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From the preface and details cited below, it can be said that
the 3rd Armored Division defeated on the field of battle decisively
and irrevocably the following German divisions, and that these
units may be considered destroyed:
6 separate Panzer Divisions: 2, 9, 11, 2nd SS, 9th SS,
12th SS.
1 Panzer Grenadier Division: 3.
3 separate Parachute Divisions: 3, 5, 6.
4 separate Infantry Divisions: 12, 353, 363, 560.
PREFACE:
To a civilian this brings a picture of a silent battlefield
on which the enemy is sprawled in death, and of a unit which
will never again return to combat. To a soldier in the lines
it means nothing at all, for during that particular action he
was concerned only with the problem of killing the enemy before
they killed him, and many times he was not even sure that the
tide of battle was running his way.
Actually, few, if any, divisions are completely destroyed
in combat, due to the complex administrative processes of modern
armies. The enemy may be hurled from the battlefield in confusion
leaving behind vast numbers of prisoners and burning vehicles
or he may blunt himself on unexpected and prepared positions.
This latter happened at Mons, where the 3rd Armored Division
helped to defeat a German army corps. However, in most cases,
the division staff and enough of the personnel remained after
the fight to become the cadre for the reformation of the unit.
There were cases of "cannibalization," in which
a division would be so reduced in personnel and equipment after
a battle that another division, usually one which had itself
incurred heavy losses in action, would take over the first organization,
staff and all. In this case, one division number would disappear
from the Order of Battle. The only real instance in which the
Germans lost whole divisions was in the Rose Pocket, where units
were completely encircled.
Usually a beaten division was able to retire to non-operative
status in the rear, there to lick its wounds and refit: then
to appear on the lines again. In a broad interpretation of the
word, when such a circumstance occurred to an enemy division,
it could be called destroyed. It is such destruction that the
following list attempts to enumerate.
DETAILS:
The following divisions were considered by the Germans to
have been destroyed in Normandy. The 3rd Armored Division participated
in their destruction.
4 Infantry Divisions: 77, 91, 243, 348.
The following divisions had been almost completely destroyed
by the end of the Argentan-Falaise operation. They had been heavily
contacted by the 3rd Armored Division during the period.
3 Panzer Divisions: 2, 116, 2nd SS.
1 Panzer Grenadier Division: 17th SS.
2 Parachute Divisions: 3, 5.
The following divisions were so badly cut up at Mons, Belgium,
that, although they were later reconstituted, they may be considered
destroyed at that time by the 3rd Armored Division. Some indeed
were no more than the remnants of divisions destroyed in Normandy
which were retreating across France to reform in the Third Reich.
4 Panzer Divisions: 2, 2nd SS, 9, 12th SS.
3 Parachute Divisions: 3, 5, 6.
3 Infantry Divisions: 47, 275, 353.
The following divisions, all of which were heavily engaged
by the 3rd Armored Division in the Ardennes, were no more than
meager remnants after the operation.
2 Panzer Divisions: 9th SS, 118.
2 Volksgrenadier Divisions: 12, 560.
From this point on it becomes increasingly difficult to determine
what constitutes a destroyed division, since the units would
lose all their personnel except the division staffs and within
two to three weeks, after withdrawing from the line would return
to combat, their ranks filled to the tune of 1000 - 3000 former
service troops, hospital convalescents, and hastily recruited
civilians. Of these following, hardly more than the staffs escaped
across the Rhine at the end of the drive to Cologne.
2 Panzer Divisions: 9, 11.
1 Panzer Grenadier Division: 3.
3 Infantry Divisions: 12, 363, 476.
These divisions were destroyed in the Paderborn drive. In
addition, the 3rd Armored Division was the major factor in the
destruction and capture of the divisions in the Rose Pocket,
although not actually participating in their final downfall.
2 Panzer Divisions: 9, 11.
1 Panzer Grenadier Division: 3.
2 Infantry Divisions: 26, 272.
These infantry divisions were decimated at the end of the
Dessau operation.
Scharnhorst.
Von Hutton.
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