Waffen-SS: The Tank War Against Hitler's Elite Soldiers | Greatest Tank Battles | Timeline

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hitler's specially crafted war machine at the battle of the bulge one of history's greatest tanks [Music] [Music] the argent december 16th 1944 over 1700 german tanks and 200 000 infantry attack u.s forces along a 140 kilometer front the battle of the bulge has begun [Music] spearheading the attack is the newly formed sixth 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 muse river a third ss division will then advance northwest and capture antwerp by seizing this key ally port hitler hopes he can stop the relentless allied advance that has been routing his forces for the past six months i already found out about the american army during the invasion of the iron [Music] [Music] they were simply overwhelmed by the vast amount of materials 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 sixth panzer army is the best equipped armored force in the our dead [Music] with more than 600 tanks including 160 panzer fours [Music] 215 mark fives or panther tanks and nearly 100 tiger tanks at 57 tons the tiger 1 easily outmatches 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 its real edge is its powerful 88 millimeter main cannon with the enormous deutschlax craft is the enormous penetrating power of the 88 we were able to effectively fight the american tanks some of them we destroyed completely the impact of the 88 gun 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 caught an iron ore they could fire at us but it wouldn't penetrate our tanks they had to come close within a few hundred meters to have a chance [Music] 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 [Music] the americans are outgunned and heavily outnumbered all they have to stop the sixth 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 had not seen active combat yet that's why all these troops here that vetted down on the night from december 15 to 16 were totally caught by surprise [Music] the americans are caught by surprise and the germans quickly punch through their defenses all along the line desperate u.s 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 we were anti-aircraft and anti-personnel and our job was to protect the tanks we were moving down a fire lane the two shermans were over when i left probably 50 yards and coming over the horizon and towards the sherman was a tiger tank a big tiger tank square front reinforced barrel and he just laid the trees down as he went and came right on through those shermans i counted seven rounds bounce off that tiger and it didn't bother him any more than fleas on the dog he just kind of shook them all and he just turned that turret ever so slowly and outwent one of the sermons and then he turned a little more we got out 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 blows it apart they burn up and you always have casualties body parts dead ones fire and everything else [Music] it's a sad thing it really is you stop and think how many guys thousands of them eyes laying in the gutters laying along the roads all mangled up torn apart and everything [Music] by the evening of december 17th lead elements of the sixth panzer army have advanced more than 65 kilometers into belgium at the spearhead is an elite battle group of the first ss panzer division led by lieutenant colonel joachim piper piper is a veteran of the eastern front a 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 conf crew piper with 120 tanks and 150 armored vehicles is the most powerful armored formation in the our dead by the 18th of december they are only 68 kilometers from their primary objective the muse river bridges near hui but they must first take a bridge across the amble river in the small belgian town of stavalo 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 [Music] 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 cold [Applause] 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 uh 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 authority and sergeant lo said they were going to take sergeant armstrong and sergeant whaley's vehicles with them over the bridge and that they wanted us to get our guns ready for firing the object was to hold them as long as possible hold them six hours if possible we knew which way they were coming there had been some previous intelligence that said that they were going to 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 confident piper advancing straight into the heart of stafford fording 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 ardennes 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 arden 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 launch a surprise attack on american forces in the ardennes on the northern front the sixth 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 bridge is along the muse river but first the germans must capture the strategically important town of sterling defending stavalo are 250 men including a few dozen from the 825th anti-tank battalion among them is gunner lou celentano it began to become light and you could hear clanking a lot of clanking which was the 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 had to destroy the buildings first a job that our guns could do quite quite easily [Music] on the houses first we have a 50 caliber on the tracks to 50 calibers quite a gun [Music] and now the four tanks were within our sight the 3-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 the tactics were supposed to be fire at all the vulnerable spots which means you know fire right in the belly because in the valley is where he's got all this armor part of our luck 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 in my mind that 900 yards as we were taught we crossed fire i fired on the first tank and sergeant houser's gun fired on a glass tank and as luck would have it we hit the first and last tanks immediately i said 900 yards and i 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 hit the tracks on both of those tanks that was pure unadulterated luck once this track is broken now you gotta go for his turret because he still can move that turret they were disabled on the two ends and the two guys in the middle got caught they couldn't move they couldn't move forward couldn't move backward and we kept firing [Music] everything fell into place that the training really paid but in war i guess luck is an unknown quantity but it sure counts the americans destroy four tanks and slow piper's advance but it is not enough to stop him and his tankers advance into the center of stavalo [Music] this is the amblev river that runs through stavalo 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 [Music] this armored battery who was 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 a big tiger royal swept over the hill come down to the bridge area and he caught sergeant armstrong's half track before he had even a chance to get out of their vehicle a couple of rounds from this tiger royal tank and they were completely destroyed we knew that that big tiger royals name was coming we could hear it coming and we know we're next there's nothing kind of hurts we can do [Applause] december 18 1944 three of the battle of the bulge hitler's sixth panzer army has advanced more than 65 kilometers into belgium leading the attack is comfortable pipeline this powerful armored column from the elite first ss panzer division seems unstoppable [Music] their objective the bridges across the muse 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 steven a big tiger royal swept over the hill come down to the bridge area and he caught sergeant armstrong's half track before they had even a chance to to get out of their vehicle we knew that that big tiger royal tank was coming they're bigger than most buildings for god's sake we can 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 its long-barreled 88 millimeter main gun can penetrate even the heaviest allied armor at ranges of over 3 000 meters most powerful tank on the world war ii battlefield this is one of camp group piper's tigers this is a king tiger ii this was the war horse of camp group piper's unit after looking at a sherman and then you see this then 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 it's one of the best cannons the germans had in the field 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 tank was coming and lieutenant authority 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 on earth we can do except trying to get out of there [Music] but celentano and his men can't move their m5 anti-tank gun repeated firing has driven the tails deep into the ground in my case the gun dug in 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 american's efforts piper and his column cross the bridge take stavalo and push on towards the muse river piper leaves behind a small force of ss troopers to protect his rear and they quickly live up to their notorious reputation as piper's pushing west the troops behind him are basically running riot they're 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 arlet mignon [Music] i was only two years old we were living here my parents and my two sisters and me if we know this the morning of the 19th there was lots of movement and we started to panic so we went down to the cellar [Music] 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 [Music] my mother was hit and she died with my two sisters and i was in my father's arms [Music] 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 [Music] 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 arrive in stavalol wipe out piper's rear guard and destroy the bridge but it's too late piper's main force is already on its way to the news [Music] as the first ss panzer division pushes west the 12th ss panzer division is ordered to clear the twin towns of krinkheld rockrat held by stubborn remnants of the us 99th infantry division the 12th ss is well equipped fielding more than 14 000 men 90 tanks and 60 sp guns including 40 jack pans or four tank destroyers the jagdpanzer 4 is protected by 80 millimeters of sloped frontal armor and is powered by a 300 horsepower engine enabling it to reach top speeds of 40 kilometers per hour 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 12 ss is running out of gas [Music] in the off bus mission you can start an offensive that leads forward if you have a shortage of gas scanners [Music] you have to watch every single liter of gas you spend that speedy progress was just on december 18th we attacked crinkhealth [Music] and we made it into the center of the village close to the water tower and we forged ahead and we opened fire towards a village where we assumed americans would die we were under attack by anti-tankers there was a terrain with hedges to the right and it was very well camouflaged and it hit us in our company commander full-on from the side through a gap in the patch [Music] he was leaning outside the hatch with his torso to shoot at the americans with his assault rifle [Music] he took a deadly blow to the neck flying shell parts the gunners in my heads and headsets were blown from it had we all made it out of the tank although the driver for me and my crew the operation in clinker 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 [Music] the sixth panzer army is now five days behind schedule and the german high command orders the second ss division originally intended to follow piper's advance to the muse to move south and attempt their own breakthrough the well-equipped second ss advances with 28 answer fours 28 self-propelled guns and 58 mark 5 panther tanks the pandavas ended there the panzer was until the end of the war the most functional and best tank in the world based [Music] on december 24th lead elements of the second ss panzer division advance towards manet to protect their rear second lieutenant fritz longonky and a platoon of four panthers are ordered to secure the village of freinu therefore until we entered the village i stopped and saw it i saw vehicles and started shooting [Music] it's an ambush the decisive battle the one that will determine whether or not the second ss can take the news river bridges is about to begin [Music] [Music] the battle of the bulge enters its ninth bloody day and elements of the sixth panzer army have driven 80 kilometers into belgium but stiff u.s resistance has stalled their advance [Music] desperate to reach the newest river the second ss panzer division is ordered to attack the belgian village of manhattan to protect their rear second lieutenant fritz longanke and a platoon of four panthers were ordered to take the village of freynor [Music] december on december 24th i was a member of the second ss tank company and i was leading the first quarter [Music] [Music] village [Music] but in front a couple of bushes hit [Music] american thanks for 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 i recognize the sherman on the left side of the screen [Music] we receive lots of hits on the front side the welds it's an enormous noise inside and your nerves have to be solid for that for sure and we had [Music] other vehicles well i saw that the barrel of oneism had fallen off the force had not been hit and go back with the others i was rather sure that it was just a question of time until the american tanks will show in the meantime i did some observations on the area around us [Music] i fired on three different points in the area like a p and something to get the exact same this is common procedure to message the distance for firing later to assure 100 hits absolutely the distance wasn't that big maybe 500 or 600 meters distances i managed to shoot the first four shermans with only one round each the battlefield is littered with burning tanks on both sides but the americans win the day they stop the advance towards manhay putting an end to the second ss panzer division's hope of reaching the muse river farther north the first ss is not faring any better conf piper the once powerful spearhead of the sixth panzer army is now in a battle for survival they've been trying for nine days to cross the amlev river gorge but each time u.s engineers blow the bridges just as they arrive to make matters worse u.s forces are now securely in control of stavalo 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 comp group piper [Music] december 23 1944 the battle of the bulge hitler's great ardenne offensive begins to falter cough group piper the spearhead of the sixth panzer army is no longer on the offensive but fighting for sobriety [Music] 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 la glaze one of the men is sergeant ralph earhart a large number of american shermans appeared on the back slope road after the first tiger fired and missed the germans formed up an unexpected front and began firing rapidly the american shells burst through the house suddenly tiger commander hunch appeared with both hands pressed against his head the tiger had taken several hits the numerical supremacy of approximately 15 germans negated the weapons superiority of our panzers after these losses and the shortage of everything what would the next day bring 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 0 300 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 luckily alone we're in laglese this is one of camp group piper's tigers so here we have a testament to the power of a german tank in 1944 that didn't come bigger or better than this machine here it was left in a field behind this school house here in laglese because laglese was the 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 abandons legalese 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 gliese [Music] on christmas day piper and the 800 remaining men of his armored battle group straggle 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 ardennes 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 [Music] you can fight as much as you want but if there's no material you can't go forward you just have to draw them that's how simple it is [Music] [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 calling less unless i'm on fire get me out and you'd see the fire gush up over him and he'd die right there at the time i didn't think anything of it all i was worried about was getting out of there you know i was very proud the next day but you also realize that costs 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 uh wouldn't want to do it again that's for sure [Music] you

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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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, greatest tank battles, tank wars for normandy, normandy, battle of normandy, germany ww2, hitler's ss, nazi soldiers, elite nazi soldiers, allies ww2, tank crews in ww2, panzer documentary, pamzer vi, military history, war documentary, military tactics

Id: o47atrDZ0yo

Length: 47min 6sec (2826 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 28 2021