Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfy
The Germans did not attack in their usual fashion in the Ardennes offensive, due to the difficult terrain.
To put it simply, without regard to the different tactics used by the two Panzer armies:
The initial assault were executed by battalions of heavy armed elite infantry that stormed forward positions after the initial barrage (but not in the 5th Army sector).
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Most of the lead units were not "elite." They were infantry formations and most of those were composed of troops often of dubious quality. The 18th VG for example (one of the more successful) had about two thirds raw recruits and a massive shortage of ncos. Several of its battalions got lost trying to advance and several others walked in dense columns into US machinegun crossfires losing heavily. It included over 3000 ex-kriegsmarine sailors with no infantry experiance along with 5000 "rehabilitated" (eg., recovered from serious wounds or psychatric problems like shell shock) and most of its remaining troops were "overaged" (read in their late 40s or 50s).
The 560th from Norway had only two regiments present and didn't have any artillery (not that its ex-Norwegean 75mm's dating to 1908 were all that good anyway) and its engineer battalion hadn't arrived. It had never seen combat.
The 326th VG was a mixed bag of replacements having been destroyed in Normandy.
The 277th VG was so short on experianced ncos and officers it had trouble just getting in position for the offensive to begin with.
79th VG was another formation heavy on raw recruits and short on experiance. It also had virtually no motor vehicles.
The 167th had a heavy draft from the disbanded 17th Luftwaffe field division which itself was no stellar performer.
12th VG was a bright spot. This was a redesignated regular infantry division and in pretty good shape.
26th VG was also in decent shape. While most of its replacements were ex-sailors too there was still a good core of ncos and officers along with veteran soldiers to mold the replacements into a cohesive force.
The Panzer divisions were hardly better.
Lehr had been crushed and just one weak mixed battalion of tanks. The 559th Pzjr abt was added (15 Jadgpanther and StuG III) to help things out.
2nd Pz had one "panzergrenadier' battalion mounted on bicycles.
116th had serious command issues as its previous commander who was extremely popular was relieved on loyality issues and replaced with a Nazi sympthizer who was not that competent.
All of the SS divisions present were short tanks and men too.
The worst shortage was in artillery. If it wasn't for the inclusion of several Volksartillery Corps using almost all captured weapons there wouldn't have been much of an opening barrage during this battle by the Germans. Unfortunately, once the Germans started to advance these units, lacking transport, could not keep up so the artillery support quickly dwindled to next to nothing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfy
Armored recon battalions (composed of armored cars and armored halftrack infantry) were the eyes and ears and made contact after a staging area was secure. They generally avoided heavy combat but often engaged US forces long enough for the Panzers to arrive.
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Only problem was most of the German ones were short on everything. 2nd Pz and Lehr didn't have their units present as they were still reorgainzing in Germany. The infantry divisions had just a company or two each of bicycle mounted troops for this purpose who also formed the division reserve.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfy
Unlike what they show in movies, the Panzers were generally heavily supported by armored infantry, dismounted and mounted on a lot of armored personnel carriers. They also had access to self-propelled artillery that could bring down fire in front of them quickly. The APCs also had a lot of machineguns, mortars, and cannons that would provide support fire.
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What actually happened all-to-often was the infantry being in trucks or riding on the tanks quickly became seperated from their armored vehicles. Lacking artillery support and good communications they were quickly pinned. The panzers would then push on regardless. Battles like that at Krinkelt - Roherath degenerated into cat and mouse combat with panzers trying to hunt down US tanks while trying desperately to stay out of bazooka fire. It usually ended badly for the Germans.