Battle of the Bulge Tanks

[M. Hazelton]

What was the common U.S tank at the B.O.B? And what was the German counterpart? Danke, Danku, Gratzi, Thank You, etc.

[ModernKiwi]

Example, the 116th Volksgrenadier division had 26 Panzer IV, 43 Panthers and 13 Jagdpanthers.

Far and away the most common tank on the Allied side was the Sherman. Each US armoured division was supposed to have three battalions, each with 177 of them, plus 77 light tanks. There was only one US armoured divison present at the time, the 9th.

[T. Dürrschmidt]

The working horse of the German Army and most common tank was for sure the Panzer IV, which should after and after be replaced by the Panther. But also STUG III and STUG IV were available in larger numbers and were produced till 1945, because they were cheaper and easier to make. During Battle of the Bulge all sorts of German Panzers and Jagdpanzers were in service. In old movies and even in original footage there are always shown heavy tanks like the King Tiger. But this was often for propaganda reasons, because they looked much more impressive then the older, smaller tanks. Only the heavy Panzerabteilungen, which formed the spearhead of the German offensive, were mostly equipped with such heavy tanks.

For the US-side I would say, that the Sherman was for sure the most common tank. At this later part of the war, more and more equipped with the more powerfull long barreled cannon and supported by tank destroyers like the M10.

[GumSmith]

Hi M.Hazelton,
for shure the Sherman was in 1945 the MBT of the U.S. Armoured units.
Not even the US Armoured Divisions have Tank Bataillons but also every US Infantry Division was supported by a Tank - or Tankdestroyer-Bataillon. And the Tankdestroyer - units were euqipped with Sherman tanks, too.
Each Tank bataillon has 1 recon Company with light M5 tanks, some few where already equipped with new M 24 "Chaffee" instead.

Example, the 116th Volksgrenadier

Not right, it was 116th armoured division, not VGD. Volksgrenadierdivisionen were weak Infantry-divisions and had only 1 armoured company with 14 SPG, often Jagdpanzer 38(t) "Hetzer", or StuG III / IV instead in their Panzerjäger-Abteilung(Tank Destroyer Bataillon).

Most german divisions were not at full strength as BoB begins. Several armoured divisions get as replacement for missing tank units other units, like a tank destroyer bataillon instead of the 2nd bataillon of the tank regiment.
Official equipment for a german Tank regiment was 2 Abteilungen (bataillons), I.Abteilung with 4 (1.-4.company) companies equipped with P V "Panther", II.Abt. with 4 (5.-8.company) equipped with P IV. Because of low production and heavy losses the II.Abt. often was equipped 2 companies (5.+6.) P IV and 2 companies (7.+8.) equipped with StuGs instead of P IV.
In late 1944 after the extrem heavy losses on both eastern and western front (most of involved german division lost between 75 and 100 % of their equipment) the german industry was not able to fill up the losses.

To get the division ready (or even able) to attack at decembre 44 a lot of improvised units were built. because of this most of the attacking division have a very mixed equipment like mentioned by ModernKiwi for the 116.Panzerdivision.

oke

[ModernKiwi]

Example, the 116th Volksgrenadier

Not right, it was 116th armoured division, not VGD. Volksgrenadierdivisionen were weak Infantry-divisions and had only 1 armoured company with 14 SPG, often Jagdpanzer 38(t) "Hetzer", or StuG III / IV instead in their Panzerjäger-Abteilung(Tank Destroyer Bataillon).

I will re-check my source which was the Osprey Campaign 005 (or 145). I may have mis-read. Cheers

[GumSmith]

Hi ModernKiwi,
or Osprey is wrong. They`re often no got source. You can trust me in this point, i have a lot of books about ww II and some good about german armour.

oke

[ModernKiwi]

... In old movies and even in original footage there are always shown heavy tanks like the King Tiger. But this was often for propaganda reasons, because they looked much more impressive then the older, smaller tanks. Only the heavy Panzerabteilungen, which formed the spearhead of the German offensive, were mostly equipped with such heavy tanks.

45 or so King Tigers, 200 Tigers and 20 experimental Jagdtigers.

[GumSmith]

Hi ModernKiwi,
the Jagdtigers saw no action in BoB or german "Wacht am Rhein", they got later in action in the following "Operation Nordwind".

And which units with Tiger I saw action ?

There where 2 s.Pz.Abt. (heavy tank Bataillons), the schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 501, attached to 1.SSPanzer-Division "LAH"(partly with Kampfgruppe Peiper in action) and schwere (Heeres-) Panzer-Abteilung 506 (where they were going in action i don`t know at the moment but i could find out if needed).
The s.SS-Pz.Abt. 501 had round about 45 ( or little less) Tiger II B, the s.Pz.Abt.506 had about 30 Tiger IIB an an extra company (s.Pz.Kompanie Hummel, attached after the fightings of "Market Garden"/ Netherlands) with some 5 Tiger I.

oke

[captainzlog]

Thanks for posting that information, very helpful!

I recently got the Axis & Allies BoB game and upgrade many of the pieces; each unit of Divisional size is represented by two models (actually one model and a flat, gray counter). I chose to go for one Panther as supplied in the game and one Pz IV from CinC micro armor. For the two SS units, I used Tiger II's instead of PzIV's. Looks like I got it about right!

I er, um......... don't suppose you have similar information on Normandy so I can do the same to my D-Day game.........?

[GumSmith]

Hi captainzlog,
why not ?
For german Panzerdivisionen:
1 tank regiment with 2 Abteilungen(bataillons), I.Abteilung Panzer V Panther, II.Abt. Panzer IV. In the Panzerjäger-Abt. (tank destroyer bataillon) 14 StuG III or panzerjäger IV L/48.
2 Divisions had special organization:
21.Panzer-Division had P IV (even 3 P IV with short barreled 7,5 cm KwK L/24 ) in both Abteilungen of it`s Panzer-Regiment and some french Somua S 35, but no Panzer V "Panther".
The Division hat a StuG - Abt.200 (Sturmgeschütz-bataillon), equippend with french tanks converted to SPG with german guns.
Panzerlehr-Division hat 5 Tiger II Prototypes (with Porsche turret) in a special company, as command tanks for radio controlled explosive layers Borgward B IV.

In Normandy where also 2 s.Pz.Abt. (heavy tank bataillons), s.SS-Pz.Abt.101 with I.SS-Panzerkorps and s.SS.Pz.Abt.102 with II.SS-Pz.Korps.

The SS-Panzergrenadier-Division "Götz v.Berlichingen" had 1 Panzer-Abteilung (Tank bataillon) equipped with StuG IV. ( the only unit equipped with this Stug at that time)
US - armoured divisions as descripted in BoB scenario.

cheers oke