The Battle For The Rhineland: Germany’s Last Stand | Greatest Tank Battles | War Stories

[Music] february 26 1945 canadian tanks attacked germany's last line of defense west of the rhine this was one of the heaviest battles on the western front during second world war the germans are outnumbered and desperate determined to defend the fatherland at any cost i'd rather take a few more enemies with me to the grave that's what they were saying they lure the canadians into a trap and the armored advance turns into a fight for survival every move that you make [Music] at stake is nothing less than the fate of germany as these two forces fight for control of a patch of farmland simply known as the hawkwall gap [Music] [Music] the rhineland fertile farm country in western germany today it's peaceful and serene but in the winter of 1945 it's the scene of one of the most ferocious and costly battles of the second world war february 1945 the second world war in europe enters its final months allied armor rolls into the german rhineland and leading the attack is the first canadian army their objective the rhine river and on the other side central germany the canadian mission is to hook up with british forces and push east capturing bridges across the rhine of the german town of zantin they've amassed a major strike force 90 000 troops 1300 artillery pieces and over 1 000 tanks their armored workhorse is the sherman 5 tank this 32-ton version of the sherman has a short barreled 75 millimeter gun and only 51 millimeters of frontal armor that means less firepower and protection but more maneuverability and the allies are able to produce thousands of them well australian was a great little tank and we had far more of them than the opposition had there was lots of them that was one good thing and the other thing was they were pretty rugged they didn't require much maintenance they were tough the idea the sherman had a short barrel gun so they could only damage us at a very close range they are sherman the sherman wasn't as good as our he had a hunter cannon they couldn't compare to the panthers the panther is armed with a high velocity 75 millimeter gun and is protected by 80 millimeters of sloping frontal armor and with a top speed of 40 kilometers per hour the panther is one of the best designed tanks of world war ii but in the winter of 1945 it's numbers that count and the germans are at a disadvantage the allies had so much more equipment so much better supply for gas food and ammunition we couldn't compete with that and by 1945 we barely had any thanksgiving to defend the rhineland all the germans are able to field are a handful of panthers almost a dozen of the heavier tigers and less than 100 anti-tank guns it's an enormous disparity in men and firepower but the germans have another weapon sheer determination to stop the invasion of their homeland the day the canadian crossed the border to germany the germans were defending their own country each of these soldiers thought not that he was fighting for hitler or he was fighting for hitler's regime but he was fighting for his country for his people at home called the fatherland you know in in their terminology so you're gonna fight a hell of a lot harder than you would under normal circumstances i was really amazed at the tenacity of it it was just just terrible about the the resistance that they were putting up you knew that they were going to be killed they knew they were going to be killed and they they they fought on anyway [Music] for many of our men their homes have been destroyed what am i supposed to do at home i'd rather take a few more enemies with me as a grave that's what they were saying the allied soldiers had to fight around every farm they saw every little forest they saw every little village they saw they had to fight german resistance is ferocious and as the battle enters its second bloody week the assault bogs down in 18 days of fighting the allies lose over 8 000 men and hundreds of tanks while advancing only 25 kilometers allied command sends in lieutenant general gee simmons commander of the second canadian corps to get things moving he implements operation blockbuster a bold plan for tanks and infantry to attack quickly and at night seizing the high ground between the villages of kalkar and udom [Music] this will clear the way for his main force to cross a valley and overwhelm german defenders dug in along the hawkwald ridge their last line of defense before the rhine river the germans mute the terrain because it's their terrain and so it wasn't so important that they only had 10 of the army of the allied it is very easy to hide soldiers in these forests it's very easy to hold up every soldier who's coming every tank was coming and this made it very difficult to take this ridge but this is just the beginning of the allies problems they also have to deal with the weather and spring has come early to the rhineland [Music] drive because of the melting ice three of the rivers were carrying so much water we also destroyed the dam and there were two other rivers that were carrying so much water there was no way for them to get through and there was also a lot of mud it flowed over all the roads all the fences and your maps became useless because all you can see was endless endless mud and there they were easy targets for us [Music] in the early morning of february 26th canadian infantry supported by nearly 80 tanks of the 2nd canadian armored brigade launched phase one of operation blockbuster their mission is to take and hold the german occupied kalkar ridge clearing the way for the main attack against the hawkwald on the other side of the valley it begins with an artillery barrage by 700 allied guns [Music] all those guns broke boots just tremendous fire the sound of the gunfire uh and the tremendous volume of it as we were advancing our own gunfire it was a sound that was so great you could all you could feel it on your body constant roar even inside of the tank you could feel the guns and make a little more noise when you're in front of them than they do when you're behind them it was raining very steadily the ground was just terrible absolutely terrible we pressed into the minefields and the first three tanks hit mines the teller mine would blow your track off and it would buckle the floor under under the driver and that basically disabled the tank we reported that we'd hit the minefield and the two ic came on the air and said press on but i can recall butler said how the hell do you press on when you're in a minefield and this is in the dark you really don't know what the hell you're doing and we found sort of a little track or trail and we turned right and went through the minefield and basically on a country lane the germans hadn't mined it the loader operator's job really is like if they're not firing immediately is to pivot your periscope and as we progressed i could see two german tanks off as they passed a burning burn and i yelled into the mike german tanks they're panthers and they're easily able to outgun hail's short-barreled sherman we knew you can't do anything about it particularly in a distance but the canadians have some additional firepower each troop of four tanks includes at least one sherman firefly armed with a long barrel high velocity cannon it's a tank buster the so-called 17-pounder able to penetrate 130 millimeters of armor at ranges of almost 1 000 meters at the long barrel of 17 you let him go in you're not going to bother using a 75 against the front view of a german pantheon the first shot from the 17 pounder hits a barn and the panthers retreat in the smoke and confusion typical german tactics you have the tanks in front maybe as soon as the attack comes in they fire and fire and then they back away and draw you under the randy tank guns despite the danger hale and his squadron push on to the ridge we got to the top of the calcar ridge itself and then all of a sudden wow it was daylight hale and fellow tankers of the sherbrooke fusilier get into the killing zone if the canadians fail to take kalkar ridge operation blockbuster and the allies big push to the rhine will be over before it really begins february 26 1945 operation blockbuster is underway and the fighting is furious from the very first shots lieutenant general d simmons sends scores of sherman tanks into the thick of it their mission is to take and hold the heavily defended kalkar ridge clearing the way for the main attack aimed at driving the germans back across the rhine river but even though they're outnumbered the germans stubbornly stand their ground we got to the top of the ridge and then all of a sudden wham was daylight and the germans were shooting fired on from our left leg and in front and i can remember particularly this barn on our left flank and the doors were coming open yelling at the gunner the doors the doors are open what hale has spotted is the infamous 88 germany's most powerful anti-tank weapon the 88's fire armor piercing shells able to penetrate almost 100 millimeters of steel at distances up to 1500 meters and the canadians are well within range i don't know about you or anyone else who's ever looked down the barrel of an 88 when it fires you can actually see it coming at you it's like a rolling ball like a fist coming you can see the sparks coming off it passed over our tank and cut off the aerial within a foot of the tank behind us then we instantly fired just as soon as he had fired at us looking behind us the grenadier guard tank that was a liaison his tank got hit [Music] there's an immediate fusion of the metal into a cherry red glow where it's where it's hit with a black hole in the middle of it and the crew commander was coming out the hatch and the ammunition exploded and he just sort of threw up his arms and then collapsed down into the truck there were still six of us left on the top and we were all firing forward into the left lane and the germans started cutting down the barn farmhouse structure they were ripping it down and we were using it for cover we were pulling out shooting and so on we couldn't withstand the amount of fire that was coming at us we were gonna get all got knocked out the infantry had dug in and could defend their position so we fired this a smoke shell for five of the other tanks one at a time they pulled off the ridge as we blanked the left flame by that time the buildings were nearly gone and just burning rubble and we decided to pull out and tank in the heavy mud he put it in first gear and pulled ahead but it sort of snuffled under and stopped and a german shell fired right across in front of us and then we started moving forward uh again and then finally there was another shot came at us and brought herbies in the turret and he was standing there and he just sort of fell on the floor in his ass oh and it had a strange sound to it you know sort of it didn't have the crack and then it were and i said what happened to that he said you wouldn't believe it but that was coming for us and hit a hydro pole we started out with a squadron and left 19 tanks and one liaison tank and we wound up with six and that's my first introduction to the rhineland battle more tanks join the attack and the battle goes on into the next day finally the outnumbered and outgunned germans are forced to fall back and the canadians take kalkar ridge with calcar ridge secure armor from the south alberta regiment moves forward for the main attack against the next ridge it lies across a muddy valley and will give this battle its name hawkwald general simmons plan is for infantry supported by the tanks of a squadron to advance towards the village of udu and seize the rail embankment while these squadron attacks across the valley into a long gap flanked on either side by thick waters the aim is to force the germans back to the village of zanta on the rhine river it's a bold plan and it's off to a bad start when the time came we moved out i can still remember driving along or slithering along it's more like it it took hours to go a mile it was just unbelievable and very frustrating they were up to the sponson in mud and so there we were supposed to start at 11 30 at night and we didn't get there until two three four o'clock in the morning because of getting stuck running out of gas so on it was almost daylight by the time they got it started and you're going into the worst possible situation you try not to have armor go through draws or files and here is a wood on both sides loaded with firepower and we're leading into this absolute killing zone to go into that gap the way we did and it was just like shooting fists in a rain barrel the canadian tanks were plowing through deep mud we laid our gun on the leading tank and by the time we were ready to fire it had already been hit and we swung our gun to another but that too stopped the third tank at which we aimed fired first and the shell burst only yards in front of us quickly we realigned our gun the tank seemed to falter and be fired we were just moving towards the position and the incoming fire was such that you just could not exist there to see these soldiers still trying to go forward and being [Music] his soul destroyed [Music] while b squadron takes a beating at the hawkwald gap a squadron advances towards the rail embankment running through the village of udem it's the only piece of high ground in a sea of mud it was what they called a right hook to go around utem and try and establish a front by the railway crossing supposedly the town was looking pretty vacant but all the time you don't take that for granted anything that moved shooting it up [Music] the train was terrible it was a real effort to get to our objective then on top of it we had the traps if you're you fell into one of those you finished right there and here we were coming out onto a dike area and unknown to us on either side of the night were big deep ditches the way those tank ditches were designed as you were coming around you eventually lock onto one of those roads there was a little piece of high ground from the mud and so we probably chose to take that and then when you get on it then of course you can't get off it and we just fell right in line and that's the worst thing that could ever happen to an armored column [Music] and they were just waiting for us you know we were sending ducks [Music] the countryside near the german town of udom shows little sign today of the ferocious battle that took place here [Music] but during the final months of the second world war this quiet place was a battlefield february 27 1945 canadian sherman tanks avoiding minefields and mud advance along a narrow dike attempting to secure the railway embankment running through the town of hudo we just fell right in line and that's the worst thing that could ever happen to an armored column is to have your tanks one behind the other the germans had placed a lot of tigers uh embedded down on the in the ground area and andy tank guns and they were just waiting for us he was at the front saw the tiger and i guess he knew that the tiger was drawing a bead on him eddie loaded up an ap and he shot that out currently says the shell just bounced right off its hide [Music] and so he knew that he had to go to stage two which was get that opening [Music] the german tiger is a 57 ton monster it's built like a battleship protected in places by more than 100 millimeters of steel plate the tiger seems indestructible but it has a weak point a narrow gap in its armor where the turret meets the hull a shell strike there can put it out of action he did he managed to jam the tank tiger but it does no good the canadians are caught in a trap the germans have prepared a perfect ambush it was just very fast he just took out the front tank bank tank just took every other tango we were hit in the soft spot like from the back [Music] it was very abrupt um [Music] deafening um instant right off the bat then you jump into action and say you got to get out you know that that that baby is burning she's brewing up we were fortunate uh fans to get out corporal mcgivern looked and he saw the old girl was burning up pretty bad at the back end so he says we got to get out of here and he looked over and he says there's a farmhouse he says it's a short distance away he says we'll make a run for it they reach the farmhouse only to be captured trooper gardner and his tank crew spend the final months of the war in a prison camp they're the lucky ones [Music] in the first two days of battle hundreds of canadian soldiers die and hundreds more are wounded grim proof of the fierce defense put up by the germans when you were there at the time you didn't understand why they were fighting so it's so hard you didn't know why they were fighting you didn't have time to understand what they were doing all you knew is that they were fighting and they weren't surrendering each of these soldiers believed that each day they could hold their position would help their country because it was so close to the industrial center of the german right most of the war industry was there the army had become the army was fighting to prevent any enemy from entering the fatherland that's why we were fighting so hard on the morning of february 28 the germans strike back at the canadians most vulnerable point the hawkwall gap the canadian tanks and infantry push into the gap and take ground near the western end an advanced force of shermans moves forward to the midpoint in the gap [Music] and the germans pounce with panther and tiger tanks and self-propelled guns gunner david marshall witnesses the attack over the rise in front of us came the snout of two tanks a tiger and a panther heading our way when our gunners had them in our sights and before the german tanks could level out to bring their 88s down on us our tanks opened fire with all guns blazing [Music] we stopped the attack destroying the panther and forcing the tiger to retreat [Music] the germans strike again and again and the canadians struggle to hold their ground but just when their situation seems desperate help comes roaring in from the skies the weather started to get better and the fighter bombers came firing orchids typhoons were dangerous for us the telephones would range in above you behind you somewhere you have 20 millimeter cannons when they're converging on the target then you let's go as rockets and it's just a hell of a noise and all you see is pieces you didn't break a tiger or break them in pieces they were very helpful the typhoons or tiffy's as the tankers call them stop the german advance with their rockets but in battlefield chaos anything can happen as canadian tanker bill lewden recalls the sound was heard overhead unlike anything i ever experienced in battle something like the noise of a high-speed train passing through a tunnel i paused in wonderment and then heard an explosion i looked up to see the tiffy flaring away luton and his crew are under attack by the deadliest tank killer on the battlefield one of their own typhoon fighter bombers the battle of the hot walled gap enters its third bloody day and it's a standoff the germans won't back down even though they're outnumbered and under attack by allied warplanes rockets from typhoon fighter bombers shred the germans dwindling supply of tanks these typhoons attacking every tank the typhoons swarm the huckwald gap and in the chaos one of them targets a canadian tank a sound was hurt overhead unlike anything i ever experienced i paused in wonderment and then heard an explosion there's nothing bill lewton and his tank crew can do but release canisters of yellow smoke to identify themselves as friendly smoke blossomed gloriously on both sides of the tank and just in time but no he kept coming and dove directly at us i saw a great puff of smoke and instinctively ducked inside a futile gesture against a rocket again came the sound of the express train in a tunnel and again the explosion we were still alive to hear it the tiffy had missed again the typhoons attack all morning blunting the german attack at noon canadian tanks push forward in another attempt to clear the hawkwall gap but again they're stopped by german tanks and artillery that night tanks from the canadian grenadier guards try again but the germans have perfect aiming points on either side of the gap tracer rounds light up the sky and the guards are caught in a crossfire by the time it's over they have gained no ground and lost 10 tanks we had the numbers of troops weapons and so on on our side but a very well and ensconced enemy on the approaches can make you pay dearly no matter if you have the odds dawn march 1st the battle enters its fourth day and the canadians are still only halfway through the hawkwald gap german tanks and anti-tank guns in the woods on either side of the gap will have to be taken out one by one that means attacking with tanks through the trees [Music] fighting through two forests is an absurdity just an absolute absurdity you should never do it the biggest problem was the panzerfaust was the one-shot rockets that they had panzerfaust means tank fist it's small highly portable and lethal it fires a 140 millimeter shaped charge at ranges of up to 60 meters and can penetrate 200 millimeters of armor tearing a hole through the tank and unleashing a devastating explosion inside he could hide in the wood all he needed was an opening he's got a big target and once he hits that tank there's a chance he sets off the ammunition in it or starts the tank on fire or he has wounded at least one or a couple of the crew i'll knock out a tank just like that i don't think tanks are that useful but that's what you had we were going through with the fusiliers morial into the forest and daytime and four tanks were in line ahead which is not very effective instead of being spread out the major of the fusiliers morial wanted us to use hg against this group of germans in a clearing that was in front of us which was our objective the sherman five carries two main types of ordinance armor-piercing shells for use against tanks and he or high-explosive rounds for softer targets you'd have to be careful and use the shock action more than the weapon the ground shakes like an earthquake but the germans were protected if you brought fire on them they had overhead cover and as soon as shelling stop they're back into position throw the sticks and what have you out of the way and they're ready for [Music] business the field artillery observation officer he called in a crump at 25 pounders and all of a sudden they came in and they landed on that clearing it's the most magnificent shooting and they just plastered about 10 or 15 rounds right in front of us heavy artillery clears the germans and the battle continues for the next 36 hours with tanks and artillery making small gains against fierce german resistance then on the morning of march 4th the battlefield is silent during the night the germans have fallen back leaving the hawkwall gap for the canadians the sherman's advance and their objective the village of zanton on the rhine river comes into view this is where the germans will make their last stand for the exhausted and battered canadians the fighting is far from over [Music] the hawkwald gap a remote patch of farmland in western germany in february 1945 this was the scene of one of canada's most brutal and costly battles of the second world war after five days of fighting the battle comes to a swift and surprising end german forces retreat in the night leaving the gap and the woods on either side to the canadians this is an art that the germans have and we should really basically learn by it because they have a habit of putting on a tremendous show so that the last thing you can think of is their withdrawing but that's what they do but they leave people in position who then are very aggressive with with their weapons and they left two tanks two panthers one was given the other covering fire would sit there and poke at anybody who showed up on top of the hill [Music] the other guy turned around and going like hell the other way my buddy ed was there and ed uh looked at the situation because uh he didn't he didn't put his tanks over the top he kept them behind the the crest what they call sort of a turret down position because they can kill you they could put a shell in the front of a sherman and look about the back and he could do it three miles away and ed looked at the situation and figured out well maybe i can get these both if i do it right so he give gunner control and the gunner will drop the breach on his gun and look through the gun uh barrel and watch the gun press clearance and he gets his sight on the tank when he's got crest clearance and then he fires [Music] the dangerous one was the one that was facing him because it has the heavier plate in the front and it has the gun in the front which still could get him and that first day he was backing up along a little narrow road with ditches on the side and he accidentally backed the back corner over the ditch and it tipped up the next plate and it was just a flat plate not very thick the 45-ton panther has 80 millimeters of sloped frontal armor making it almost impenetrable but its underside is only 30 millimeters thick and very vulnerable you can see what was happening and studied the thing and he hit a right bang in the middle of this place so we just went kept firing this tank brewed up and i don't know if people get out or not but the other one was going the other way the gun was pointing away from him and the back of a panther tank is not thick it's probably three inches [Music] it went around at the other on the other tank and he ricocheted off the deck and took the commander's head off everybody hopped out of that one that could hop up and that tank was left there [Music] with that the last remaining obstacle in the hawkwald gap is out of the way and the canadians push forward to the outskirts of zanton their final objective this is where the germans have set up their last line of defense but it's just a matter of time before they are overwhelmed allied warplanes mount a series of heavy destructive bombing raids every day every night there were bombings of the city the city which was before that never attacked now was destroyed by about 85 per cent really scared [Music] this was a terrible experience for us on march 7th a month after the fighting in the rhineland began and eight days after their costly attack through the hawkwald canadian sherman tanks roll into zanton they capture the bridges over the rhine and open the way for an all-out allied advance into the german heartland germany will surrender in less than two months this battle here in the rhineland is one of the forgotten battles of world war ii it was the canadian british army who opened the gate to berlin in the end the casualties on both sides are appalling the germans lose 40 000 killed and wounded and for the canadians the fighting in the rhineland including the battle of the hawkwall gap became their bloodiest campaign in the entire war the rhineland in in terms of casualties uh basically 5 300 dead and wounded in shall we say 30 days like that surpasses d-day it surpasses the worst of the shelter strange enough there is no sense of [Music] elation it's more thank god it's over because coming to mind is the people that have been lost the price paid and that this is not the end [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: War Stories

Views: 446,025

Rating: 4.7784152 out of 5

Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, ww2, world war two, rhineland, hitler, Operation, Rhineland Offensive, hochwald gap, Operation Blockbuster, tank battles, tanks

Id: daFdUZLZimA

Length: 46min 43sec (2803 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 19 2021