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No luck? Okay it's the 106th "Feldherrnhalle" Panzer Brigade. Led by none other then Oberst Dr. Franz Bäke.
Panzer Brigade was rather intresting formation on it own. And no, it doesn't have any part of division's or corps. It was rather extremely well supplied, all-armoured and tought nut battlegroup. Oh, and it was propably the best equip formation of the war.
Well basicly Panzer Brigades we're group of lessons for one goal: Destruction of enemy spearhead and delay operations. And these take root of those Panzerdivisions after the Kursk. And they grouped all they're tanks in weak, battalion sized units and they we're used to kill Soviet tank spearheads. The lesson was that best way of destroying these spearheads was speed and hitting really, REALLY hard.
Reason for this was that Soviets didn't have serious communication or recon (it was more like "poking" in that matter) and when Germans destroyed spearheads, it naturally throws enemy forces in chaos and advance was halted by several days. But these formation asset was speed so they usually didn't have heavy artillery or air support as these asset's are time consuming and too slow to use.
The Panzer Brigades we're born out of desperation rather than needing. And there was total of 13 of these. 10 of the "first" generation and 3 "second" generation. The brigade's we're started to form in July of '44. And brigades we're made from veterans of Eastern Front whic had they're division destroyed earlier that year. Althought this would normally mean that they would be hardcore, kick-ass formations that would kill everything that moves. But in reality most of the Brigade had they're numbers made up fresh conscripts (or "greens" as they would say) and everyone that could use rifle (or Panzerfaust in that matter). Also, they took over Tank Training centers for personel and mechanics.
Well this would doom any other formation but the personel wasn't they key point here. The formations strenght came from it's superior equipment (I wasn't kidding here!). Well basic formation was made of Panzer Battalion & buffed up Panzergrenadier Battalion. And to make matters intresting, Panzer Battalion had 36 Panther tanks (including HQ's) and 11 Panzer IV/70 tanks. Also they had huge continent of Flaktanks (Möbelwagens and Wirbelwinds, fresh from factory). Panzergrenadiers we're all in half-tracks and lot of AA-tracks. The grenadiers them selfs we're armed "mainly" with StG44 Assault Rifles and unholy amount of Panzerfaust launchers. Brigades also had they're own workshop for repairs.
As I said: The BEST! EQUIPMENT! EVER!
But that was the "first" generation Brigade. The "second" generation Brigades weren't so lucky as they wouldn't have those nice and cool half-tracks and the Panzer battalion was made up of PzIV tanks and Stugs. But to boost the Brigades firepower, they added second Panzer battalion whic had Panther tank so the brigades (note. Apparently, brigade's had a lot diffrence in tanks they had) could have 40 to 60 tanks. The diffrence "first" one's we're also present. For example. 107th had only 43 tanks (33 Panthers, 10 Stugs).
But even with these issues, Brigade we're really powerful. The problem was in concept rather then in men really.
The Brigade's role as "Spearhead Killer" was more useful against Soviet because they're lack in Recon (and communication) but the British & Americans had better recon and communication. This meant in practice that Brigade's attack force often would fought against enemy recon but because communications, the main force is more then ready for attack. This put the Brigade in disadvantage, heavily. This basicly says that the Brigade would have edge in Eastern Front then on West. If they would have been put to East, it could have changed outcome (unlikely but we will never know).
But because this the 106th story, I should focus on that now.
So, 106th was made from remains of 13th Panzergrenadier Division "Feldherrnhalle". There we're only 367 survivors out of 20.000 so they needed replacements so these we're dragged from SA's replacemant centers and yet another Tank Training Center was taken over.
There was couple of things that made this formation better then the rest:
1. Recruits we're mainly ex-Brown Shirts so they had far better morale then the rest.
2. The Brigade was lead by legendary Panzer Kanonen who had experience from similar tactics.
3. Brigade had the full organisation so they had the best equipment you could ask for.
These facts made Brigade the most succesful one, and force to be reckonned with. And the first deployment was against Patton's 3rd Army, so the stages we're very high as the Patton's goal was to strike Germany itself so 5 other Brigade's we're directed to intercept Patton's Army. This lead to Battle of Lorraine but the area around the Lorraine was heavily fight for. But the 2 Brigades we're annihilated and 3 we're too damage to continue and we're absorbed by nearby Panzer Division's. Only 106th was seemed to continue it's work until it's capture in Ruhr Pocket in April '45.
Althought Germans had high cost but they succeeded stopping Patton's drive to Germany and it was until March '45 they crossed the border. Not the "wanted" result but they what they had told to do. Also as note losses of Brigade's: These records are greatly off, mainly because many Brigade's we're destroyed 3 they're number. And 106th had more then twice suchs cases.
Overall, Brigade's made clear that Germany had the will and skill to commit troops but the inexperience and the organisation wasted the potential of these Brigade's.
Comment's, please!
Edited by Sotahullu, 28 June 2012 - 10:22 PM.
