Hans Von Luck - Panzer Commander

by Unknown

  “In the morning we were through and-for the momentsaved.” Lieutenant Hoeller, of No.8 heavy Company of Regiment 192, took part in the breakout. "We received orders to abandon our positions during the night of 19/20 August and break through in the direction of Trun. There was still a gap of 5 kilometers, in which only a few enemy patrols had been detected. For our battle-weary unit the withdrawal by night was almost superhuman.

  "The closer we got to the breakout point the more ghastly was 206 PANZER COMMANDER the scene that met our eyes. The roads were blocked by two or three shot-up, bumt-out vehicles standing alongside each other, ammunition was exploding, tanks were burning, and horses lay struggling on their backs until they were eventually released. In the fields far and wide was the same chaos. The enemy artillery fired into the turmoil from all sides; everything was pressing east. We had to pass through St. Lambert. There, a small operations staff had been set up; Panther and Tiger tanks of the SS divisions took the lead.

  "While the enemy fired nonstop into the village with antitank guns and artillery, we forced our way through regardless.

  Shot-up tanks and vehicles were pushed aside; many dead and wounded from previous breakouts lay by the side of the road. As far as room was available we took the wounded with us, or at least cared for them.

  "We jumped out of our armored personnel carriers to cover SS tanks that a number of enemy antitank guns had neutralized.

  "Two generals, whose infantry divisions had been wiped out, just shook their heads over our reckless attempt to break out. They marched with us.

  "During the night we made a brief stop, so that the men could rest and the wounded be attended. Through the vigorous thrust of the SS tanks the enemy sustained such heavy losses that they were unable to close the pocket even on the following day, 21 August. While the tanks held the gap open, more and more groups, some quite small, filtered through the hole to the east.

  We set a course by compass and marched off; we had escaped the infemo once again." In the afternoon of 21 August it was all over; the pocket was closed. How, if at all, could the men recover from this blood-letting and terrible experience?

  Precise figures for the chaos in the Falaise pocket are hardly possible. According to estimates, there were between 90,000 and 100,000 men in the pocket before the last gap was closed on 21 August. Despite urgent requests, Hitler had neglected to pull back our divisions in sufficient time. It is known that about 10,000 men were killed and that between 40,000 and 50,000 were able to break out. Some 40,000 men in the pocket were taken prisoner, including several GHQS and the remains of 15 divisions, mainly infantry. The fact that such a large number of men were able to escape from the pocket, and at once reassemble to offer resistance, showed their high level of training.

  The danger was not yet over.

  Retreat to Germany, August-November 1944 207 I eventually got through to the divisional commander, who told me, "The situation is completely out of hand. All that is known for certain is that General Patton had already reached Chartres, southwest of Paris, on 18 August, and the Seine near Fontainebleau on 21 August. According to unconfirmed reports he has been able to form two small bridgeheads there over the Seine.

  “From Chartres,” General Feuchtinger went on, "Patton has turned north with part of his army and is advancing on the Rouen area.

  No one seems able to stop him. We are now threatened with a new pocket south and west of the Seine, and all the bridges across it appear to have been destroyed.

  "I am authorized to bring Rauch's combat group and the panzer reconnaissance battalion, which lost almost all its materiel in the pocket, over the Seine at once and to move it to an area northeast of Paris, where it can be restored to strength.

  Divisional HQ will move even further east, probably to the region west of the Vosges, to establish a defensive position there and a reception line for the units withdrawing from southern France.

  “You, Luck,” continued Feuchtinger, "will take over all elements of the division that are still operational; these are to assemble northeast of Rouen. I no longer have any tanks, but you will get the last two patrols of the reconnaissance battalion.

  "If Montgomery now pushes forward vigorously, I don't give much for your chances of still being able to cross the Seine. In the first place, you will withdraw gradually in the direction of the Seine, where remaining elements of the engineer battalion will wait for you with the last pontoons.

  "From now on you are on your own. I can't tell you where you will get fuel, ammunition, and food. Help yourself. As to the route of your march to the east and its destination, where the division is to assemble, you will receive further orders before I move out.

  “All the best, Luck. Bring me back lots of men from our division.” On that decisive 21 August, my units were disposed for defense.

  On 22 August I disengaged from the enetny. Montgomery, thank goodness, did not vigorously follow. Quite the contrary, he operated very cautiously, without risking anything. That gave us a bit of leeway. The Allied air force could no longer intervene so specifically, for it was too difficult to tell friend from foe.

  On 23 August, we felt our way forward in the direction of Rouen, still unmolested by Montgomery's divisions. I was con cemed about Feuchtinger's report that on the same day Patton was advancing on Roden practically parallel to us. Who would get there Ifust, and how would we cross the Seine fast enough? Patton, however, according to our own reconnaissance, was not yet in evidence. Instead, we were joined by elements of an SS panzer division. We agreed to cross the river, with the help of the engineers, at one of the loops in the Seine west of Rouen.

  Not until after the war did I learn that Montgomery had drawn a new line of demarcation between the British and the Americans, which ran past Mantes on the Seine, west of Paris, far to the northeast via Amiens-Lille as far as Ghent in Belgium. This meant that Patton had to recall his elements advancing on Rouen and use them elsewhere.

  We were concerned at the time only with Monty, and he, for whatever reasons, was moving forward very hesitantly.

  When we reached the Seine, we covered ourselves to the south with the SS tanks, but all the makeshift Seine crossings were hopelessly overcrowded. Infantry supply units and parties of stragglers were competing there, sometimes with the use of force, for the few ferries.

  When we had chosen our crossing point we let no one else through. We intended to save our fighting vehicles and our men.

  While the engineers were constructing a pontoon ferry, every possibility was considered and tried for getting over the 400-meter wide river. Captain Krieger, my adjutant at the time, told me a few days later that he and his men had taken doors off their hinges in the neighboring villages and made them buoyant with empty fuel cans. F.ach of these mini-ferries was able to convey about eight men. Our collaboration with the SS tank people went well. I assured them that they would be carried over on our pontoon ferry last of all. We kept calm; the men waited quietly in the woods near our crossing point, until they were called. There was none of the hectic atmosphere of Rouen, to which the bulk of the troops had withdrawn in order to cross by a railway bridge that had remained intact.

  My HQ company had a VW amphibious car, which till then I had never used. I asked if it was serviceable. “It should float,” came the answer, “as far as we can tell.” Despite all the preceding hardships and the tense situation, I decided to cross in this car, as the last of my combat group.

  By 26 August, all elements of the group were over and issued with orders for assembling.

  Retreat to Germany, August-November 1944 209 During the night of 28/29 August we camouflaged the car with tree branches, to avoid being spotted and sunk by Allied fighters. In the morning I took the wheel, beside me my adjutant Liebeskind and behind us the driver and an observer.

  We soon found a flat spot and I drove cautiously into the river.

  “Watch out for leaks!” It floated. I let myself be carried downstream by the current. Liebeskind looked for a
spot where we could land. Carefully I nudged the car to the right to approach the opposite bank.

  “Fighters to the left!” cried our observer. I at once switched off the engine and let the “bush” drift downstream. The fighters seemed to take us for what we had intended by our camouflage, a bush. Liebeskind looked desperately for somewhere to land. But we were thwarted everywhere by steep banks and heavy undergrowth.

  Finally, after a river trip of almost 15 kilometers, we found a flat spot where we were able to drive ashore comfortably and unseen. An hour later we were with my combat group, which by then had almost given us up for lost.

  I made contact for the last time with our divisional commander, who briefed me on the situation and our task.

  "Luck, I'm glad you have managed to bring virtually the whole of your combat group safely over the Seine. The situation at the moment is completely out of hand. I was summoned to corps, but they had to leave their command post in haste because the Americans were coming. No one knows where our own units are, let alone those of the enemy. I received a clear order two days ago according to which divisional HQ, the hardhit units of Rauch's combat group and all supply elements are to be moved at once to the region of Molsheim, west of Strasbourg, to be restored to strength. The division is to form a prepared position as far west as possible for elements of the weak Ist and 19th Armies withdrawing from southern France via Belfort.

  "On 15 August, strong American elements landed in southern France; these are now pressing forward to the north.

  "As soon as you've got your group together and organized, you will march east, in order to reach the area west of Strasbourg as quickly as possible. Watch out that you don't fall into the hands of the Americans, who are now advancing over the Seine along a wide front. Where and how you will be able to organize fuel, ammunition, and food, I don't know. You will have to help yourself. All the best.

  We had only a little ammunition left, so we couldn't be drawn into any battles. It was a long way to the Strasbourg area; I figured a week at least, assuming we made good progress.

  To avoid being taken unawares by the,Americans pressing north, I issued the following orders: The two patrols of the panzer reconnaissance battalion were to reconnoiter south of my planned line of march and report every contact with the enemy by radio.

  Every 100 kilometers an officer with a radio set was to be posted at the most important road crossings, to report enemy movements.

  A supply party with the last three trucks and two SPWS (armored half-track vehicles) with radio were to search constantly for supply depots, which were bound to be located near large towns.

  The bulk of my combat group were to march east at wide intervals, in part along minor roads. I laid down our destination each day.

  We then set off, first swinging well north of Rouen and then east, passing well north of Paris. For the first two days we made only slow progress. We were marching parallel to the front and across the American line of advance. On the third day fuel became short. The supply party had been told to organize fuel without fail, but if possible also ammunition. In fact, the trucks turned up that evening, loaded with what was wanted; they even brought some food. We were all grateful to these men, who had after all managed to find a depot somewhere or other. The report from the officer responsible made us laugh, but also swear.

  “When we found the depot,” he told us angrily, “and demanded fuel for our combat group, we received the typical, impudent reply:”We can issue nothing without written authority.“ When I asked, ”And what will you do if the Americans get here tomorrow, which is highly likely?“ the answer was:”Then in accordance with orders we would blow the depot up." That made my men so angry that they advanced threateningly on the storekeeper. I had to restrain them.

  “Calmly but unmistakably I gave the bureaucratic gentleman Retreat to Germany, August-November 1944 211 my answer, ”If I don't have fuel, ammunition, and food within half an hour I can no longer be responsible for anything. So get on with it, get your stuff out.'" While our supply problem, thanks to my excellent search party, would be safe until we arrived in the prescribed concentration area, no danger, thank goodness, emerged on my right, southern flank.

  The Americans seemed to have no idea that a combat group was marching east in front of them, across their line of advance.

  Even the air force failed to show up. Only once did one of our two patrols report: “Contact with American patrol, which turned away, however, apparently without seeing us.” Via Compigne, where four years earlier Hitler had signed the armistice with France, we marched past Verdun in the direction of Metz. We were out of the actual battle area and made more frequent stops, to give the weary drivers a little rest and to assemble our units. Supply was now less of a problem, though the threat of force had to sometimes be used.

  While still some way -from Metz, we turned southeast in the direction of Nancy, and on via Baccarat. On 9 September, after an eleven-day march, we reached the prescribed area west of Strasbourg. We were all dead tired.

  We had been in action without a break for over three months. We needed rest and, urgently, replacements of men and materiel.

  The strength of my grenadier companies was down to 50 men.

  Our assembly area lay between the Vosges and Strasbourg, between the Maginot Line and the Western Wall. I let the men find billets in the surrounding villages and went in search of the divisional command post.

  The autumn sun still had some warmth. The Rhine valley lay peacefully below me as I ascended the winding road to the Vosges Highway. For more than four years the war here had been suspended. I met one of the division's supply vehicles. The driver thought divisional HQ must be somewhere on the western fringe of the Vosges. I had been unable to make contapt by radio.

  Suddenly a jeep with an army pennant drew up beside me. I saluted and found myself standing in front of General Hasso von Manteuffel, a “colleague” from the 7th Panzer Division, who in Russia in 1941 had commanded a grenadier regiment.

  “Luck, how nice to see you again after so long,” he greeted me.

  “What are you doing here?” I put him briefly in the picture and asked if he knew where our divisional HQ might be and what the situation was in general.

  “The situation, my dear Luck, is bloody awful. I too only got here yesterday from Belgium, to take command of the 5tii Panzer Army.” The picture Manteuffel gave me was not encouraging. "Before I left Belgium, Montgomery had taken the offensive with his Army group and, against weak resistance, had reached Brussels on the 3rd September and Antwerp on the 4th.

  "Far more dangerous, however, was the thrust of the Americans, General Patton, with his 3rd U.S. Army. It was Patton who managed to make the decisive breakthrough at Avranches and who then, without regard for his open southern flank, pushed vigorously to the east. I would almost call him the American Rommel. He has a high standing with Eisenhower, and in the U.S. he is feted as a hero. Statements from prisoners confirm this time and again.

  "By the end of August the Americans were being forced to pause; their supply lines from Cherbourg and several ports in Normandy were becoming too long. Since the beginning of September, however, the Americans have taken the offensive again: the First U.S. Army reached Mons on 2 September and took 30,000 prisoners. Patton, without regard for his right flank, has pressed forward the furthest; he's reached Verdun and is now advancing on Metz and Nancy, hence on the Moselle.

  "The 6th U.S. Army Group, including the Ist French Army, is approaching from southern France and is supposed to join up with Patton. The remains of our retreating armies from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coast are, it is true, still holding a wedge that extends as far as Dijon, but for how much longer?

  “The worst of it is,” Manteuffel went on, “Hitler is juggling with divisions that are divisions no more. And now,” ironically, and with a shake of his head, “Hitler wants to launch a tank attack from the Dijon area to the north, in order, as he likes to put it, 'to seize Patton in the fl
ank, cut his lines of communication, and destroy him.” What a misjudgment of the situation and the possibilities open to us." I was deeply disturbed.

  “What do you think should be done?” I asked Manteuffel.

  "Conduct a mobile defense here on the western slopes of the Vosges and to the west of Saarbruecken, in order to make the Western Wall defensible again, and to occupy it. That would offer a Retreat to Germany, August-November 1944 213 chance of delaying the enemy for a longer period of time. Here in the west we need time, to enable us to prepare for the Russian offensive.

  “But that, my dear Luck, is likely to remain an illusion. I wish you all the best; come through the last battle in one piece.” A handshake and he was gone.

  I was not to see Manteuffel again until long after the war.

  I eventually found divisional HQ. Feuchtinger was pleased that I had brought him back the combat group intact. I told him of my meeting with Manteuffel.

  “I'm glad to hear a little about the general situation,” he said. “Our division belongs to Manteuffel's 5th Panzer Army; but I haven't met him yet.”

  “First of all, something pleasant.” Feuchtinger beckoned to his adjutant. “In the name of the Fuehrer I have the honor and great pleasure to bestow on you the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.” Ceremonially he took the order from its black case and hung it around my neck; and, as if to order, someone was there with a camera. I had to “pose” with Feuchtinger.

  “The decoration has been here since August, but then, of course, you were still on the 'long march.” I had recommended you long ago for exceptional bravery and for your personal commitment in Normandy, especially in the defense against Monty's“Operation Goodwood' on July 18.” Someone was on hand with a glass of champagne. We drank, not to Final Victory, but to our all getting home safely after the war.