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As a cocky plebe, Abrams had problems at West Point. "The hazing was degrading," says Abrams today. "I gladly would have resigned at any time, but I didn't see how I could go home to face my friends and family." Abrams swiped food from the mess hall, anointed an upper-classman's radiator with Limburger cheese, kept a contraband radio in a hollowed-out corner of his mattress, and plinked away at the hindquarters of upperclassmen with an air rifle. Recalls Abrams: "The only thing in which I was outstanding was discipline. I was at the bottom of the class." What with his guerrilla warfare against the Point, Abrams stood a mediocre 185th in his class of 276 upon graduation in 1936. That year Abrams married an athletic, auburn-haired Vassar graduate named Julia Harvey, who regularly drove him to distraction by trouncing him in tennis, and began his Army career on horseback in the ist Cavalry stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Born to Battle. With the 1st Cavalry, Abrams earned the reputation of being the worst polo player in the U.S. Army, and mastered the day's standard tactics of how to attack an enemy tank: circle it at 15 yds. with five troopers like Indians closing in on a wagon train. Not until Hitler's Panzer divisions blitzkrieged France out of World War II in 1940 did the Army really begin its own tank program. Assigned to the brand-new 4th Armored Division, Abrams rose to command the 37th Battalion with the rank of major, drilled his tankers incessantly in marksmanship—particularly on getting in the second shot. Says Abrams: "We really shot much too much, but God, it paid off later."
The 37th Battalion was a fearsome weapon of destruction from the moment it wheeled into action in Normandy in July 1944. From the start, Abrams showed the feel and flair of the born combat man. As General George Patton's Third Army led the conquering sweep across Europe, the 4th Armored Division led the Third Army, the 37th Tank Battalion led the 4th Armored—and Abe Abrams led the 37th. Leaning out of his Sherman tank, he chomped on a huge cigar and rallied his tankers with his war cry: "Attack! Attack! Attack!" Said Abrams:
"I like to be out on the point where there's nothing but me and the goddam Germans and we can fight by ourselves."
When the 101st Airborne was surrounded at the Battle of the Bulge, Abrams led the relief column into Bastogne with an attack that was watched with un abashed professional admiration by Panzer Commander Fritz Bayerlein. Later, Abrams led the dash to the Rhine, moved so fast that he captured an astonished lieutenant general and his staff at their desks. Fighting far out in front of the Third Army, Abrams was frequently cut off. "They've got us surrounded again," he once said, "those poor bastards." Said General George Patton of his aggressive tank commander: "I'm supposed to be the best tank commander in the Army, but I have one peer—Abe Abrams. He's the world champion."