(4/6) TANKS! Battle of the Bulge (GDH)

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This episode of TANKS! examines the Ardennes offensive launched by the German Army into Belgium and Luxemburg. The battle is commonly referred too in the United States as the Battle of the Bulge.

The German Army was suffering defeat upon defeat in the east. The Soviet Unions offensive doctrine had become more complex and detailed in scope. Operation Bagration dealt a sweeping blow to Army Group Center. Almost an entire army group was destroyed in detail. The German Armys casualties were more than the replacement army could re-introduce into combat. The more powerful T-34/85 and especially the IS-2 were deployed in mid-1944. The IS-2 was equipped with the 122mm cannon. This cannon could penetrate 160mm of armor plate. More importantly the kinetic energy delivered by the 122mm could disable a Tiger or Panther without penetrating. (GDH)

Hitler realized that any offensive on the eastern front in 1944 would fail. The Soviet forces were far too strong to make any impression. Hitler summarized that the logical attack should be directed at the Italians of the western alliance. The Americans.

The Allies suffered from serious manpower shortages. Replacements were not making good the combat losses. Eisenhower made the decision to take a calculated risk, by leaving the Ardennes section covered with a light presence. Green and exhausted units were placed in this area. (GDH)

The shock of the initial assault dumfounded most in the Allied High Command. The Allied lines on the North and South shoulders held. However, in the central area the Germans completely broke through. The 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions raced to the area. The 101st made their heroic stand at Bastonge in this sector. (GDH)

The American counter-attack, with limited UK support, drove the Germans back to their start lines in January 1945. Most casualties occurred during this counter-offensive. By the end of the Battle of the Bulge, Americans had suffered 20,000 killed in action.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Tanks
• German
• Germans
• Army
• Allies
• American
• Americans
• Eisenhower
• Ardennes
• Hitler
• Soviet
• 1944
• Bastonge
• Battle
• of
• the
• Bulge
• GDHouston

[TheFlossMan]

Thanks for this, i love ww2 history

[leenygurl91]

amazing

[Avenger2680]

@Tyco200 Lol how do you figure 51mm sloped armour = 125mm unsloped? At the best possible angle sloping armour would provide an additional +50% armour at no cost to weight. Also the tanks were hardly ever "lone"... almost all of the time it took 5-6 shermans to take out one tiger, with only one sherman coming out of the engagement intact. Shermans only accounted for a few percent of the german tanks knocked out. 50% were mechanical/abandoned and almost the other half were fighter bombers

[USSWISCONSIN64]

@Tyco200 damn man. calm down its a tank. not wroth fighting over geez -_-

[Tyco200]

I'm so sick of uneducated, typical American Yankee kids/Brits bitching their sad, ill made statements to me without any facts. It''s very sad that these children lack the knowledge of what books tell them, rather than discovery channel's often lacking, biased and misleading bullshit.

[Tyco200]

@Avenger2680 Finally, let's not forget the poor visibility of the Panther meant almost certain death when encountered by a loan-Sherman that simply popped behind or off the side at close ranges. Despite the 75mm variants being out-gunned at long range, it didn't matter. At close range? The Panther was the easiest target on the battlefield.

[Tyco200]

@Avenger2680 Finally, the Sherman had superior vision to the Panther, much better reliability, an engine that didn't have exhaust problems ("Gudarian's troubled child," as it became known at Kursk.) and had a much better gun that could kill both infantry and tanks with no more than 68mms at 1,000 meters (Pz IVs worst nightmare)/80mms at a good 800 meters.

[Tyco200]

@Avenger2680 Are you stupid? I'm stating the M4 Sherman equipped with a 76mm M1. Look it up. The 76mm variants recorded hits as far as 1,200 meters against Panthers, and easily destroyed them. Finally, AvengerWhoLacksHistoricalFacts­, let's not forget the Tiger had a pathetic 100mms of non-slopped armor VS the Sherman's 51mms of slopping armor, which gave the effect of 125mms...

[Avenger2680]

@Tyco200 One sherman could obviously NOT take on a panther or a tiger...

[Waterflux]

I think the strict secrecy enforced within the German high command also hampered their effort to find Allied fuel dumps, in addition to not given enough time to scout the Allied sectors. Understandable though, since had the Germans made recon in advance, that would have tipped off the Allies as to what the Germans were up to.

[the82spartans]

4:54

How did that Soviet officer get in there?

[Point50Cal]

@mbkl79 Agreed. There are stories of old men and even little kids taking out Russian T-34s and IS-2s using the Panzerfaust during the Battle of Berlin, not to mention how they can be homemade in barrel-loads. Finally, of course, it's the Panzerfaust that inspired modern one-shot disposable antiank weapons like the M72 LAW and the AT4.