Last German Panzer Battle - Six Day War 1967

[Music] the last time world war ii era german panzer tanks saw action was during the six-day war between syria and israel in 1967 during heavy combat along the infamous golan heights the syrians had managed to collect together an interesting group of german vehicles before the six-day war in 1967. their main battle tank was the panzer iv of the late war versions with the long barrel kwk 40 75 millimeter gun this could penetrate the m4 sherman's armor at ranges of up to a thousand yards so where had syria obtained panzerfaus from considering that the war had ended 22 years earlier it is believed that the former colonial power france supplied syria with around 40 panzer fours in the 1950s some had previously been used briefly by the french army all of the french panzer fours were either captured or battlefield recoveries and some were cobbled together from different types of panzer fours creating frankenstein tanks the french had warehoused the panzer force between 1945 and the early 50s after israel became independent in 1948 france had attempted to remain on good terms with both israel and syria and they supplied arms to both the panzer iv transfers were to carry diplomatic favor with syria syria also obtained some puns of force from communist czechoslovakia the soviet red army had captured huge numbers of the type at the end of the war and had established a collection point at the former german barracks at milovice near prague by january 1946 there were 146 panzer fours in storage then czechoslovak clean-up efforts across the battlefields added another 102 panzer 4 wrecks and from these 80 operational tanks were rebuilt by january 1947 the czechoslovak army had 245 operational panzer fours the different versions all mixed up like in france these tanks were used by the czechoslovaks until 1948 when large numbers of soviet t-34s replaced them the syrian military was sniffing around europe for panzer fours and in 1955 a delegation came to czechoslovakia purchasing 45 tanks paying cash in british pounds the price was five thousand four hundred pounds sterling per tank that's the equivalent of about a hundred and ten thousand pounds or a hundred and forty odd thousand us dollars today each tank came with spares and full ammunition supply and were delivered by november 1955. in 1957 syria bought a further 15 puns of fours from czechoslovakia a further 17 panzerforce came from spain all of the alph's h version they had originally been bought by general franco from germany in 1943 and were in as new condition they arrived in syria in december 1965. syria would also deploy the sturm geschutz iii assault gun or stough iii armed with a 75 millimeter stuk 40 gun syria had 28 but never all at once nine were purchased from france in 1950 they were vermont combat captures czechoslovakia had in its possession by 1953 126 stug 3s when it retired the type and placed them into storage 12 were sold to syria in november 1955 all of the alps g version at three thousand two hundred and fifty pounds each ten non-operational stouk threes were also sold for spare parts romania sold syria one stug 3. it had been sent to czechoslovakia for possible upgrade and was included in the czechoslovak sale lastly spain sold syria 10 mint-conditioned stoog-3s in december 1965. syria also deployed six rare jagpanzer fours these were tank destroyers armed with the pac-39 l-48 75 millimeter gun they came from france in 1950 more battlefield relics from world war ii so how did the last world war ii panzers fare in combat against the israelis the first shooting had begun in 1964 when syrian panzers were implaced on the western slope of the golan heights firing at farmers in the galilee region in 1965 israeli shermans exchanged fire with syrian panzer fours u.n peacekeeping missions kept them apart later on but when syrian panzer fours moved back into position they faced israeli centurions the heavily armoured british tanks armed with 105 millimeter guns two panzer fours were rapidly destroyed in 1967 israel attempted to make a pre-emptive strike against egypt the war began on the 5th of june the syrian army joined in on egypt's side syria tried to invade israel from the north but was not equal to the task after 24 hours syria had only managed to advance two miles the next day israeli defense force units pushed the syrians back to the border and also completed the conquest of sinai in egypt on the 9th of june 1967 the israeli defense force assaulted the syrian hell golan heights encountering syrian panzers which have been held in reserve on the 10th of june the idf routed them in 15 hours the israelis knocked out about 25 percent of syria's military vehicles including many world war ii german vehicles about two dozen syrian stug iii's had been half buried into defilade positions as makeshift pillboxes at least three were confirmed as knocked out and one was captured operational and taken as a trophy by the israelis the remainder were abandoned on the heights of the six jagpanzer fours one was knocked out the remaining five retired to syria they were last heard of in 1991 when they were listed as being in long-term warehouse storage north of damascus but have probably been subsequently scrapped on the 6th of june 1967 it has been established that 25 syrian panzer 4s were operational with another 10 partially operational of these at least 10 were knocked out by israeli tanks during the six day war the final kill was on the 10th of june 1967 when one was knocked out by an m50 super sherman firing a high velocity french 75 millimeter heat round four panzer fours were captured and taken to israel as trophies a further two were captured by the israelis and taken for evaluation not one israeli tank was knocked out by a german panzer all but one example of the panzer iv in syrian service was scrapped in the early 1970s a few shot up hulks remain on the golan heights along with a few shtug threes so ended the last battle for nazi germany's famous panzers thanks for watching please subscribe and share and help support my channel at paypal and patreon details in the description box below you

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 2,110,801

Rating: 4.9412723 out of 5

Keywords: Six Day War 1967, Golan Heights, Panzer IV, Syrian Army, Israeli Defense Force, Jagdpanzer IV, StuG III, Mark Felton Productions

Id: MbgW9C9G0H4

Length: 7min 48sec (468 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 09 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/WazaJim]

Wow, I never knew that. Thanks for the upload.