Battle of the Bulge

I am not in agreeance that Barkmann's machine was 401 at the Ardenne but will check my source(s). This is an interesting acct although it varies from book to book. I see by the link provided that a certain Dale Ritter has claimed C for the pics supplied by Das Reich Vet from the Panther Abteilung Alfred Harggesheimer....

the two soft bound books by author George winter are a must ! Neat guy too

Manhay, The Ardennes Christmas 1944 and Freineux and Lamormeinil - The Ardennes -

George was supposed to at one time cover the last weeks of Das Reich Panzer units during the Ardenne some years ago but has not done so.....whimper, whimper

 

Robin Cross The Bulge 1944

Field Marshall Keitel succeeded in amassing nearly 28 million litres of petrol supplies. Unfortunately only half of this would be on the West bank of the Rhine when the offensive began on 16th Dec 1944.

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Well, I think it´s amazing that Keitel got the job as Hitler didn´t really think much of the man´s brains, did he?

 

Night of 27./28 12. 1944

Allied and German .50 and 2cm weapons were quite active this night. Four Ju 88G-6's from NJG 2 were shot down by US .50's and 1 Ju 88G-6 from NJG 6 was shot down by German 2cm Fla. All four crewmen were missing initially until they returned to base as a very unhappy bunch losing their 2Z+FP, wrk nummer 621371.

Peter Spoden and crew....

Erich ~

 

A nice article on Flypast ( January 2005 issue ) on operation Bodenplatte by Chriss Goss

As well as the story of 2nd Lt Abraham "Al" Jaffe ( reconnaissance with the Mustang) and his part in the discovery of the Sixth panzer Army..

 

Kai you are too far ahead !

Even with all the night ground attack missions that the Nachtjagd were performing only two Ju 88G-6's were lost on the 28th and night of 28/29th December 44, both a/c from 5th and 4th staffels NJG 3 one a crash and the other a bad landing accident....

land battles anyone ?

 

I read there were some Ferdinands at the Stavelot area ( 5 tanks ) giving some headache to the US troops. They were sent from the Italian front. Anyone some details on them?

 

I have to say that in all my reading about the Ardennes, I've never come across this.

Are you sure that they haven't been confused with the 'King' Tigers which definitely were in action at Stavelot ?

 

That could very well be true Martin!

However it was mentioned in the Robin Cross "The Bulge 1944" book I´ve read a couple of weeks ago, but I´ll have to check on that....

I just bought the "Ferdinand of all tank books" The Combat History of Schwere Panzerjager Abteilung 654 so I can check that as well....

 

Sorry Martin must have been confused with some big battles around Manhay with the Ferdinands somehow.

The Cross book says that the Ferdinands(=Elephants) of the 653 Heavy Panzerjäger battalion took part in the battles at Chaumont(!!)and stopped the 4th Armored division there approx 23rd Dec..

Anyway, still interested to hear on any details of these monsters doing their job...



Here´s anice map system to find your way around in the Bulge area:

Just pick the site on the left and you see the place on the map marked!

http://map.wwiionline.com/belgium_strategic.html

 

Kai on the 23rd and through the next 4 days the 2nd SS panzer regiment with the Panther and Pz. IV H's destroyed US armor right and left at the Manhay crossroads and the surrounding villages and onwards to Grandmenil, vaux Chavanne then northern road junctions of Freineux and Lamormenil.

Kai how close were these heavy Panzerjäger to these areas ?

 

This is very weird - s.Pz.Jg.Bt 653 weren't even used in the Battle, according to my sources !

They reported 9 Jagdtigers on strength, and were held in reserve for Operation Nordwind , going into battle in Northern Alsace on January 6th.

Possibly one of our Jagdtiger experts ( mkenny, for instance ) can throw further light on this.

In any case, Chaumont is close to Bastogne where no heavy Panzers were engaged....

As an aside, I must say that Robin Cross is up there with Charles Whiting and Robin Neillands as, er...not one of my favourites.

 

To be honest I was amazed to read that there might have been any Ferdinands but then again...I guess there was none then!

Back to the books! ( Not Robin Cross´ that is..)

 

Erich,

on Michael Reynolds "Sons of the Reich":

Lammerding´s intention was to advance on two routes to his next major objective-Erezée. The first ran through Freyneux ,Lamormenil and Amonines and the second through Oster and Grandmenil.

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It seems different authors have a bit different views on the routes but this is where Reynolds got the troops.

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There´s a map in the book and according to it the Germans captured Grandmenil, but were stopped ca 1 kilometer to the west of it. The troops advancing to the right of Manhay were stopped in front of Vaux-Chavanne. The troops on the left from Odeigne were stopped in front of Freyneux and could not thus even try to reach Lamormenil as it was the next target after Freyneux to the west.

KG Krag advanced to the gates of Amonines but were stopped before reaching it, as well as in front of Briscol and Hazeille-Erpigny. KG Krag managed to take Sadzot in front of Briscol.

 

Grandmenil and Manhay are almost the same, they are so close together.

The road west runs flat between the two ( where a Panther can still be seen today ). The road then immediately curves and climbs steeply into trees which is where the advance was halted.

 

There were no Ferdnands (Elefants) or JagdTigers used in the Ardennes offensive. Although there have been several claims to the contrary, none can be substanciated. Certainly S. PzJr Abt 653 while initially included in this operation actually took no part in it. The first use of JagdTigers was in Nordwind.
All the remanining Elefants at this point in the war were with S. PzJr Kp 614 in the East, amounting to somewhere between 12 and 14 vehicles. S. PzJr Kp 614 was in the vicinity of Krakau in Poland at this point.

 

Thanx for the "Elefant" information T.A.!

 

Unternehemen Bodenplatte is prepared as a go..........now for the Allies to be drunker than skunks as they won't know what him them.

Ah no. Poor communication with German flak defences and non familiararity with the chosen targets-(airfields) led to horrendous losses by the Luftwaffe. Unacceptable as needed for defence of the interior. What a waste of man and machine

 

There has always been talk that the air battle was not possible during the early phase of the Bulge operation. However not stopping the Allied bombers....

" The 18th December would be remembered as the day the bombs fell by the Luftwaffe ground crews. The prospect for German supply was further dimmed by the Luftwaffe´s inability to still the US 8th Air Force. An imposing armada of 985 bombers escorted by some 773 fighters, moved to pulverize the German rail supply centers along the Rhine. Rail marshalling yards in Cologne, Koblenz, Kaiserslautern, Ehrang, Mainz and Mayen were slammed in an effort to create choke points in the German rear.

Gen d inf Baptist Kniess of LXXXV Armee Korps was forced to acknowledge the effect of the bombing on the rail system :
"....Already by 20 December all railways between the Luxembourg front and the Rhine were out of commission, and thus a great deal of motor and horse transport was missing from the start. In the face of the shortage of gasoline already being strongly felt, the added necessity of using precious fuel to transport all supplies for the offensive was an important factor in limiting the striking force..."

Danny Parker " To win the winter sky "