Separate tank battalions were military formations used by the United States Army during World War II, especially in the European Theater of Operations. These battalions were temporarily attached to infantry, armored, or airborne divisions according to need, though at least one battalion (740th Tank Battalion) spent the entire war in Europe attached to one division. They were also known as general headquarters ("GHQ") tank battalions.

December 1944. When the Daredevil Tankers of the 740th Tank Battalion moved into the breach against Kampfgruppe Peiper in the ice and snow of the Belgian Ardennes, the ferociousness of their attack sent the elite panzers of Hitler's 1st SS Panzer Division reeling. In bastard tanks pieced together from the scrapheap only the night before, the 740th plunged awkwardly into the war, spearheading lead elements of the 30th "Old Hickory" Division. It was the first good news to come out of the Battle of the Bulge. The 740th tankers rumbled on to crack the famed Siegfried Line twice, in some of the most bitter fightings of the war.