Name: Horatio Warren Scott Rank: Technician Fourth Grade Service Number: 11130688 Service: 761st Tank Battalion, US Army Awards: Purple Heart Date of Birth: July 29, 1923 Place of Birth: Lynn, Essex Co., Massachusetts Date of Enlistment: December 7, 1942 Place of Enlistment: Boston, Massachusetts Address at Enlistment: Lynn, Essex Co., Massachusetts Age at Enlistment: 19 Occupation: Welders Marital Status: Single Religion: Protestant Next of Kin: Lawrence Scott (Father) Height: 5 feet, 7 inches Complexion: Black Date of Death: November 10, 1944 Age: 21 Cemetery: Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial, Saint-Avold, Département de la Moselle, Lorraine, France Grave: Plot G, Row 15, Grave 32 Horatio was the son of Lawrence Scott (circa 1899-1979) and Gladys Brentina (Johnson) Scott (b. 1900), and the brother of Caesar William Scott (1922-2002). Horatio’s mother was born in Three Miles Plains near Windsor, Hants Co., Nova Scotia. Horatio’s father was born in Cambridge, Middlesex Co. Massachusetts, but later lived in Weymouth and Weymouth Falls, in Digby Co., Nova Scotia, as did Gladys. Lawrence served Canada in the First World War with the 112th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. Horatio’s brother Caesar was born in Weymouth Falls where his parents were living at the time. Like Horatio, Caesar also served in WWII, as a Technician Fifth Grade with the US Army Air Forces (Service No. 31224546) from October 31, 1942, until October 31, 1945. After WWI and throughout the 1930’s and ‘40’s, the family lived in Lynn, Essex Co., Massachusetts. Enlisting in the US Army in December 1942, exactly one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Horatio was assigned to C Company of the 761st Tank Battalion, known as the Black Panthers during WWII. After a two-year training period in Texas, the 761st Tank Battalion received the order on June 9, 1944, for overseas movement three days after the D-Day landings in Normandy. The battalion left aboard the British troop carrier Esperance Bay from New York and arrived in Britain on September 8, 1944; initially assigned to the Ninth Army. After a brief deployment to England, the 761st landed in France on Omaha Beach on October 10, 1944. The unit arrived with six white officers, thirty black officers, and 676 black enlisted men, and was assigned to General George Patton's US Third Army at his request, attached to the XII Corps’ 26th Infantry Division. On November 9, 1944, C Company of the Battalion ran into an anti-tank ditch near Morville, France. The German 11th Panzer Division began to knock out seven tanks one by one down the line. After the company commander gave the order to dismount, several men were killed by shell fire and small arms when they crawled through the freezing and muddy waters of the ditch. Technician Fourth Grade Horatio Scott sustained an abdominal wound from ricocheting shrapnel when an enemy shell penetrated his tank. Corporal Dwight Simpson carried Scott over his shoulder through enemy fire and evacuated him for further medical care, but Horatio died a day later, on November 10, 1944. The 761st Tank Battalion was the first African American armored unit to see combat and apart from some officers, consisted entirely of Black soldiers. Horatio was interred at the Lorraine American Cemetery, the largest American WWII cemetery in Europe with over 10500 burials. In France, he is also commemorated by name on the 761st Tank Battalion Monument in Morville-lès-Vic, France, which honors twelve men from the Bn. who died in Morville: eleven on Nov. 9th, one on Nov. 10th, and one on the Nov. 11th. Horatio is also remembered on the Honor Roll War Memorial in Lynn, Massachusetts

Sources US Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945 Field of Honor – Horatio Scott American Battle Monuments Commission findagrave 1930 United States Federal Census 1940 United States Federal Census