Tank Duel at St. Sever

Passing through Courson at about 9:30 am, the American column continued toward St. Sever-Calvados. The column consisted of elements of the 2nd Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, and 3rd Battalion, 41st Armored Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lt. Col. Marshall Crawley. About …

1944-08-04

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Passing through Courson at about 9:30 am, the American column continued toward St. Sever-Calvados. The column consisted of elements of the 2nd Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, and 3rd Battalion, 41st Armored Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lt. Col. Marshall Crawley. About a mile southeast of Courson, and directly in the path of the American advance, stood two Panthers waiting in a fruit orchard to the left of the St. Sever-Calvados/Vire Road with good visibility of movement some 200 to 300 yards to their front. One of the German panzers had taken up a position close to the Vire Road and a farm building on its right that bordered the thoroughfare. The second Panther stood some 50 yards to the left. Both vehicles possessing a field of fire to their immediate front. Positioned as they were, the German Panthers were covering a road complex that not only included the artery to Vire but also the Les Carreaux Road. As a screen, a battered Vienna infantry battalion was dug in some 150 to 200 yards in front of the panzers. Observing the partially fog-shrouded road and lane from his position in the panzer’s turret was SS Oberjunker Fritz Langanke. He had arrived at the crossroad early on the morning of August 4, having received direct orders from the commander of 2nd SS Panzer Regiment, commanded by Sturmbannfuhrer (Major) Rudolf Ensling, to set up a roadblock. The Americans were in for a rude surprise.

Courson, France

Operation Luttich was a codename given to a German counter-attack during the Battle of Normandy, which took place around the American positions near Mortain in northwestern France from 7 August to 13 August 1944. The offensive is also referred to in American and British histories of the Battle of Normandy as the Mortain counterattack. The assault was ordered by Adolf Hitler, to eliminate the gains made by the First United States Army during Operation Cobra and the subsequent weeks, and by reaching the coast in the region of Avranches at the base of the Cotentin peninsula, cut off the units of the Third United States Army which had advanced into Brittany. The main German striking force was the XLVII Panzer Corps, with one and a half SS Panzer Divisions and two Heer Panzer Divisions. Although they made initial gains against the defending U.S. VII Corps, they were soon halted and the Allies inflicted severe losses on the attacking troops, eventually destroying most of the German tanks involved in the attack. Although fighting continued around Mortain for six days, the American forces had regained the initiative within a day of the opening of the German attack.

Wikipedia: Operation Luttich

American

German