Battle of St. Vith

Started by besilarius, December 17, 2019, 09:06:54 AM

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besilarius

With the anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, here is a documentary on the key road junction, St. Vith.

Operation Wacht am Rhein, the surprise attack launched on Dec 16th, 1944, was Hitler's desperate gamble to shatter the Allied advance by striking with a Panzer fist through a "quiet"sector in the Ardennes Forest, northwest to the vital supply port of Antwerp. A linchpin of the offensive was the early seizure of the road and railroad crossroads of St. Vith on the first day of the offensive. The Battle at St. Vith shows how a hastily formed, ad hoc group of American units manged to delay an overwhelming Panzer force for five critical days before being forced to withdraw, dealing the German plan an insurmountable delay.

From the German side, you'll hear frustration in the voices of Von Runstedt's Chief of Staff, General Siegfried Westphal and General Hasso von Manteuffel, whose 5th Panzer Army was tasked with seizing St Vith, when they give lengthy reports on the battle. On the American side, you'll hear vivid accounts of an aggressive defense from Gen. Robert Hasbrouk, Commander of 7th Armored, Col Gusten Nelson (28th Infantry), Gen William Hoge (9th Armored), Colonels Oliver Patton & Thomas J Riggs (106th Infantry), and General Bruce C Clark, Commander Combat Command B, 7th Armored, who led the spirited deference of the St Vith perimeter. In a series of memorable face-to-face conversations, Generals Clark and Von Manteuffel compare notes on the battle . Among several first hand combat accounts, Lt Will Rogers Jr tells the dramatic story of his bazooka attack on a a German Panzer as part of "Task Force Jones" successful rearguard action. And don't miss rare late war footage of advanced German weaponry, including "King Tiger" tanks in action.

http://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com/STVITH.html

Be aware this video is only up for free through the end of December
"Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don't find out until too late that he's been playing with two queens all along".  Terry Pratchett.

During filming of Airplane, Leslie Nielsen used a whoopee cushion to keep the cast off-balance. Hays said that Nielsen "played that thing like a maestro"

Tallulah Bankhead: "I'll come and make love to you at five o'clock. If I'm late, start without me."

"When all other trusts fail, turn to Flashman." — Abraham Lincoln.

"I have enjoyed very warm relations with my two husbands."
"With your eyes closed?"
"That helped."  Lauren Bacall

Master Chiefs are sneaky, dastardly, and snarky miscreants who thrive on the tears of Ensigns and belly dancers.   Admiral Gerry Bogan.

JasonPratt

As much as I love the Battle of the Bulge, I had a weird moment when listening to Westphal (wow, they got him on this documentary back then!) talk about how they had been promised twenty fresh infantry and ten panzer divisions, and I had this {snorf} reaction like "really?"

That's because just today I was typing in my notes that on June 21st, 1941, there were one hundred and forty Soviet divisions pushed up to the border in the process of filling out (already significantly more than 3 million troops on the ground), with at least another seventy-seven divisions still on the move westward (plus proportionate numbers of unattached regiments and battalions and brigades in both cases, to help beef up divisions later upon corps and army command estimations), not even counting things in the backfield which weren't moving west at all yet (but which had plans to).

I'm not really sneezing at thirty crack (if young) Wehrmacht and SS divisions -- no one should -- but that's exactly what felt weird: I suddenly realized my sense of scale has been thrown entirely out of whack.  #:-)

Russia will do that to you, I guess.  :buck2:

And then my sense of scale flipped around the other way: the Germans had almost beaten that force (and its successors) anyway, and were RIGHT THAT MOMENT roadblocking a much more advanced Russian force at least equally strong -- and they STILL had thirty fresh and reasonably competent/equipped divisions they could hurl toward Antwerp, which caused us tons of trouble. (With one or maybe two whole armies in reserve that they didn't commit to Wacht Am Rhein but had to send eastward instead.)  :wow:
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
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Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
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besilarius

The odds were really hard to fathom.  It's hard to imagine that at some moment, the people seeing the intel reports weren't overwhelmed and discouraged.  The head of the Abwehr, Wilhelm Canaris, spent the majority of the war rushing around to stations and getting involved in minor affairs.  I've often wondered if that may have been his response to a recognition that ultimately the Reich was doomed to fail.
Jon Parschall, of Shattered Sword, did a comparison of the economic factors in the Pacific.  This shows how unrealistic it was for the Japanese to think of winning a war.

http://www.combinedfleet.com/economic.htm

Reading this, and some of Hitler's comments about the superiority of German blood, it came to me that Jeff Davis said much the same.  After Chattanooga, he visited some states to encourage them.  His message was that the moral superiority and superior lineage of the south would enable them to overcome the economic advantages of the north and its mongrel populace.
At a certain point, competent leaders have to come to grips with how things are going.  When they are failing, to keep the popular support, they cannot admit their efforts will not end in victory.
Intelligent people often ignore negative facts because they cannot face the reality of the situation.
"Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don't find out until too late that he's been playing with two queens all along".  Terry Pratchett.

During filming of Airplane, Leslie Nielsen used a whoopee cushion to keep the cast off-balance. Hays said that Nielsen "played that thing like a maestro"

Tallulah Bankhead: "I'll come and make love to you at five o'clock. If I'm late, start without me."

"When all other trusts fail, turn to Flashman." — Abraham Lincoln.

"I have enjoyed very warm relations with my two husbands."
"With your eyes closed?"
"That helped."  Lauren Bacall

Master Chiefs are sneaky, dastardly, and snarky miscreants who thrive on the tears of Ensigns and belly dancers.   Admiral Gerry Bogan.

JasonPratt

Yeah; though there are other ways to win wars than by absolute slugfests, and those examples all include another factor: the concept that the losers were sure they could annoy the other side into stopping the fight.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!