What happened outside Paderborn?

Decisive Campaigns: Ardennes Offensive is the fourth wargame in the Decisive Campaign series. Covering the battles in the Ardennes between December 1944 and January 1945, it brings to life Operational wargaming by lowering the scale to just above tactical level.

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Tempest5
Posts: 78
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:49 pm
Location: Hawaii

What happened outside Paderborn?

Post by Tempest5 »

I finally got around watching this Mark Felton video.

And I was amazed on this clustr***k on 29 March 1945

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t11hGZvvTLg

The level of incompetence here was astounding. Does this engagement(s) even have a name?
I am very much aware of how General Maurice Rose died but only slightly familiar on the 'events' surrounding/leading up to it.

I suppose any graves registration archive might detail the actual American losses.
_____________________________________

German details. Such as it is.
http://www.2ndarmoredhellonwheels.com/D ... ry_27.html

http://3ad.com/history/wwll/rose.sectio ... isit.2.htm
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altipueri
Posts: 1109
Joined: Sat Nov 14, 2009 9:09 am

RE: What happened outside Paderborn?

Post by altipueri »

There’s a good account of some episodes of that fight in “Spearhead” by Adam Makos. The quick rough outline is that one of the columns of the 3rd US armored division, hastening north to join with 2nd armored division coming south so as to pocket the Ruhr, got ambushed one night and shot up.

We had learned from the failure at Falaise that hesitancy in fluid warfare is more costly in the long run than audacity. General Maurice Rose, commanding officer of the division, was with the column. The mission was of overriding importance, and time was of the essence. He was killed in action, the column was a shambles, but the other columns forged ahead. Paderborn itself was taken shortly thereafter, and the linkup with 2nd armored was accomplished.

300 000 Germans were taken prisoner, including 24 generals, and Walter Model committed suicide. So it was a win, even if we lost a promising general and a batch of good soldiers in the course of the fight.

At Paderborn, there was a one-on-one tank duel between the lone Pershing tank in the division, and a German Panther. By the astute trick of firing his HE chambered round into the dirt between the two tanks, the Pershing gunner bought time for the loading of an AP shell before the dust had cleared, and the Pershing won. That incident may well have been the last tank vs tank clash on the western front. German resistance more or less collapsed with the surrender of the Ruhr pocket.

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Cribbed from somewhere on the interweb - quora I think.
Rosseau
Posts: 2952
Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2009 2:20 am

RE: What happened outside Paderborn?

Post by Rosseau »

Thanks for the info. I had no idea such a huge number were taken prisoner or that Model killed himself. From what little I know of him, he didn't seem as fanatical as he obviously was.
Oberst_Klink
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RE: What happened outside Paderborn?

Post by Oberst_Klink »

ORIGINAL: Tempest5

I finally got around watching this Mark Felton video.

And I was amazed on this clustr***k on 29 March 1945

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t11hGZvvTLg

The level of incompetence here was astounding. Does this engagement(s) even have a name?
I am very much aware of how General Maurice Rose died but only slightly familiar on the 'events' surrounding/leading up to it.

I suppose any graves registration archive might detail the actual American losses.
_____________________________________

German details. Such as it is.
http://www.2ndarmoredhellonwheels.com/D ... ry_27.html

http://3ad.com/history/wwll/rose.sectio ... isit.2.htm
He's a well known click-bait wannabe historian. His research is basically copy and paste from Wiki.

Klink, Oberst
My Blog & on Twitter.
Visit CS Legion on Twitter & Facebook for updates.
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