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Originally Posted by T. A. Gardner
Most of the lead units were not "elite." They were infantry formations and most of those were composed of troops often of dubious quality.
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I agree, I was just referring to the opening assault, where German divisions deployed the best troops they had at the time. There was an order to bring forward the best men in the assault divisions and organize them into assault battalions. Regardless of the fact that their units were mostly rated a "KG III/IV" and many divisions lost half of their officers and NCOs (and often most of their bayonet strength) to Normandy and Bagration. And with large shortages in most categories.
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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.
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I think the 6th Panzer Army's assault had a lot of coordination problems. They used their recon elements (which were understrength, anyway) poorly and these armored cars got tangled up in relatively pointless fights. The 1st SS was literally charging into towns with tank rushes with little reconnaissance and the 12th SS gutted itself in the twin villiages.
But I get the impression that the 5th Army operated more smoothly and used their Armored recon battalions more along German lines.