Death Ride of the Panzers

by Dennis Oliver

  2.08. A Panther ausf A of I.Abteilung, Panzer-Regiment 6 attached to Panzer-Lehr-Division knocked out during the Operation Cobra battles in July 1944. The battalion had sixteen of its operational Panthers in its frontline positions when the preliminary bombardment for US Army's offensive commenced on the morning of July 25, 1944 and almost all were disabled. The method of application of the of Zimmerit anti-magnetic mine paste is typical of Daimler-Benz manufactured vehicles where an initial rough application was scored with horizontal and vertical lines. The monocular gun sight on the left-hand side of the gun mantlet was introduced into production from November 1943.

  2.09. An Sdkfz 251/7 ausf D Pionierpanzerwagen of 11.Kompanie, Panzergrenadier-Lehr-Regiment 901 said to have been photographed only hours after the US breakthrough near Saint-Lô on July 25, 1944. The wooden planks that were normally carried on the hull side below the bridge section are missing and would have obscured the number. Although the Panther tank in the background would seem to carry no visible markings, it is almost certainly from Panzer-Regiment 6, at this time attached to the Panzer-Lehr-Division, and was in fact the subject of a further series of photographs after it had been cleared from the road.

  2.10. A Pzkpfw IV ausf H of 8.Kompanie, Panzer-Lehr-Regiment 130 photographed in late July during the opening phase of Operation Cobra. Other photographs of this tank show that it also carried the unit marking of the regiment's second battalion based on the family crest of Major Prinz Schönburg-Waldenburg shown in the illustration section. Photographs of other 8.Kompanie tanks would suggest that most company numbers were painted in the rudimentary style seen here.

  2.11. This Sdkfz 250/1 Neu halftrack of Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung, the reconnaissance battalion of 2.Panzer-Division, was photographed shortly after August 6, 1944 near l'Abbaye Blanche, just north of Mortain. The division’s unit insignia can be seen on the rear access door above the tactical symbol identifying the third company of an armored reconnaissance company.

  2.12. Just visible on the driver’s side fender of the disabled LKW Opel Blitz is the unit insignia of 10.SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg. This photograph was taken looking north along what is today Route-de-la-Libération at the crossroads north of Foligny known as Le Repas and as with many towns in northern France, little has changed since 1944. Although the roads are now paved, all the buildings visible here are still standing.

  2.13. Photographed after the Normandy battles, this Sturmgeschütz III assault gun displays several features that were indicative of the vehicles of 2.Batterie, Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 341 including the large rain guard over the gun mantlet and the bent upper edges of the hull Schürzen. The use of fencing wire, visible here on the barrel of the 7.5cm gun, was commonly employed in Normandy as a means of holding foliage camouflage.

  2.14. A Pzkpfw IV ausf J of Panzer-Regiment 33 from 9 Panzer Division photographed outside the town of Sées, 20km south of Argentan, in late August 1944. At this time the regiment's I.Abteilung had eighty-two of these tanks on hand.

  2.15. This photograph was taken on August 12, 1944 looking south-west towards the Neufbourg railway station which can be seen in the background on Route-de-la-Gare. The village of Neufbourg is situated about 1 kilometer north of Mortain near Abbey Blanche and, although the railway station is no longer in use, both buildings seen here and the road have changed little since 1944. Several German transport vehicles are visible here including a Type 166 Schwimmwagen, a Type 82 Kübelwagen and, in the background, an Sdkfz 251 halftrack.

  2.16. The next three images show Panther ausf A tanks of I.Abteilung, SS-Panzer-Regiment 1 of 1.SS-Panzer-Division photographed on the road between Saint-Barthélemy and Juvigny-le-Tetre north-east of Mortain in August 1944 in the aftermath of Operation Lüttich. The practice of marking the tank’s number on the side of the gun mantlet, seen on Panther number 328, was necessitated by the spare tracks which normally covered the turret sides and was an identifying feature of this battalion. The lengths of spare track were attached to the hull sides by sturdy metal hooks which had been welded to the turret roof and overhung the sides.

  2.17. The method of attaching the lengths of track to the turret sides can be seen here. The Zimmerit is applied in a pattern indicative of Panthers produced by Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg AG (MAN).

  2.18. The application and style of the company number can be clearly seen in this view of a 3.Kompanie tank. The standard camouflage scheme of the period made up of Rotbraun RAL and Olivgrün sprayed over the base color of Dunkelgelb is often obscured by the effects dust and to some extent by the way in which light is reflected off the ridges of the Zimmerit coating. However, it is very obvious on the barrel of the main gun.

  2.19. A Panther ausf A of II.Abteilung, Panzer-Regiment 33 from 9.Panzer-Division knocked out in the area between Argentan and Chambois in August 1944. Note that the Zimmerit, applied in the fashion indicative of MNH manufactured vehicles, is extended to the lower hull behind the wheels. The tracks appear to be the earlier type without the Stollen or cleats manufacturer prior to September 1943.

  2.20. Pzkpfw V Panther ausf G of 1.Kompanie, SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 captured almost intact by Canadian troops at Bretteville-sur-Odon, about 15 kilometers south-east of Bayeux, on June 9, 1944. This Panther is a MAN-produced tank, built in March or April 1944 before the introduction of the welded armored exhaust covers. In his history of the Hitlerjugend division, Hubert Meyer mentions that this tank was commanded by the commander of the company’s third platoon.

  2.21. A Tiger II tank of 1.Kompanie, schwere Panzer-Abteilung 503 abandoned north-west of Vimoutiers in early August 1944, although this photograph was taken at a much later date. The battalion fought in Normandy with twelve Tiger II tanks, all with the Porsche turret seen here, all allocated to the first company. The second and third companies were equipped with Tiger I tanks. A tank of this battalion is shown and discussed in the illustration section.

  22.22. Developed for the extreme conditions encountered on the Eastern Front, the Skoda Radschlepper Ost, also known as Porsche Typ 175, was found to be totally unsuitable. Although 200 were ordered, only half that number were built and all were sent to France where this example was photographed. Some of these vehicles survived the fighting in Normandy and can be seen in photographs taken during the Ardennes Offensive.

  2.23. Disabled near Saint-Lô in July 1944, this vehicle is an Italian AB 41 armored car. A least four of the vehicles were on hand with 2.Fallschirmjäger-Division which took part in the defense of Brest during August and September and it is possible that others served with Fallschirm-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 12, an independent battalion attached directly to II. Fallschirm-Korps, which fought against 1st Polish Armored Division at Mont Ormel in August 1944.

  2.24. Photographed in September 1944, possibly at the large equipment collection point outside Baupte west of Carentan, most of the tanks seen here are former French army vehicles. Nearest the camera, and minus its turret, is a Renault R35 next to a Hotchkiss H35 painted in Dunkelgelb with the company number 224 marked in black on the turret. Both these types were operated by II.Abteilung of Panzer-Regiment 22 and Panzer-Ausbildungs und Ersatz-Abteilung 100, a training and replacement unit which nevertheless fought at the front. Towards the end of the line, identified by its long barrel, is a Panzerjäger 38(t) Marder III. These self-propelled guns were on hand with the anti-tank battalions of most of the infantry divisions that served in Normandy and with the Panzergrenadier regiments of 166.Panzer-Division.

  2.25. British troops inspect a Pzkpfw IV ausf H which, from this angle, seems to have suffered very little damage. The large number 5 visible on the open Schürzen access door behind the muzzle brake is very similar in style to that used by Panzer-Regiment 22, although unfortunately no definitive identification is possible. The white tape in the foreground indicates that the area has been cleared of mines. The date is probably late July or early August 1944.

  2.26. A Panther ausf A of I.Abteilung, Panzer-Regiment 15 from 11.Panzer-Division photog
raphed in the ruins Meximieux near Lyon. The battalion lost ten Panthers and almost twenty other assorted vehicles in the fighting for this town.

  2.27. Photographed on the railway line at Braine between Soisson and Reims, well to the east of Paris, these four tanks of schwere-Panzer-Abteilung 503 were captured when the train was stopped on the morning of August 29 by elements of the US 32nd Armored Regiment. Several photographs of this incident are known to exist and although all seem to indicate that these tanks carried no markings, it is however probable that these vehicles are the survivors of 2.Kompanie, which took over all the third company Tiger I tanks at the end of July. The battalion’s first company had been equipped with Tiger II vehicles in June.

  2.28. Photographed in front of the Notre-Dame church in the town of Marle, south-east of Saint-Quentin, this tank is often identified with schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101 which was in action to the north-east of the town, losing two of its last tanks, at the end of August 1944. In his two-volume account of the history of the Tiger battalions, Wolfgang Schneider mentions that a tank of schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101 with the rubber-rimmed wheels was abandoned in Marle. However, this identification is not universally accepted, and another possible candidate is Panzer-Kompanie (Funklenk) 316, which had been allocated three Tiger I tanks in April 1944.

  2.29. Photographed just outside Paris in August 1944, this Panther ausf G may be one of the twenty held in reserve by the garrison commander of Paris or possibly one of the tanks of Kampfgruppe Hennecke, an ad-hoc formation formed from elements of the Panzer-Lehr-Division and dispatched to the city on Friday, August 25. Lead by Hauptmann Heinrich Hennecke, a company commander of I.Abteilung, Panzergrenadier-Regiment 901, the Kampfgruppe consisted of an under strength company of Panthers and the men of Hennecke’s battalion.

  2.30. Abandoned in the grounds of the Palais du Luxembourg during the brief fighting for the city of Paris in August 1944, this Sdkfz 11/1 Flak 38 may have been one of the vehicles assigned to Panzer-Kompanie Paris, an ad-hoc unit formed from a company of 525.Sicherungs-Division.

  2.31. Photographed in Paris in late August 1944 near the Jardin des Tuileries, this Renault R-35, or Panzerkampfwagen 35R 731(f), is one of the vehicles of Panzer-Kompanie Paris. Some accounts suggest that this company was formed from 325.Sicherungs-Division, a security formation directly under the command of the Militärbefehlshaber Frankreich, although it may have been raised from vehicles and personnel of 5.Kompanie, Panzer-Abteilung 100 and the turret number would seem to confirm at least some connection.

  2.32. After the Normandy fighting, the Allies established several collection points for captured German vehicles such as that shown here outside Trevieres west of Bayeux. Photographed on September 4, 1944 are a turretless Renault R-35, or Panzerkampfwagen 35R 731(f), a Marder I 7.5cm PaK40/1 auf Geschützwagen Lorraine Schlepper (f) self-propelled anti-tank gun, and three Panther ausf A models.

  2.33. Sturmgeschütz III ausf G assault guns of Panzerjäger-Abteilung 243 photographed here being recovered and repaired by US Army units. This battalion was attached to 243.Infanterie-Division, which had been stationed in the Contentin Peninsula when the invasion began. The division’s Panzerjäger battalion, commanded by Oberleutnant Franz Stratmann, was made up of three companies with the first company being equipped with fourteen Marder III 7.5cm tank destroyers, the second company, referred to as Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 1243, had ten Sturmgeschütz III assault guns, and the third company fielding a number of 2cm Flak guns—both self-propelled and towed.

  _________________

  1 With Blaskowitz were two complete infantry divisions, a corps headquarters, and a large number of German civilian staff. The accounts of many German veterans would suggest that the difficulties caused by the Resistance have been greatly exaggerated in some postwar histories.

  2 The division’s Panzer-Regiment 15 had lost heavily in the fighting around Montélimar and on September 1st was able to report that while the headquarters and first battalion could field thirty-seven Panthers, the second battalion had just sixteen Pzkw IV tanks on hand. The battalion’s sixth, seventh, and eighth companies had no tanks at all.

  3 Josep ‘Sep’ Dietrich, it will be remembered, had led I.SS-Panzerkorps in Normandy. The former commander of 7.Armee, Oberstgruppenführer Paul Hausser, had been seriously wounded in the Falaise fighting and replaced by General Heinrich Eberbach.

  4 By this stage all the Seine bridges had either been destroyed or captured, with the exception of the railway bridge at Rouen. As many as sixty ferries would carry much of the German army across the river.

  5 I have been able to find no less than four different dates for Meyer’s death but I am satisfied that the date given here is correct. He should not be confused with Kurt Meyer, the commander of 12.SS-Panzer-Division, who would be captured just one week later.

  6 Petersen was a paratroop officer who had commanded a division in Russia before being transferred to France. Although technically his corps came under the command of the Lufwaffe, its three infantry divisions were all army formations.

  7 The Milice française was a collaborationist paramilitary organiation which had hounded the Resistance since its creation in 1943. Its member were, if anything, more brutal than the Gestapo and SD and could expect little mercy from either the Resistants or the French military.

  8 The OKW situation map shows parts of 15.Panzergrenadier-Division, which had been transferred from Italy, with the newly raised Panzer-Brigaden 111, 112, and 113 in addition to the tanks of 11.Panzer-Division.

  CHAPTER THREE

  TO THE BORDERS OF THE REICH

  The Borders of the Reich

  In the first few days of September 1944, the British and Canadians had captured the port cities of Antwerp and Dieppe and were closing on Le Havre and the fortress city of Boulogne. In the south, units of US 3rd Army reached the Meuse River on Tuesday, September 5th, and on the following day managed to advance to the Moselle, thrusting towards Nancy and the gap between 3.Panzergrenadier-Division at Pont-à-Mousson and a single regiment from 15.Panzergrenadier-Division situated almost 20 kilometers south of the city. Model’s plan of withdrawing to defensive positions behind the Somme had been thrown into disarray and any German units fortunate enough to have escaped the Falaise Pocket and the crossing of the Seine now faced the prospect of a protracted withdrawal towards the Rhine and the relative safety of the prepared positions of the Westwall.

  However, the Führer’s Fireman, as Model liked to refer to himself, was not a man given to panic. The Feldmarschall had gained a reputation as a defensive specialist and had been able to avert seemingly inevitable disaster many times in the battles of annihilation on the Eastern front. Now he reported to Hitler that he proposed to hold the front in the west along a line running from Antwerp, following the Albert Canal to the Meuse and then the Siegfried Line as far as the Franco-Luxembourg border. Model reasoned, and Hitler agreed, that although the Allied armies had made huge gains in ground taken, their troops must be exhausted after the battles in Normandy and the subsequent advance and they were still forced to haul their supplies forward from north-western France, and would be for some time. A drawn-out and necessarily costly assault against prepared positions might undermine the Allies will to continue or at least prevent the fighting from moving onto German soil.1

  The flaw in Model’s plan was that the front would need to be held by at least twenty-five fresh infantry divisions with a mobile reserve of five or six Panzer or Panzergrenadier divisions waiting in the rear as mobile reserve. At this time, although recruits were being trained in Germany, the army did not possess a single fresh division on either front. Undeterred, Hitler promised Model that the next two hundred Panther tanks to leave the assembly lines would be earmarked for Heeresgruppe B. In addition, every Tiger tank, Jagdpanther tank destroyer, and 8.8cm anti-aircraft and anti-tank gun available in Germany would be transferred immediately to the West. The manpower problem was solved to some extent by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring,
who announced, to the complete surprise of both Hitler and Model, that the Luftwaffe had raised and was at that moment training six Fallschirmjäger regiments and expected to raise two more from wounded personnel returning from convalescent leave. This represented a force of some twenty thousand men with a further ten thousand expected from surplus aircraft crews and ground staff. These men would form the nucleus of 1.Fallschirm-Armee, which was created on September 4, 1944 and placed under the command of Generaloberst Kurt Student, a veteran paratroop commander who had taken part in the airborne operations of 1940 and had led combat formations in Italy and Normandy. He was informed of his new role by a curt telephone call from Hitler’s headquarters in East Prussia that evening. The forces promised to Model may have sounded impressive, but they reflected the wholly defensive posture of that the Germans had now adopted in the West. The powerful tanks and anti-tank guns would be of limited use in chasing a British or American breakthrough and the vehicles needed for highly mobile operations, such as the Panzer IV medium tanks and Sturmgeschütz III assault guns, were allocate to the armies in the east where the situation was, if anything, worse.