2 SS Panthers vs. 21 US Shermans

[Music] on the 16th of december 1944 hitler had unleashed operation watch on the rhine a huge attack through the snow-covered ardennes forest on the german border with belgium and luxembourg [Music] the massive attack fell on a very weakly held sector the american front line and came as a shock to the allies who thought that the germans lacked the capabilities to launch any more offensives so late in the war the aim of hitler's offensive was to cross the mers river and capture the allied supply port at antwerp cutting the american and british armies off from each other and from their supply base but things didn't go quite as planned american resistance was tougher than expected causing holdups in the german timetable that allowed the allies to begin rushing reinforcements into the area to contain and then crush the german bulge in their lines as the german offensive slowed hitler ordered another smaller scale offensive further south codenamed operation nordvind or north wind the goal of this attack was to break through the lines of the us seventh army and french first army in the upper voge mountains and the alsatian plain and destroy them then recapture the city of strasbourg by the end of january 1945. nordvind would also take some of the pressure off the ardennes sector forcing the allies to redeploy troops away from the region it was also planned that nordvind would set the stage for operation zanats or dentist that would strike the rear of general patton's u.s third army that was menacing the southern flank of the arden offensive nordvind was launched on new year's eve 1944 by german army group g against a very thinly held 68 mile long sector the us front lines against the under strength units the u.s seventh army the fighting was again fierce and by the 15th of january 17 under-strength german divisions were fully engaged some of the battles were the toughest ever fought between us and german soldiers and the germans made some gains in appalling weather conditions the germans and americans slogged it out in towns and villages some of the hardest fighting was at the town of hellesheim on the 16th of january 1945 u.s forces began trying to reduce the german bulge around the town the us 12th armored division sent in three task forces one of which was based on the 43rd tank battalion this task force advancing on a hairless heim across open fields was hit by fire from eight dug-in german anti-tank guns and some assault guns the attack faulted with heavy losses and the other two task forces were also repulsed by german small arms and mortar fire the next day the 12th armored division tried again the u.s 17th armored infantry battalion got into hairless heim but was fought to a standstill by ever-growing numbers of germans from the 553rd fox grenadier division numbering ultimately around one and a half thousand troops by this stage the 43rd tank battalion had 29 sherman tanks remaining and with engineers acting as improvised infantry they attempted to support the advance of the 17th armoured infantry battalion but in the heavy and confused combat failed to make contact german panzerfaust were very effective in picking off the american tanks heavy german reinforcements were also on the way on the morning of the 17th of january ss schtumbanfura tech and his panther battalion from the 10th ss panzer division fonzberg set off from the nearby town of offendorf for hairless heim but before reaching the town u.s shermans and anti-tank guns managed to knock out four panthers and damage several more in foggy conditions tech's unit turned around and headed back to offendorf battalion adjutant ss ubhura bachmann took over third company whose commander had been wounded in the fighting even bachmann decided to recognize her the outskirts of hairlesshaim bakman rode into the town on a motorcycle sidecar combination he and his driver drove forward until they reached a road junction stopped and dismounted moving on foot buckman went alone along the road on the right covering about 50 meters to a bend as he reached the bend american machine gun fire opened up beating a hasty retreat pacman ran back to where they had left the motorcycle and grabbed a panzerfaust anti-tank launcher from the sidecar during his one-man reconnaissance he had seen several sherman tanks pacman now ordered his driver to get back to german lines and bring up a platoon of panther tanks two panthers under the command of ss under shafura mulbrat would approach the edge of the town while backman was on his one-man mission inside hellersheim bachmann edged his way into the town armed with his panzerfaust he had a good view over the main street two shermans were sat in the street taking careful aim from about 30 meters buckman fired the panzerfaust knocking out one sherman which burst into flames pachmann now withdrew and jogged back to where the two panthers waited they shut off their purring maybach engines and a quick orders group was assembled with bakman mulbrat and the other panther commander the germans would charge in the hairless heim and shoot up the shermans that they had encountered the panthers covering each other as they advanced panther one under mulbrat with buckman running alongside armed only with his pistol drove up the road on the left while panther ii drove up the road on the right to engage the americans first and distract them when panther one arrived at the road junction it immediately engaged a sherman knocking out first one tank and then several more behind panther two fired to cover him after several hectic minutes of battle a white flag suddenly appeared an american officer walked towards where buckman was stood beside panther one and offered to surrender himself and his men six sherman tanks stood close by apparently undamaged backman agreed and told him to assemble his men and to pile their weapons in the street bakman was astounded when 60 american soldiers came out from the shattered buildings and piled their arms as ordered mulbrat clambered down from his panther and covered the 60 americans with his mp40 machine pistol pachmann was even more surprised when the american officer directed him to 20 german soldiers who had been taken prisoner by the americans earlier in the battle for the town in a courtyard close by bachmann found a further six sherman tanks all undamaged and in running order thinking fast buckman ordered the american tank drivers to step forward next rearming the liberated german soldiers with captured u.s weapons he assigned a u.s driver and a german guard to each sherman and ordered the tanks driven back to offendorf before radioing his battalion headquarters to expect a little gift twelve intact sherman tanks fully fueled and armed the battalion also sent in a couple of trucks to take out the remaining 48 american prisoners ever the optimist bachmann now resumed his advance moving his two panthers forward to the eastern edge of town and another furious engagement with us shermans he knocked out two more american tanks that attempted to advance into hellesheim in total the two panthers under his command had knocked out nine sherman tanks and captured twelve bachmann received the knights cross and the two panther commanders the iron cross first class for this amazing exploit the captured shermans were incorporated into the 10th ss panzer division and went with the unit when it was transferred to stephen on the 10th of february 1945 to fight the soviets these boita panzers or trophy tanks saw considerable action and on the 25th of march 1945 the 10th ss reported 10 shermans on strength though only one was actually operational all the remaining 10th panzer division armoured vehicles were blown up by their crews the night of the 7th to 8th of may 1945 when germany surrendered erevin bachmann survived the war and died in 2010 aged 88. as for operation nordvind like the arden offensive it was doomed to failure and on the 25th of january 1945 the offensive was halted as hitler's attention was now fully focused on trying to stem the massive red army offensive towards berlin don't forget to visit my new audiobook channel war stories with mark felton and you can help support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below the all-out effort by the enemy the last german offensive of the war does not achieve its objective the seventh army holds the nazi operation north wind has failed

Channel: undefined

Views: 2,972,713

Rating: 4.9318981 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, Panther Tank, Ardennes Offensive, Battle of the Bulge, Sherman tank, 2 SS Panthers vs 21 US Shermans

Id: 86K0ncTkAkA

Length: 10min 20sec (620 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 15 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Metalboxman]

this thing pure fuel for wehraboos

[u/ultrasuper3000]

Watched this with the captions on and it gives an interesting version of the name of the Operation at the start. Always a fan of Mark Felton though.

[u/LuckyBlockYoshi]

mark felton is eh. he tends to not do actual research and just plops whatever is on wikipedia into his videos.

still a cool story tho