Panzer Commander Part 16

"The situation, my dear Luck, is b.l.o.o.d.y awful. I too only got here yesterday from Belgium, to take command of the 5tii Panzer Army." The picture Manteuffel gave me was not encouraging. "Before I left Belgium, Montgomery had taken the offensive with his Army group and, against weak resistance, had reached Brussels on the 3rd September and Antwerp on the 4th.

"Far more dangerous, however, was the thrust of the Americans, General Patton, with his 3rd U.S. Army. It was Patton who managed to make the decisive breakthrough at Avranches and who then, without regard for his open southern flank, pushed vigorously to the east. I would almost call him the American Rommel. He has a high standing with Eisenhower, and in the U.S. he is feted as a hero. Statements from prisoners confirm this time and again.

"By the end of August the Americans were being forced to pause; their supply lines from Cherbourg and several ports in Normandy were becoming too long. Since the beginning of September, however, the Americans have taken the offensive again: the First U.S. Army reached Mons on 2 September and took 30,000 prisoners. Patton, without regard for his right flank, has pressed forward the furthest; he's reached Verdun and is now advancing on Metz and Nancy, hence on the Moselle.

"The 6th U.S. Army Group, including the Ist French Army, is approaching from southern France and is supposed to join up with Patton. The remains of our retreating armies from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coast are, it is true, still holding a wedge that extends as far as Dijon, but for how much longer?

"The worst of it is," Manteuffel went on, "Hitler is juggling with divisions that are divisions no more. And now," ironically, and with a shake of his head, "Hitler wants to launch a tank attack from the Dijon area to the north, in order, as he likes to put it, 'to seize Patton in the flank, cut his lines of communication, and destroy him." What a misjudgment of the situation and the possibilities open to us." I was deeply disturbed.

"What do you think should be done?" I asked Manteuffel.

"Conduct a mobile defense here on the western slopes of the Vosges and to the west of Saarbruecken, in order to make the Western Wall defensible again, and to occupy it. That would offer a Retreat to Germany, August-November 1944 213 chance of delaying the enemy for a longer period of time. Here in the west we need time, to enable us to prepare for the Russian offensive.

"But that, my dear Luck, is likely to remain an illusion. I wish you all the best; come through the last battle in one piece." A handshake and he was gone.

I was not to see Manteuffel again until long after the war.

I eventually found divisional HQ. Feuchtinger was pleased that I had brought him back the combat group intact. I told him of my meeting with Manteuffel.

"I'm glad to hear a little about the general situation," he said. "Our division belongs to Manteuffel's 5th Panzer Army; but I haven't met him yet."

"First of all, something pleasant." Feuchtinger beckoned to his adjutant. "In the name of the Fuehrer I have the honor and great pleasure to bestow on you the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross." Ceremonially he took the order from its black case and hung it around my neck; and, as if to order, someone was there with a camera. I had to "pose" with Feuchtinger.

"The decoration has been here since August, but then, of course, you were still on the 'long march." I had recommended you long ago for exceptional bravery and for your personal commitment in Normandy, especially in the defense against Monty's"Operation Goodwood' on July 18." Someone was on hand with a gla.s.s of champagne. We drank, not to Final Victory, but to our all getting home safely after the war.

I was naturally proud of the decoration.

"General, I can and will accept this order only on behalf of all my people. Without them I could never have succeeded in achieving what you are honoring me for." We had to pa.s.s on to the order of the day.

"Give your men a little rest," Feuchtinger began. "Materiel and a Luftwaffe replacement battalion have arrived. Just imagine, among them are fully trained pilots and boys of 16 and 17. How are we supposed to stop the Allies now with their inexhaustible materiel, when we're sent mere cannon-fodder as'replacements?

"You already know from Manteuffel that our task is to set up a defensive barrier, so that the remains of the two armies withdrawing from the west and south can be brought into the gap between us and the Swiss border.

"Yesterday, with a heavy heart, I had to send Colonel Rauch 214 PANZER COMMANDER with his patched-up regiment into the Epinal area, to guard the Moselle crossings. According to reports in our hands, elements of Patton's forces are advancing south from Nancy and the 2nd French Armored Division from the west on Dijon; we simply have to stop them.

"You too must antic.i.p.ate going into action in the next few days." With that I was dismissed.

Molsheim is a small town in the Rhine valley west of Strasbourg.

There and in the surrounding villages my combat group was to be given a chance to recover. The local people spoke French and German. Like all Alsace-Loffainians they had changed nationality more than once during the wars between France and Germany. At the moment, Hitler laid claim to Alsace-Lorraine.

In a few weeks, it looked as though it would again be French territory.

The villages, where the houses resembled those of the Black Forest in style, provided billets for my men. Most of them were sleeping in beds again for the first time in months. As for me and my staff, we were quartered in a little inn. My adjutant and the other officers were seated at the bar with a gla.s.s of Traminer, the famous wine of the area. A great cheer went up when I came in. I had forgotten that I still had the Knight's Cross around my neck. "Congratulations, it was about time, Lieutenant-Colonel." I gave a deprecatory wave. "It's meant for all the men of our regiment. I'll wear it with pride-for them." That was all I could say.

"I just want to try to call Berlin, then I'll tell you something about the situation and our task." After only 15 minutes my intelligence officer was back. "We have the connection to Berlin." Dagmar was on the line. "nank G.o.d, you're alive. I haven't been able to sleep. I tried to get news through friends at the Personnel Office. No one could tell me anything. "The situation is too confused," was all they said. How are you?"

"I'm fine, as far as it goes. I'm just terribly tired. I too have been worrying about you every day and wondering whether you got out of Paris safely. How did it go?"

"As arranged. Two days before the Allies marched in, a truck appeared from H.Q., Paris, and took me and my bicycle to Berlin.

Saying good-bye to our friends in Paris was hard. They again offered to hide me in the south of France until the war was over. They all send their greetings." Retreat to Germany, August-November 1944 215 Just as I was going to tell Dagmar about the Knight's Cross, the connection was broken. At least each of us knw that the other was alive and well.

I sent for all the commanders and briefed them on the situation, as it had been described to me by Manteuffel and Feuchtinger.

"In the next two or three days every unit, in collaboration with the division's supply posts, should receive replacements of men and materiel. See to it that our experienced corporals and lance-corporals take the young men in hand and fit them in quickly. We must antic.i.p.ate action at short notice." Then we all had a drink together, a closely knit team that had survived the past months.

It suddenly dawned on us that only a few kilometers now separated us from the "Reich," and that Hitler required us to fight "till the Final Victory" or "go under," as his Propaganda Minister Goebbels proclaimed every day.

"Lieutenant-Colonel, do you believe the rumors that Hitler is trying to make a separate peace with the Western Allies, in order to have his back free for the fight against the Russians?" It was one of the questions that were also being discussed by the men.

"No," was my reply. "Like me you probably listen to the British radio now and then, on the sly. Churchill and the Americans are out to destroy Hitler and his regime. There's no room there for a separate peace." I was able to speak fairly freely; we were all levelheaded enough to distinguish between facts and pipe dreams. No one would think' us defeatist for that.

"I believe Manteuffel's idea is the only solution, that is, to man the Western Wall again, if it's not already too late for that. As far as I know all the weapons and communication systems were dismantled in 1940 and reinstalled in the Atlantic Wall. If that is so, we might be able to use the Western Wall as shelter from bombs and artillery fire, but not for defense.

"I'm alarmed about the situation on the eastern front, where the Russians will undoubtedly be mounting thor last great offensive, which will carry them far into German territory. The reports of atrocities to our wives and daughters make one fear the worst." We were very thoughtful as we sat for another hour over our gla.s.ses of Traminer. Each of us was thinking of our own situation and the weeks and months that lay ahead of us.

After two days any hope of rest was over.

Division ordered my II Battalion to join Rauch's combat group at once and take up positions at the Moselle crossings in the Epinal area. Major Kurz had received only a few replacements and little materiel.

"See that the young newcomers are taken in hand by veterans and quickly acclimatized to combat conditions," I said as we went along. "I'm expecting to be sent into action again myself in the next few days. I'll try to get Major Liehr some new SPWS for his I Armored Battalion. I'm sorry, Kurz, we can only try to set our longer war experience against our opponents' superiority in men and materiel." Kurz was an experienced commander, who in the battles of the past months had more than once shown circ.u.mspection and personal bravery.

It was indeed not long before I too was involved. I was summoned to division.

"Luck, Colonel Rauch is sick and has to go home. You will take over his combat group at once; it will now be known as the "Combat group of the 21st Panzer Division."

"Hitler is sticking to his intention of attacking from the area west of Epinal, northward deep in Patton's flank. Madness, if one considers the physical state of the two sides.

"Three newly created panzer brigades have arrived, a new conception of High Command. They are certainly equipped with the latest war materiel, such as the Panther, and they have experienced commanders. But they don't know each other. The units have never practiced combat maneuvers. After our heavy losses, why don't they give us this new materiel?

"Your task is to hold the Moselle crossings north of Epinal with your front to the west, while a panzer brigade west of Epinal thrusts north, supported by the remains of the infantry divisions. But watch out!

"After French units of the 2nd Armored Division and elements of the Ist French Army coming up from the south have met and taken Dijon, they will be threatening to push eastward, to encircle the remains of the infantry and the Panzer brigade. That will depend on how the French fight. Take over the division's combat group with your staff this very evening. Further orders will follow." On the morning of 12 September, I received orders to support the panzer brigade's attack, which was to thrust north in front of me with its panzer group west of Epinal and against the 2nd Retreat to Germany, August-November 1944 217 Armored Division with its Mk. IV group. I was to support the panther group.

So began the "Debacle of Epinal." Perhaps, remembering 1940, we underestimated the French: in the 2nd French Armored Division, whichupported by ma.s.sive air attacks and the excellent American artillery-was equipped with the best materiel and brilliantly led, moreover, by General Charles Leclerc, we were up against an opponent that had not only been the first to march into Paris, but now saw the chance to play an active part in liberating France from the "hated n.a.z.is." As we were told by prisoners, civilians had informed the French Colonel Langlade that my combat group was on the way from Epinal to the west. Langlade decided to attack the Panther group in the north early on 13 September and separate it from the southern group before I could come to its relief with my combat group.

The plan succeeded. Only four remaining Panthers were able to fight their way through nd meet up with me. Owing to fierce air and artillery attacks by the Americans, the Panzer IV group operating further south was unable to stop the French division.

On that 13 September, the two panzer groups lost 34 Panthers and 26 Panzer IVS. Our infantry in the area was destroyed. To prevent a complete debacle, I launched an attack with my combat group, though without tanks, in the late afternoon. At first we made good progress, but then, owing to strong resistance, I was forced to call off the engagement.

On 14 September, my combat group was able to join up with the Panzer IV group. Together with the remaining 17 tanks we once again mounted an attack. With only 240 grenadiers and hardly any artillery of our own, we were able to gain a little ground, but were then brought to a standstill by the ma.s.sive American artillery.

As a result, Corps HQ gave orders that rearward positions west of Epinal were to be occupied during the night; for we were to be "spared," so that we would be available for the attack on Patton's flank that Hitler was still planning.

It proved impossible to free our 16th Infantry Division from the encirclement. Only 500 men reached our lines, 7,000 men died or were taken prisoner.

After the 2nd French Armored Division and elements of the Ist French Army coming from the south had again joined forces, they crossed the Moselle south of us on 14 September. On 15 September Nancy fell into the hands of the Americans. On 16 September there were virtually no German forces left west of the Moselle.

Hitler's senseless, unrealistic plan of seizing Patton's army in the flank and destroying it had become illusory, as had been foreseen by Manteuffel and all of us.

Three rivers flow from the Vosges to the northwest practically parallel to each other: the Moselle, the Mortagne, and the Meurthe. We clung to all three in turn, until we were either bypa.s.sed or our weak defensive barrier was broken through.

Lun6ville on the Meurthe, southeast of Nancy, was an important junction' If, after Nancy, the enemy managed to capture Lun6ville too, the way to the north past the Vosges to Saarbruecken and Reich territory would lie open to him.

In the second half of September fierce fighting broke out around Lun6ville. American units penetrated into the town. In bitter counterattacks elements of two out of the total of three new panzer brigades regained part of the town. Tough hand-to-hand fighting from house to house led to heavy casualties on both sides.

The combat group of the 21st Panzer Division under my command had the task of blocking the crossings over the Mortagne south of Lun6ville with one battalion and then, with the main body, also advancing on Lun6ville from the south.

Despite its replacements through the Luftwaffe battalion, the strength of the battalion of Regiment 192 that was carrying the attack against Lun6ville was down to only 100 grenadiers, while my II Battalion under Major Kurz had just 140 men left with which to defend the long stretch of river. While Feuchtinger was conducting the battle for Lun6ville, my interest concerned my II Battalion.

We were again confronted by the 2nd French Armored Division. On the Moselle, Major Kurz had still been able to take a bridgehead from this division and gain a considerable success. Now we were exposed to the onslaught of the whole division, which was supported once more by heavy and concentrated fire from the American artillery. A first attack by a reinforced French armored group was successfully beaten off with the help of our artillery and some 8.8cm ant.i.tank guns. With an even stronger attack, however, the French, in a skillful operation, managed to cross the Mortagne during the night of 18/19 September and form a bridgehead.

The enemy now threatened to roll up our weak front on the Mortagne from the south. Under this impression Army Group G authorized the withdrawal of the combat group of the 21st Panzer Retreat to Germany, August-November 1944 219 Division behind the Meurthe, over which our engineers constructed a pontoon bridge that very night.

The battle for Lun6ville was still raging while we were already being forced to abandon the second river defense. Thank goodness the enemy had to pause again, to bring up supplies.

Even so, the French sounded out the ground with patrols as far as the McUrthe, where they were at once repulsed by us. After hard fighting, Lun6ville was lost.

At the beginning of October, I was summoned with my commanders to the divisional command post.

General Feuchtinger awarded Major Willi Kurz the Knight's Cross and Major Liehr of I Battalion the German Cross in Gold. Both received their decorations for their personal commitment during the fighting in Normandy.

On 25 October 1944, I was again sent for by Feuchtinger, this time with the commander of my HQ Company, Lieutenant Karl Sommer, and a man from his company, Lance-Corporal Maurer.

For their unprecedented commitment during the defensive fighting at Epinal, Lun6ville, and Chatel, Lieutenant Sommer was formally awarded the German Cross in Gold and Maurer the Knight's Cross.

It was rare for a lance-corporal to receive the Knight's Cross.

So in this case a war correspondent and a film team recorded the event.

The deed for which Maurer received his great honor was not only remarkable but showed also the high level of training and the, high morale of our men.

During one of our disengaging movements I had placed my HQ Company on high ground to cover the withdrawal of my combat group long enough to enable us to reach our next position.

Without the support of artillery or ant.i.tank weapons, but depending only on their own heavy machine-guns, Sommer, from his commanding position, had forced the enemy to take cover again and again and had thereby procured us the necessary ti-me to set up a new defense.

Lance-Corporal Maurer, with his machine-gun and an ammunition bearer, had been engaged on the left wing of his company, to secure its left flank. His task: to hold up the enemy and only withdraw in the event of heavy pressure. In looking for a suitable spot Maurer had strayed too far to the left and virtually lost touch with his company. But he had found an ideal position on a commanding hill and knew what he had to do.

Suddenly he saw in the valley below him an enemy column marching south. "They're planning to go around us and attack in the flank," was his first thought. The enemy had apparently a.s.sumed there was no one left on the hills, for vehicle by vehicle the column moved past him below.

When the enemy had come close enough, Maurer opened fire on the column, which at once stopped. The men jumped out of their vehicles and took cover. Maurer saw the wounded collapse. With the help of his ammunition bearer he fired one belt after the other from his MG. The first trucks caught fire; the confusion was complete. Then came the first reactions: ant.i.tank guns and light artillery were brought into position and opened fire.

Maurer laughed. "There's no way they can hit us from that angle; come on, let's have the next belt." The shots did in fact whistle over his head. The enemy then formed up for an attack on the hill.

"You've just had the last belt of cartridges, pal. We've got to get out of here," shouted his ammunition bearer. "Come on, back to the company." But Lieutenant Sommer had already moved off and from the start had not noticed Maurer's absence.

"Okay, then we'll just march east. We're bound to find the company, or von Luck's combat group, somewhere or other." As the two set off on foot, they could still hear the enemy's guns and in the distance the shouts of the attacking infantry.

When Maurer had found his company and was brought to me by Lieutenant Sommer, he wondered more than anything why such a fuss was being made of him. "It was my job, wasn't it?" was his surprised comment.

Never had a recommendation for a Knight's Cross been complied with so quickly as with Maurer. He was at once held up in propaganda as a "shining example" to all young men, who were being sent to the front in ever greater numbers.

In November, Sommer was unfortunately taken prisoner.

October went by. The Allies' supply problem seemed to have been solved. General Patton was on the move to the northeast in the direction of Saarbruecken. We now stood with our backs to the Vosges behind the River Meurthe. Opposite us was still the 2nd French Armored Division.

Among those serving in its ranks was a successful entrepreneur called Michel Dufresne. Though neither of us could have known it at the time, when the French private and the G erman colonel Retreat to Germany, August-November 1944 221 facing each other in anonymous hostility, we would later become friends.

In normal times Michel Dufresne lived in a beautiful old chateau in Normandy, which his wife Elisabeth, scion of an ancient aristocratic family, had brought with her into their marriage.

The Chateau Vimer lay only a few kilometers outside Vimoutiers, an idyllic little town which in 1944 had gained a sad fame: in July, in its outskirts, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had been severely wounded in a fighter attack. In August bitter fighting had taken place in the town and its vicinity between the Germans breaking out of the Falaise pocket and the Allies trying to close it. I myself had set up a defensive front with my combat group north of the town, to prevent any further advance by the British.

While Elisabeth Dufresne had converted her chateau into a military hospital-the roof bore a huge Red Cross and she took in wounded without regard to person-her husband Michel served in the 2nd French Armored Division. All this may have been one of the reasons why after the war Michel became an enthusiastic amateur historian, concerning himself with the fighting in Normandy and especially with the fighting around the Fawse pocket. Besides studying archive material and obtaining interviews with prominent commanders on both sides, as well as many well-known historians, Michel looked me up in Hamburg and we became good friends.

"At that time," he told me later, "I was the driver of a jeep for a platoon commander in the 4th Engineer Company of the 2nd French Armored Division under General Leclerc. On 30 October our division attacked, to force a crossing of the River Meurthe.

This attack was apparently badly prepared and was repulsed.

Then in the night before 31 October we crept up to the Germans and cleared away their mines. After good artillery preparation we accompanied our tanks and were able to cross the Meurthe northwest of Baccarat. In a little village we took a few prisoners, boys of sixteen, one of whom I kept the whole day in my jeep. We knew from prisoners that the German 21st Panzer Division lay opposite US." I could remember the fighting around Baccarat well, and also that we had been able to beat off an attack by the French.

Unfortunately, Feuchtinger turned this defensive success of ours into a victory report: "With the combined fire of the artillery and our few ant.i.tank guns we were able in a very short time to destroy more than 40 enemy tanks." It was humanly understandable that in such a desperate situation as ours attempts would be made through such reports to gain a little glory with the higher commands and give one's own people heart. But as the responsible commander of the combat group, I cannot confirm the defensive success in this form.

Michel Dufresne naturally wanted to know later how things had seemed to us. When I told him of Feuchtinger's report, he said, "We had several dead and wounded in our patrol. In the attacks of 30 and 31 October the division lost about a dozen tanks and 40 men. This is confirmed by the Fonds Historique, Archives-Musge in Paris, and by General Cholley, who found Feuchtinger's statement 'somewhat fanciful."' During the following days, we managed to hold the western outlets of the Vosges. Then the order reached us to move to the area west of Strasbourg on 12 November, to be rested there for 14 days.

On 9 November heavy falls of snow set in. The roads were soon iced over and pa.s.sable only with difficulty. We were afraid that the enemy would push us into the Vosges, where we would have had enormous problems in getting over the icy, winding roads. But the enemy, too, slowed his advance. He was now aiming northeast in the direction of Strasbourg. An infantry division brought in from Slovakia relieved us. We were pulled out and very pleased at the prospect of a few days' rest, of replacements of men and materiel.

Instead of that, in the evening of I I November the division was sent north, to stop Patton's advance on the River Nied, between Metz and Saarbruecken. After a few days of heavy defensive fighting we were outflanked on the left and in the evening of 18 November pulled out.

We started to feel like the fire brigade, which has to go wherever there's a fire to put out. But it was burning everywhere.

The very next day we were sent north, to occupy the approaches to the Western Wall at Saarlautem (Saarlouis). As we crossed the French-German border, it came home to all of us that from now on we would be fighting on our own native soil.

At the beginning of November my adjutant, Liebeskind, became very ill and had to be admitted to hospital. He didn't come back until 22 December. His duties were taken over by Captain Krieger, who on Liebeskind's return had to be given special leave: his only son was killed in an air raid on Solingen. The French chapter was closed.

Fighting the Americans, December 1944 As yet we were in the approaches to the once proud "impregnable" Western Wall. A quick inspection of the fortifications confirmed our fears. Since the end of the French campaign in 1940, the bunkers and defense installations had come to resemble the castle in Sleeping Beauty. Armaments and communication systems had been dismantled and reinstalled in the Atlantic Wall. In the approaches to the bunkers a wild growth had sprung up which certainly made the hideous concrete blocks look more peaceful, with trees, bushes, and flowers, but it reduced the field of fire to nil. I at once sent a party to the Western Wall to find out whether it would be at all usable.

My orderly officer came back with this report.

"Lieutenant-Colonel, we first had to round up the responsible 'caretaker' from the local theater, to get the bunkers unlocked.

It would take weeks to put the installations into a defensible state, to say nothing of arming them with heavy guns and ant.i.tank weapons and mine fields. The 'caretaker' hasn't even got a plan of the installations and doesn't know whether one exists. We can forget about any effective defense from the system of bunkers." On the western bank of the Saar lay the little town of Wallerfangen, its houses cl.u.s.tered around a manor house.

It,suddenly occurred to me that the manor house of Wallerfangen was the seat of the von Papen family. I drove there at once and met the two sisters of my friend Franz von Papen. Both told me in no uncertain terms that they wanted to stay there whatever might happen. I tried to persuade them to leave the manor house, since there would be heavy fighting and no one would be able to have any regard for them or the house. With heavy hearts they eventually agreed. Not long afterward Wallerfangen became a heap of ruins.

We set up our positions between the,bunkers, which could now serve only as shelter from heavy artillery and air attacks.

Then, on 19 November, the Americans began their attack on the Saar crossings between Saarlautern and the "Orscholtz block" east of Metz. We were concerned with the 10th U.S. Armored Division and the 90th U.S. Infantry Division, which attacked our line Saarlauternorscholtz along a wide front. Their goal seemed clear to us: to push through, over the Saar to the northeast, past Kaiserslautern, to the Rhine.