![]() During the night of August 6th-7th, hoping to achieve surprise, the Germans attacked without preliminary artillery barrage. No less.īut Operation Lüttitch was doomed from the start. ![]() Should they reach the coast there, they would isolate Patton’s Third Army. ![]() Panzer) together to strike West in the direction of Avranches. ![]() This grand operation, the death throes of the Panzerwaffe in Normandy, brought four, or parts of, Panzerdivisions ( 1. & 2. Panzerdivision was selected to take part in the fateful Operation Lüttitch, more commonly referred to as the Mortain counter-offensive. But its own offensive stalled almost right from the beginning.įorced to a defensive stance, the 116. Panzerdivision attacked, meeting the Americans head-on and preventing the US 2nd Armored Division from advancing. The next day, while moving to their new assembly area near Vire, the division suffered its first of many allied air attacks, killing the Panzer IV’s battalion commander. Four days later, on July 28th, the Americans launched Operation Cobra and the Windhund-Division was moved further West. Panzer only moved toward Normandy on July 18th, crossing the Seine on July 20th with its forward elements reaching their assembly area South-East of Caen around July 24th. Mostly obsolete Panzer III tanks which actually found a second life in the Normandy bocage, where they proved more at home than the heaviest cats, being more maneuverable thanks to their size and less handicapped by their small caliber gun due to the short ranges of engagement. On the other hand, the division brought to war all the tank school’s vehicles it was supposed to leave behind and pass to other training units. Panzerdivision which was in training nearby, yet also incomplete. ![]() Even worst, the division had no heavy AA guns at all and its Panther battalion was still training in Germany: when ordered to the front, the Windhund-Division had to borrow the one from 24. Not only did Hitler still believe that the main landing would take place there, but the division was still incomplete: it was missing one-third of its theoretical transportation trucks and even some armored personnel carriers for its Panzergrenadiers. Panzer wasn’t ordered to march to Normandy until late July. Quickly moved to Pas-de-Calais, in Northern France, where the Allied landing was expected, to complete its organization and training, 116. ![]()
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