A heavily illustrated account of how the tanks of 4th Armored Division
defeated two panzer brigades over 11 days of battle at Arracourt.
September 1944: With the Allies closing in on the Rhine, Adolf Hitler
orders a counterattack on General Patton's Third Army in France. Near
the small town of Arracourt, France, elements of the US 4th Armored
Division met the grizzled veterans of the 5th Panzer Army in combat.
Atop their M4 Shermans, American tank crews squared off against the
technologically superior Mark V Panther tanks of the Wehrmacht. Yet
through a combination of superior tactics, leadership, teamwork, and
small-unit initiative, the outnumbered American forces won a decisive
victory against the 5th Panzer Army.
Indeed, of the 262 tanks and mobile assault guns fielded by German
forces, 200 were damaged or destroyed by enemy fire. The Americans, by
contrast, lost only 48 tanks. Following the collapse of the German
counterattack at Arracourt, General Patton's Third Army found itself
within striking distance of the Third Reich's borderlands.
The battle of Arracourt was the US Army's largest tank battle until the
Ardennes Offensive in December 1944. It helped pave the way for the
final Allied assault into Germany, and showed how tactical ingenuity and
adaptive leadership can overcome an enemy's superior size or
technological strength.
