John recently lent me another WW2 memoir, this time 'D-Day Tank Hunter' by Hans Hoeller.
Despite its rather sensationalist title, it is actually an excellent memoir, up there with Hans Schmidt's 'With Rommel in the Desert'.
Leutnant Hoeller served as a Panzerjaeger with 21st Panzer Division in North Africa, Tunisia, Normandy and northwest Europe. He started with Pak 36s in Libya as an officer candidate, and worked his way up via Pak 28, Pak 40 and finally, self propelled Pak 40s on French halftrack mounts in a panzergrenadier battalion in the reconstituted 21st Panzer Div Normandy. After being promoted to Lt, he also commanded a panzergrenadier platoon in Tunisia in 1943 until he was wounded and evacuated, and was awarded the Iron Cross first and second class and was wounded several more times.
Although the accounts of Libya and Tunisia are interesting, his recollections of the NWE campaign are fascinating, particularly the tactical use of SP AT guns, which were frequently employed as ersatz assault guns, but were actually astonishingly effective, despite their mere bullet proof armour. I think many of our tactical wargames rules over obsess about armour thickness, and don't emphasise anything like enough about the importance of target location, acquisition and firing first in armoured combat.
An excellent read and well worth picking up or borrowing from the library.
I suppose the emphasis is largely on armour/survivability because tabletop games struggle so much with observation compared to fire combat resolution. It explains a lot of the issues to do with time too, I imagine.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think that is true. Many of the anti tank engagements described were one shot kills a close range (a couple of hundred yards max) then redeploy. The 'assault gun' role was more entertaining, direct fire HE, multiple rounds and a certain amount of jockeying between shots. His platoon of three halftracks fought almost continuously from 6th June right until September, by which time 21st Panzer was back on the Frontier. They lost two on the way, one to artillery fire and one to direct AT fire and both were completely destroyed when hit. I think a loss rate of one vehicle every two months might have the average gamer tearing their hair out! In contrast, two thirds of his platoon in Tunisia were killed or wounded in a single attack, despite being supported by tanks.
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