Greatest Tank Battles - German SS in the Battle of the Bulge

December 1944 Hitler's most infamous fighters the waffen-ss leads a massive armored attack against American forces along the Belgian German border Daniel Angela get started in one fell swoop and we chased away the America they're skilled ruthless veterans and in command of the biggest and best tanks in the German army they had better tanks than we did I counted seven rounds bounced off that Tiger he just turned that turret in a fight for survival there were only suicide candidates against the Fanta this is the 6th Panzer Army Hitler's specially crafted war machine at the Battle of the Bulge one of history's greatest tank battles [Music] [Music] the ar-10 December 16 1944 over 1700 German tanks and 200,000 infantry attacked US forces along on 140 kilometers front the Battle of the Bulge has begun spearheading the attack is the newly-formed 6th Panzer army made up of Hitler's most trusted and ruthless killers the waffen-ss their role is to punch through the thinly defended American line with 60,000 infantry followed by two elite Panzer divisions that will drive West and secure bridges over the Meuse river the third SS division will then advance Northwest and capture Antwerp by seizing this key allied port Hitler hopes he can stop the relentless Allied advance that has been routing his forces for the past six months - Pentium oh my god really found out about the American army during the invasion was your behind dog hat he mega impressed by the high number of people in the amount of material I couldn't keep up with that that couldn't finish me tell me darken Angie no suit up for scientists it could be as brief as you wanted but no soldier cannon do that they were simply overwhelmed by the vast amount of material at that point a fight was basically already useless [Music] the German High Command cannot sustain a lengthy offensive against the well supplied allies they must take them by surprise striking quickly with heavy armor and the 6th Panzer army is the best-equipped armored force in the our death with more than 600 tanks including 160 Panzer fours 215 mark fives or Panther tanks and nearly 100 Tiger tanks at 57 tons the tiger won easily at matches the American Sherman tank it's protected in places by up to 100 millimeters of steel plate and is one of the heaviest tanks on the battlefield but it's real edge it is powerful 88 millimeter main cannon with in Norman Doidge large craft is the enormous penetrating power of the 88 and we were able to effectively fight the American tanks we cancel some of them we destroyed completely that's yeah we were able to add the enemy come fairly close first of all I am actors of our own armor and why because it's a strength and it was the impact of the idiot gun yeah come on turn on it they had better tanks than we did we had small guns on our on our big tanks 76-millimeter was not strong enough for most of those German tanks the Sherman was an easy opponent for us he couldn't I know they could fire at us but it wouldn't penetrate at times they had to come close it was in a few hundred meters the Sherman is relatively light and fast but carries a low velocity 75 millimeter main gun that cannot penetrate a tiger's frontal armor its own frontal armor is just 51 millimeters thick making it highly vulnerable to the firepower of a tiger [Music] the Americans are outgunned and heavily outnumbered all they have to stop the 6th Panzer Army are less than 60 Sherman tanks 180 anti-tank guns and only 35,000 infantry and most of them are new arrivals who have never been in combat during that time the Americans received a steady stream of reinforcements that had just completed their training but hath not seen active combat yet that's why all these troops here that bedded down on the night from the December 15 to 16 who had totally caught by surprise I'm Angela in Daniels and it started in one fell swoop and we chased away the Americas the Americans drop everything the Germans are coming let's run that's kind of what it looked like the Americans are caught by surprise and the Germans quickly punched through their defenses all along the line desperate us commanders order all available forces to the front primarily and during the Battle of the Bulge they would just move us to wherever there was a hole to fill and we with our m16 half-tracks 50 caliber machine guns and we were anti-aircraft an anti-personnel and our job was to protect the tanks we were moving down a fire lane the two sermons were over to my left probably 50 yards and coming over the horizon and towards the Sherman was a tiger tank a big tiger time Square from reinforced barrel and he just laid the trees down as he went and came right on through those Sherman's I counted seven rounds bounced off that tiger it didn't bother him any more than fleas on a dog and he just turned that turret ever so slowly and moon out went one of the sermons and then he turned a little more so we got out of there as fast as we could we usually end up on the short stick we have the light tank and if one of them 88 shells hits that tank it just blurry to the part they burn up and you always have casualties body parts dead ones fire and everything else it's a sad thing it really is you stop and think how many guys thousands of them G is laying in the gutters laying along the roads all mangled up torn apart everything [Music] by the evening of December 17th lead elements of the 6th Panzer army have advanced more than 65 kilometers into Belgium at the spearhead is an elite battle group of the 1st SS Panzer Division led by Lieutenant Colonel Jochen Piper Piper is a veteran of the Eastern Front the winner of the Iron Cross and a former staff member of Heinrich Himmler the infamous overseer of the Gestapo and the Nazi death camps he is a ruthless leader and his Kampf group Piper with 120 tanks and 150 armored vehicles is the most powerful armored formation in the Ardenne by the 18th of December they are only 68 kilometers from their primary objective the Meuse river bridges near hoo-ee but they must first take a bridge across the Amblin River in the small Belgian town of Stabilo the Allies are determined to stall the German offensive long enough to allow reinforcements to join the battle and 250 Americans make their stand at the bridge and staff we're on the on the half tracks traveling at night for a long period of time and it was cold it was very very cool and all the while there were red tracer bullets all over the sky and looked like all kinds of red stars running around and I think that started a little bit of fear in me and yet I won't say that I was brave about it but I kind of got numb I think to the whole thing we pulled over on the side of the road now there was a river running across and then there was a bridge at the end that much I knew lieutenant Rd and Sergeant Lowe said they were gonna take Sargent Armstrong and Sergeant Whaley some vehicles with them over the bridge and that they wanted us to get our guns ready for firing the object was to hold up as long as possible hold in six hours if possible we know which way they were coming there had been some previous intelligence that said that they were gonna be coming down that Hill Road it began to become light and you could hear clanking a lot of clanking which was a sign that there were tanks nearby the ominous clanking is the sound of concrete piper advancing straight into the heart of 704 T the biggest tanks in the German army and the only thing standing in their way are 250 men and a few anti-tank guns the our den a remote collection of fields forests and villages along the German Belgian border at first glance this place seems untouched by the modern world but closer inspection reveals grim evidence of a dark and violent past it was here in the winter of 1944 that Hitler launched his great ardent offensive forever remembered as the Battle of the Bulge December 16th in an effort to change the course of the war on the Western Front three German armies launched a surprise attack on American forces in the our den northern front the 6th Panzer army breaks through thinly defended American lines at the spearhead of the attack is the elite SS comp group Piper now only 68 kilometers from their primary objective the bridges along the Meuse river but first the Germans must capture the strategically important town of Stallone defending Steph lor 250 men including a few dozen from the eight hundred and twenty-fifth anti-tank battalion among them is gunner Lew celentano it began to become light and you could hear clanking a lot of clanking which was a sign that there were tanks nearby and when they finally did appear on the hill in front of us they looked like Tigers to me they were between buildings so in order to get a good shot at them we have to destroy the buildings first a job that our guns could do quite quite easily took be on the houses first we have a 50 caliber the tracks to 50 calibers quite a gun and now the four tanks were within our sight the three-inch m5 anti-tank gun has a muzzle velocity of almost 800 meters per second enabling it to penetrate 92 millimeters of armor at ranges of over 900 meters but even that is not enough to penetrate the 100 millimeter frontal armor of Piper's Tiger tanks tactics were supposed to be fire at all the vulnerable spots which means you know fire at the belly because in the belly is where he's got all his armor part of our look was that the roads were extremely slippery they were so sliding from side to side that they may not have given us the attention really that they would have given them dry weather of course I was worried about the distance and I remember giving the order of 900 yards that's really sticks out of my mind that night on it as we were taught we crossed fire I fire and on the first tank and sergeant houses gun fired on the last tank and as luck would have it we hit the first and last tanks immediately I said nine hundred yards and I think I hit it right on the nose because to hit them on first shots like we did there may be a lot of talent involved but I think we were it was 50% luck because we really hit them hard right off the bat we get the tracks on hold for those tanks that was pure unadulterated luck once this track is broken now you got to go for his turret because she still can move that turn they were disabled on the two ends and the two guys in the middle got caught it couldn't move they couldn't move forward couldn't move backward and we kept fired fell into place that's training really paid but in war I guess luck is an unknown quantity but it sure counts the Americans destroy for tanks and slow Piper's advance but it is not enough to stop him and his tankers advance into the center of Stabilo [Music] this is the ambled river that runs through Stabilo now on the morning of the 18th piper attacked onto this bridge Piper had mobile armor here on both sides of the bridge coming down from the north that had time a few hours before then to zero the whole location in so he could actually throw shells down here the starboard battery who were supporting engineers found themselves having to pull back away from the bridge and they actually had to allow Piper onto the bridge at that time a tiger royal of big tiger royal swept over the hill come down to bridge area and he caught sergeant Armstrong's half track before he had even a chance to to get out of their vehicle a couple of rounds from this Tiger Royal tank and they were completely destroyed we knew that that much big Tiger Royals name was coming we could hear it coming we know we're next yes nothing hurts you can do it December 18 1944 day three of the Battle of the Bulge Hitler's 6th Panzer Army has advanced more than 65 kilometers into Belgium leading the attack has come through Piper this powerful armoured column from the elite 1st ss-panzer division seems unstoppable their objective the bridges across the Meuse river taking them will open the way to the Allied seaport at Antwerp by the morning of the 18th Piper and his tanks are only 68 kilometers from the news nothing stands in their way but a handful of Americans defending the bridge in the village of stebih a big tiger royal swept over the hill come down to the fridge area and he caught Sargent Armstrong's half track before they had even a chance to get out of their vehicle we knew that that big tiger royal tank was coming and bigger than most buildings for God's sake we could hear it coming the tiger royal or king tiger is a battlefield monster it weighs 70 tons more than twice as much as a Sherman and is plated with armor that is in places 180 millimeters thick it's long barreled 88 millimeter main gun can penetrate even the heaviest Allied armor at ranges of over 3,000 meters making the king tiger the biggest and most powerful tank on the world war ii battlefield this is one of kampfgruppe peiper x' Tigers is the king tiger - this was the warhorse of kampfgruppe peiper x' unit after looking at a Sherman and then you see this and you see what a tank is they were firing 25 pounder shells from close range into this tiger and we can see here where they've glanced off the front armor which is around 186 millimeters thick and this here is a shell that actually went in to this tiger and exploded out wouldn't have stopped it at 25 yards that's how powerful this thing is it's sporting an 88 cannon is one of the best cameras the Germans had in the field if you'd have been on the north end of this you could forget it your war was over if you're hit by one of these things we knew that that big tiger royal tang was coming and lieutenant thorne had already started ahead he and sugar his driver jumped out of the vehicle just a few seconds before the tiger royal fired and picked that Jeep up and knocked it across the road in pieces practically now we know we're next there's nothing who kind of hurts we can do except try to get out of it but celentano and his men can't move their m5 anti-tank gun repeated firing has driven the tails deep into the ground so getting so far because we fired so many rounds it was very difficult to get them out of the ground then the tiger royal for some reason or other wanted to get into a better position to be able to fire on us and he backed up into a huge building everything the whole building came right down and we made our escape before that Tiger royal got a chance to do any firing the whole building came down despite the Americans efforts Piper and his column cross the bridge takes tavolo and push on towards the Meuse river Piper leaves behind a small force of SS troopers to protect his rear and they quickly live up to their notorious reputation as pipe was pushing West the troops behind him are basically running riot they're going into houses they're throwing hand grenades into cellars full of civilians babies as young as nine months old pensioners in their 70s they're doing just what they want basically [Music] the village lies in ruins 130 civilians are slaughtered including the family of our let mignon I was only two years old we were living here my parents and my two sisters and me the morning of the 19th there was lots of movement and we started to panic so we went down to the cellar in the afternoon we heard footsteps on the first floor and even though my mother was scared and since my mother could speak German she told them that we were civilians but they shot at us anyway my mother was hit and she died with my two sisters and I was in my father's arms to make sure everyone was dead they shot at us again and my father got a bullet in the foot and a bullet went through my leg particularly due to be safer my father brought me up to the attic the Americans came and took us to the hospital and saved our lives later that day American reinforcements arrived in Stabilo wipeout Piper's rearguard and destroy the bridge but it's too late Piper's main force is already on its way to the news as the first SS Panzer Division pushes West the 12th SS Panzer Division is ordered to clear the twin towns of trinkle truck rat held by stubborn remnants of the u.s. 99th infantry division the 12th SS is well-equipped fielding more than 14,000 men 90 tanks and 60 SP guns including 40 jagdpanzer Ford tank destroyers the jagdpanzer 4 is protected by 80 millimetres of sloped frontal armor and is powered by a 300 horsepower engine enabling it to reach top speeds of 40 km/h it is a 26 ton tank killer equipped with a 75 millimeter high-velocity cannon able to rip through even the most robust allied armor with all that firepower it should be easy to take the twin towns but in 1944 the whole German war machine including the 12th SS is running out of gas him and seen my new then the old-fashioned mission they didn't you can start an offensive but it's forward if you have a shortage of gas as a scanner for all set to one island offered to get afters watch every single liter of gas you spent the bombs or of possum kite with it you know the veil by inflation almonds was so impaired that a speedy progress was just not possible side to show mouth and inwardly we were hoping to reach American Gas and seem like it's violation on December 18th we attack the crinkled you know in the option of like a common and we made it into the center of the village close to the water tower internal oscillator and in an era of ambassador close by the water tower was a he filled and we forged ahead we opened fire towards a village where we assumed Americans with high Michelle's involvement our place we were under attack by anti-tank guns there was a terrain with hedges to the right and it was very well camouflaged in there for the site the floor I wish and it hit us in our company commander full on from the side through a gap in the hedge [Music] was leaning outside the hatch with his torso to shoot at the Americans with his assault rifle but in person took a deadly blow to the neck applying shale parts [Music] they should salute me the gun is in my hats and headsets have blown from our hats by the explosion [Music] she's done so it had been placed so cleverly and had hit us in such a weak spot that he had to be allowed coming often pants are ours we all made it out of the tank although the driver was injured and an automatic sharp love for me my cruisers the operation and it goes on like this for two days the Americans bringing lethal fire onto the fuel and ammunition starved 12 SS and the German advance stalls only a few kilometers from their start point the 6th Panzer Army is now five days behind schedule and the German High Command orders the 2nd SS division originally intended to follow Pipers advance to the Meuse to move south and attempt their own break through the well-equipped 2nd SS advance is with 28 Panzer fours 28 self-propelled guns and 58 mark 5 Panther tanks the Pandavas leagues ended here the Panther was until the end of the wars the most functional and best tank in the world based on three components component Nazi to indicate velocity cross-country mobility [Music] protection definitely achieve the best results in or speed they just didn't stand a chance against the panther on December 24th lead elements of the ii ss-panzer division advanced towards man a to protect their rear second lieutenant Fritz Lang Gong key and a platoon of four Panthers are ordered to secure the village of Freya via four also be entered the village staggered we've done stain on turd I stopped and thought I saw vehicles and started shooting liking the same time American tanks for shooting on us it's an ambush the decisive battle the one that will determine whether or not the 2nd SS can take the Meuse river bridges is about to begin [Music] the Battle of the Bulge enters its ninth bloody day and elements of the 6th Panzer Army have driven 80 kilometers into Belgium but stiff us resistance has stalled their advance desperate to reach the Meuse river ii ss-panzer division is ordered to attack the Belgian village of Man a to protect their rear second lieutenant Fritz long donkey and the platoon of four Panthers were ordered to take the village of Renu on December 24th I was a member of the 2nd SS tank company that's right and I was leading the 1st world wouldn't Howard estatal fulfilled via phone also the shaft so we entered the village stagger for once rod and yeah cash Dawood ahead of us versus people in other houses the for our anniversary Bush opening day but in front a couple of Bush's hits a few of the street [Music] we've done stained altered I stopped them thought I saw vehicles and started shooting in three countries like cycling at the same time American tanks were shooting on aftershock the sherman m4a3 has a relatively underpowered 75 millimeter cannon but at close ranges it can still be deadly especially if their target is the vulnerable 50 millimeter armor plating on the side of a panther tank captain mr. island anaconda I recognize a Sherman on the left side of the sleeve when fired at you feel it Trevor we receive lots of hits on the front side one side does he - thanks is that the welds on the right side first and all of a sudden he had sunlight coming easier Kathy Bachmann it's an enormous noise inside and your nerves have to be solid for that for sure and beheads it the onion other vehicles have been hit as well I saw that the barrel of one ism had fallen off the force had not been hit and hold back was the others back is better laughing stops there I was rather sure that it was just a question of time until the American tanks will show up here as well we had a middle of Viola Mia in the meantime I did some observation on the area around us fired on three different points in the area like a pea something to get the exactly this is common procedure to mrs. a distance for firing later to assure 100% hits absolute effort yeah good thing I had prepared this before because shortly after five Sherman's showed up confirming the distance wasn't that big maybe 500 or 600 meters Chuck national team as I had see exact distances I managed to shoot the first for sham this was only one round each David's new I know how to divide up the sauce yeah let's take more first the last one tried to back off by finally managed to reach this one as well the battlefield is littered with burning tanks on both sides but the Americans win the day they stopped the advance towards man hey putting an end to the second SS Panzer divisions hope of reaching the Meuse river farther north the 1st SS is not faring any better cough groove Piper the ones powerful spearhead of the 6th Panzer Army is now in a battle for survival they've been trying for nine days to cross the unbelief River Gorge but each time us engineers blow the bridges just as they arrive to make matters worse US forces are now securely in control of staff allo Piper's elite battle group is cut off and running dangerously low on fuel and ammunition and American reinforcements are closing in the noose is tightening on camp Group Piper December 23rd 1944 the Battle of the Bulge Hitler's great art and offensive begins to falter Koff group viper the spearhead of a 6th Panzer Army is no longer on the offensive but fighting for surviving Piper's running low on fuel and ammunition and the Americans are closing in Piper orders his tankers to dig in at the village of like lays one of the men is Sergeant Rolf Earhart a large number of American Sherman's appeared on the back slope road after the first Tiger fired and missed the Germans warmed up an unexpected front and began firing rapidly the American shells burst through the houses suddenly Tiger commander hunch appeared with both hands pressed against his head miss taiga had taken several hits the numerical supremacy of approximately 15 Germans negated the weapons superiority of our Panzers after these losses in the shortage of everything what was the next day between December 24th the Americans prepare for one big final push against Piper's forces at the glaze they amassed 4,000 men and over 200 Sherman tanks at over 300 hours they attack the attack went perfectly and exactly as planned the instant they started shooting we opened up with tank machine gun and mortar fire we were all in the town by 10 o'clock that morning we were utterly amazed at what we saw there besides scores of dead and wounded Germans we found over 175 vehicles in the immediate vicinity of Lucky's alone [Music] we're in likelies this is one of CAF group Piper's Tigers so here we have a testament to the power of a German tank in 1944 they didn't come bigger or better than this machine here it was left in a field behind this schoolhouse here in likelies because leg leash was a place where piper made his last stand this is where the net tightened around him by Christmas Eve 1944 the game was more or less up for camp group Piper Piper a band is like Glee's he leaves all his armor behind he leaves all the half-tracks all the artillery all the tanks everything and he goes out of this place on foot he walks out of the Glee's [Music] on Christmas Day Piper and the 800 remaining men of his armored battle group straggled back to German lines in nine days of fighting they have lost 70 tanks more than 2,000 men are killed wounded or captured across the yard and the fighting continues and on January 12 1945 the Germans are overwhelmed by allied reinforcements and air power and the Battle of the Bulge comes to an end hitler's final gamble has failed i am thus bested was he masked was to man we did the best we could there's soldiers themselves try to fight as hard as they could if you're lacking a lot of things you can fight as much as you want but if there's no material you can't go forward you just have to draw how simple it is no only our faith was stronger than what we had that's how it was [Music] the casualties on both sides are enormous more than 90,000 German soldiers are killed wounded or captured almost 20,000 Americans die and 50,000 are wounded we lost a lot of people we would lose 40 50 men at a crack how many times I got out of Tanks alive yet my buddy that couldn't get out would be half in and out of the tank appalling mess yes I'm on fire get me out and you'd see the fire gosh uh Paul Raymond he died right there [Music] at the time I didn't think anything of it all I was born if I was getting out of it you know I was very proud that next day but you also realize of course you know that's another thing that happens to you kind of late you realize what it costs some of your very best friends but wouldn't want to do it again that's for sure [Music] you

Channel: Mike Guardia

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Keywords: greatest tank battles, tank, tanks, world of tanks, documentary, footage, raw, combat, war, ss, waffen, panzer, tiger, sherman, battle, bulge, world war ii, europe, normandy, army, wermacht, history channel, discovery channel, division, regiment, armor, cavalry, nazi, artillery, navy, marine corps, west point, military, air force, annapolis, usma, benning, fort, hood, bliss, arms, general, patton, bradley, macarthur, hitler, rommel, guderian

Id: ig6lfVuHZyA

Length: 44min 56sec (2696 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 02 2019