Download or read book Arracourt September 1944 written by Richard H. Barnes and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This battle study investigates operational and tactical considerations of the battles of Arracourt, which took place in September 1944 as the 4th Armored Division of Patton's Third Army clashed with the Fifth Panzer Army in the French province of Lorraine on the U.S. drive to the German West Wall. By examining detailed German and American unit histories, logs, and summaries, as well as personal papers, this study illuminates differences and similarities in reporting the U.S. penetration from the Nancy Bridgehead to Arracourt, the German offensive at Luneville as a prelude to Arracourt, and the two German offensives at Arracourt, as the Fifth Panzer Army attempted to link up with a German unit cut off at Nancy. Arracourt exemplifies penetration and mobile defense and illustrates the demand for good intelligence and flexible command and control. It shows the inherent risks of piecemeal commitment of reserves, the need for timely orders and good logistical support, as well as the tactical advantages of air superiority. (Author).
Download or read book Arracourt September 1944 written by Major Richard H. Barnes and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis analyzes the political role of the German General Staff as well as civil military relations in Germany from the late 19th century until 1933. Specifically, it examines the rise and fall of Kurt von Schleicher. Together with Generals Paul von Hindenburg, Erich Ludendorff, and Wilhelm Groener, Schleicher shaped the politics of the Weimar Republic, right up to the end that he—unintentionally—hastened when his intrigues paved the way for Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship. During World War I, the German army completed its control over the civilian administration and bureaucracy. In the Republic of Weimar 1919–1933, the military remained a powerful governmental player—as the self-anointed protector of the nation against external and internal threats, including democracy. Thus, Germany’s political situation in the winter of 1932–1933 and the activities of the key players stemmed from a long-term anti-democratic socialization process amid an entrenched civil-military imbalance. As the present thesis demonstrates, Schleicher’s life—from his military background to his experience as a member of Prussia’s noble Junker class—coincided with Germany’s tumultuous modernization. The fateful lessons that he drew from this experience ultimately spelled the end of Germany’s first democracy and ushered in the calamity of the Third Reich.
Download or read book Arracourt 1944 written by Mike Guardia and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2022-01-18 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A photo-packed account of how the tanks of 4th Armored Division defeated two panzer brigades over eleven days of battle at Arracourt: “An enjoyable read.” —AMPS September 1944: With the Allies closing in on the Rhine, Adolf Hitler orders a counterattack on General Patton’s Third Army in France. Near the small French town of Arracourt, elements of the US 4th Armored Division meet the grizzled veterans of the 5th Panzer Army in combat. Atop their M4 Shermans, American tank crews square off against the technologically superior Mark V Panther tanks of the Wehrmacht. Yet through a combination of superior tactics, leadership, teamwork, and small-unit initiative, the outnumbered American forces win a decisive victory against the 5th Panzer Army. Indeed, of the 262 tanks and mobile assault guns fielded by German forces at Arracourt, 200 were damaged or destroyed by enemy fire. The Americans, by contrast, lost only 48 tanks. Following the collapse of the German counterattack, Patton’s Third Army found itself within striking distance of the Third Reich’s borderlands. The battle of Arracourt was the US Army’s largest tank battle until the Ardennes Offensive in December 1944. It helped pave the way for the final Allied assault into Germany, and showed how tactical ingenuity and adaptive leadership can overcome an enemy’s superior size or technological strength. This extensively illustrated book recounts the dramatic story. “An interesting study of small-unit leadership that emphasizes the importance of tank-crew training, the value of a reliable logistics system and effects of weather on battlefield activities.” —ARMOR Magazine “This well-written book explains how U.S. forces won this critical battle.” —WWII History Magazine “Enjoyable . . . includes some nicely done full color profiles of some of the tanks involved.” —ModelingMadness.com
Download or read book Patton Versus the Panzers written by Steven Zaloga and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-11-30 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In September 1944 Hitler ordered an attack on Gen. George Patton's Third Army, which was deep inside France making for the Rhine and threatening the German industrial heartland beyond. The ensuing battle near Arracourt--the U.S. Army's largest tank-versus-tank clash until the Bulge--went badly for the Germans, who committed their armor piecemeal and whose offensive was shattered in a series of intense, close-range tank duels with the Americans. Armor expert Steven Zaloga deftly reconstructs the battle and shows how American Sherman tanks bested superior German Panthers.
Download or read book Arracourt Tank Battles written by and published by . This book was released on 1983* with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Armored Thunderbolt written by Steve Zaloga and published by Stackpole Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: • Hundreds of photos, including many never published before with riveting accounts of armored warfare in World War II • Compares the Sherman to other tanks, including the Panther and Tiger • Author is a world-renowned expert on the Sherman tank and American armor Some tank crews referred to the American M4 Sherman tank as a "death trap." Others, like Gen. George Patton, believed that the Sherman helped win World War II. So which was it: death trap or war winner? Armor expert Steven Zaloga answers that question by recounting the Sherman's combat history. Focusing on Northwest Europe (but also including a chapter on the Pacific), Zaloga follows the Sherman into action on D-Day, among the Normandy hedgerows, during Patton's race across France, in the great tank battle at Arracourt in September 1944, at the Battle of the Bulge, across the Rhine, and in the Ruhr pocket in 1945.
Download or read book The Lorraine Campaign An Overview September December 1944 Illustrated Edition written by Dr. Christopher R. Gabel and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 57 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illustrated with over 20 maps and diagrams The Lorraine Campaign: An Overview, September-December 1944 originated at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College as an introductory lesson to a course on corps operations. It is an adaptation of a narrated slide presentation used to provide students with a historical context on which to base their studies of current doctrine. The Lorraine Campaign, which included failures as well as successes, was chosen because it encompassed a variety of operations that involved such factors as logistics, intelligence, and weather. This overview serves as a point of departure for more in-depth studies, sets the stage for the analysis of unit operations from platoon to corps, and furnishes a useful reference for studying branch operations in battle. Repeated reference to this overview will give students an insight into specific operations or single branch actions. This study also provides a concise summary of Third Army operations in one of the World War II European campaigns.
Download or read book Days of Battle written by Norbert Számvéber and published by Helion and Company. This book was released on 2013-10-19 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of WWII military studies examines significant yet neglected clashes of German-Hungarian and Soviet armor north of the river Danube. In Days of Battle, Dr. Norbert Számvéber, chief of Hungary's military archives, examines armor combat operations in the southern territory of the historical Upper Hungary (part of Hungary between 1938 and 1945, at the present time now part of Slovakia) in three separate studies. The first is an account of the battle between the Ipoly and Garam rivers during the second half of December 1944, in which the élite Hungarian Division "Szent László" saw action for the first time. The second study examines the fierce tank battle of Komárom, fought between January 6th–22nd of 1945. This was an integral part of the Battle for Budapest, parallel in time with Operation Konrad. The third study describes the combat during the German Operation Südwind in February 1945, as well as the Soviet attack launched in the direction of Bratislava in March 1945. Based on files and documentation from German, Hungarian and Soviet sources, Dr. Számvéber’s authoritative text is supported by photographs and color battle maps.
Download or read book Seek Strike and Destroy written by Christopher Richard Gabel and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the seventy years that have passed since the tank first appeared, antitank combat has presented one of the greatest challenges in land warfare. Dramatic improvements in tank technology and doctrine over the years have precipitated equally innovative developments in the antitank field. One cycle in this ongoing arms race occurred during the early years of World War II when the U.S. Army sought desperately to find an antidote to the vaunted German blitzkrieg. This Leavenworth Paper analyzes the origins of the tank destroyer concept, evaluates the doctrine and equipment with which tank destroyer units fought, and assesses the effectiveness of the tank destroyer in battle.
Download or read book The Lorraine Campaign written by Hugh Marshall Cole and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 740 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This account focuses on the tactical operations of the Third Army and its subordinate units between 1 September and 18 December 1944.
Download or read book Panther vs Sherman written by Steven J. Zaloga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book Steven J Zaloga offers a fascinating comparison between the two most important tanks involved in the crucial fighting of 1944, the American Sherman and the German Panther. Placing the reader in the heart of this battle between quality and quantity Zaloga uses a compelling account of the ferocious fighting during the Battle of the Bulge to explain the successes and failures of each tank, highlighting the fact that a tank can only be as good as its crew, weighing up the impact of low morale, high cost and mediocre crew training on the Panther's superiority. With full-colour battlescenes, technical drawings, photographs, digital gunsight views, extracts from crew training manuals and real combat reports, this book brings the titanic battles between the Panther and Sherman to life.
Download or read book Metz 1944 written by Steven J. Zaloga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-03-20 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A complete examination of Patton's campaign to take the fortified city of Metz. General George Patton's most controversial campaign was the series of battles in autumn 1944 battles along the German frontier which centered on the fortified city of Metz. In part, the problem was logistics. As was the case with the rest of the Allied forces in the European Theatre, supplies were limited until the port of Antwerp could finally be cleared. Also problematic was the weather. The autumn of 1944 was one of the wettest on record, and hardly conducive to the type of mechanized warfare for which Patton was so famous. However at the heart of the problem was the accretion of sophisticated fortifications. Metz had been fortified since ancient times, heavily rebuilt by France in the post-Napoleonic period, modernized by Germany in 1870–1914, and modernized by France during the Maginot effort in 1935–40. The Germans hoped to hold Metz with a thin screen of second-rate troops, counting on the impregnable fortifications. This book covers the entire campaign from beginning to end, offering an unbiased assessment of the success and failures of both the Allied and Axis efforts.
Download or read book US Armored Divisions written by Steven J. Zaloga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-01-20 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The armored divisions were the shock force of the US Army's combat formations during the fighting in Northwest Europe in the final year of the war. Of the 16 such divisions formed during the war, all but one served in the European Theater of Operations. This book examines the organizational structure, operational doctrine and combat mission of these divisions from D-Day onwards, describing how doctrines and tactics were changed as the divisions were forced to adapt to the battlefield realities of combat against an experienced foe. The lessons drawn by the armored divisions from the bitter fighting in Northwest Europe from 1944 to 1945 strongly shaped postwar US Army doctrine.
Download or read book American Thunder written by Richard C. Anderson Jr. and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2024-05-14 with total page 751 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If the machine gun changed the course of ground combat in the First World War, it was the tank that shaped ground combat in World War II. The tank was introduced in World War I in an effort to end the stalemate of the machine gun versus barbed-wire trenches, and by World War II, the tank’s mobility and firepower became a rolling, thundering difference-maker on the battlefield. In this detailed, deeply researched, and heavily illustrated book, tank expert Richard Anderson tells the story of how the United States developed its armored force, turning it into a war-winning weapon in World War II that powered American ground forces and supplied armies around the world, including the British and Soviets. For decades, American tanks of World War II have been undervalued in comparisons with German and Soviet tanks—and it’s true that the best of American armor tended to underperform the best of German and Soviet armor during the war. That’s because the U.S. had a different goal: not only to create battleworthy tanks like the Sherman, and to develop other tanks, but also to supply American allies with serviceable, combat-ready tanks. The United States did all this, but until now the complete story of American tanks in World War II has yet to be told. Anderson’s book is deeper and more thorough a chronicle of American tanks in World War II than has ever been done. This book is colorful, vivid, and thought-provokingly insightful on how the U.S. produced a tank force capable of conducting its own battlefield efforts and sustaining key allies around the world. This will be the go-to volume on American tanks for years to come.
Download or read book Modelling and Painting WWII US Figures and Vehicles written by Ray Haskins and published by The Crowood Press. This book was released on 2020-04-20 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book covers the modelling and painting of US armed forces in the Pacific, on D-Day and during the liberation of Europe in 1/35, 1/56, 1/72 and 1/76 scales. Historical overviews set the scene followed by detailed step-by-step modelling and painting guides for the creation of accurate and realistic models, whether for display or wargaming. With over 250 colour photography, this book includes the following models for Personnel: infantryman, paratrooper, Ranger, Marine, airmen, combat engineers, tank crew and General George S. Patton. For Weapons: small arms and artillery. For Vehicles: tanks, half-tracks, tank destroyers, jeeps, armoured cars and many more.
Download or read book The 4th Armored Division in the encirclement of Nancy written by Christopher Richard Gabel and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1944, the 4th Armored Division played a central role in one of the more remarkable campaigns in American military history-Third Army's pursuit across France, which was capped off by the encirclement and capture of Nancy. In the course of this campaign, the 4th Armored Division practiced a mode of warfare that has since become known to the Army as AirLand Battle. Inasmuch as the encircle ment of Nancy is one of the few historical examples that shows American mechanized forces waging war in accordance with the tenets of AirLand Battle, anyone seeking a deeper appreciation of today's doctrine would do well to study this campaign carefully. The 4th Armored Division in the Encirclement of Nancy originated at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College as an introductory class for a course on modern division-level operations. It is a companion piece to The Lorraine Campaign: An Overview, September-December 1944, published in February 1985.
Download or read book Dryden s Second Hundred Years a Central New York Town in the 20Th Century written by Elizabeth Denver Gutchess and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2020-11-18 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dryden’s Second Hundred Years (Part II) does two exceptional things. First, its tight focus on local participation in World War II paradoxically chronicles the entire war, a conflict which drew its combatants from small rural townships like Dryden NY, assigned and scattered them throughout the world, and then delivered the survivors back home again, creating in every small American community a microcosm of the entire conflict, an eye-witnessing of the whole story. Second, that story is told here largely in local participants’ own words, in letters from camps, troopships, carriers, cruisers, foxholes, and hospitals, their voices a quiet backdrop to the horrific war they had been asked to fight. The resulting narrative suggests that those who don’t know history – while not always doomed to repeat it – are very likely doomed to live their lives without perspective, to mistake inconvenience for hardship, and hardship for catastrophe, and to be blind to the miracle of everyday normal life.