Battlegroup Böhm - The Furthest German Advance West, Ardennes 1944

[Music] it was supposed to be a last throw of the dice in the West conceived by Hitler in late 1944 the Ardenne offensive at one major objective via Moxon Waffen SS Panzer and Fox Grenadier divisions would punch through the thinly held American front line in the hilly and forested Ardenne region of Belgium and Luxembourg and race west crossed the river MERS into open country and capture the Allied supply port at Antwerp Hitler's intention was to split the anglo-american armies and bring Churchill and Roosevelt to the negotiating table before transferring the bulk of his armored forces east to deal with the Soviet juggernaut the generals were unimpressed believing the objectives too ambitious but they nonetheless carried out their orders and the climate of fear and suspicion following the July bomb plot attempt against Hitler the Germans managed to gather together an impressive force in the initial attack on the 16th of December 1944 with thirteen Foxx grenadiers divisions and seven Panzer divisions totaling four hundred and six thousand men five hundred and sixty tanks and nearly 670 tank destroyers and assault guns facing just six US infantry and two armored divisions of 229 thousand men and over nine hundred tanks and assault guns that the Germans were not as strong as they appeared there were critical shortages of fuel many infantry units relied entirely on horses to move supplies and many men were unfit under trained or unskilled in battle conditions much has been made in the history books of the superbly equipped Ruffin SS Panzer divisions and their performance from the offensive with particular emphasis on comfort verbal battle group Piper a massively armored force that punch through u.s. lines and advanced steadily west until surrounded and destroyed but the furthest west penetration was achieved by a regular army Panzer unit getting to within just five kilometers of the river MERS and causing panic and allied command the unit came close to reaching at the open country beyond the mers and partially achieving one of Hitler's Actives this is the story of comfort firm of the 2nd Panzer Division on the 16th of December 1944 following a vicious artillery bombardment pioneers and Panzer grenadiers of the 2nd Panzer Division crossed the river and assaulted the village of Monarch the village was skillfully held by troops of the US 28th Infantry Division the 2nd Panzer Division wanted to clear the village and then move onwards to Bastogne which was a major Junction for several roads in the our den they managed to push back the defenders using tanks once a 60 ton bridge had been laid over the river early on the 17th of December the 2nd Panzers reached clove o or Clare in German but was stopped again by Sherman's of these 70th tank battalion for Panzerfaust were knocked out for the loss of three Sherman's that eventually German pressure overwhelmed the defenders destroying most of the remaining Sherman tanks or US forces pulled back a hundred and twenty eight men making a valiant last stand and clove o Castle until they surrendered the following day to protect the road to Bastogne combat command R of the u.s. 9th Armored Division has set up roadblocks comfor / boom managed to smash through some of these the comfort rooper consisted of the second Panzers reconnaissance battalion with armored vehicles and one company of the 3rd panzer regiment with 14 panther g tanks the 2nd panzer division now swung to the north-west past Bastogne and maintained its westward advance delays caused by stiff US resistance meant that the Americans were able to rush reinforcements to Bastogne team disobey of combat command be the u.s. tenth Armored Division deployed at novel a village north of Bastogne vicious fighting continued in and around Neuville for two days but comfor / boom was sent on bypassing novio to the north on the night of the 20th of December and capturing an intact bridge of the earth River at Birth of Hill this opened the road to the towns of Marcia and Nomura but the battle group couldn't move the tanks were out of fuel and forced to sit tight and await fuel trucks struggling along the poor roads if they had been properly supplied the 2nd Panzer Division would have crossed the mers on the 21st of December the fuel delay allowed elements of the us 84th Infantry Division to occupy Marsh refueled the Panzers rolled again at nightfall on the 22nd of December and straight into a stiff battle for Marsh leaving a blocking force at Marsh the bulk of the 2nd Panzer turned west towards Dino and the mers River in the lead once again was kampfgruppe ur berm closely followed by kampfgruppe hikakin Heusen korkin Heusen was a much stronger force with a battalion of Panzer grenadiers in armored half-tracks 32 panther tanks and armored artillery battalion with 10 Vespa and 6 Hummel self-propelled guns and supporting units comfy grouper berm raced up the highway towards Dean or sending victory it reached the woods near sell in the early hours of the 24th of December its armored spearhead the Panther tanks was now only 9 kilometers from the mers River bridges but problems soon arose the u.s. 2nd Armored Division began to arrive northeast of cell combat command a block B further advance of the 2nd Panzer Division and the leading camp Griffon were cut off comfort group a berm had pushed on to the village of Foy Norodom its further advance towards the Murs was stopped not by the Americans but by the British kampfgruppe a berm ran into tanks of the British 29th armored Brigade guarding the vital MERS bridges losing three Panthers and several other vehicles in the nasty exchange the reconnaissance battalion now ran out of fuel and its tanks and Men took up defensive positions the leading units of the 2nd Panzer Division come from a berm had managed to get to within five kilometers of the mers River marking the high-water mark of the German advance and the furthest west penetration by German forces during the Battle of the Bulge on Christmas Day 1944 combat command B of the US 2nd Armored Division attacked the cutoff German comfor given the previously overcast snowy skies cleared an allied fighter bombers joined in Grouper berm was destroyed even as a relief force comfor holt maya tried to reach it kokin housing or what was left of it managed to withdraw but only after abandoning all its tanks and armored vehicles about six hundred men managed to walk back to the 2nd Panzer divisions lines on the night of the 26th of December the remains of camp grouper berm were either taken prisoner or straggled back through the snowy woods - 2nd Panzer Division lines the German offensive though kept going by Hitler and to mid January 1945 had already failed due to a combination of lack of fuel an unexpectedly tenacious American resistance thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also help support my channel at PayPal and patreon details in the description box below you

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 1,213,136

Keywords: Battlegroup Böhm, Mark Felton Productions, Battle of the Bulge, 2nd Panzer Division, Ardennes Offensive, Panther Tank

Id: KUrL_yCWjAs

Length: 7min 51sec (471 seconds)

Published: Thu May 16 2019