German tanks in the Battle of the Bulge.

[Fishmoto37]

:? Can anyone tell me why the germans used their heaviest and most fuel hungry tank in this attack? Was the Tiger II all that they had left at the time? With so many streams to cross and depending on captured fuel to keep going it does not make sense! Would the Panther G have been a better option?

[Imperious Leader]

That was Hitlers idea. His generals advised against it. They preferred faster moving armor.

[HBG]

Yes, Hitler’s idea or" “Hitler’s last gamble”
I love the Panther, their 75L70 was a high velocity gun, they were fast, well armored.

[Imperious Leader]

Jochen Peiper particularly hated having them at the Bulge because of their fuel consumption and it was overkill. His tanks were already better than American tanks. His spearhead needed as much economy of force as possible so as not to burden the road system, which was poor in this area.

Hitler always had this fixation. He delayed Kursk for months because he felt having 50 or more Elephants would be decisive.

[HBG]

Too bad the Elefants could not fight with the T34’s at short range, and no machine gun to warrant off all the Russian Infantry.

[Panzer Leader]

In this WW2 game I have, that is supposed to be historically accurate, it shows that the German forces at the Battle of the Bulge were made up with around 50 Tiger 2 tanks, 250 Panzer IV tanks, and around 350 (Panzer V) Panther tanks.
The Panthers are broken down into Panther D and Panther G. Some 100 other tanks were StuG III, Marders and Jagdpanzers. They also had around 200,000 men but they were mostly Civil Grenadiers and not that experienced.

Also check out a book called ““Nuts” - The Battle of the Bulge”, tons of information. “Nuts” was the one word reply from the American commander at Bastogue, direct to the German Commander’s demand for their surrender.
Link: http://www.tower.com/nuts-battle-bulge-story-photographs-donald-m-goldstein-paperback/wapi/100198280

In that game when you play as the Allies, it always comes down to the Tiger 2 tanks being difficult to destroy. You have to use bombers to soften them up and stress them out, and then you run around them trying to run them out of fuel so they are stuck. Then you use your M4A3 -76mm Shermans and some M26 tank destroyers to engage head to head, and finish them off.
Operation Europe - an older game but quite fun trying the different historical battles scenarios.

[shintokamikaze]

they used every tank they could spare all makes and models,not like the movie,the king tigers were the spearheads