The Panzer Killers by Daniel P. Bolger

Author:Daniel P. Bolger [Bolger, Daniel P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-25T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

“The operation was a bluff,” Rose explained afterward, “because on occasions the enemy had enough strength to overrun the division.” In that decisive first week in the Ardennes, “the division succeeded in its mission because it attacked instead of passively defending.” Rose referred to this period as the most critical five days of his entire military service.91 Indeed it was.

The Spearheaders successfully fought off four German formations: 1st SS Panzer Division (Combat Command B’s opponent from December 20–25), 2nd SS Panzer Division, 116th Panzer Division, and 560th Volksgrenadier Division. Except for the last one, those outfits constituted elite enemy troops, and the 560th proved themselves more than able, too. Maurice Rose’s men had done as much as any American division to blunt the great German offensive of December 1944.

That achievement came at a high price. Rose’s division lost 187 men killed and 1,386 wounded. German gunners took out 125 Sherman tanks—more than half the division’s assigned fleet—38 light tanks, six self-propelled howitzers, and 158 half-tracks, armored cars, and trucks. No other single battle levied such a toll.92

The G-2 counters credited the 3rd Armored Division with killing 1,705 Germans and wounding 545. Despite the precise figures, those were estimates, of course, but within reason. The division took 2,510 prisoners by actual head count. Division troops claimed 118 panzers, 31 of them Panthers, by physical inspection of the wrecks.93 Some of those probably represented double counts for Allied airpower or the 82nd Airborne and other units. More important than any roll-up, the Germans never crossed the Meuse River. The people of Antwerp never saw a single panzer.

The fighting in the Ardennes didn’t end on the day after Christmas. Any German chance to win surely did. The new year of 1945 augured Allied victory in Europe. Somebody, a great many Spearheader somebodies, still had to pay for it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.