Normandy...Arnhem...Aachen...the Hurtgen Forest...the Ardennes Offensive...the Reichswald...the Ruhr Pocket...Only the men of one unit on either side fought in them all - the 116th Panzer Division! Organized in France in March, 1944 from elements of the 16th Panzer-Grenadier Division and the 179th Reserve Panzer Division, the 116th Panzer Division was one of the relatively rare German armoured formations that fought exclusively on the Western Front. The "Greyhound" Division's history has now been meticulously chronicled in narrative form and lavishly documented by the wartime Division Chief of Staff and Operations Officer, Heinz Gunther Gunderian. Rarely does the student of the Second World War have the opportunity to see military operations through the eyes of the men who planned and directed the battles at the tactical level. Thanks to General Guderian's keen recollections and careful research, readers of From Normandy to the Ruhr can do exactly this. Rarer still is the author who can lucidly and comprehensively analyse and explain the course of those battles.
As the Division's First General Staff Officer throughout its training and combat, General Guderian possessed a unique point of view to do just that. Beyond the tactical decisions - and consequences of those decisions in the deadly and unforgiving arena of WWII armoured combat - the author also explains the institutional and political influences on his division's leadership. General Guderian sheds stunning new light on the reasons, operational and political, behind the fateful deployment of the elements of the German armoured reserve before and during the early days of 'Overlord'. He details the intrigue behind his Division Commander's relief (twice in two months!) and the impact of the accompanying turbulence on the division in combat. Perhaps most importantly of all, the author provides graphic, specific evidence of the catastrophic consequences of political correctness when it infects the chain of command and results in lost battles and squandered lives. As the son of a famous general officer who had a close but dynamic relationship with Hitler, the author was especially well placed for observing and judging this insidious phenomenon.
Major units about which there is significant information included in this book include: German Units; 2nd, 9th and 21st Panzer Divisions / 2nd, 9th, 10th and 12th SS-Panzer Divisions / Panzer Lehr Division / 3rd and 15th Panzergrenadier Divisions / 6th Parachute Division / 12th, 49th, 84th, 89th, 180th, 275th, 344th, 346th, 347th, 353rd, 363rd Infantry Divisions / 47th, 246th, 272nd, 560th Volksgrenadier Divisions / 17th Luftwaffe Field Division / Panzer Brigades 105 and 108 / Assault Gun Brigade 394; Allied Units; US 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th and 9th Armoured Divisions / British 79th Armoured Division / Free French 2nd Armoured Division / Canadian 4th Armoured Division / US 1st, 4th, 9th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 79th, 83rd, 84th, 90th and 95th Infantry Divisions / British 43rd and 53rd Infantry Division / Canadian 2nd and 3rd Infantry Divisions / British 6th Guards Armoured, 8th and 34 Armoured Brigades / 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade
