6. Panzer Armee
The army staff only had recently been formed, on September 24, around the remnants of XII. Armeekorps destroyed in July near Minsk, with the addition of members of the staff of the Wehrmacht command for Belgian and northern France and from the Waffen SS. SS-Oberstgruppenführer ‘Sepp’ Dietrich assumed command of the army upon its activation.
LXVII. Armeekorps
The corps staff originated on September 24, 1942, as LXVII Reservekorps for overseeing reserve divisions in the West and its headquarters were in Brussels. On January 20,1944, it became LXVII. Armeekorps and as part of 15.Armee spent the year in France and the Netherlands. The corps commander was Generalleutnant Otto Hitzfeld.
272. Volks-Grenadier-Division
The former 272 Infanterie-Division was badly mauled in Normandy and what remained was set to Döberitz and included in the 575. Volks-Grenadier assembling there since August. On September 17 this was redesignated 272.Volks-Grenadier-Division. Its Stu.Gesch.Kp.1272 was equipped with the Jagdpanzer 38(t) at Milowitz. The Division left Döberitz at the beginning of November and took over part of the West Wall in the Monschau area, where the end of the month it came under increasing pressure from V Corps of the First Army driving from the Rur (Roer) dams.
362.Volks-Grenadier-Division
The Volks-Infanterie-Division had been destroyed in Normandy and, on September 4, 1944 a new 326.Volks-Grenadier-Division was created by giving the number to the 579.Volks-Grenadier-Division assembling at Kaposvar in Hungary. It was moved to the Eifel in November and stationed near Gerolstein. The original intention was for it to attack with the LVIII. Panzer-Korps of 5.Panzer-Armee, but as it was insufficiently mobile-being some 400 horsesshort, besides vehicles-it became part of LXVII. Armee-Korps with the 6.Panzer-Armee on the northern wing of the attack where less distance had to be covered, assembling in the Kall area on December 10. Its Stu.Gesh.Kp. 1326 was equipped with Jagdpanzer 38(t) at Milowitz.
I.SS-Panzerkorps
The corps was formed on July 27, 1943, in Berlin Lichterfelde. It served on the southern sector of the Eastern Front until in the end of year and was then transferred west to take command of the 1.SS-Panzer-Division and 12.SS-Panzer-Division. It was heavily involved Normandy battles and the subsequent withdrawal across France. SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Preiss had taken command of the corps during the refitting period just before “Wacht am Rhein’.
277.Volks-Grenadier-Division
the 277.Infanterie-Division had been badly battered in Normandy and its remnants moved to Hungary and incorporated in the 574.Volks Grenadier-Division assembling in the Budapest area since August. The change of number 277 took place on September 9. On November 5 the division left Budapest for the West to take over part of the West Wall in the Losheim area. It was to experienced difficulties in moving into the assembling area during the two nights preceding the offensive: one of its battalions was not relieved in the line as planned, and the attack had to go ahead without it. Krämer considered the division to have been at eighty percent strength. Its Stu.Gesch.Kp.1277 was equipped with the Jagdpanzer 38(t) at Milowitz and could field six assault-guns on the eve of the offensive.
12.Volks-Grenadier-Division
As 12. Infanterie-Division, before it was merely re-designated 12.Volks-Grenadier-Division on October 9, 1944 it had fought with distinction in Poland, France and on the Eastern Front before being transferred to the West in September, where it had fought on the Aachen sector. It was withdrawn from the battle sone near Jülich and Düren during the night of December 2 for a brief rest and refit near Blankenheim. When it moved into the assembly area near Scheid it was estimated by Krämer as having been at eighty percent strength. According to the division’s commander Generalmajor Gerhard Engel, the rough number of assault guns received by its Stu.Gesch.Kp. 1012 at Mielau amounted to six StuGs. An experienced division, in good shape, it was regarded by 6.Panzer-Armee as the best of that armies infantry Division.
3.Fallschirmjäger-Division
Formed in France in October 1943, it fought in Normandy the following summer and suffered heavily around Saint-Lô and in the Falaise pocket. During October it was withdrawn to Oldenzaal in Holland for refitting; most of the replacement troops being Luftwaffe ground personnel. With the promotion of its famous commander, Generalmajor Richard Schimpf, the division was taken over by Generalmajor Walther Wadehn. As few of the replacements had any experience of fighting infantry as infantry, this created a considerable headache for its newly-assigned officers. The new Chief-of-staff had no idea of what was involved in ground operations, which meant that the Chief-of-staff of I.SS=Panzerkorps, to which the division had been assigned, had to ask 6.Panzer-Armee for his immediate replacement by someone who did! On the eve of December 16 the division have been able to move only two regiments into this assembly area near Hallschlag and launched its attack with them alone; the third coming up the following night. According to Krämer the division was at seventy-five percent strength and had no assault-guns.
12.SS-Panzer-Division ‘Hitlerjugend’
Formed as a panzergrenadier division in July 1943 and re-designated a panzer division in October, it first went into action June 7 in Normandy and was heavily engaged in the vicinity of Caen, becoming one of the rearguard which fought to keep the Falaise Pocket from being closed. Having suffered considerable losses in Normandy and the subsequent withdraw across France, the division was ordered to the Suligen area un the north-west Germany for rest and refitting. Its well-known commander, SS-Oberführer Kurt Meyer, nicknamed ‘Panzermeyer’, had been taken prisoner during the retreat in September and SS-Standartenführer Hugo Kraas took over the division on November 9.
When the division moved into the assembly area near Sistig, according to Chief-of-staff of 6. Panzer-Armee. SS-Brigadeführer Fritz Krämer, it was at ninety percet strength in manpower and eighty percent in equipment. On December 10 its SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 consisted of: I. Abteilung with thirty-eight Panthers and thirty-nine panzer IVs; standing in for II. Abteilung was Schwere-Panzerjäger-Abteilung 560 with about twenty-five Jagdpanzer IV/70s and one company of of Jagdpanthers. The division’s SS-Panzerjäger-Abteilung 12 had twenty-two Jagdpanzer IV/70s.
1.SS-Panzer-Division ‘Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler’
Formed as a motorized division in 1941 from the expansion of elements of Hitler’s bodyguard unit, which had served in Poland, and the West, it fought in the Balkans and the suothern section of the Eastern Front, being designated a panzer division while in France during the later half of 1942. Except for a brief period in Northern Italy (August-October 1943) it remained on the Eastern Front. Heavily engaged west of Kiev, it was transferred to belgium for rest and refitting in the spring of 1944. It was then angaged against the invasion sustaining heavy losses in the Normandy battles-including Mortain-and the withdrawal from France, and was refitted near siegburg in Westphalia in November. The young conscripts for this once hand-picked elite formation were described by the commander of its SS-Panzer-Regiment 1 as ‘pretty good considering the standard replacements assigned at that time’. According to Krämer, when the division moved to its assembly area near Stadtkyll it was almost ninety percent strength in man-power and eighty percent in equipment. On December 10 the I. Abteilung of SS-Panzer-Regiment 1 could field thirty-seven Panthers and thirty-four Panzer IVs, and Schwere-SS-Panzer-Abteilung 501, attached in the absence of the panzer regiment’s II. Abteilung, could field fifteen Tiger IIs. The division’s SS-Panzerjäger-Abteilung 1 possessed ten Jagdpanzer IV/70s. A further thirty Tigers were in the process of being delivered, and it could be that half of them reached them actually reached the front, as the situation map for December 17 show thirty Tigers with the division.
II.SS-Panzerkorps
Created in July 1942 as the SS-Panzer-Generalkommando, it became knows as II.SS-Panzerkorps in July 1943 . The corps served on the Eastern Front during the Kharkov and Kursk battles and moved to Italy in the summer of 1943. Then after a period in France, it moved east again to the Tarnopol area in April 1944. With the Allied landings in Normandy it was hurredly ordered west to face the invasion and subsequently withdrew to Germany in autumn, Its commander was SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Bittrich.
2.SS-Panzer-Division ‘Das Reich’
A motorized infantry division formed during the winter of 1940-41 from the bulk of SS-Verfugüngstruppe-Division, it fought in the Balkans and on the central sector of the Eastern Front, becoming a panzergrenadier division in November 1942 whilst in France during the second half of that year. It took part in the recapture of Kharkov in March 1943 and the battles in the south, it was withdrawn to France for rest and refit in February 1944 after suffering heavy losses west of Kiev, having been designated a panzer division the previous October. after fighting in Normandy, its extraction from the Falaise Pocket and withdrawal across Fance had brought it to the Schnee Eifel area, behind the West Wall, and it had to be refitted again near Paderborn in the autumn. According to Krämer, when it moved into its assembly area near Satzvey the division was up to eighty percent of its designated strength
On December 10 its armored regiment, SS-Panzer-Regiment 2, comprised: I.Abteilung, fifty-eight Panthers; II.Abteilung twenty-eight Panzer IVs and twenty-eight Sturmgeschütz. The division’s SS-Panzerjäger-Abteilung 2 reported twenty Jagdpanzer IV/70s Operational.
9.SS-Panzer-Division ‘Hohenstaufen’
Formed at the beginning of 1943 as a panzergrenadier division, it completed its assembly and training in nort-east France and became a panzer division in October 1943. It was moved to the Ukraine in March 1944 and fought in the Tarnopol sector, then June was ordered to return to France with II.SS-Panzer-Korps to counter the Allied invasion of Normandy. After the retreat it was only twenty percent of its normal composition early in September when quartered in Arnhem, yet shortly afterwards it played a major part in defeating the Allied airborne landings. From October it was reorganized and refitted near Münsteeifel, and according to to Krämer was at seventy-five percent when it was mustered to the south in its assembly area in Schönau.On December 10 the operational strength of its SS-Panzer-Regiment 9 was I.Abteilung, thirty-five Panthers and twenty-eight StuGs; II.Abteilung thirty-nine Panzer IVs and twenty-eight StuGs. The division’s SS-Panzerjäger-Abteilung 9 reported twenty-one Jagdpanzer IV/70s.
Assault Units
The 6. Panzer-Armee was assigned two assault gun brigades, Stu.Gesch.Brig.394 and Stu.Gesch.Brig.667; and assault gun battalion, Stu.Pz.Abt. 217, equipped with the Sturmpanzer IV ‘Brummbär’;and a battalion of towed anti-tank guns, the Pz.Jg.Abt.(mot.Z) 683.
Needless to say, even the favored Waffen SS army units could not expect to receive units at full strength. On December 17 the two brigades could only field eight StuGs between them, and the battalion only eight Brummbärs, although December 25 the situation had improved somewhat, in that the two brigades had then twenty-five StuGs between them.
Other units assigned later were: two battalions of Tigers, Schwere-Panzer-Abteilung 506 and Schwere-Abteilung (FK1) 301, and one of Panzerjägers, Schwere-Panzerjäger-Abteilung519, equipped with Jagdpanthers. On December 17 the two panzer battalions could field twenty-two Tigers and Schwere-Panzerjäger-Abteilung 519 twenty-one Jagdpanthers and Stugs.
Artillery
Apart from the artillery with its nine divisions 6. Panzer-Armee had the following units placed under its command:
a) three volks-artillerie corps-
Volks.Art.Korps. 338,Volks.Art.Korps. 402 and Volks.Art.Korps. 405
b) three volks-werfer brigades-
Volks.Werf.Brig.4, Volks.Werf.Brig.9 and Volks.Werf.Brig.17;
c) four heavy mortar batteries-
Mörs.Bttr. 1110, Mörs.Bttr. 1098, Mörs.Bttr. 1120 and Mörs.Bttr.428;
d) one heavy battery of heavy artillery-
Fest.Art.Bttr.1123
This gave the army a total of 685 guns, though only 180 of there were 150mm or over, and 340 rocket launchers of which 214 were 150mm, 108 were 210mm and 18 were 300mm.
Engineers
Again, comparatively well off, 6.Panzer-Armee was alloted these additional units:
a) three engineer battalions-
Pi.Btl.73, Pi.Btl. 253 and Pi.Btl.62;
b) two construction engineers battalions-
Baupionier-Btl. 798 and Baupionier-Btl.59;
c) one bridge building battalion-
Pi.Brück.Btl. 655;
d) five bridging columns equipped with Brückengerät B-
Brücko 602, Brücko 2/406, Brücko 1/403, Brücko 967 and Brücko 968
e) four bridging columns equipped with Brückengerät J-
Brücko 895, Brücko 844, Brücko 851 and Brücko 175
Four Regiments of OT-Brigade 4 were also allotted to it.