3rd Armored

 is an Allied Armored division in Steel Division. Suffering for weeks in "hedgerow hell" and the heavy fighting for Saint-Lô, the "Spearhead" finally broke into rolling country with Operation Cobra. From then, true to its nickname, the 3rd Armoured engaged in a race towards the Seine, capturing tens of thousands of German troops in the process.

Leading his heavy division through the Cotentin's 'hedgerow hell', Watson had to adapt and develop new tactics to fight in such a close environment. A WW1 infantry veteran, Watson transferred to the forming armoured forces in the Interwar, rising to command of his own armoured regiment in 1940. Given command of 3rd Armoured Division, he led it through the Normandy campaign, especially the vicious fighting in the bocage and for Saint-Lô. Afterwards, he played a major part in the American breakthrough out of bocage country and in the battle of Falaise. Yet, he was soon to be demoted and stripped of his command by Eisenhower for having let a major tank and truck jam develop behind the lines. But by the end of the war, he had recovered his general’s stars and was back leading an infantry division.

Tactics
With medium tanks available right from Phase A, and infantry always arriving with armoured transport, 'Spearhead' is not well suited for urban warfare but it enjoys superior firepower in open terrain. In Phase B & C, swarms of M4A3 tanks, including the heavily armoured Jumbo and upgunned M4A3(W)76, will keep the enemy under an increasing pressure.

3rd Armored starts in phase A with lowest of all economy, to end up in phase C with the highest one. With all its infantry coming with armored transport, little tanks by themselves, “Spearhead” packs a lot of firepower.

Yet, those precious, and especially expensive, infantrymen are best not wasted in urban warfare, where the extra-firepower of their half-tracks would be mostly negated, and the latter exposed to enemy infantry anti-tank weapons at close range. On open fields though, a platoon of mechanized infantry advancing with its M3 half-track is a force to be reckoned with, especially in early game.

To support the Armored Rifles in phase A, 3rd Armored can field a wide range of vehicles to compose an early game’s combined-arms force: M5A1 light tanks and even a couple of M4A1 medium tank, M8 combat recon, M8 Scott assault guns, self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery & mortars, … It can also count on Major Charles ‘Bazooka Charlie’ Carpenter’s L-4 Grasshopper, dubbed “Rosie the Rocketeer” and famously armed with six bazookas for a unique combination of observation and ground support. A wide array of choice … but to be selected carefully due to the division’s weak early economy.

In phase B & C, more advanced M4 become available and in greater number while the division’s economy allows for more and more to be fielded: M4A3(75)W, M4A3(76)W with its much more effective 76mm gun, up-armoured M4A3E2 Assault Tank (more commonly known as “Jumbo”), but also M4A1 OP artillery observation post and Calliope rocket-launchers. Enough to keep the enemy under an increasing pressure …

Real World Composition

 * Headquarters Company
 * Service Company
 * Combat Command A
 * Combat Command B
 * 36th Armored Infantry Regiment
 * 32d Armored Regiment
 * 33d Armored Regiment
 * 23d Armored Engineer Battalion
 * 83d Armored Reconnaissance Battalion
 * 143d Armored Signal Co
 * 3d Armored Division Artillery
 * 391st Armored Field Artillery Battalion
 * 67th Armored Field Artillery Battalion
 * 54th Armored Field Artillery Battalion
 * 3d Armored Division Trains
 * 3d Ordnance Maintenance Battalion
 * Supply Battalion
 * 45th Armored Medical Battalion
 * Military Police Platoon