The Flank Attack (Flankenangriff)
The Germans consider that the most effective attack is against the enemy’s flank. The flank attack develops either from the approach march -sometimes through a turning movement - or from flank marches. It attempts to surprise the enemy and permit him no time for countermeasures. Since mobility and the deception of the enemy at other positions are required, the flank attack is most successfully mounted from a distance; the troop movements necessary for the manoeuvre can be executed in close proximity to the enemy only with unusually favourable terrain or at night. Attacks are launched on both flanks only when the Germans consider their forces clearly superior.
Envelopment (Umfassungsangriff)
The envelopment is a combination flank-and-frontal attack especially favoured by the Germans. The envelopment may be directed on either or both the enemy’s flanks, and is accompanied by a simultaneous frontal attack to fix the enemy’s forces. The deeper the envelopment goes into the enemy’s flanks, the greater becomes the danger of being enveloped oneself. The Germans therefore emphasise the necessity of strong reserves and organisation of the enveloping forces in depth. Success of the envelopment depends on the extent to which the enemy is able to dispose his forces in the threatened direction.
ENCIRCLEMENT (Einkreisung)
An encirclement, the Germans think, is a particularly decisive form of attack, but usually more difficult to execute than a flank attack or an envelopment. In an encirclement the enemy is not attacked at all in front, or is attacked in front only by light forces, while the main attacking force passes entirely around him, with the objective of manoeuvring him out of position. This requires extreme mobility and deception.
FRONTAL ATTACK (Frontalangriff)
The Germans consider the frontal attack the most difficult of execution. It strikes the enemy at his strongest point, and therefore requires superiority of men and material. A frontal attack should be made only at a point where the infantry can break through into favourable terrain in the depth of the enemy position. The frontage of the attack should be wider than the actual area (Schwerpunkt) chosen for penetration, in order to tie down the enemy on the flanks of the breakthrough. Adequate reserves must be held ready to counter the employment of the enemy’s reserves.
A powerful study of a Panzer III involved in street fighting for Shitomir during August 1941. The warning not to take tank into cities was ignored time and time again. Every time they did so the Panzerwaffe paid a high price.
WING ATTACK (Flugelangriff)
An attack directed at one or both of the enemy’s wings has, the Germans teach, a better chance of success than a central frontal attack, since only a part of the enemy’s weapons are faced, and only one flank of the attacking force or forces is exposed to enemy fire. Bending back one wing may give an opportunity for a flank attack, or for a single or double envelopment.
PENETRATION AND BREAKTHROUGH (Einbruch und Durchbruch)
These are not separate forms of attack, but, rather, the exploitation of a successful attack on the enemy’s front, wing or flank. The penetration destroys the continuity of the hostile front. The broader the penetration, the deeper the penetration wedge can be driven. Strong reserves throw back enemy counter-attack against the flanks of the penetration. German units are trained to exploit a penetration to the maximum so that it may develop into a complete breakthrough before hostile counter-measures can be launched on an effective scale. The deeper the attacker penetrates, the more effectively can he envelop and frustrate the attempts of the enemy to close his front again by withdrawal to the rear. The attacking forces attempt to reduce individual enemy positions by encircling and isolating them. The Germans do not consider a breakthrough successful until they overcome the enemy’s artillery positions, which is usually the special task of tanks. Reserve units roll up the enemy’s front from the newly created flanks.
ATTACKS BY MECHANISED FORCES
In armoured-force operations, the Germans stress the need for the concentrated employment, at the decisive place and time, of the entire combined command of tanks and other arms, less necessary reserves. The tanks constitute the striking force of such a command and normally advance as the first echelon of the attack. Their primary mission is to break through and attack the enemy artillery, rather than to seek out and destroy enemy tanks, which can be more effectively engaged by anti-tank units. The mission of the other arms is to assist the tanks in their advance, and particularly to eliminate anti-tank weapons. The smallest combat unit in such a force of combined arms is the company.
The basic formation for the tank platoon, company, and battalion are file, double file, wedge and blunt wedge. The type of formation used for a specific task depends to a large extent on terrain conditions and the strength of enemy opposition. A German tank platoon normally consists of one command tank and two tank squads of two tanks each.
The tank regiment normally attacks in waves, in either of the following manners. The tank regiment is echeloned in depth, one tank battalion following the other. The regimental commander’s location is between the two battalions. This formation has the advantages of a sufficiently wide front (about one thousand one hundred yards), and close contact by the commander of his units in the conduct of the attack. The normal depth of such a formation is about three thousand yards. This is the usual form of the tank attack. When two tank battalions are attacking, one behind the other, it takes them about half an hour to pass their own infantry.
When the two-battalions-abreast formation is employed, it almost essential that another tank regiment form the following wave. This formation usually has the disadvantage of being too wide. The regimental commander cannot observe his units, and he has no units of his own behind him which he can commit in a decisive moment. The attack normally proceeds in three waves.
One of a remarkable sequence of pictures illustrating General Heinz Guderian at the front. It was Guderian’s vision which had led to the creation of the Panzerwaffe and he now demonstrated a masterful ability in the field.
The first wave thrusts to the enemy’s anti-tank defence and artillery positions.
The second wave provides covering fire for the first wave, and then attacks the enemy’s infantry positions, preceded, accompanied or followed by part of the Panzer grenadiers, who dismount as close as possible to the point where they must engage the enemy. The objectives of the second wave are the remaining anti-tank positions of heavy infantry-support weapons, and machine gun emplacements which hold up the advance of the infantry.
The third wave, accompanied by the remainder of the Panzer grenadiers, mops up.
These three waves are now often telescoped into two, the first wave speeding through the enemy’s position as far as his gun positions, the second crushing the enemy’s forward positions in detail and mopping up the opposition not dealt with by the first wave or which has revived since the first
A typical attack formation of this type might be divided up among the Panzer division’s units as follows: the first wave, on a frontage of about two thousand to three thousand yards, might consist of one tank battalion, two companies forward, supported on the flanks by elements of the assault gun battalion. Close to the rear of the first wave usually follow one or two Panzer grenadier companies in armoured half-trucks. About one hundred and fifty yards to the rear of the first wave moves the second wave, formed of the second tank battalion in the same formation, closely followed by the remainder of the armoured Panzer grenadiers, who are in turn followed at some distance by the motorised Panzer grenadiers. The flanks are protected by anti-tank guns which are normally operated by platoons, moving by bounds. The artillery forward observer travels in his armoured vehicles with the first wave, while the artillery commander of the supporting artillery units usually travels with the tank commander. Assault guns normally also accompany the second wave.
The tanks help each other forward by fire and movement, medium or heavy tanks taking up hull-down firing positions and giving covering fire while the faster tanks advance to the next commanding feature. Then, the latter give covering fire to the former moving forward to their next bound.
Once the first wave has reached the rear of the enemy’s forward defences, it pushes straight on to attack the enemy’s artillery. As soon as these positions have been neutralised, the tanks reform beyond the artillery positions and either prepare to exploit the attack or form an all-round defensive position on suitable ground.
The tank unit commander, as the leader of the strongest unit, is in most cases in command of the combat team, and all the other participating arms (Panzer grenadiers, artillery, engineers and anti-tank units) are placed under him. The Germans realise that a strong and unified command is an essential feature of any military operation. For certain missions, however, tank units are attached to another arm, in which case the tank commander is consulted before the final plans for the operations are made.
The nightmare for every tank crew was to have to dismount the vehicle and change tracks under enemy fire. This was an alarmingly frequent occurrence; nonetheless every effort had to be made to salvage an immobilised vehicle. (Propaganda drawing from Signal Magazine).