Armor in Normandy : the Germans : June-August 1944

'It's our history'

With mini guides, discover the past that made the present.

Whether you are visiting a battlefield or just interested in learning more from the comfort of your own home, mini-guides offer a fresh, new and completely unprecedented visual feast of information, photographs, graphics, maps, uniforms and equipment- all in full color. Each mini-guide concludes with practical information including suggested itineraries for touring the battlefields as well as monuments, museums and other related sites you can visit.

ARMOR IN NORMANDY

The Germans

Panzers - A word that had come to epitomize the relentless German onslaught of the early part of the war and the seemingly unstoppable power of their armored forces. But now, in 1944, the Wehrmacht was overstretched and declining in power. At sea and in the air, neither the Kriegsmaiine nor the Luftwaffe was capable of stopping the gigantic Allied assault on the Normandy coastline.
On the ground, many of the German infantry divisions were of poor quality and of little combat value. The guns and emplacements of the "Atlantic Wall" failed their ultimate test. For the Germans, the only remaining hope was that their Panzer forces would be strong enough to resist the invaders and throw them back into the sea. This mini-guide presents the most representative selection of tanks, tank destroyers and heavy artillery the Germans had at their disposal at this critical time