ESSAYONS!! Brother. I was and forever will be a Combat Engineer 12B to 12Z since 1973! Served on a combat deployment to Iraq in 2006. 15 months...Thanks for your Service. Thank You Dr. Felton 👍Bert
My grandfather was a sargent in the 94th, he recalled Sinz as the worst fighting he faced during the entire war. Thank you Mark Felton for covering this often overlooked battle!
My dad was in the US 103rd Infantry "Cactus Caravan" and he suffered a fairly severe wound of shrapnel to the throat from a boobytrapped door to a house on Thanksgiving day (Nov 23) at St. Die, about 100km southwest of Strasbourg. He rejoined his unit about 18 days later. Within a couple weeks of that, mom's brother was killed during the Bulge.
My father was CO of the 383rd FA Bn of the 103rd Division during the Operation Nordwind. Our family heritage is French-German from Alsace-Lorraine. Hard to imagine possible relatives killing relatives!
@@wfrentzel7503 I am also of French-German heritage. My dad was born in Montreal, came at age of four to Detroit in 1923 with his family. His dad was looking for work in the automotive industry. Growing up in a French speaking household, it came in handy and he often served as an interpreter in France after landing in Marseilles and working their way toward Deutchland. Dad ended up being awarded his citizenship pretty much as a result of his service. I hear what you're saying about the potential of "relatives killing relatives'. Mom was full-blooded German (Emmerichs and Becks) so my uncle Donald that was killed in the Bulge was of only German ancestry. He is buried in Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Welkenraedt, Belgium. (name had been "Americanized' to Emerick almost 100 years earlier by the family).
You can see the downstream effects of Allied attacks on infrastructure. Undamaged bridges would have meant 50 Panthers in that attack. All the elements of the Allied offensive were interlocking, degrading the Germans' ability to operate. Great video, as usual.
Just cause they would have had the ability to bring up 50 would not mean they would have 50 combat capable tanks when they get /if they get to the front with no problems
Sure, we can't know what would have happened if things had gone differently. If they had gotten any of those Panthers into the fight it would have been much tougher for the Americans. And the main point is that the Germans were under pressure from every directions, damaged bridges being one of many effects of the Allies constantly pummeling them.
I had never heard of this battle. Thank you once again for adding to our knowledge of little-known WWII conflicts. On a different note, the news came today of the death at age 101, of television pioneer and US WWII veteran, Norman Lear, one of the (then) surviving WWII celebrity veterans whom you recently profiled. On a similar note, another WWII celebrity veteran who is still living in Marv Levy, who served in the US Navy in the war, then went on to a highly successful coaching career in North American-style football, both in Canada and in the US. Eventually, he was inducted into both the Professional Football Hall of Fame (US) and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. At 98, Mr. Levy is the oldest living member of either hall of fame, and the last living member of either hall to have served in WWII. (In fact, he is the only such living member of ANY North American professional sports hall of fame.)
Thank you for the information and context. I remember hearing that Norman Lear passed, but I forgot Mark did a piece on him. I knew of this battle, but I didn't know what "bulge" meant in this context until now. Seeing this reminded me of a British victory song my grandad would sing: "We're going to hang out our laundry on the Siegfried line!"
The 94th Infantry Division's official unit history is a recommended read for anyone interested in this battle (it's online for free). Normally official unit histories are dry and rather cursory, but there was a lot of detail put into the 94th's and it definitely doesn't shy away from how grisly the fighting was. So much so that the two histographies, "Patton's Ghost Corps" and "Patton's Pawns", published by historians about the battle are more or less just paraphrased versions of the unit history.
Divisions have been known to have civilian historians write their history. I'm certain the US Army's 2nd had one in the 1960s. My brother was assigned as his assistant for part of his tour of duty in Korea.
So one lesson from this battle might be that the American Army was wise to insist that their main medium tank be limited in weight and width so as to be able to cross the average European bridge. The Germans found out the hard way how important of a design consideration this really was. Case in point.
If the Germans had bridge engineers at this front theatre they may have had a bridge for their Panthers. Yet at this time of war such valueable units as engineers were already used up as "firefighters" all around the German fronts, never mind their equipment. And even in case they would have built a bridge for 11th Panzer: it was most likely to be a wooden one, a sittin' duck for American artillery and Air Force.
@@insideoutsideupsidedown2218That wont work, air superiority destroyed trains...Im shure the PANZER III and PANZER IV could cross every bridge the Shermans could...and I truly believe the Germans would have been WAY better of focusing production on STUG III/IV variants and panzer IV variants and upgrading them accordingly.The conditions of war on the eastern front and western front really could have used quantity and german engineering upgrading basic designs...I would include the TIGER I under the condition that reliability would be the focus for use on the Russian front.Abandon the Panther because it was developed AFTER the Tiger I and a total waste of factory space and man hours when the previously mentioned 3 models could be focused on and therefore making more AFV'S available where the troops were desperate for armor support.The Germans were their own worst enemy.
Interesting theory on the Shermans being thin to cross Euro bridges. I heard the original reason for the high and thin Sherman tanks was to crowd as many as they could onto cross ocean transport ships as U Boats were still taking down ships, so get as many across as possible.
The last battles of WW2 in Europe are all pretty wild, like Castle Itter and the Prague Offensive, which didn’t actually end until 3 days after the war officially had on the 11th of May. Amazing stuff!
A fascinating and hard fought part of WW2 on the Western Front if you take into consideration the battles for places like Hurtgen Forest and Aachen. Thanks for a further insight Dr Felton. Merry Christmas to my fellow military history buffs too.
I live in Luxembourg and walked through many of these areas on the German side of the boarder. It's amazing to imagine that the places I've walked where the scene of vicious combat. I've learned a lot! A great video!
There is always so much emphasis on the major battles during a conflict that oftentimes other battles like this one seem to get misplaced or outright forgotten. That is why we need people like Mark Felton. He lets us know about this kind of stuff that otherwise would still be forgotten or ignored. Once again thank you sir for sharing your knowledge with us it is much appreciated
Excellent video Dr. Felton! The 11th Panzer Division was one of the few divisions left in more or less combat fitness as the war progressed to the end. If I recall reading, the 11th escaped encirclement in the Ruhr pocket, was savaged in the long retreat across Germany and finally surrendered in Czechoslovakia with 7,000 troops and a fair amount of motored vehicles but less than 7 tanks, 5 tank destroyers and 15 self propelled guns*. A separate kampfgruppe with 3 Hetzers surrendered as well. Not enough has been devoted to this campaign so thank you!!
I thought, from the title, it would have been when the German Division of fifty tanks was to take a Soviet train station and ended up fighting two Soviet Armored Trains and losing fourteen of their tanks.
The German 11th Panzer had been an excellent division throughout WW2. It's nickname was the "Gespenster' (Ghost) Division. It had earned that title by marching by night and fighting by day for long periods when fending off Soviet operations in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet Stalingrad attack.
Dr Felton -- You would never guess what I learned from your video today. It was to arrange artillery cover (noise or to halt a pursuing enemy) when carrying out a night time withdrawal. My focus is on learning practical skills useful in waging war. Doctor, your videos are always of the highest quality and very informative. Thank you ever so much.
Dr. Felton i love your work. Could you talk about Brazil during WWII? Maybe about the legendary Three Brazilian Heroes (Drei Brasilianische Helden) buried by the germans as heroes on 1945?
Once again very professional work, thank you Mark Felton Productions. Also, please vote this up so professor Felton watches and reacts to the parody video of “Enduring Stodginess of Mark Felton”. It’s fantastic! 😂
Just love these "little" deeply-forgetten tales of WW2 that Dr Felton digs up for us (ie, the 2nd Pearl Harbour attack, or the end of Himmler) Thank you for sharing, Dr Felton.!
Hi. I think it is very good of you, to bring to light these forgotten battles (brave men lived and died just like in the highly publicized the big "dramatic" battles too) Their importance and sacrifice was no less important. Thank you for "dusting" off this battle and placing it out in the open form me to learn. \m/
I live near here, and you can still walk the Orscholz switch between Nenning and Orscholz. Destroyed bunkers, trenches, anti tank ditches and dragons teeth are still visible.
The more time that passes since the war, the more we find out about it, thanks to the likes of Mark Felton. Not sure if it's true for history in general, but it means there's always something new to learn.
I have read in many books over the years that at the end of the Battle of the Bulge that the German Army, the Wehrmacht, and associated Waffen SS units were out numbered in the West by a total of eight to one and in the East by a total of six one. Overall, man for man, the German Army for a while was the finest army seen since the Roman Legions.
I am German and I was with the Army after the Cold War. I can agree with both of you. On the one hand the German Army of then fought a war that could not be won - at least after a certain time. And they fought this war until its' bitter end in the stand of 1945. They did not surrender until its fearfull commanders became neutralized, costing many lifes, that could have been spared. On the other hand we learned in history that the American Army was the best equipped one of World War II.
Eight to one sounds hyperbolic. In any case, total troop strength ratios are unreliable when assessing combat performance since it doesn't take into account the "tooth to tail" ratio that differentiates combat personnel from support/service personnel. The US and British armies had a much wider margin of non-combat troops than the Wehrmacht. For every US soldier at the front there were four other men in the rear handling logistics, administration, communication, etc. Likewise, the British (and Canadian) armies kept about 6-7 men in support of every man at the front. By contrast, the German armies in 1944 committed about half their strength to combat units. This usually allowed them to keep the edge in tactical manpower over the US and British, but it left them bereft of an effective support system. That's why so many of their offensives burned out in less than a month.
Having had to watch this video with subtitles, I “heard” Mark mention the 10th armored division involved in the reduction of Nennig, Sinz and Berg. This was actually the 8th armored, CCA that came to help the 94th. My father was there as an FO for the 398th AFA. It was their baptism of fire. The 11th Panzer was very stubborn and it was recorded as one of the coldest winters of record. Divisional after action reports lumped this combat in with the Battle of the Bulge, possibly not being aware of the separate operational orders for the 11th Panzer.
Its quite odd to see maps of my home region in this channel and hear stories about what happened (some of them i heard from older relatives when i was young) and in the same time thinking "that was the road my schoolbus took". Thanks for the Video!
With depth of his knowledge on WW2, if Mark Felton transported back in time, Germany would've had mother (perhaps father) of all superweapons in their hands.
Another fantastic episode sir! I look forward to these and recently was pleasantly surprised when I ran across you on a new podcast I've started listening to called Dictators - you are interviewed for the Tojo episode! Fantastic work!!
Another great report on an event I had not heard of before. Would also like to mention your excellent use of archival footage - always seems to be relevant and I am yet to spot any glaring errors (Tigers being shown when discussing the 1940 Blitzkrieg for example). Excellent work and keep it up!
For lots more detailed information on the battle for Butzdorf/Tettingen, see Chapter 9 of "Against the Panzers" by Karamales and Vannoy (1996, McFarland & Co)
Read the book 7 DAYS IN JANUARY, written by a former SS obersturmfuhrer (1st Lt) ...... his unit came from Finnish Lapland to Alsace Lorraine ..... fantastic read
german 11th panzer division was called the ghost division. excellent vid mark, just german order of battle on 16th of dec 1944 had 1,200 tanks and assault guns not 1,400. it was quite an achievement by the OKW to gather such a powerful force so late in the war
This highlights one of the deficiencies of the Wehrmacht's "heavier is better" ideology concerning tanks. A tank that can't make it to the battlefield might as well not exist.
I always viewed the 11th Panzer Divisions attack as part of the Ardennes campaign, though it was conceptualized after the initial attacks. It would have been useless to send the 11th into the main attack, as already the logistics would not allow for supply of existing divisions, much less a new division. But, something needed to be done in order to provide impetus to the floundering assault, and an attack to divert US armored divisions was about the only thing the 11th could do. Unlike Nordwind, which was designed to hold Allied forces in place, and possibly involve Allied reserves, the 11th's attack was an attempt to directly influence the main assault in the North. It also shows why having such heavy tanks can be a liability, as it cut the 11th's tank strength my more than half, thus dooming the slim chances for success.
True, but the Panther was designed for and was still mainly operated in the wide open space of Eastern Front with less bridges to cross, it was simply not built for Western European roads or bridge. On the opposite side, there was a few times where the relatively light and mobile Shermans got bogged down in muddy terrains (widespread in Eastern Front) due to its narrow tracks while T-34 and Panther could cross easily. In general, it was mostly impractical to design a tank or any vehicles (at least in WW2) to fit for every combat environment, much like making every tank amphibious for times when there was simply no bridges. That is where engineers battalions come in, if you can't change the tank, you could at least make the environment at least somewhat more favorable, including building or strengthening existing bridges. And that's why one need engineers like they need maintenance companies. Of course one can argue for 11th Panzer to be given lighter German AFV instead, but obviously at that stage of war German divisions can't really be choosy in their reinforcement, could they?
Just a cautionary note about the scripting - 6:45 "almost two full strength panzergrenadier regiments carried in SdKfz 251 armoured half-tracks" is a bit misleading, unless the 11.Panzer had a very unusual organisation. A 1944 panzer-division would normally have four panzergrenadier abteilung in two regiments, but only one abteilung would be armoured out of the four. In 11.Panzer-Division at the time of the Normandy invasion (source: niehorster organisation charts), this was the I.Abteilung of Pz-Gren.Rgt.110, while the II.Abteilung of the 110 and both abteilung of Pz-Gren.Rgt.111 were truck borne battalions.
Another great presentation sir. You would think the German command staff would have been aware that the bridges were not strong enough to support the Panther tanks. Would not the plan have been completely changed had they known this fact? Or did they know and tried anyway?
People need to remember that there are advantages and disadvantages to everything including weapons systems. Sherman tanks are always seen as inferior to German tanks. But you could argue that panthers and tigers were too heavy, slow and expensive. If it can’t cross a bridge to participate in the battle, it’s worthless.
Not so much a forgotten offensive along the lines of Wach Am Rhein or Nordwind, but more of a local counter attack. Which the Wehrmacht carried out regularly. Still, an interesting story of one of the lesser known engagements of WW2. Of which there are many.
Another fascinating video. I hope though that Dr Felton will do more videos about the Pacific War. And I wish that he would do more videos about the Italians and their part in the war.
I wonder what the western front would have looked like if the Panthers were used. I assume they would have pushed into Patton's southern front, disrupting the push toward the Rhine. If this happened history could have been a lot worse for all of us. Thank you Mark Felton!
I just read "Hitler's Last Push". He reminds me of a bad manager I had. Someone who told you to do something stupid, then blamed you when it failed. Hitler demanded an attack in midwinter, using ungainly giant armored vehicles, without bridging equipment on routes containing several rivers on narrow winding hilly routes. When Herbstnebel failed, he "brilliantly" identified that the bottleneck routes and lack of bridging equipment was the reason why!
In my generation - went to school in the 60/70ies - the Siegfried Line Attack was discussed and as such well known. But thanks for the interesting documentary.
