Shermans vs Panthers: Four Days of Hell

It’s November the 4th, 1944, and the US 28th Infantry Division is trapped in a meat grinder deep in the Hürtgen Forest. Major Robert T. Hazlett watches in horror as he sees a German Panther power out of the Hurtgen forest and roll towards a foxhole with his men inside. Hazlett shouts to warn his men but the Panther’s tracks roll over the hole and keep going. Hazlett grabs his radio and orders everyone to fall back immediately. If they're going to survive this, they're going to need reinforcements and American armor. A mile away, nine Sherman tanks from the 707th Tank Battalion are drowning in mud, fighting their way through the forest. Platoon Leader Lieutenant Raymond Fleig, rides atop the lead Sherman. Suddenly his tank lurches with a huge blast underneath it. Inside there is shouts and confusion. They realise they have hit a German mine. Fortunately, no one is injured, but now the lead tank is stuck in the mud, blocking everyone else on a narrow path. Thinking quickly, Fleig orders for a tow cable and gets his platoon sergeant to strap the next tank in line to the crippled Sherman, using it as an anchor. The tank slowly goes around, and almost slides down the gorge, but the cable holds. They manage to get one tank around the disabled Sherman. The rest of the Shermans are going to take forever to be freed and out of the mud. Fleig knows he can’t wait around. He climbs onto the operable Sherman, orders its commander to stay with the remaining tanks and catch up once they can. He slams the hatch shut and the lone Sherman churns off. Back on the front, without armor support Hazlett leads his battered infantry as they pull back into a village. In the distance a 45-ton Panther lurches forward, followed by a column of Panzer IVs. It's at that moment that Hazlett hears another engine right behind him. It’s an American Sherman that rolls into view, covered in mud, branches, and scraps of forest. Hazlett runs to the tank and points toward the many Panzers on the rise. Fleig is vastly outnumbered, but he nods grimly and the Sherman surges forward. Inside a German Panther, its commander scans the American positions ahead. The infantry are scattered in foxholes, and in the village. They are worn out and exposed. He orders the driver to accelerate and charge the enemy to take out the village. The driver pushes the pedal and the Panther advances. Two hundred yards away, Fleig brings his Sherman up onto the crest and sees the Panther’s long 75 millimeter gun pointed towards the retreating American infantry. Its side is open. It’s a perfect shot. Fleig gives the enemy position to the gunner. “Gunner, shot, tank, two hundred!” Target sets on the Panther. "Fire!" The Sherman fires. The shell cuts through the cold air and hits heavily into the Panther’s side with a bright flash. But there is no penetration. Just a thud. The Panther stops. Fleig snaps out the next order. "Again! Fire!" The second round hits. But still there is nothing. Fleig is confused. Then he hears the loader telling him: "What is going on?" There are only high explosive shells in the ready rack. Chill runs down Fleig’s spine. In the chaos of the mud trail, he switched into another Sherman, and the previous commander loaded high-explosive shells in the ready rack, not armor-piercing. "Get me AP, move!" The loader reaches for the sponson rack to grab the AP rounds, but his hands begin to shake. "I can’t get to AP, sir! The turret’s in the way!" It’s the worst possible scenario. To reach the armor-piercing rounds, they have to move the turret away from the target in the middle of a tank battle. Instinctively, Fleig orders the gunner to turn it. Every second feels deadly. His eyes are locked onto the enemy’s muzzle brake. Then, something strange happens. The Panther’s hatches open. Inside the Panther, panic is breaking out. Stunned by the two heavy hits, the crew think the tank is about to burn. The Germans scramble out expecting fire or ammunition cooking off inside. But there is no flames. No signs of penetration. The German commander grabs his binoculars and looks for the enemy. It’s then he sees the Sherman with its turret traversed. The American tank has hit them but with wrong ammunition. Evacuating was a terrible mistake. They've lost the advantage. Back in! Back into the tank! It was a high-explosive shell! The Panther crew scrambles aboard again, all the while under fire from the American infantry. Their mistake buys Fleig a few precious seconds. The turret finally comes to a halt. Now the loader can quickly grab the sponson rack. He hauls up armor-piercing rounds as fast as he can, clinging to them as his life depends upon it. At the same time, the Panther’s turret begins to swing toward them. Inside the German tank, the driver revs the engine to build hydraulic pressure. Inside Fleig’s Sherman, the gunner fights to bring his own gun back to position. The two steel war machines turn their turrets together in a race to get their guns on target. The loader slams the M61 armor-piercing shell into the breech. "Up!" But the Panther gets there first. "Fire!" Its s high-velocity 75mm shell that emerges from a cloud of fire. It flashes across the gap and whistles just over Fleig’s turret. It’s missed. The German commander gasps. They are left with a vulnerable side open to enemy fire. The Panther begins to turn and its turret follows, rotating slower than the hull was turning. The Sherman gunner has the Panther in his sights. He fires. The shell streaks in and smashes into the Panther’s gun barrel, splitting it clean apart. For a moment, nobody in Fleig’s tank can believe it. An impossible, lucky shot. Inside the Panther, the commander shouts for another shot, but his order is met by a pale face from the gunner. "The barrel is gone.” The German "Big Cat" is now a toothless wreck. "Oh my God... Fleig doesn’t give them time to recover. "Hit it again!" The armor-piercing round tears into the Panther’s hull. Then another. The left side rips open and flames burst out. The German tank catches fire. None of the crew escape the inferno. Fleig’s men cheer, but he’s already looking past the burning wreck. Three Panzer IVs are coming up behind it. They spread out and start forward. If Fleig is going to survive this, he has to fire faster than the Germans. "Gunner, shot, tank, one eighty!” The gun swings to the nearest Panzer IV. “Fire!” The shell punches straight through the German tank and knocks it out in a single blow. The Panzer IV is nowhere near as resilient as the Panther. The Sherman shifts to the next target. But this time the Germans aim faster. The Panzer gun fixes on the Sherman. But another shell slams into that Panzer and blows it apart. Through the smoke over the crest of the hill two mud-covered Shermans emerge. It’s Fleig’s tanks and they are finally here to the rescue. For the first time in the morning, Fleig lets himself smile. Now they have the upper hand. The last Panzer IV swings its turret and tries to fire on the move. But the shot goes wide. That is its last chance. Fleig’s gunner steadies, fires, and sends a round straight through the turret. The Panzer IV dies where it stands. With the Panther burning and the lead Panzers knocked out, the German attack begins to falter. Smoke goes out, engines reverse, and the surviving tanks pull away from the American positions. Fleig tracks a backing Panzer IV. It turns, throws mud from its tracks, and disappears into the smoke. Miles away, an escaping Panzer rattles into the command area of the 116th Panzer Division. Generalmajor Siegfried von Waldenburg listens to the report. Several Panzers and a Panther are lost. “How many?” "Three Sherman tanks, sir." It's an unexpected defeat. Enemy tanks are few. But they might get reinforcements. The Americans must be eliminated, and he can’t hesitate. He orders to send all the remaining Panzers in their direction and burn everything to the ground. The German tank engines cough to life in the mist and thirteen Panthers begin moving towards the village, followed by Panzer IVs and infantry. The Germans settle onto the far slope and take up their positions, just outside of bazooka range. Their tanks cover the infantry and keep firing towards American positions in the village. For the Americans, reinforcements are scarce. But M10 tank destroyers led by First Lieutenant Turney W. Leonard from the 893rd Tank Destroyer Battalion arrive on the scene. Fleig, Hazlett and Leonard get orders to start a counter attack. Despite their losses they formulate an attack plan. With the Germans positioned on the hill, and covered by trees Fleig decides to take his Shermans up the crest and draw fire. While all tanks are looking at him, Leonard is going to swing right and get behind their armor in his M10s. If they can take out the armor, they can then clear the way for the infantry. The morning brings fog and the M10 destroyers peel off to the right through the mist, heading the long way around. The three Shermans grind up towards the crest. Through the fog Fleig spots German armor on the opposite side, hidden between trees and hay. The Shermans are about to draw the fire of an entire German line. But Fleig pushes his doubts to the back of his mind and gives the order to target one of the Panzers in the middle. The shell screams over the field and bursts in the trees, right beside a Panzer. Immediately German crews scramble back into their tanks and hastefully look for the source of the fire. Muzzles flash as Panthers and Panzer IVs swing their turrets and begin firing upon the ridge. Shells whip low over the rise and smash through the branches, ripping apart tree trunks behind the Shermans. The enemy has taken the bait. "Driver, back us down! Now!" The Shermans drop behind the reverse slope, Just as they reach safety Fleig is already giving the next order. “Get back up, again!” All three Shermans work the same drill, climbing to the crest, firing fast, and dropping back behind the hill before the return fire lands. From the Germans' perspective they keep seeing flashes from different points on the crest. To them, it looks like the American armor is everywhere. “Concentrate all fire on that hill!” The Germans hammer the crest. Tank fire, mortars and artillery are crashing onto the ridge. One Sherman falls back, wrapped in smoke with the damaged turret that's stuck. The fire is becoming too heavy to handle. Across the field, Leonard's tank destroyers are desperately trying to get into position. The enemy tanks and infantry clearly don’t see them coming firing away at the Shermans. Their risky plan is working. They just need to get closer to surprise the enemy firing from the flank. Suddenly Leonard feels a strong jolt. He looks over the edge to see his M10 is now grounded on a stump or a rock. He looks left just as another M10 loses traction in churned mud. The whole flank attack starts to grind to a halt. Crews try to climb out, but the German infantry spot them almost at once. Mortars start falling around the American armor and their open turrets become deadly traps. Machine-gun fire snaps out from the tree line. Even stuck, the M10s are still powerful enough to kill German armor. But under such heavy fire, they can't acquire a target. “No eyes on target, sir!” Leonard grabs his binoculars and climbs out of his M10. “Get ready to fire!" "I’ll get you the eyes on target.” Bullets whip past him as he runs towards the nearest slope. Up the slope he sees Panzers screened behind hay, with firing lanes cut through them. Leonard turns and runs back. There’s a crack and he realises a bullet has hit him in the arm. He stifles a scream of pain, but pushes it down to keep moving. He staggers back to the American M10s and bangs the hull of the nearest one. "Haystack!" "Two hundred yards!" "Traverse right!" The M10's 3-inch gun swings and its cannon fires with a hard, flat crack. Leonard runs back again towards the Germans before the smoke clears. On the hill, the two remaining Shermans keep working the crest. Fleig looks right hopefully, expecting to see Leonard’s M10s getting into position. But instead, he sees them bunched up, only a couple of hundred yards away, they’re nowhere near the enemy line and they are not moving. Fleig can retreat from the hill and save what is left of his platoon. But if he does, every Panther and Panzer IV will turn onto the stranded M10s. If he can give them a fighting chance, he has to do that. “Those poor souls need our help…Maintain fire!” To his left a Sherman rolls up to take a shot. As it does it lingers just half a second too long. It's enough for a German gunner to get a target. The German shell bursts right in front of the tank. For a moment it looks finished. Then it backs down through the fire, still miraculously alive. But once it reaches the slope it stops. Inside the turret, the gunner grabs the manual traverse and tries to crank the gun around. There is nothing. The shock has jammed the turret ring. Now two of Fleig’s three tanks are crippled. Only his tank is fully operational, and he keeps it moving. He brings it up one more time and this time sees the side of a German tank through the smoke. “Gunner, AP, tank, six hundred.” “On the way!” The AP round streaks across the field and hits hard. The German tank jerks sideways and flames punch out of the hull. It’s another kill for Fleig, but he pays for it immediately. A returning shell strikes the ground, ricocheting up and slamming straight into a Sherman’s turret ring. His gunner yells through the bursts outside. “We’re jammed. I can’t traverse!” Now all three Shermans can’t fight back. Fleig throws one last glance toward Leonard’s M10s. His heart is in his mouth as he sees Leonard running from cover to cover between bursts of fire and directing the M10s upon the enemy positions. Then his hope turns to horror as he sees a mortar explode right next to his comrade. Leonard goes down hard. The blast shatters his left arm below the shoulder. Everything around him is a blur. He sees medics running up to him with morphine. One of them leans down and insists on moving him immediately. Leonard shakes his head. He knows the Germans are closing in. "Leave me a rifle and get the hell out of here!" It is the last time that anyone sees him alive. There is nothing more Fleig can do. “Pull back!” The Shermans back away from the crest and head for the shallow draw north, out of the direct line of fire. The Germans realize the American armor has yielded the ridge and begin their advance. Artillery, mortars, and tank fire sweep the field and the village from end to end. Behind the trees, Fleig stands behind his wounded Sherman and watches Hazlett as the last infantry pull back through the mud. Fleig has orders to destroy and cripple any Shermans that he leaves on the field. A crewman climbs onto Fleig’s Sherman with a hand grenade and a wire at the ready. But Fleig stops him. “Let me do it.” He takes the grenade and climbs onto the hull. Tying it to the hatch with a wire he reaches down into his Sherman’s turret for the last time. The men start down into the dark gorge and hear the dying explosions of their tank. The trees swallow them almost at once. The slopes are slick with mud and broken branches, so the men form a human chain, one hand on the shoulder or belt of the man ahead, feeling their way through the black forest. Then the enemy mortars find them. Shells crash into the gorge and rip through the retreating column. The men lose their grip and the chain breaks. One group is driven off into the underbrush and disappears in the darkness, never to walk out again. Around midnight, Lieutenant Fleig and six exhausted soldiers finally reach the American assembly area at Vossenack. Of the more than 2,200 men of the Bloody Bucket Division who go into the fight, little more than 300 make it out. Lieutenant Colonel Raymond E. Fleig survived the war and was awarded the Silver Star for his actions in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. Lieutenant Turney W. Leonard was posthumously given the Medal of Honor. His body was found in 1950 and returned to the US. He is buried in Dallas, Texas. Click here to see the last epic tank battle of the 20th century. It wasn't just a clash of steel, it was the ultimate showdown between American firepower and Soviet design.