Soviet Russia s T-34 Tank: The Story of a Rugged WWII Armored Vehicle
The Soviet T-34 tank played a crucial role in defense and later spearheaded the drive toward Berlin in the final months of World War II.
Here s What You Need to Know: Over 64,000 T-34s were built during the war.
December 1941 was a dark month and the end of a dark year for the Soviets as the Germans pressed ever onward toward Moscow, the lair where Joseph Stalin and his minions plotted what to do next against the Nazi juggernaut that had, in a few short months, rolled over everything before them. Poland had been taken, and then Denmark and Norway, and then Belgium and France had fallen to the Germans, who now had advance units reportedly within eyeshot of the Kremlin. The German commanders were confident. They had never tasted defeat at that point, and a December 4 intelligence report stated flatly that the Soviets were simply not capable of “conducting a counter-offensive without significant reserves.” U
The death throes of the Third Reich were not pretty and took many lives.
Key Point: Berlin was doomed, yet they continued to resist. Here is how Nazi Germany finally came to its brutal end.
In January 12, 1945, Hitler received the news he had been dreading the Soviet Red Army had launched its winter offensive. He wasted no time. Within four days Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, commander in chief West, received the following order: “CinC West is to withdraw the following formations from operations [they were still involved in the Battle of the Bulge] immediately and refit them: I SS Panzer Corps with 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte and 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend; II SS Panzer Corps with 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich and 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen. Last day of refitting is 30th January. Reinforcements will be provided under the authority of the SS Supreme Operations Office.”
American Glider Troops at the Battle of the Bulge
U.S. glider troops fought tenaciously to hold the crossroads town of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.
Here s What You Need to Know: Marvie is a quiet town nestled in the Ardennes region of southern Belgium. A farming village with a population of several hundred people, history has almost forgotten the town, but on one day in December 1944, Marvie lay astride a road that led to another town Bastogne. If the German panzergrenadiers and tanks had overrun the glider infantrymen who defended Marvie, they might have taken Bastogne, and the history of the Battle of Bulge would have been radically different.
Operation Stösser was launched during Germany’s last gamble:
Wacht am Rhein (Operation Watch on the Rhine), Hitler’s offensive in the West which Americans know as the Battle of the Bulge, had as its ultimate objective the Belgian port of Antwerp. Recently captured, it was under repair to be reopened as a deep-water port.
When Antwerp was serviceable, the Allies would be able to bring supplies and reinforcements quickly to the front lines instead of transporting them across France from the Channel ports. To reach Antwerp, the German Army would push through the Ardennes Forest. An armored spearhead would attack in the Eifel plateau region of western Germany, lying between the Rhine and Moselle Rivers and the Luxembourg and Belgian frontiers.