PANZER LEHR AT NORMANDY
Introduction:
The Panzer Lehr Regiment (‘Lehr’ meaning ‘instruction or more precisely ‘demonstration’) came into being in 1938 at the Armored Training School, Wünsdorf, near Berlin. Units took part in the Polish campaign of September 1939 with 3. Panzer Division and in France the following summer. In Autumn of 1940 the regiment comprised:
I. Abteilung: 1. to 4. Kompanie (tanks)
II. Abteilung 5. to 8. Kompanie (tanks)
III. Abteilung 9. to 12. Kompanie (anti-tanks)
During the summer of 1941 the regiment was dispersed between several units to take part in the capaign against Russia. On December 30, 1943, orders were issued from OKH which transferred to France the training regiments of Panzertruppenschule I (Bergen) and Panzertruppenschule II (Krampnitz) with its HQ to form the basis of the Panzer Lehr Division, which was destines to become one of the most powerful panzer divisions in the German Army.
Concentrated in eastern France at Nancy, Verdun and Luénville, the division was placed under Generalmajor Fritz Bayerlein, who had been Rammel’s cheif-of-staff in North Africa. Its tank regiment was equipped in Berlin; regimental headquarters stemming from the HQ of Panzertruppenschule II, and the regiment’s II. Abteilung from training school’s I. Abteilung. The inclusion of a company of Köningstigers was envisaged, and pressure was brought to bear for the repair company to be brought up to strength. If equipment was somewhat slow in arriving, intensive working up was begun under Oberst Gerhart after the first training exercise on February 5, 1944.
On March 6, 1944 the division received orders to take part in Operation Margarethe which was intended to prevent Hungary from breaking off its alliance with Germany. The division played its part in the swift occupation of Hungary culminating with a show of force in the capital of Budapest. Thereafter it made the most of its stay in Hungary by pursuing its training program and even staged maneuvers in the Carpathian mountains on March 27.
On April 2, units were given their divisional designations, and thus the panzer regiment officially became Panzer Lehr Regiment 130. Orders for the division to transfer to France were received on April 29 and the move took place between May 1 and May 6. Seventy trains were required, and the division re-assembled between Chartres and La Mans in the vicinity of Illiers and Nogent-le-Rotrou.
TO THE FRONT
At 2:30 a.m. (U.T.C. +01:00) on the night of June 6 the Panther battalion (to which the regiment’s company of radio-controlled detonation vehicles were attached) was being loaded onto railway wagons. Some of the trains had already set off for Poland, when all of them were suddenly recalled. Having been told to stand by, no orders to move were given to the remainder of the regiment. By midday the men who had been killing time standing around their tanks were beginning to to grumble at the lack of action. It was only at 17:00 (5pm) that General Dollmann, the commander of 7. Armee, gave the orders for them to get under way, the Panzer Lehr Division having become part of his command, but by then twelve hours had been lost.
The division took five different routes to Normandy. The vehicles were covered with branches but no form of camouflage could conceal the clouds of dust that rose from the armored columns, and it was an atmosphere of impending attack that the Panzer Lehr Regiment moved forward. A little before nightfall the first air raid warning came. The crews scoured the sky north. Suddenly fighter bombers (nicknamed Jabos by the Panzertruppen) swept down over the thickets and hedges. A Flakvierling 38 opened up and there was an explosion somewhere ahead. The column got underway again and passed a ‘Jabo’ that had been brought down, its fuel tank blazing and ammunition exploding. A Kübelwagen had been hit and, two men killed, plus the Flak gunner.
Towards midnight there was a halt for the tanks to refuel and give the engines a chance to cool. After an hour’s break the ritual word of command was given: ‘Panzer Marsch!’ and the column pressed forward into the night. at 05:00 however, when the column stopped for another breather, there were still fifty kilometers to be covered to reach the sector of the front for which the regiment had been allotted. To wait for the cover of darkness meant having a further day’s delay so about half an hour later the tanks moved off once more. Several times Allied jabos swarmed down … and vehicles went up in flames … and by 18:30 (6:30pm) that evening the division’s losses during its move from south of Chartres to Normandy were alarming. The Panzer Lehr Regiment had lost five tanks.
Allied men admire the handiwork of a fighter-bomber; a knocked out Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf.A Panther belonging to Panzer Lehr Regiment laying in a bomb crater. The toll caused by fighter-bombers became more and more routine for the Germans as Allied air superiority had control of the skies over France. This photo was taken to the west, just outside of Saint- Lô, 8.8.44
To be continued…