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Panzer Lehr Division inquiry (WWII Research Request)
Tiger Battalions! ^ | November 5, 2004 | Section9

Posted on 11/05/2004 7:15:28 PM PST by section9

I am doing research for a novel. One of the issues involves the Panzer Lehr Division. The 130th Panzer Lehr Division was made up of the premier units from the various demonstration and instruction units throughout Germany. It had a reputation as the most powerful Panzer formation in the German Army.

I have looked at several different OOB's for Panzer Lehr in the runup to Operation OVERLORD. Despite its reputation, and the assertion of several sources, I find that the 130th had no Tiger Battalion attached to it. If you look at the OOB for Panzer Lehr, you find that it had Funklenk-kompanie 316 attached to the Panzer Regiment 130, the divisions striking arm. The 316th had 5 of the early model King Tigers and three of the more commonly used Ausf. A model (you can tell the difference-a Tiger I looks like a jumped up verson of the Mark IV, with absolutely no angle to the armor. Tiger II looked like a Mark V Panther on steroids, but was a hanger queen and a gas hog). It also had an unknown number of Radio-controlled ("Funklenk") tanks, an experiment that had an uncertain amount of success in the Panzer arm.

Tiger I's were organized into organic battalions of about 45 Tigers at the direction of Heinz Guderian. The usual SchwerePanzerAbteilung (Heavy Tank Battalion) contained 3 Tigers for the Staff Platoon and 14 Tigers in each Kompanie. The Battalions usually had a designation that began with a "5", such as the SPzAbt. 505 (the "Black Knights").

Lehr Division was virtually destroyed during the breakout at St. Lo, and escaped the Falaise Gap with the rest of the Army Group B. It was reduced to a Kampfgruppen and rebuilt in time to see action in the Ardennes the following December. It's commander, Fritz Bayerlein, was a protege of Rommel's and was secretly very anti-Nazi.

So, forearmed being forewarned, I was wondering if any of you buffs out there know whether or not Panzer Lehr had a Tiger Battalion attached to it during the Normandy campaign. If not, then I'll simply have to use artistic license and graft one onto the Lehr Division-which does work because Tiger Battalions weren't permanently attached to any one division. Rather, they were shifted from division to division as the Army Group commander saw fit.


TOPICS: Books/Literature; History; Military/Veterans; Miscellaneous; Reference
KEYWORDS: normandy; panzers; pzkwvia; tigerbattalions
Any answers out there? ANY help along these lines would be appreciated.

Thanks again!

Be Seeing You,

Chris

1 posted on 11/05/2004 7:15:29 PM PST by section9
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To: section9

Dunno. Interesting question. Looks like you already know a lot more about it than I do. From what I've read, the Germans overbuilt later models of tank in a pointless attempt to match the Soviets, and the most reliable model (perhaps uncharacteristically) was the one they built the most of. Sooo, wild, uneducated guess, is that this division you mentioned eschewed the newer, larger models.

I just finished (read over a period of months, on the weekends) the old memoirs of Omar Bradley, "A Soldier's Story" (1951) and it's thick, goes into minute detail about a lot of things, and has an excellent index. Naturally he discusses St Lo, and the Falaise Gap, but I can't recall what German units he singles out (if any).

Hope this helps, and good luck with your novel.


2 posted on 11/05/2004 7:39:58 PM PST by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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To: SunkenCiv

Thanks. You're right about Lehr, as well as other divisions. The most reliable tank the Germans ever built was the Mark IV. However, it didn't have sloped armor, and got chewed up by the T-34, as well as the 85mm variant that the Russians introduced in 1943. Tiger I was a desperation move that began in the Summer of 1941 after the battle of Smolensk. T-34 made its appearance, and made short work of the Mark III's and the Mark IV's. The T-34 was only stopped by judiicious use of the 88 mm FLAK gun as an antitank weapon. The Mark V Panther was a well thought out model that is considered by most experts to be the finest tank of that war.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

3 posted on 11/05/2004 7:53:13 PM PST by section9 (Major Motoko Kusanagi says, "Jesus is Coming. Everybody look busy...")
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To: section9
Chris:

My data on Panzer Lehr is limited to the Ardennes campaign, but there were a few things I noted:

1) The division's command cohesion was phenomenal. Being destroyed during the Bulge was no kidding - their combat power was reduced to 54 tanks for the whole division, but they maintained their identity AS a division, largely due to Bayerlin's influences.

One ORBAT link I found was this:

Wacht am Rhein

It mentions Panzer Lehr's ORBAT down to the Brigade/Regiment level.

The division was formed on two Panzer-grenadier Regt's (901 PzGR and 902 PzGR), and one Panzer regiment (130 PzR). These were backed up by a tank destroyer formation (130 PzJgr), and a fairly large DIVARTY (130 PzArty and 130 FLAK Arty). These unit ID's might help you further.

Gute Jagd!

4 posted on 11/05/2004 7:55:22 PM PST by Old Sarge
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To: section9
According to Steel Inferno - 1st SS Panzer Corps in Normandy Michael Reynolds (Dell)pg 123

SS Major Hien Von Westernhagen 101st SS Heavy Tank Battalion (Tiger I's) arrived June 12 1944 from Beauvais. 27 men were killed in the move from air attack. Third Company with only one operational tank remained at Falise. First Company SS Captain Mobius with 9 tanks took up position near Noyers-Bocage behind the Hitlerjugend Division. SS Lieutenant Michael Whittman, famous German Tank ace with 119 kills (by April 1944) Commanded 2nd Company with 5 Tiger Ones. The Company took up Position Behind Panzer Lehr on
Point 213 (a hilltop)in a small wood. This is 2km NE of Villers-Bocage where he would make history the next day. (See Battle of Villers-Bocage) Five Tigers stopped the entire 7th Amormed Division with heavy British losses. Panzer Lehr had no Tigers of its own.
5 posted on 01/16/2005 12:31:29 AM PST by NetworkCharles (Thar' be Tigers.)
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To: section9
Chris,
It was not normal practice to have the Tiger battalions attached to panzer divisions in the German army, they were under the direct control of the relevant corps. In mid-war the ss attached their tiger battalions to the 1st and 2nd ss panzer divisions but even these had been separated by early '44. On rare occasions when a panzer division had its panther battalion detached it may have had a tiger battalion subordinated for a short period of time but as I said this was very rare.

For this reason it was quite normal that panzer lehr had no tiger battalion.

have a look at the following website under German OB
http://web.telia.com/~u18313395/normandy/index.html

Regards mark Andrews
6 posted on 01/24/2005 9:13:40 AM PST by lalevada
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