INVASION OF EUROPE: U.S. 741ST TANK BATTALION FLAG.

INVASION OF EUROPE: U.S. 741ST TANK BATTALION FLAG.
USA: 1944. A small American National flag, cotton, received as a gift between two tank commanders. 430 x 880 mm. The hoist stenciled "741ST T.BATT. [19]44". Slightly discolored and stained.
Provenance: Commander J.A.W.Dent, Welsh Guards, gift from a Tank Commander of the US 741st Tank battalion. Presumed to have met in Normandy and exchanged gifts in July/August 1944. With Dent's uniform jacket belt, dated April 1942.

An interesting American tankers flag, seemingly never flown, although dirty as if in a tank compartment, and gifted to Dent somewhere in Normandy, in the summer of 1944. Dent of the Welsh Guards, commanded a Cromwell Tank, and was one of the first forces into Brussels. The 741st landed in the days around D-Day, and after the breakout from Normandy went north from Paris to the Ardennes, holding the northern shoulder in the Battle of the Bulge.