In September 1944 Hitler ordered an attack on Gen. George Patton's Third Army, which was deep inside France making for the Rhine and threatening the German industrial heartland beyond. The ensuing battle near Arracourt--the U.S. Army's largest tank-versus-tank clash until the Bulge--went badly for the Germans, who committed their armor piecemeal and whose offensive was shattered in a series of intense, close-range tank duels with the Americans. Armor expert Steven Zaloga deftly reconstructs the battle and shows how American Sherman tanks bested superior German Panthers.
In September 1944 Hitler ordered an attack on Gen. George Patton's Third Army, which was deep inside France making for the Rhine and threatening the German industrial heartland beyond. The ensuing battle near Arracourt--the U.S. Army's largest tank-versus-tank clash until the Bulge--went badly for the Germans, who committed their armor piecemeal and whose offensive was shattered in a series of intense, close-range tank duels with the Americans. Armor expert Steven Zaloga deftly reconstructs the battle and shows how American Sherman tanks bested superior German Panthers. Features legendary panzer general Hasso von Manteuffel and U.S. commanders John "Tiger Jack" Wood ("America's Rommel") and Creighton Abrams (namesake of the M1 Abrams tank) Thoroughly researched narrative draws on newly discovered American and German records that provide unprecedented detail
In the narrative of D-Day the Canadians figure chiefly—if at all—as an ineffective force bungling their part in the early phase of Operation Overlord. The reality is quite another story. As both the Allies and the Germans knew, only Germany’s Panzers could crush Overlord in its tracks. The Canadians’ job was to stop the Panzers—which, as this book finally makes clear, is precisely what they did. Rescuing from obscurity one of the least understood and most important chapters in the history of D-Day, Stopping the Panzers is the first full account of how the Allies planned for and met the Panzer threat to Operation Overlord. As such, this book marks nothing less than a paradigm shift in our understanding of the Normandy campaign. Beginning with the Allied planning for Operation Overlord in 1943, historian Marc Milner tracks changing and expanding assessments of the Panzer threat, and the preparations of the men and units tasked with handling that threat. Featured in this was the 3rd Canadian Division, which, treated so dismissively by history, was actually the most powerful Allied formation to land on D-Day, with a full armored brigade and nearly 300 artillery and antitank guns under command. Milner describes how, over four days of intense and often brutal battle, the Canadians fought to a literal standstill the 1st SS Panzer Corps—which included the Wehrmacht’s 21st Panzer Division; its vaunted elite Panzer Lehr Division; and the rabidly zealous 12th SS Hitler Youth Panzer Division, whose murder of 157 Canadian POWs accounted for nearly a quarter of Canadian fatalities during the fighting. Stopping the Panzers sets this murderous battle within the wider context of the Overlord assault, offering a perspective that challenges the conventional wisdom about Allied and German combat efficiency, and leads to one of the freshest assessments of the D-Day landings and their pre-attack planning in more than a decade.
In this riveting book, Steven Zaloga describes how American foot soldiers faced down Hitler’s elite armored spearhead—the Hitler Youth Panzer Division—in the snowy Ardennes forest during one of World War II’s biggest battles, the Battle of the Bulge. The Hitler Youth division was assigned one of the most important missions of Hitler’s Ardennes offensive: the capture of the main highway to the primary objective of Antwerp, the seizure of which Hitler believed would end the war. Had the Germans taken the Belgian port, it would have cut off the Americans from the British and perhaps led to a second, more devastating Dunkirk. In Zaloga’s careful reconstruction, a succession of American infantry units—the 99th Division, the 2nd Division, and the 1st Division (the famous Big Red One)—fought a series of battles that denied Hitler the best roads to Antwerp and doomed his offensive. American GIs—some of them seeing combat for the very first time—had stymied Hitler’s panzers and grand plans.
General George S. Patton. His tongue was as sharp as the cavalry saber he once wielded, and his fury as explosive as the shells he’d ordered launched from his tank divisions. Despite his profane, posturing manner, and the sheer enthusiasm for conflict that made both his peers and the public uncomfortable, Patton’s very presence commanded respect. Had his superiors given him free rein, the U.S. Army could have claimed victory in Berlin as early as November of 1944. General Erwin Rommel. His battlefield manner was authoritative, his courage proven in the trenches of World War I when he was awarded the Blue Max. He was a front line soldier who led by example from the turrets of his Panzers. Appointed to command Adolf Hitler’s personal security detail, Rommel had nothing for contempt for the atrocities perpetrated by the Reich. His role in the Führer’s assassination attempt led to his downfall. Except for a brief confrontation in North Africa, these two legendary titans never met in combat. Patton and Rommel is the first single-volume study to deal with the parallel lives of two generals who earned not only the loyalty and admiration of their own men, but the respect of their enemies, and the enmity of the leaders they swore to obey. From the origins of their military prowess, forged on the battlefields of World War I, to their rise through the ranks, to their inevitable clashes with political authority, military historian Dennis Showalter presents a riveting portrait of two men whose battle strategies changed the face of warfare and continue to be studied in military academies around the globe.
Panzers Forward collects photos of all varieties of German armor, from the smaller tanks of the early war to the gigantic Tigers that came later, on all fronts—North Africa, Sicily and Italy, France, and of course the Eastern Front. Written by a trio of experts who have lived and breathed panzers for decades, the captions identify vehicles as well as their location and units, explain markings and camouflage, and give background information on the vehicles and their battles.
One of World War II's most famous battles recounted from the German point of view Covers Otto Skorzeny, Kampfgruppe Peiper, the siege of Bastogne, and more Includes the story of the hard-hit U.S. 106th Infantry Division and based on unpublished primary sources, including after-action reports and soldiers' memoirs Before dawn on December 16, 1944, German forces rolled through the icy Ardennes in their last major offensive on the Western Front. Catching the Allies--predominantly Americans, in what they believed was a "quiet" sector--by surprise, the Germans made early gains, but Allied counterattacks combined with German fuel shortages and mounting casualties forced the German Army into a retreat from which it never recovered.
DIVIn Fighting Patton, noted historian Harry Yeide is the first to examine legendary U.S. General George S. Patton Jr. through the eyes of his enemies: the opposing German commanders of WWII./div
From Dennis Showalter, recipient of the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize and the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement, a fascinating account of Nazi Germany's armored forces during World War II Determined to secure a quick, decisive victory in his quest of conquer Europe, Adolf Hitler adopted an attack plan that combined tools with technique—the formidable Panzer divisions. Self-contained armored units able to operate independently, the Panzers became the German army's fighting core as well as its moral focus, establishing an entirely new military doctrine. In Hitler's Panzers, Showalter presents a comprehensive study of Germany's armored forces. By delving deeply into a detailed history of the theory, strategy, myths, and realities of Germany's technologically innovative approach to warfare, Showalter provides a look at the military lessons of the past, and a speculation on how the Panzer ethos may be implemented in the future of international conflict.
American troops invaded North Africa in November 1942, but did not face serious resistance until the following February, when they finally tangled with Rommel’s Afrika Korps—and the Germans gave the inexperienced Americans a nasty drubbing at Kasserine Pass. After this disaster, Gen. George Patton took command and reinvigorated U.S. troops with tough training and new tactics. In late March, at El Guettar in Tunisia, Patton’s men defeated the Germans. It was a morale-boosting victory—the first American success versus the Germans and the first of Patton’s storied World War II career—and proved to the enemy, the British, and the Americans themselves that the U.S. Army could fight and win.
