If a German panzer was hit by one of these destructive rockets they just broke up into pieces. RAF rocket firing Typhoon ground attack bombers came to the rescue. The sun came out and cleared away the low lying grey wintery February cloud. This task was practically impossible in the terrain they were fighting in. Sherman tank crews normally only had a slim chance of success if they could get around the flanks of these tanks at close range and fire at a weak spot in their side or rear armour. Their shells bounced off the 80mm frontal sloping armour of the Panther and the heavy 100mm armour of the Tiger. The short barrelled 75mm guns on the standard Sherman tanks could not knock out a Panther or Tiger tanks front on. This was the size of shell fired from the Panther Tank The defenders were very hard to knock out. The Sherman tanks were just picked off one by one. The Germans, although out-numbered, had chosen the locations where to ambush the advancing Canadians with care. The Sherman tanks of the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade had suffered a number of losses during the attack. This is where the main thrust of the attack went. It was cut in two by a valley called the Hochwald Gap. The forested Hochwald Ridge was the last defensive line before the town of Xanten. On the 27th February 1945 the Allied Operation Blockbuster started. The Germans had set up a number of defensive locations to slow down the Allied advance that they knew was coming. The Allies needed a way cross the mighty Rhine river to be able to advance into Central Germany and then on to berlin. The Canadians had been ordered to advance and capture the river bridge intact. The German town of Xanten was on the Rhine River.

Two Panther Tanks cover the Hochwald Ridge retreat So the sound of this tank, while being moved, is

After some problems with the HL 230Įngine and the lack of spare parts, the engine was replaced by a modern MTU Diesel. Also the original HL 230 engine was overhauled by MTU at Friedrichshafen. In the 1980's the commander of the Panzertruppenschule Some years later it was handed over to the Panzertruppenschule. It was given back to the Panzerlehrbrigade at Munster A Befehlspanzer tank was bought by Sweden in 1948 for trial purposes.

German Panzerkampfwagen V Panther Tank Ausf. Museum - Deutsches Panzermuseum in Munster, Germany. This German WW2 Panther Ausf A Medium Tank Sd.Kfz.171 can be found at the German Tank Preserved Panzer V Panther Tank Ausf A at the German Tank Museum Surviving German WW2 Tanks

Greatest tank battles hochwald gap