4th Armored Division (Name Enough)

A dramatic rendering of the experience of the 4th Armored Division in WWII.

This vivid panorama depicts a 300+ day campaign across Europe, from the beaches of France to a union with the Red Army in Czechoslovakia. During the nearly yearlong march, the 4th Armored Division defied convention and did not adopt a unit nickname. As it was said allegedly by a division commander, “Fourth Armored Division was name enough.”

The map goes a long way to reinforcing that assertion, depicting the action in graphic detail. Illustrations of attacking planes, columns of prisoners, speeding tanks, and the breakthrough at Bastogne give a powerful impression of realism that is often lacking in other campaign maps. And the imagery is no exaggeration. During the war, the division operated as the spearhead of the U.S. Third Army under General George Patton and played a critical role in the Battle of the Bulge, for which it was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation. The sun shining in the west contrasts sharply with the darkness in the east – an ominous foreshadowing of the forthcoming conflict with the U.S.S.R.