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Author: Chris Ellis
Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 108
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Book Description
The new Spearhead series is designed to look at the cutting edge of war, dealing with units capable of operating completely independently in the forefront of battle. Each volume in the series examines a historic unit's origins, history, organization, order of battle, battle history, insignia and markings. The 21st Panzer Division gained greatest fame in North Africa, but also served in Normandy and on the Russian Front. Each Spearhead title includes an evaluation of the units combat effectiveness as seen by the unit, its opponents and subsequent researchers, and a research section including a bibliography and a listing of museums, websites, re-enactment groups and memorials.
Author: Chris Ellis
Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 108
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Book Description
The new Spearhead series is designed to look at the cutting edge of war, dealing with units capable of operating completely independently in the forefront of battle. Each volume in the series examines a historic unit's origins, history, organization, order of battle, battle history, insignia and markings. The 21st Panzer Division gained greatest fame in North Africa, but also served in Normandy and on the Russian Front. Each Spearhead title includes an evaluation of the units combat effectiveness as seen by the unit, its opponents and subsequent researchers, and a research section including a bibliography and a listing of museums, websites, re-enactment groups and memorials.
Author: Jean-Claude Perrigault
Publisher: Heimdal
ISBN: 9782840481577
Category : History
Languages : fr
Pages : 527
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Book Description
In February 1941, the German High Command decided to dispatch an expeditionary force to north Africa in support of the Italian forces which were in a difficult situation against the British. This contingent included elements that a few months later were to form the 5th Light Division, and in 1942, the 21st Panzer-Division. As the keystone of the Deutsches Afrika Korps, this division was involved in the hardest battles in that theater of operations until it was finally driven out of the continent of Africa along with the rest of the Axis forces in May 1943. A new division was then formed in France from the surviving elements. Poorly equipped, partly with old models of French and German tanks, the division showed great initiative in turning these salvaged vehicles into formidable fighting weapons. On 6 June 1944, 21st Panzer-Division was the first German armored formation to be launched in a counter-attack against the Allied landings in Normandy. After getting as far as the coast, the division was forced back. However its action on D-Day held up British troops' attempts to capture the city of Caen for a whole month. It was almost wiped out in the British offensive west of Caen on 18 July 1944, but fought on in the hedgerows before retiring eastwards across France. Following the failed German counter-attack in Alsace in 1945, the division was transferred to the eastern front where it was annihilated in the Halbe pocket shortly before the end of the war.
Author: Werner Kortenhaus
Publisher: Helion
ISBN: 9781912174140
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
For years, one of the most essential sources for study of the Normandy invasion was known only to a select few and nearly unobtainable even to those who knew of its existence. It has never before been translated. None of the major English language histories of the Normandy Invasion refer to it, even though it is the history of the only German armored division that was in place in the Caen area at the moment of the invasion. It reveals key facts that are missing elsewhere. At long last, Werner Kortenhaus' history of the 21st Panzer Division has been published in English. Kortenhaus's account of the division's subsequent commitment, in the Lorraine - Saar Region - Alsace area provides intriguing detail on this little known sector as the southern wing of Patton's 3rd Army strove for the Upper Rhine area of Germany. The last section follows the division after its hasty transfer to the Oder Front, facing the final Russian onslaught on Berlin. In revising and updating his account, originally released in two massive typed volumes, Die Schlalcht um Caen, 1944, Caumont, Falaise Seine, der Einsatz der 21. Panzer Division" in 1989 and "Lothringen Elsa, der Ostfront, der Einsatz der 21. Panzer Division" in 1990, Werner Kortenhaus has exhaustively researched all available sources in German, French and English to supplement his own experiences and those of his fellows and the many individuals whom he interviewed. The result is a seamless account of the Normandy invasion in the British sector from the German viewpoint that sheds new light on many controversial issues. The account continues, following the division and surrounding events during the retreat to the Seine and the division's later commitment in Alsace - Lorraine and, finally, on the Oder Front against the Soviet Union, and its eventual demise in the horrors of the Halbe pocket. The account is not restricted to the history of the 21st Panzer Division, but includes detailed analysis and exposition of actions of adjoining divisions and of the larger picture, from the German viewpoint. Elements of the 21st Panzer Division were committed separately prior to the Normandy invasion on both sides of the River Orne, in the vicinity of Caen. Although the 21st Panzer Division was the only German armored division stationed in the Caen area, it stood by in frustration with engines running for hours awaiting orders for action. Even then it was handicapped by its prior dispersed commitment. Elements of the 21st Panzer Division fought against the British airborne force at Pegasus Bridge, while other elements launched a counterattack that almost reached Sword Beach. The division's Kampfgruppe von Luck was a major part of the German defense east of the Orne. North of Caen, to the west of the Orne, along with the 12th SS-Hitler Jugend Panzer Division the 21st Panzer Division blocked the unrelenting British frontal attacks on Caen that culminated in "Operation Charnwood. The division subsequently played a major role in halting the British assault east of Caen, "Operation Goodwood," short of its final objectives. The division was then shifted westward where remnants of the division then defended against Montgomery's "Operation Bluecoat" that resulted in the final British Breakthrough on their western flank as the Americans broke through to Avranche and beyond. As the German counterattack at Mortain failed and allied forces moved toward encircling the German Fifth Panzer Army and Seventh Army, the 21st Panzer Division was shifted again and attached to the I SS-Panzer Korps. Its two combat groups were separated by the advance of the II Canadian Corps, Kampfgruppe Rauch and elements of Panzer Aufklarungs Abteilung 21 ending up inside the Falaise Pocket, Kampfgruppe von Luck on the outside. Following the retreat to the Seine, the reconstituted, but much depleted, 21st Panzer Division then fought in Lorraine against Patton's 3rd Army. As one of the few armored divisions not included in Hitler's build up of forces for the impending Ardennes Offensive, the division became a "fire brigade," shifted from one hot spot to another, constantly counter attacking as the German front was forced back from Lorraine into the Saar region and then into Alsace. Kortenhaus presents an unusual and detailed insight into the "poor man's war" against the southern arm of Patton's thrust through the Saar region to the upper Rhine, as a few hard-pressed remnant formations tried to "hold the line" while the bulk of the remaining German forces were massed and reconstituted for Hitler's last great offensive in the Ardennes. As the Ardennes operation failed, the 21st Panzer Division took part in "Operation Nordwind" and fought on in Alsace, until the Russian assault over the Vistula shattered the frail German Eastern Front. Within a matter of weeks the Russian forces reached the Oder and broke into East Prussia and Silesia. On 31 January 1945 Hitler ordered that the 21st Panzer Division be pulled out of Alsace and dispatched in extreme haste to the Eastern Front in the Kustrin area. A mere shadow of even what it was when it entered the fighting in Lorraine, the division established contact with the garrison of "Fortress Kustrin" before it was, again, hastily shifted south into northern Silesia in the Sagan - Bunzlau area on the Lausitzer Neie River. After initial eventful fighting the division fell back to the west bank of the Lausitzer Neie River, where it dug in. As the Russian offensive focused on other sectors, the defensive line along the Lausitzer Neie River was successfully held by the 4th Panzer Armee until mid-February 1945. / While the Russians concentrated forces for their last offensive, the "Battle of Berlin," the Oder Front remained relatively quiet, except on the boundary between the 4th Panzer Armee and 17th Armee, where the "Battle for Lauban" developed as the last major offensive of the German Army. A combat group and command staff from the 21st Panzer Division took part in the offensive, which, while successful, faded into insignificance in comparison with the magnitude of Russian forces. Faced with the concentration of the Soviet forces for the final offensive on Berlin, the German Supreme Command repositioned forces, transferring the 21st Panzer Division to the Weiwasser - Spremberg area, on the left wing of the 4th Panzer Armee, of Heeresgruppe Mitte, initially as Armee reserve. The division was ordered to dig in in the "Mathilda" Position, in the German second line of defense. Marshal Koniev's 1st Ukrainian Front launched its final offensive as the last elements of the division arrived. The division was quickly drawn into the fighting. Fighting in desperate defense, the division fell back on Cottbus. The Russian breakthrough in the area between Spremberg and Cottbus split the German V Armee Korps, including the 21st Panzer Division, off from the left wing of the 4th Panzer Armee/Heeresgruppe Mitte, forcing it to the north, into the sector of Heeresgruppe Weichsel, where it was attached to the German 9th Armee. The division met its end as the 9th Armee was cut off and destroyed in the Halbe Pocket, while Russian forces fought within the city of Berlin. Helion's English edition includes a significant number of rare photographs and many maps. Werner Kortenhaus' study represents a significant contribution to English language material available regarding a Heer panzer division, besides its extensive coverage of German armoured operations in Normandy, Lorraine, Alsace and elsewhere.
Author: Gustavo Uruena A
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781537707020
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 302
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Book Description
15th Light Division The division that was later to become 21st Panzer Division had a very modest birth indeed. As originally conceived the special blocking force was seen as having an anti-tank and defence function. It was to be made up mainly from elements drawn from 3rd Panzer Division, which had been the formation originally earmarked for North Africa back in the summer of 1940. There was no intention at this stage of sending a full-strength panzer division. The first unit designated to to move was 39th Panzerjager (anti-tank) Battalion from 3rd Panzer Division. This was a motorized unit with halftracks and trucks towing anti-tank guns, three companies each with nine PAK 36 37mm guns and two PAK 50mm guns. However, events already dictated that an armour, reconnaissance and infantry presence would be needed. 5th Panzer Regiment of 3rd Panzer Division was chosen as the armour element, having at the time an under-strength establishment of 20 PzKpfw IVs, 75 PzKpfw IIIs, 45 PzKpfw IIs and 25 Pzkpfw 1 Ausf B tanks (including command and observation vehicles). Also from 3rd Panzer Division came 3rd Reconnaissance (Aufklarung) Battalion with a light and heavy armoured car company, a motorcycle company and heavy weapons support platoons. Even this was under strength, for one of the light armoured car platoons had VW Kubelwagens substituted. The infantry element was 200th Rifle (Schutzen) Regiment from 3rd Panzer Division, and artillery support came from one battalion only of 75th Artillery Regiment, also from 3rd Panzer. Divisional staff was drawn from the staff of 3rd Panzer Brigade within 3rd Panzer Division, the chief staff officer (Ia) being Major Mauser and the intelligence officer (Ic) being Hauptmann von Kluge. To these ex-3rd Panzer Division units were added army troops from various depots and formations comprising 606th Flak Battalion (with 20mm guns), 605th Panzerjager Battalion with three companies each of nine 4.7cm PAK(t)(Sf) auf PzKpfw I Ausf B-an ex-Czech 47mm anti-tank gun on a PzKpfw I Ausf B chassis - plus the 2nd and 8th Machine Gun Battalions."
Author: David Stahel
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0374714258
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 301
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Book Description
A gripping and authoritative revisionist account of the German Winter Campaign of 1941–1942 Germany’s winter campaign of 1941–1942 is commonly seen as its first defeat. In Retreat from Moscow, a bold, gripping account of one of the seminal moments of World War II, David Stahel argues that instead it was its first strategic success in the East. The Soviet counteroffensive was in fact a Pyrrhic victory. Despite being pushed back from Moscow, the Wehrmacht lost far fewer men, frustrated its enemy’s strategy, and emerged in the spring unbroken and poised to recapture the initiative. Hitler’s strategic plan called for holding important Russian industrial cities, and the German army succeeded. The Soviets as of January 1942 aimed for nothing less than the destruction of Army Group Center, yet not a single German unit was ever destroyed. Lacking the professionalism, training, and experience of the Wehrmacht, the Red Army’s offensive attempting to break German lines in countless head-on assaults led to far more tactical defeats than victories. Using accounts from journals, memoirs, and wartime correspondence, Stahel takes us directly into the Wolf’s Lair to reveal a German command at war with itself as generals on the ground fought to maintain order and save their troops in the face of Hitler’s capricious, increasingly irrational directives. Excerpts from soldiers’ diaries and letters home paint a rich portrait of life and death on the front, where the men of the Ostheer battled frostbite nearly as deadly as Soviet artillery. With this latest installment of his pathbreaking series on the Eastern Front, David Stahel completes a military history of the highest order.
Author: Tim Saunders
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1526757370
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 499
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Book Description
The history of the armored division comprised of German teenagers in the Normandy campaign, drawing on new materials from former Eastern Bloc archives. Raised in 1943 with seventeen-year-olds from the Hitler Youth movement, and following the twin disasters of Stalingrad and ‘Tunisgrad,’ the Hitlerjugend Panzer Division emerged as the most effective German division fighting in the West. The core of the division was a cadre of officers and NCOs provided by Hitler’s bodyguard division, the elite Leibstandarte, with the aim of producing a division of ‘equal value’ to fight alongside them in I SS Panzer Corps. During the fighting in Normandy, the Hitlerjugend proved to be implacable foes to both the British and the Canadians, repeatedly blunting Montgomery’s offensives, fighting with skill and a degree of determination well beyond the norm. This they did from D+1 through to the final battle to escape from the Falaise Pocket, despite huge disadvantages, namely constant Allied air attack, highly destructive naval gunfire, and a chronic lack of combat supplies and replacements of men and equipment. Written with the advantage of new materials from archives in the former Eastern Bloc, this book is no whitewash of a Waffen SS division and it does not shy away from confronting unpalatable facts or controversies. Includes photographs
Author: Ernst Rebentisch
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 0811746410
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 544
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Book Description
Complete history of a German tank division that fought exclusively on the Eastern Front.
Author: Dieter Stenger
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0811765903
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400
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Book Description
Organized and trained during 1943, the 10th SS Panzer Division saw its first action in the spring of 1944 during the relief of an encircled German army on the Eastern Front. Several months later, in response to the Allied invasion at Normandy, the division returned to the West in mid-June 1944. Here the division engaged in a series of armored attacks and counterattacks against British and American forces. The 10th SS briefly held off a few enemy thrusts but gradually had to fall back to Falaise, where the division escaped the Allied encirclement with no tanks and only a fraction of its men. The 10th SS Panzer Division next defended against the Allied parachute assault during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. Depleted and now a division in name only, the 10th SS fought in Alsace before Hitler sent it to the Eastern Front again. There, east of Berlin, the division participated in the final battles to enable the escape of German soldiers and civilians from Soviet captivity.
Author: Frederick Steinhardt
Publisher: WWII German Military Studies
ISBN: 9781906033521
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The Panzer Lehr Division was one of the most élite German armored formations in existence in early 1944. Its baptism of fire was in the deadly Normandy bocage. Although suffering heavy losses in Normandy, the Division continued to fight in North-West Europe until the end of the war, seeing particularly notable service during the Ardennes Offensive and in the Ruhr. The first volume in the new Helion series WWII German Military Studies prints an extensive number of reports written by former officers of the Division, principally its commander Fritz Bayerlein. Virtually all of these reports have remained unpublished since they were written soon after the end of WWII. They cover all aspects of the Division's history, although with particular emphasis upon events in Normandy, the Ardennes and Germany. A number of the reports include detailed order-of-battle and other organizational data. Important though the reprinting of these documents is, this book is made doubly important thanks to the linking text and expert annotations from editor Fred Steinhardt. In effect, this book provides an extremely detailed chronological history of the Division's activities, in greater detail than has yet appeared in print before.
Author: Wolfgang Faust
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781530359707
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 144
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Book Description
While the Battle of Berlin in 1945 is widely known, the horrific story of the Halbe Kessel remains largely untold. In April 1945, victorious Soviet forces encircled 80,000 men of the German 9th Army in the Halbe area, South of Berlin, together with many thousands of German women and children. The German troops, desperate to avoid Soviet capture, battled furiously to break out towards the West, where they could surrender to the comparative safety of the Americans. For the German civilians trapped in the Kessel, the quest to escape took on frantic dimensions, as the terror of Red Army brutality spread. The small town of Halbe became the eye of the hurricane for the breakout, as King Tigers of the SS Panzer Corps led the spearhead to the West, supported by Panthers of the battle-hardened 21st Panzer Division. Panzer by panzer, unit by unit, the breakout forces were cut down - until only a handful of Panthers, other armour, battered infantry units and columns of shattered refugees made a final escape through the rings of fire to the American lines. This first-hand account by the commander of one of those Panther tanks relates with devastating clarity the conditions inside the Kessel, the ferocity of the breakout attempt through Halbe, and the subsequent running battles between overwhelming Soviet forces and the exhausted Reich troops, who were using their last reserves of fuel, ammunition, strength and hope. Eloquent German-perspective accounts of World War 2 are surprisingly rare, and the recent reissue of Wolfgang Faust's 1948 memoir 'Tiger Tracks' has fascinated readers around the world with its insight into the Eastern Front. In 'The Last Panther, ' Faust used his unique knowledge of tank warfare to describe the final collapse of the Third Reich and the murderous combat between the German and Russian armies. He gives us a shocking testament to the cataclysmic final hours of the Reich, and the horrors of this last eruption of violence among the idyllic forests and meadows of Germany.
