The US Tank Offensive For The German Frontier | Greatest Tank Battles | Timeline

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was fighting to stop the enemy from entering the fatherland as both sides roll out their newest armored titans in the battle for germany the tank that we got into was that one-of-a-kind thing it was a fight right on to the very end western germany near the border with belgium in the closing months of world war ii this was a scene of intense fighting as allied forces battle their way into the fatherland mile by bloody mile since the d-day landings in june of 1944 american british and canadian tanks have overwhelmed the germans occupying france throughout the summer months fierce armored battle steadily pushed the enemy back the german withdrawal was very chaotic the germans referred to it as the void there was a lack of communication units were fighting in isolation it was very difficult they all knew that they had to go towards germany to find safety [Music] and by september the allies are nearing the german frontier the attack into germany will be spearheaded by the us third armored division the first obstacle they face is a series of defensive fortifications known as the west wall or siegfried line that the germans have built along the border zigfried line was similar to the maginot line that france had built they would have had a number of bunkers a lot of established fortifications that were there to turn certain areas into kill zones though it looks impressive with hundreds of kilometers of anti-tank barriers known as dragon's teeth advanced scouts from the third armored division discover weak spots in the line then they come up with a simpler way to get through the german defenses they uh brought up bulldozers and bulldozed dirt up over the siegfried line so the other tanks and trucks and everything else could run up over the top of to just to push more material and more people into germany my tank was back about eight tanks we weren't being shot at at the moment so i could take my periscope and look around and see what was going on i could see the dragon's teeth and that sort of thing so i knew we were going on by them we thought once we got through the siegfried line you know they'd say well you know this they're inside we might as well quit the allies did think that uh the war was going to be over by christmas a lot of them did at least they are the first invading army to cross the german frontier in force since the age of napoleon so the americans are uncertain of how the enemy will fight by late 1944 much of germany lies in ruins its cities have been bombed relentlessly its armed forces decimated now to finish the war and put an end to hitler's third reich the americans assemble a massive invasion force from the u.s first army with 100 000 combat soldiers hundreds of artillery guns and more than 1200 tanks including 850 of their armored workhorse the sherman the m4a1 has a short barreled low velocity 75 millimeter main gun with an effective range of just 800 meters and with only 51 millimeters of frontal armor it's vulnerable to german high velocity cannons all the way through training i was just impressed with this tank you know it was a 32 tons of steel it would go about 30 miles an hour you could crank it up you know inside you you felt like you were really secure the allied plan has british and canadian forces pushing towards northern germany while the americans take the southern route the third armored division is ordered to advance along the open corridor south of akin the first city over the border that was a supposedly easy route to cross the rural river get to the rhine and then establish crossings and then from there it was you know going to be the end at a road junction tanks from e-company halt as their commander decides which way to go they told you in basic training a million times don't stop at t intersections because the germans always have it uh zeroed in but i had to get out and smoke a cigarette and sure enough uh while they're trying to decide where to go right or left out of that intersection the germans dropped in a whole bunch of artillery shells my tank commander screamed down and get back in the tank which i did in a hurry and then off we went for a moment there was there was you know almost a panic uh you know where else are they the americans have run into forward units of the german ninth panzer division the army the army was fighting to stop the enemy from entering the fatherland they were defending germany they weren't nazis they at this point i mean it's you're defending your homeland you've got an invader coming in and that's where the buck stops at the border the americans quickly move on away from the enemy guns and continue their advance two platoons of tanks from e-company approach a small town this time they are more cautious and split their forces in two there was a small town it had houses only on both sides of the road behind this row of houses there was a hill and on this side there was a big open field and then a slag pile from the coal mine four tanks went on the outside of those houses the four tanks that i was with went right up through the middle of town so we were all just really alert but the germans have anticipated this american tactic and all of a sudden he heard firing and heard screaming and yelling and the germans had anti-tank guns dug into that slag pile targeting the americans is the deadliest anti-tank gun of the war the german 88. the 88 millimeter gun has armor-piercing shells that can penetrate 100 millimeters of steel at distances of up to 1500 meters more than enough power to penetrate the frontal armor of a sherman tank the one that everybody talked about was a german 88. [Music] they had a very high muzzle velocity uh so their trajectory was almost flat and they just picked off our tanks one two three four just like they were in a shooting gallery so my tank uh they we stopped hiding behind the house and then they said okay back out of town so we turned around and went back out of town half of the company's tanks are destroyed in a matter of minutes and the third armored division's advance is slow along germany's western border is proving costly for the americans the third armored division began their advance to germany with 400 tanks but enemy resistance has left them with less than 100 tanks that are operational and they still have 650 kilometers between them and berlin october 1944 fresh u.s reinforcements arrived and the american third armored division prepares to resume its assault on germany but the fighting near the border has delayed their advance and allowed the germans to bolster their defenses the first city inside germany that the allies plan to seize is akka the allies went through the aachen area because it was considered a route through the heavily forested heavily mountainous area of western germany that area if it were under allied control would have allowed the funneling of resources relatively easily into the rhineland in central germany most of its civilian population has been evacuated and the germans have created fortified positions throughout the city as well as on the approach routes for the defense of akin the germans have 18 000 troops 240 artillery guards and nearly 60 tanks and assault guns hitler also calls up some 5 000 members of the local militia the volksterm made up of boys and men aged from 16 to 60 they are poorly trained and only lightly armed and hitler gives the order that all of aachen's defenders must stand firm against the americans or die at their posts the americans have assembled 80 000 troops and more than 300 tanks for their assault they plan to encircle akka the second armored division will attack from north of the city while the third armored attacks from the south [Music] shermans from the third armored division's 33rd armored regiment are ordered to proceed towards akka but first they must face the battle-hardened veterans of the 116th panzer division they were good fighters some of them been fighting for years you know fighting the russians and now they brought him back from that front and put him in this front and they fought to the last man you know to keep you out the terrain south of akin provides a defending army with many positions from which to ambush attackers the americans advance cautiously unsure of where or when they may meet the tanks of 116th [Music] the panzer iv is the most widely used tank in the german arsenal it is armed with a high velocity 75 millimeter gun and boasts 80 millimeters of frontal armor more than the sherman but its sides are vulnerable to the american tank having only 30 millimeters of armor you're hoping you didn't have to have a battle with them head on what we're trying to hit was the side of them they hit him front on was a waste of your ammunition he had to get him from the side tactic was to get somebody over here to start shooting at the german tank and in order for him to to shoot at this tank he had to maneuver his tank around to get some protection and when he maneuvered his tank around and somebody else on this side had a better shot the side shot misses the panzer iv a sherman approaches head on and the german crew capitalizes on this opportunity all of a sudden a lieutenant showed up lieutenant bear and said told my tank commander to get out that he was going to take over that tank lieutenant bear had lost two tanks that day already when he got into my tank he just stood there for a minute and he looked at him and the man was just completely battle fatigue really then all of a sudden one of the other sergeants called over the radio and said lieutenant back up they're shooting at you when he said that i turned my my periscope around like this i saw a big fireball go by me and then finally he reached up and you had to squeeze this little mic so he could talk and he said driver back up i could see the driver head in reverse and was gunning the engine as soon as he said that bang shell hit and went right through the gunner and right through the tank commander and killed him both instantly the tank driver had gotten out and so i dove out of the turret down into the tank driver's seat out over the side and just as i went out with the side the tank got hit the second time this time it started to burn and explode we would have had uh ten tanks and we ended up after that battle with only four the americans fight their way into account on the 13th of october the germans suffer 5 000 casualties and more than 5 000 captured trying to hold the city but on october 21st akan surrenders to the americans the first city in the fatherland to fall to the allies now central germany lies before the third armored division the thought kept going through your mind well they'll quit now when they didn't that was what really came as a surprise in november american troops encounter some of their worst combat of the war in the hertkin forest southeast of akin with their troops tired from months of fighting their invasion of germany stalls a stalemate sets in on the front lines the third armored division works to repair damaged tanks and prepare for the next phase of the war on december 16th 1944 it is the germans who launched a massive armored offensive taking the allies by surprise the battle of the bulbs the german plan is to slice through enemy lines and drive towards antwerp trapping more than a million allied troops but after six weeks of bitter fighting the german offensive grinds to a halt flaunted by allied reinforcements hitler's gamble proves costly losing hundreds of much-needed panzers in the fighting after the arden offensive that essentially expended germany's operational capacities on the western front the remainder of it was defensive and reactionary as opposed to actually initiating and setting the tone for momentum or an attack as the germans retreat in the west the soviet union launches its own offensive on the eastern front the red army smashes its way through german lines in the boulders east prussia and poland by early february soviet tanks are just 80 kilometers from berlin on the western front the allies now resume their invasion of germany their first objective is to seize bridges over the rhine river the last natural barrier to central germany tanks from the first canadian army are to advance through what's known as the hawkwald gap and capture key bridges on the rhine near the german town of zanton but as the canadians move into germany they must overcome fierce resistance you have to take into account here's the germans their very livelihood depends on preventing the allies from seizing the bridges if the canadians seize the bridges it's no time until they've surrounded the rur and their lifeline is finished and they were able to hold a force five times their size at bathe for 31 days after weeks of intense combat the canadians overcome german resistance and their armor finally reaches the rhine river and as they cross it and move deeper into germany they see the effect of the war on the civilian population we were approaching this small town it was called weso prior to us arriving there the british or canadian typhoon rocket plane came in with their rockets and strafed the town and they just messed that town up terribly and we were walking through the town at the time and uh man we couldn't believe it uh rubble on either side piled up the homes are totally gone what people were around they had carts and they were picking their bodies up and putting them in cards the bodies looked like mannequins you know like a statue like you see in the store and they were all in the debris and everything else in the first two months of 1945 the germans lose close to a thousand tanks over half a million soldiers and civilians become casualties as they try to prevent total defeat a lot of the germans that were coming up to the front were passing through a lot of the urbanized areas that had been bombed by the us and britain and that added to their resolve they'd seen what they'd done to civilians they wanted a little payback so some of these groups were motivated my fellow soldiers whose homes had been destroyed they said what am i supposed to do at home i would rather take another american with me to the grave my name is smith and it is german troops like these that the us third armored division must now face as they resume their advance they are tasked with helping to capture the biggest allied target in western germany cologne by seizing this city on the rhine river the division can open a route into central germany we knew that when we got back into combat it was going to be to head towards cologne it was quite an objective and the germans didn't want to give it up we had a real battle on our hands with the tanks [Music] the americans will make a frontal assault on cologne germany's third largest city with tanks leading the way cologne has been bombed repeatedly street after street lies in ruins providing the defending german troops and their panther and tiger tanks countless number of positions from which to ambush the americans there was so much bomb damage the buildings were all collapsed and the streets were very narrow and you had obstacles all over everything was bombed except the cathedral that that was good shape i recall our lieutenant said gentlemen i give you a cologne that's not the hell out of it the germans zeroed in on us with artillery at first i thought they were bombing is such big explosions all around the sherman tanks are outgunned by panther and tiger tanks defending cologne but the germans don't realize the americans of the third armored division will be attacking with a new weapon the pershing tank the t26 e3 pershing tank is america's answer to germany's fearsome tiger this heavy tank boasts an impressive 100 millimeters of frontal armor and a lethal 90 millimeter main gun with a killing range of 1500 meters but the pershing has not yet been tested in urban combat on march 6 1945 it gets its baptism of fire in the streets of cologne we finally moved into this intersection that german tank had come into the intersection to my left and just far enough that he saw us and he backed away i fired armor-piercing shells through the building i figured maybe i will get a lucky hit the top of the building collapsed and fell on top of the german tank they couldn't turn their their gun they couldn't rotate the turret there was so much rubble on there that they abandoned the tank and were captured the americans continue to advance towards the city center they are guided by the towers of the medieval cathedral of saint peter that loom over cologne you could see that from a distance you know you see the spirals up from the top of the cathedral as they near it the americans progress is hindered by a deadly enemy tank the panther is armed with a high velocity 75 millimeter main gun capable of hitting targets over a thousand meters away it has 80 millimeters of frontal armor but sloped this becomes effectively 145 millimeters of protection we headed down toward the cathedral as we got closer found that the german tank had fired from the plaza in front of the cathedral and knocked out one of our tanks our sherman tanks were not not very good they were no match for the panthers anyway the americans bail out of their burning tank but three of the five crew die [Music] to defeat the enemy tank the pershing must outflank the panther d-company radio it over to us and ask us to go down and get the german supposedly his guns pointing toward them not at us you know as we went into the intersection the driver had his periscope turned looking up toward the german tank as he came into the intersection he saw their gun coming around to meet us instead of stopping he floored the throttle [Music] down and went roaring right out into the middle of the intersection unlike its opponent the pershing is equipped with a gyro stabilizer a device that allows the main gun to be fired with accuracy even while the tank is in motion as soon as i could i fired once i hit him and i fired again and again to make sure nobody's going to be firing back [Music] after the third shot they pushed in the flames [Music] the panther tank burns for two days [Music] by march 7th the americans mop up the last pockets of resistance and cologne's defenders surrender march 7th is a fateful day for the third reich the same day cologne is captured a crucial bridge over the rhine is seized at nearby ramagan and american armor is soon pouring across it to the eastern side of the river including tanks from the third armored division and the fighting got closer and closer and really the third armored division is now less than 600 kilometers from berlin but between them and the german capital is the rohrer valley germany's industrial heartland and half a million nazi troops determined to protect their nation at all cost march 23 1945 the allies launched their offensive into the rural region the attack will be a classic pincer movement with the ninth u.s army attacking from the north and the first u.s army attacking from the south [Music] if they succeed over 350 000 soldiers from germany's army group b will be trapped but the germans are led by one of the finest defensive commanders of the war field marshal walter model [Music] to defeat him the americans must destroy his panzer forces so the third armored division is ordered to make a dash towards the city of paterborn patterbourne was an important a very important post for us that's where the main ponzer schools were that's why we were headed up in that direction the americans fear the german panzers based at the paderborn training center will mount a counter-attack so the city must be captured and quickly this drive from marburg to patterborne about 90 miles 144 kilometers and we did it in one day i believe it was the longest drive of any armored formation for the u.s during world war ii march 30th 1945 a unit of sherman supported by a pershing from the 3rd armored division's 32nd armored regiment spearhead the assault we attacked early in the morning often up the road as fast as we could go the germans were surprised they weren't expecting it along the way going up toward patterborne there was a large large gun was setting up on our right side i fired and hit it and took off again and drove a helmet down the road we kept moving moving so we wouldn't be a hitting target in their haste to advance to paderborn the american tanks have bypassed a powerful german panzer group that now counter-attacks so you had a lot of units that were in training that just went right to the fight from paderborn and they were able to kind of get in behind the spearheads create some confusion the tank commander grabbed me by the shoulder and said take the tank i hear a mark v german panther coming down behind us so i had h.e explosive shell in the chamber turned the turret as hard as i could to come around i fired the explosive shell i got a armor-piercing shell in cameron and pulled the trigger and hit him right dead center in the front right at the heaviest part of the armor and it penetrated went right on through knocked him out it was a tough fight all the way out of all all the tanks well 15 tanks attacking down there only two of us made it the battle for paderborn is fierce and bloody but after three days of fighting the americans overwhelm its defenders who surrender on april 1st [Music] that day u.s forces complete their encirclement of the rural region sealing the fate of army group b the commander of the defeated german forces field marshal walter model commits suicide rather than surrender the capture of the ruhr industrial region in western germany would have crippled what was left of the germans ability to manufacture aircraft tanks pretty much their ability to conduct the war the days of the third reich are now numbered soviet artillery begins to shell berlin on april 20th the birthday of adolf hitler he calls for reinforcements in a last-ditch effort at holding off the red army with the resources being diverted to the eastern front it was very difficult for the germans to compete on an equal footing with their american and british counterparts as they move eastward and closer to berlin the third armored division encounters little opposition in the small villages and towns as many enemy troops simply surrender at the sight of american tanks [Music] the americans next objective is desau the last major city protecting the highway to berlin [Music] it is just 130 kilometers from the german capital and defended by some of hitler's most fanatical troops april 21st 1945 troops and tanks of the third armored division prepare for the assault on dessau when we were making our move the whole task force was going and i had never seen them all at one time our own 32nd armored was in the northeast and that's where the last remnants of the fighting was going on though disau is in ruins the german garrison here has been reinforced with hitler's most powerful tank the king tiger is the largest tank the germans have built also called the royal tiger it weighs 70 tons and has 150 millimeters of frontal armor and is armed with a high velocity 88 millimeter main gun that is more than six meters long hitler believes the king tiger can outmatch any allied tank and help turn the tide of war though immense it is surprisingly agile and in the ruins of dessau one waits to ambush the enemy the 33rd armored regiment of the third armored division slowly makes its way into decile and with the americans is their own iron giant the super pershing america's answer to the king tiger the super pershing was definitely the the next stage of the evolution of american armor only one superpershing was used in combat in world war ii the super pershing is an upgraded version of the pershing tank it has 140 millimeters of frontal armor and a new long-barreled 90 millimeter main gun that can penetrate more than 200 millimeters of steel [Music] the tank that we got into was that one-of-a-kind tank this was a case where this tiger royal this is the big guy one of the few that i saw at this end of the war and he was the one that was waiting for us for the only time in the war a king tiger is about to face off with a super pershing in a duel and they fired at us as we came around the corner fortunately their shot went high and so i fired at them and i hit him glanced a pretty serious blow and then i got ready to fire and hit him again they were coming toward us and they're coming up over a pile of rubble and the underside of their tank was completely exposed [Applause] and when i hit that thing it exploded with all that ammo and everything it destroyed that gun tank of matter he was surprised a great shot kid you really did it as the clash of these armored titans ends the crew of the super pershing has little time to savor the victory as the battle for dessau continues to rage around them in the final days of world war ii the americans control much of the city of dessau yet the german defenders still hold out knowing that if the city falls the road to berlin will be open we're well into germany we're past the rhine you know surely they'll quit we didn't you know it's just it was a fight right on to the very end the battle becomes street to street american third armored division tanks support infantry clearing out the last pockets of resistance we continued dude you know that wasn't the end of the war for us i mean we were still in in dessau and we were taking the city to the end as we were driving we got fired on by a puncher and it did glance blow off us now they have to turn their turrets around they didn't have a power traverse like we had and so it took time and so while he was doing that i told our driver i said let's get out of here i want to get it located but we want to get that guy [Applause] there was a big factory there we just backed into that so we'd be out of the way we were in the building itself and we could sit there we watched for the tanks to come and that's when i fired i hit that drive sprocket and they stopped and then i didn't waste any time my loader told him to load up and then i hit him a second time and that destroyed that time the city of dessau surrenders to the americans on april 23 1945. [Music] seven days after the americans take dessau adolph hitler commits suicide and the next day the russians capture berlin [Music] on may 8 1945 the war in europe ends with germany's unconditional surrender for the americans the campaign has been long and bloody against an enemy who didn't relent from the beaches of normandy to the streets of berlin the casualties the u.s suffered in april 1945 were about the same as what they suffered in june 1944 around 10 000 deaths so even though it seemed like the war is over the germans are giving up they're still fighting to the end for the third armored division their place at the vanguard of the first army earns them the nickname spearhead division [Music] the third armored division was the first one to go through the siegfried line first one to fire an artillery shell on german soil first one to shoot down a german plane on german soil we really earned that name of spearhead that's all there was to it and being at the spearhead comes with a cost the third armored division lost over 600 tanks 2500 killed 10 000 who were injured more tanks and more men than any other armored division in world war ii [Music] i lost my loader a good friend and some other buddies and i realized hey grow up i was a 18 year old kid and i became an 18 year old man in a short time [Music] you

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Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, tank war, tank combat, ww2, ww2 america, ww2 japan, tank crews, military history, war documentary, tank wars in germany, battle of kursk

Id: w5jt-Ta6Auw

Length: 48min 14sec (2894 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 30 2021