Shermans vs Panthers: How Patton's Third Army Crushed Hitler's Best Panzers at Arracourt?

My dad was a tracked vehicle mechanic with the 4th Armored Division and got critically wounded in the battle of Arracourt. Through a mixup of swapped dog tags he was listed as KIA. He remained in a coma for over a year. While in an Army hospital he was not expected to recover from the coma and was used as a training aid for things such as x-rays. One day however he did wake up to a young nurse checking in on him. He said, "Well, hello there!" The poor nurse, accustomed to the many days of silence from dad was so startled she fell out in a dead faint. Dad said he always felt bad about that and a few days before he died said he was going to get to apologize again to her. Slipping back into a coma from the ravages of cancer he passed on his 70th birthday in 1979. Due to the countless x-rays he endured he was supposedly sterile. My older brother and I proved that he beat the odds again. Cheers Terry

My Dad was a tank Commander of a Mk4 Sherman in WW2, he fought through Italy, including Monte Cassino. Previously he had fought the Italians and then the Germans in Greece until we got our arse kicked to Crete and then kicked again by the German Fallschirmjager. He then fought Rommels troops until he was wounded in Operation Crusader! He then became a Tank Commander with the 2nd NZEF 20th Battalion; a famous Battalion!

Dad was 4th Armored. He was in the CCB, which Abrams commanded, later in the war. He saw it all, from Utah Beach, the Normandy breakout and Operation Cobra,to Arracourt, to the relief of Bastogne, the liberation of the Ohrdruf concentration camp and the link up with the Red Army. The Fourth made a lot of history.

My uncle was in the Army Air Corps as a door gunner in B-17 Flying Fortress in missions over Germany. Dad was a merchant marine that was at Guadalcanal. I grew up and heard many war stories over a deer hunting campfire of many different engagements on sea, land and air and was captivated by their heroism and adventures. I saw the men showing each others shrapnel wounds and sharing stories. I respect all those that signed up and joined the war on the front or as support. It was a time of need and they stepped up. Thank you guys.

My dad was in Patton's 3rd as well; Africa, Italy, France, and Germany. POW last 90 days of the war.

From my understanding the tank destroyers played a large part in the battle. Though thinly armored and an open turret, they were fast, highly maneuverable and carried a hell of a punch

A battle where the American tank destroyers were used in the way they were intended doctrine.

My late Father served with Patton through the entire world war 2.he spoke proudly of Patton and his time serving under him.

My father served in the 14th Armored Division and had one brief encounter with General Patton. As the division was moving through northern France, preparing to cross the Rhine, they passed a knot of officers observing their progress. Some days before, my dad had liberated a large copper hip bath from the ruins of a German headquarters. My father was a fastidious man, and was looking forward to taking a long soak, and had tied the hip bath down on the back of his Sherman. As his tank slowly moved past the officers, they spied the shiny copper tub, and pointed it out to General Patton, who stood up from his Jeep and shouted, "Get that god-damned tub off my tank!" Patton's order was followed, of course, and my dejected father wouldn't get a bath until the end of the war.

Late 1991, near an Air Force base in the US: A group of A-10 pilots are telling each other stories of destroying tanks in Iraq. Nearby, an aged grey-haired man in a well-worn leather jacket smiles into his scotch.

I served 3 years with 1st Battalion, 37th Armor at Katterbach, Germany 1971-1974. The same unit that relieved 101st Airborne At Bastogne. Unfortunately, we were just there to slow down the Russians if they came through the Hof Gap. Courage Conquers! Best Job I ever had. 3 “Hots”, a Cot, and 2 four button suits. Mickey Mouse boots and trigger finger gloves. A 50 caliber is a heavy son of a bitch. The sleeping bags kept you warm when out on maneuvers at Graf, Hohenfels, or Tennenlohe. I had a great heater in my APC. It also worked as a stove to heat up C-ratios. 50 years ago. We were all young and dumb.

Thank you for this well-organized presentation of a battle that isn't widely discussed. It's great to see Sherman tanks dishing it out for a change.

Saying the Panther could penetrate the Sherman's armor at 2000 meters is meaningless. While that meant something on the vast grasslands of the Russian steppes where kills could be made at great distances the terrain in the west was different and the average distance on the long side was 350 to 750 meters. For this reason tactics were much different, and great numbers of Allied tanks worked together at close range to take out the German heavies.

While stationed at Ft Knox I went to an Armor conference. Patton's son, also a General officer, was the guest speaker. He mentioned that his father related to him that artillery won the war and provided an anecdote that a formation of 100 German tanks massed and attacked. After a US DIVARTY 3 FFE mission on the enemy, only two German tanks were operable. This is why artillery is called King of Battle. Infantry is called the Queen of battle because the queen tells the King where to put his balls.

Everyone tends to forget that who fires first tends to win in tank battles. The defender usually gets to fire first. In most battles it was the M4 attacking dug in Panzers. Hence the higher casualties of American tankers. But as you can see in the battle of Aracourt, with the M4's defending the carnage was the other way.

6 tank kills from a Piper Cub, outstanding!

wow,, my dad a Master SGT. 4th Armored Division,, bronze star,nearly froze to death at Bastogne. Thanks Pop

Reading one of the comments, the "grizzled veterans" of the Fifth Panzer Army were the remnants of the 11th and 21st Panzer Divisions. The "inexperienced" troops were the newly constituted panzer brigades which had no business fighting the veteran Third Army. Had von Mantueffel, the 5th Panzer Army commander, had his way he would have dissolved the panzer brigades and distributed the troops amongst the veteran but depleted panzer divisions.

A Panzer is only as good as it's crew. Battles are not fought from tank spec sheets.

This was also at a time Patton's crews were an experienced lot and a well-oiled machinery and the Germans were scraping the bottom of the barrel for crews and were forced to cut down on training to scramble whatever they could to fight a two-front war. The experienced crews were either dead, busy fighting on the Eastern Front or had to command these kids. Napoleon faced the very same problem following his 1812 campaign in Russia. While he could largely replace the losses in manpower he most definitely couldn't remedy the lack of experience in his fresh troops as the whole backbone of his battle-hardened and experienced Grande Armée lost 380,000 men by the time he left Russia. Many of those had been fighting with him since the glory days of 1800-1809. The point being. Inexperienced soldiers won't perform too well against seasoned veterans. Good equipment or not.