When I wrote Glider Infantryman, I was hard pressed on time to get the book done and published before Don Rich died. In died in 2013 and the book came out late in 2011. I never really focused on equipment as a result. I'm not an equipment expert. Ask me what the guys were going through, what they were thinking and battlefields, I can do that. And I know the basic stuff. Some of you can identify this quicker than I can figure it out. What is it. I think it was from the first Marvie battle. In and around Marvie, the enemy operated off road quite a bit. And in this case got stuck. thx.
http://www.wwiivehicles.com/germany/vehicle/tank-hunters/hetzer-tank-hunter.asp Hetzer tank destroyer
The placard with it has 155 mm typed on it. I don't understand the language but the Hetzer mounted a 75 mm. EDIT: Maybe it says it was knocked out by a 155
I read it as "In the vicinity of Marvie, a small assault vehicle, a Hertzer, of the battalions reinforcing the Panzerlehr failed to cross the Saiwez Creek. A 155mm cannon was also abandoned." I knew those eight years of french would come in handy someday . . . and for something besides reading road signs and menus on vacations in Canada.
Here's a Hetzer that has been restored and is firing its 75mm gun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCP3KP4jygc
Any idea what self propelled gun the Panzer Lehr would have been using at Marvie? The 327 reports don't say anything other than a SPG. One took a shot at a tank of the 10th Armored's Team O'Hara light tank and hit a house with a family in it killing the father and 5 yo girl. The mom and 4 other kids survived. The montage says tank, but it was a SPG. https://www.facebook.com/109600119062869/photos/a.1087527314603473.1073741893.109600119062869/1087543761268495/?type=3&theater
I'm not sure. However the SPG that fired the shot that hit the home was on the road heading west toward Marvie from the Wiltz Road near the bridge. Would not the Hertzer be a TD? I can't imagine they'd have gone off road with the Hertzer after seeing several tanks destroyed. I really am not knowledgeable in this arena. I do know the reports are somewhat contradictory, saying 5-7 tanks on the Dec 20 attack. The reports that say 5-7 and not five do not mention a TD or a SPG. However, if the drawing is trying to show snow, it could have been in the Dec 23/24th fight which was bigger across a broader front. They hit Arlon Road with up to 12 tanks alone, but I never found a specific number in Marvie, though I do know of 3 and maybe 4 destroyed in town, not counting one on the north side. In that fight they also got another 5 behind Marvie on the outskirts of Bastogne. German command never knew the success that night. If they'd poured more pressure into that fight, they could have been assaulting Bastogne proper. Here is my best shot at a map. The greenish yellow lines are US firings. The green are German. Blue shows German tank route into Marvie which was destroyed by the Church. The other blue shows a German tank retreating. The creek would be off road in the middle of the attack. What I missed was the 327 had several squad about 700 yards out in front of Marvie about where the tanks were destroyed. A Lt. was captured their and escaped and about 4 guys were never heard from again along with several deaths. Most of the 327 deaths occurred near the angle of the lower red line though. The enemy infantry did get into town but where wiped out. The map came from coordinates, reports, and eye witness accounts. The 23/24 night fight advanced across the same route, but also included the wooded area to the left and further left along Arlon Road.
I was wondering if the bogged down Hetzer was the same one at the Bastogne Historical Center, but it is not. The BHC's is a Swiss G-13.
Thx and nice find. I get amazed here. I'm guessing it was heading south in retreat. Would not a good S2 officer call that a TD rather than a SPG?
