Greatest Tank Battles | Season 1 | Episode 8 | The Battle of Arracourt

[Music] lorraine france september 1944. u.s general george patton's fourth armored division seems unstoppable as it rolls towards germany we were an avalanche of fire fire and movement but hitler strikes back with hundreds of dreaded panther tanks the path was a real big thing made you feel pretty secure riding on one the american sherman tanks used tactics to avoid destruction by the superior german armor it's not a matter just uh firing yeah we have to think [Music] at stake is the allied invasion of germany and the end of the war in europe [Music] two giant armored forces collide in one of the biggest tank-on-tank clashes of the war this is the battle of [Music] normandy 1944 almost two months after the d-day invasion allied forces finally break through fierce german resistance and begin to roll across occupied france the drive towards nazi germany has begun british and canadian forces advance in the north while the americans strike south and east spearheading the attack is general george patton's third army patton considered one of the greatest field commanders in u.s history leads a powerful force of more than 160 000 men 1500 artillery guns and 930 sherman m4 tanks the m4 is armed with a short-barreled 75 millimeter gun with an effective range of just 800 meters and is protected by only 51 millimeters of frontal armor it's vulnerable but light and fast able to reach speeds of up to 40 kilometers an hour that speed makes the m4 the most maneuverable tank on the battlefield ideal for patton's rapid thrust across france leading the advance are the tanks of the battle hardened fourth armored division we had mission type orders and the best classic example of a mission type order was patton saying to us go east and go like hell so starting about the 16th of august we went like hell we would be moving 20 to 25 miles an hour down the road we would recon by far with a bow gun shooting one direction and the coax machine gun shooting another so we were an avalanche of fire when we hit resistance if we felt it was going to take us time we just pulled back and bypassed and at that time the tankers byward was bypass and haul ass the american advance is fast powerful and relentless outnumbered and suffering huge losses the germans are forced into full retreat [Music] the big advantage was material the sherman informed you could destroy a hundred of them there were 120 more they never ran out of men either patton's forces overwhelm the germans who keep fighting desperately as they retreat german units had by zen already fought some battles with the americans and onto the road the road looked like an abattoir entire german platoons had been killed by airstrikes all of a sudden we stood in front of an american tank which was ready to shoot yo and as soon as i moved the barrel he started to fire at us it was our luck said the gunner was nervous and fired at the slanted panel on our bow the shell just bounced off and did no damage protected by 80 millimeters of frontal armor the panther is almost invincible to head on fire and its 75 millimeter cannon has a higher velocity than the sherman's making it deadly even at long range and he only got one chance to shoot at us he didn't get a second chance our shells went right through their armor like it was butter [Music] their mercantile panzer loyd to antoine american tank crews who used to say we in the sherman are only suicide candidates against the punter zint smart but even the best tank of a second world war is not enough to hold off the large number of shermans in patent strike force and in front of us on the field there were anti-tank guns and tanks their soldiers must have been nervous or inexperienced because they kept hitting us on the front plate and none of the hits had any effect on us [Music] we brought down three tanks there there were probably more but during all that chaos it was hard to tell [Music] so so then i continued on for a bit beforehand and just before i got to the corner of these two roads i saw a sherman sherman temple but it was going so fast that it went straight across the road and ended up with its front end in the ditch on the other side he wanted to shoot and then one of the worst things that a tanker can experience happen [Music] my electric firing malfunctioned you just want to hang yourself or drown yourself once that happens when then we realize he's going to fire at us as soon as he gets out of that ditch and just as i turned my head for more shermans to want his old when we couldn't defend ourselves longonkey is forced to retreat while all across france german soldiers are doing the same it was a pursuit and we were moving faster than they could retreat [Music] by summer's end the relentless american air attacks combined with patton's massive armored assault brings the third army within striking distance of the german border my tanks advanced from the middle of august to the first day of september when we crossed the mers river my tanks had advanced 328 miles in 12 days so we were euphoric but that euphoria is short-lived on september 1st the 4th armored division is suddenly stopped in its tracks on the 2nd of september no orders so we sat second set for third we didn't know what happened but on the third day we learned that the reason we were stopped was gasoline the speed of the american advance has come at a cost after five weeks of fighting the third army has outrun its own supply lines and is forced to halt just west of the moselle river [Music] all they can do now is sit and wait for fuel and we knew that each day that we didn't move that was giving time to the enemy that's the most valuable commodity on the battlefield time and the germans were masters at reorganizing so we we thought we had a window about five days if we sat for five days we're going to start hitting resistance because they could gather their forces the germans take full advantage of the lull and gear up for a massive counter attack that will turn into one of the biggest tank on tank battles of the second world war [Music] the lorraine a quaint and rustic region of eastern france near the german border armies have fought here for centuries but nothing comes close to the ferocity of the fighting that took place here in the late summer of 1944 when this became a killing ground in one of the largest tank on tank battles of the second world war september 1st general george patton's american third army has pushed the germans nearly 1 000 kilometers across france and now approaches the moselle river the last natural barrier before germany but just as they get within striking distance of the fatherland a fuel shortage stalls the american advance and the fourth armored division patton's lethal spearhead is forced to sit idle and we knew that each day that we didn't move that was giving time to the enemy that's the most valuable commodity on the battlefield time the german army is in desperate shape since the allied invasion in june germany has lost 400 000 men and now has just 200 serviceable panzers soldiers in the field struggle to keep up morale soldier never knows what's going on except what's going around immediately around him we still had faith we still knew that we were gonna win the war were told you know there's just something coming down the pipe that'll frighten them so bad that they'll swim back to to new york hitler has been gambling on the development of new wonder weapons to turn the tide of war in europe but their development has been slow unsuccessful and unable to match the speed of the americans advance hitler has one last chance at stopping the american juggernaut throughout 1944 german factories have been producing tanks in record numbers for the eastern front hoping to buy more time hitler diverts these freshly minted tanks to the west and creates new formations called panzer brigades they're equipped with 135 panzer fours 280 panthers and are supported by more than 14 000 infantry called panzer grenadiers among them is 18 year old heinz altman the idea was to have fast moving small units available as kind of fire brigades they were intended to be used in the east they were used in the west because that was all available at the time to stop the allied advance to the rhine hitler's plan is to encircle and destroy patton's stalled third army and then quickly advance northwest to drive a wedge into the allied front line in advance of the main attack the 112th panzer brigade is ordered to head off the americans just west of the moselle river near the french village of dompere the assignment was to attack patton's third army in the flank from the south we rode on tanks as consequently as we rode on the tank path was a real big thing made you feel pretty secure riding on one [Music] we advanced until evening came and stopped for the night we dug in in the hills on either side of the valley and the tanks stayed on the bottom in orchards [Music] and what happened was in the morning the french notified the coming lies here were these almost 50 tanks the french second armored called in an airstrike [Music] we didn't have any anti-aircraft protection in the brigade these aircraft crave and detect the tanks was a terrible site that we saw from our [Music] foxholes [Music] the thing that stays in my mind was a tank being engulfed in napalm and the crew comes out they drop to the ground and roll around terrible side see a human being burned to death [Music] and by later afternoon we had lost most of our tanks so by the next morning we had something like eight tanks left out of the almost 50 and retreated with the tanks the prince brigades had didn't have their own artillery they did not have their own reconnaissance units the danger is they don't know where the enemy is and the enemy knows where you are it's like fighting with your eyes covered the main attack has not even begun and the 112 panzer brigade has already lost nearly 80 percent of its armor it's a blow to german plans and worse is to come [Music] by september 13th the now refueled fourth armored division crosses the moselle river and resumes its advance towards germany in response hitler changes his plan of attack and rushes to meet the advancing americans he wanted us pushed back over the moselle he wanted to set up the moselle as his winter uh defensive line so uh he threw everything that he could gather at us at that particular time september 19 1944 heavy fog rolls in across the lorraine grounding american warplanes at dawn the germans attack the advancing tanks encounter small pockets of american resistance the sound of gunfire alerts a platoon of american m18 tank destroyers they move forward expecting to encounter a small force only to find themselves face to face with more than 40 german tanks including dozens of deadly new panthers [Music] september 19 1944 in a desperate bid to stop the american third army's advance towards germany hitler launches a massive counter-offensive aimed at forcing the americans back across the moselle river in the early hours of the attack the 113th panzer brigade surprises and overwhelmed scattered pockets of american resistance the battle of aragorn has begun a platoon of four m18 hellcat tank destroyers moves through heavy morning fog towards the sound of gunfire the hellcats reach the battlefield and come up against 40 tanks of the advancing 113th panzer brigade with the destroyers or tds is private paul colangelo after we realized they were german we started to open fire we would shoot and move with our speed and maneuverability we were having a field day each combat command usually had one uh company of tds they could uh penetrate the front slope plate of a pamphlet so they they were lethal [Music] armed with a high velocity 76 millimeter cannon the hellcat is designed to quickly engage and destroy enemy armor it has a top speed of close to 100 kilometers per hour but that speed comes at a cost the hellcat's armor is only 13 millimeters thick making it highly vulnerable to enemy fire the germans quickly exploit that weakness and knock out three of the four hellcats but colangelo and his platoon have bought enough time for four more hellcats to arrive leading the reinforcements is captain tom evans of the 704th tank destroyer battalion as the fog burned off we saw at least 30 to 40 german tanks start up towards us in a frontal attack we waited and waited then we fired the leading two tanks were hit and stopped dead aflame the others their crews apparently confused turned sideways that's where they made a big mistake [Music] from our position with only turrets showing we hit 11 more as fast as we could load and shoot it was a turkey shoot by mid-afternoon eight hellcats of the 704th tank destroyer battalion have knocked out 19 panzers the german attack ends in failure it's the same story almost everywhere along the front american forces holding back large numbers of advancing german tanks but just outside the village of aracor the panthers punched through american lines threatening the headquarters of the fourth armored division's combat command a tank commander jimmy leach and his company get an urgent call for help the germans had a couple of brigades of tanks attacking cca leach's company arrives just in time they find the american headquarters caught off guard defended by only a few artillery guns the arteria was shooting direct fire at them and had them stymied at least they had not spotted cca headquarters their vehicles could be seen i reckon from the german position but the germans were concentrating on the artillery shooting and clark said where's your company i sent for you you know ages ago they said i want you to get rid of those damn tanks right there you see them get rid of them yes sir drive them away i said all right i want us to deploy just beyond this point right here now deploy it out here in line formation and move toward these germans guns are blazing well when we emerged guns of blazing the germans turned tail and left the battlefield and man they took off went several thousand meters to the right and got up on a high hill we should probably go look for those bastards why don't we before dark moving that direction leach quickly rallies his men and with his small sherman force launches a pursuit of the panthers a company went around the left on a high ground and then dropped down and here was a german lager of over a dozen panther tanks a company immediately started shooting at them and they returned fire to a company we lost three shermans a company lost its commander and two platoon leaders their armor protection was superior to ours their hit ability superior to ours but we had the smoke round in the 75 the advantage the smoke round was to screen the target where he couldn't shoot back at you blind it and then try to maneuver to the flank and get a flank shot into it a company's frontal attack is costly for the americans but it allows leech's tanks to strike from the side targeting the panthers thinner more vulnerable side armor i gave by the left flank let's go when i dropped over we were right in the middle of him i hit him bro inside i'm giving a fire command gunner traverse right steady and when i get on a tank i said fire we would be firing shot ammunition at these tanks shot is a solid round and it ain't ground the m61 is an armor-piercing round designed to punch a hole through heavy armor traveling at 620 meters per second an m-61 round can easily penetrate the panthers 50 millimeters of side armor if i'd have hit him on the front like a company did it would have been bouncing off [Music] but i hit him on the flank and my guns would go right through the side of a german tank together a company in my company knocked out nine panthers by the end of the first day the battlefield is littered with a hulks of 43 german panzers the americans lose just five shermans and three hellcats general patton analyzed what was going on and they thought this was just a skirmish that the germans had thrown at us and it wasn't the real thing it was a pretty good skirmish it lasted a day and a half of heavy fighting a tank versus tank and he ordered a continuation of the attack to the northeast toward the tsar the bulk of patton's forces resumed their advance towards germany jimmy leach and his company get orders to stay behind near the french town of manchur i was to be the rear guard as they pushed on away from me and suddenly to my right the germans reappeared in spades and tanks again september 20th 1944 general george patton's fourth armored division has been fighting off a massive german offensive aimed at driving the americans back across the moselle river and stopping their advance towards germany the germans throw hundreds of new panzer iv and panther tanks into the battle but the americans with their fast and agile shermans inflict heavy losses believing the offensive has petered out patton orders the advance towards germany to continue the 37th tank battalion rolls out and heads east leaving behind the shermans of bee company commanded by captain jimmy leach i was to be the rear guard as they pushed on away from me and suddenly to my right the germans reappeared in spades and tanks again their tanks of the 111th panzer brigade responding to patton's move east with a surprise attack on the american rear just outside the village of mancoor so i commenced a long-range firing shooting at the germans and stalled them off a little bit i ordered my exec and i both to dismount and go look over this hill [Music] while i'm dismounted out in front of my own tank up toward minecourt on our right a tank fired at my tank and missed it i didn't have time to mount so i motioned my tank to back up there was a building nearby and they fired a second round and they missed again why i don't know but boggs my driver stopped that was all the germans needed now they got a steady target and their third round went right through the right side of the tank knocked the head off of my driver boggs and cut popovich my bow gunner in half but at this point abrams engaged that tank that knocked me off well he missed that damn tank but he cut a furrow near it and the tank backed off and left [Music] abrams was well respected by every man in our division i admired him for his uh strength and leadership abilities the bold and aggressive tactics of lieutenant colonel creighton abrams will earn him a reputation as one of america's greatest tank commanders while leading the 37th tank battalion abrams will become the number one american tank ace of the second world war he didn't lead the attack he didn't do that but he was among the group of tanks that were in the attack he was one of them he could have been knocked out just like any one of us by nightfall on september 20th the americans have repelled the german attack but the germans have taken mankur and pose a threat to the american flank abrams gathers his forces and with daylight fading plans a bold and risky move he'll strike mancure when the germans least expect it in the dead of night [Music] it goes against all the rules of tank warfare but it works caught by surprise the germans are all but wiped out with the bulk of the german forces destroyed the americans consolidate their front and begin mopping up we were retreating in the face of american advancing and got into one cell small village to the south of florida then late in the morning or early in the afternoon they began to shoot a fog into our field of fire that of course meant that there was an attack taking place and we started firing into the fog there were two or three tanks that advanced on the road one of the guys who had dug in let go with a transfer forced uh anti-tank grenade i don't know how he could have missed he was right next to the tank but he missed take wait left her buried him by pivoting the tank around the tank track around the hole and that was that then orders came through to retreat and i did i went down the embankment to the big farmhouse everybody had left i was the only one that seems to have been left behind i went around the corner of the building looked down the main street and here was an m4 tank oh i'd say 50 feet away from me [Music] that's get the hell out of me it was bigger than an elephant very menacing and it seems that his gun was pointed at me i just got scared it was so big i got scared if i i'd had a panzer force i could have picked that guy up like nothing but i didn't have all i had was a machine gun i started running with the machine gun around my neck that tank scared me i still suffer from that scare by the end of the fourth day of fighting the americans have destroyed two entire panzer brigades [Music] the germans are on the run but they're far from finished repeatedly beaten back by the tanks of the 37th battalion at aracor the germans turn their sights northward [Music] they target the town of chateau salan now occupied by the eighth tank battalion of the fourth armored division we've been holding a high ground dominating ground holding terrain we were stabilized this is an unusual situation for us we were an offensive weapon we were good on the offense now we were in the defense they were probing they were shooting artillery at us but somehow we sense that they're building up to something bigger and sure enough at first light we looked out and there was this big patch of wood chateau celine and out of the woods started coming tanks we started firing everything we had at them we fired the medium tanks they had the tank destroyers a massive fire as they came out so they knew immediately they were going to have a fight [Music] the lorraine valley a small pastoral province along the french german border known for its quiet fields and forests but it was here for 10 days in september of 1944 that the battle of aracore took place [Music] we're here on the side of the battle of erakor we can see the landscape as it looked at the time there are not many traces of the battle left here here's an example of the objects that you can still find but they're very rare here's a 75 millimeter shell that we found between two tree trunks it's been here for more than 60 years and it's still there no one has been able to remove it it's one of the few traces left of the battle that once took place here shermans of the eighth tank battalion of the american fourth armored division are defending the town of chateau salan it was on the morning of the 24th of september it was another foggy day gray miserable raining ceiling zero i had everything that we could get our hands on i had my medium tanks we had a platoon of tank destroyers with us we had all this lined up along the ridge feeling that we were going to be attacked and sure enough at first light we looked out and there was this big patch of wood chateau celine and out of the woods started coming tanks and these were mostly panthers but they were interspersed were a tiger tanks the tiger is one of germany's biggest and most fearsome tanks its 100 millimeters of frontal armor make it virtually impregnable at long range and its 88 millimeter cannon can destroy a sherman tank at a distance of more than two kilometers here's the best gun that was a created world war ii the 88 which makes it a fearful gun so when when it's head on if it's a tank versus tank it has a tremendous advantage and they had another big advantage the sky was so uh gray that there's no air we couldn't call on air support so they had that advantage the minute they came into range even before they came into real knockout range we started firing everything we had at them massive fire as they came out so they knew immediately they were going to have a fight so what we our tanks would do they'd rise go up to the hill just high enough so the gun was above the ridge fire two or three rounds move back and then move to the side sure enough as soon as he moved bang bang would come around in the area where he had just left and then hit the top of the ridge and ricochet off [Music] the most terrifying sound i've ever heard is an 88 hitting the ridge and ricocheted [Music] definitely definitely frightening sound they kept advancing little by little and we kept firing every now and then we'd see a flash and we knew we'd hit them and we were losing tanks so uh this got to be saw sort of a seesaw there was only a question of whether they would prevail at that point it was almost a tie and then we noticed suddenly a little crack in the sky a little daylight and the next thing we knew down came the tactical air force they apparently had been flying overhead waiting for an opening and the minute they saw this little opening down they came [Music] they started hammering away they were strafing and bombing [Music] boy we can't give them enough credit for the way they operated in support of us and at that point uh the germans said no this is too much and the ones that were uh still able to function uh moved back the battle of aracore continues for five more days but hitler's beleaguered armored brigades cannot break the stubborn american defenders by the end of september the germans retreat back towards the rhine general patton's fourth armored division has won the battle of aracor nusam levatnaf september on september 29th the battle of arakur ends with the victory of the american tanks over the last german tanks near rishikou la petite nine panthers were left burning in a field near the woods outside we acquired this tank which is a sherman of the same type which fought here to maintain the memory of those who fought here and to show our gratitude for the freedom we still enjoy in less than two weeks of fighting the germans lose 200 tanks and assault guns almost 75 of their original force and thousands of men are killed wounded or captured it went badly for several reasons one of was completely inexperienced top leadership the whole planning at the time was so makeshift there was such poor coordination operationally on the top level we didn't have any training we didn't even know each other that was one of the major major disadvantages of these new panzer brigades the german soldier couldn't be blind to the reality of the situation that they were on the losing end they were just losing too much ground overall on both fronts you see just moving movement moving back toward germany but the american victory in the lorraine comes at a price 225 men are killed and 648 wounded 41 sherman tanks and seven lcat tank destroyers are lost the fourth armored division seals its reputation as america's elite armored force and for the rest of the war they are known as patton's vanguard it gave us notoriety uh in the core and in third army it was a significant victory because we became extremely well-versed and trained uh in anti-tank warfare and tank versus tank warfare we did a beautiful job of keeping the pressure on that was the big biggest tank battle of world war ii uh i can't think of another one sitting here now i looking back unbelievable but i'm very very proud that i've been there if i'd be asked to do it again i would do it i i can't believe i was there i can't believe i already did what i did it's a very strange feeling [Music] you

Channel: Breakthrough Entertainment

Views: 176,160

Rating: 4.8074865 out of 5

Keywords: battlefield, Film, Feature Films, Entertainment, results of battles, Military historians, battle tactics, TV Series, TV Show, TV, Breakthrough Entertainment, Tank battles, Movies, tank troops, tank warfare, Robin Ward, Greatest Tank Battles, tactics of tank troops, Ralf Raths, Greatest Tank Battles TV Show, Greatest Tank Battles TV Series, historic armoured combats, armoured combats, The Battle of Arracourt, largest tank-vs-tank clash, tank clash

Id: AkJTAtwJPlw

Length: 46min 54sec (2814 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 10 2021