tank Battalion consisting of the following:

• Base
• 1x Recon Jeep w/LMG platoon
• 1x Sherman(105) platoon
• 1x Mortar Halftrack platoon
• 3 Medium tank companies each with
• 2x M4A3 Sherman platoons
• 1x M4A3(76) Sherman platoon
• Light Tank Company
• 3x M5 Stuart

This organization was found in the the Fistful of TOWs 3 rulebook, but is consistent with what I have seen elsewhere and should be suitable for other rules also. 

The fifteen platoons of the independent tank battalion

Stats

The following are stats for the Fistful of TOWs 3 rules, repeated here for convenience.

Independent Tank Battalion (Average Quality: 5+; Cohesion: 4”)
Unit	Move	Armor	Pen	ROF	Rng	AI	AV	Notes	Points
M4A3 Sherman	8t	5-3	6	3	10	-1	0	Smoke	90
M4A3(76) Sherman	7t	5-4	7	3	10	-1	0	Smoke	95
M4A3(105) Sherman	7t	5-4	5he	3	6	-1	0	Indirect/112	67
			6h	3	6	-1	0
M5 Stuart	9t	4-3	5	3	8	-2	0		64
Jeep w/LMG	9w	s	-	1	6	-1	0	Cap ½	1
M21 MMC	8ht	1-0	0	1	6	-1	0	Indirect/30	15