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Sunday, December 10, 2023

Max Wünsche and Rudolf von Ribbentrop at Rots after the Failed HJ Offensive


SS-Obersturmführer Rudolf von Ribbentrop (Chef 3.Kompanie / I.Abteilung / SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 / 12.SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend") is in the sidecar of a BMW R75 while driving the motorcycle is SS-Obersturmbannführer Max Wünsche (Kommandeur SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 / 12.SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend") who are going back to the regiment headquarters. In the background are the Panzergrenadiers from III. Zug of 15.Kompanie / SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25. Far right is SS-Oberschütze Klaus Schuh, while fourth from right is SS-Sturmmann Otto Funk. This picture was taken by SS-Kriegsberichter Siegfried Woscidlo after both men visited the members of Ribbentrop's company and also soldiers from III.Zug / 15.Kompanie / SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25 in Rots who just survived the failed attack against the Canadian 2nd Armored Brigade at Norrey-en-Bessin, Normandy, 9 June 1944. the 3rd Company was ambushed by the British army on the way to attack, damaging 7 tanks. Note that Ribbentrop and Wünsche were both wounded. Wünsche received his wound on that day, 9 June, while Ribbentrop since 4 June 1944, two days before D-Day, which made him could not take part in the joint attack carried out by his company.


At the end of the morning of 9 June 1944, an attack was planned to seize the Norrey village (tu dois surement connaitre,camarade normand!) as a starting point for a future offensive of the 12. SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend" up North. The attack was made by the 3rd Panzer-Kompanie of the HJ (strength 12 Panthers), temporarily commanded by Heer officer Hauptmann Lüdemann (who replaced SS-Obersturmführer Rudolf von Ribbentrop, son of the Foreign Affairs Minister, who was wounded and in a hospital). III.Zug of the 15.Kompanie / SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25 was going to provide the accompanying infantry. At around 09:00 hours the 3./SS-Pz.Rgt.12 rumbled through Rots towards la Villeneuve on the Caen-Bayeux highway. The attack was to be in conjunction with infantry attack from the I Battalion of SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 26 south of the village.

Just after noon, Twelve Panthers fanned out in a single line at a right angle to the rail embankment. Approaching the village the company swung left keeping in a solid line with their fronts towards the village in anticipation of confronting the Canadian anti-tank guns. However, nine Sherman tanks from the Canadian 1st Hussars including several "Fireflys" equipped with 17 pdrs, were moving towards the front to reinforce the Reginas' position in Norrey. The majority of the Sherman tanks were navigating through the village, but one Firefly, commanded by Lt G. K. Henry, had worked his way around the village to the front where he spotted the advancing Panthers. Catastrophically for the 3rd Panzerkompanie, their swing to the left, though protecting them from the 6-pounders in Norrey, exposed their flanks to Lt Henry at not more than 1000 metres distance. The Canadian tank opened fire hitting the tank nearest the rail-line first. Incredibly Lt Henry fired five shots and knocked out five Panthers. A sixth was accounted for by another “C” squadron tank. The crews from the burning Panthers along with their supporting infantry retreated back to an underpass where Canadian artillery began to pound the area inflicting even more casualties. In all, they all fell in an ambush by 6 Sherman Tanks and 2 or 4 well-camouflaged 6 pounds canadians antitanks guns, also infantry with PIATs.

The attack of the I Battalion, SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25 never materialized leaving the assault a complete failure.

7 Panthers were destroyed on the spot. 3rd Panzer-Kompanie lost 16 dead, 17 severely wounded and one prisoner (SS tankist Werner Uhr who lost a leg). The infantry platoon fell under artillery fire. Tanks and infantry retreated to the village of La Villeneuve where the wounded were regrouped in a bar. The wounded tankists were burning alive, their skins hanging down from flesh and bones, some enclosed in a strange silence while others screaming histerically. In the bar, some mechanics of the Panzer-Regiment 12 rubbed them with motor oil (it's a wonderful balsam for burns!). The older ones learned this front recipe in the Eastern Front.

It seems that most of the Panthers, despite their heavy armour, exploded easily (under the relatively ''small'' calibers of Sherman and antitank guns- wich normally bounced on the Panther armour) because their gas-tank was half full, wich accumulated gas steam.

Leopold Heindl, an Austrian, was the radioman of Panther 315. They get hit in the tracks and comeback with their tank on half wheels.

Not far from there, SS-Obersturmbannführer Max Wünsche (Kommandeur SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 / 12.SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend") and SS-Obersturmführer Rudolf von Ribbentrop (Chef 3.Kompanie / I.Abteilung / SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 / 12.SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend") - wounded with a broken arm and who had just escaped from the hospital to comeback to his company - had observed the situation. Both were nearly in tears.

After visiting the wounded men in the bar, Wünsche and von Ribbentrop, on a side-car BMW R75 bike, visited the survivors of the 3rd platoon of 15.Kompanie / SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25, who are now resting in a small road. This is where the pictures was taken, during a reportage of SS-Kriegsberichter Friedrich Zschäckel and Wilfried Woscidlo.

Note: After the failed attack, Hauptmann Lüdemann suffered a nervous break down. He was killed in action 5 days later and von Ribbentrop regained command of the 3rd Panzer-Kompanie.



SS-Obersturmbannführer Max Wünsche (Kommandeur SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 / 12.SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend") on a visit to members of III.Zug from 15.Kompanie / SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25 / 12.SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend" who just survived the failed attack against the Canadian 2nd Armored Brigade at Norrey-en-Bessin, Normandy, on 9 June 1944. From left to right: SS-Unterscharführer Peter Koslowski, unknown, Wünsche (back to the camera with a bandage on his head), SS-Oberschütze Klaus Schuh, SS-Sturmmann Otto Funk (at the far back), SS-Hauptscharführer Wilhelm Boigk, and SS-Obersturmführer Rudolf von Ribbentrop (half-visible, Chef 3.Kompanie / I.Abteilung / SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 / 12.SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend"). Wünsche got injured in the head in the same day this pic was taken. When he was watching the Panthers from the 1st and 4th companies under his command in Villeneuve de Rot who had just returned from the attack on Bretteville, suddenly a mortar shells hits the front of one of the Panthers. One of the fragment from the explosion injured Wünsche in the head and even rendered him unconscious. Another officer on the scene, SS-Obersturmführer Jürgen Chemnitz (1. Kompanie), was hit from head to toe by the same shrapnel, while SS-Untersturmführer Nehrlich from the Stab of SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 was seriously injured and died on the way to the hospital. Wünsche's injury was light, so he had only his wounds dressed and he never left the Regiment. Photo by SS-Kriegsberichter Wilfried Woscidlo.



Source :
http://alifrafikkhan.blogspot.com/2011/10/foto-12-ss-panzer-division-hitlerjugend.html
https://www.facebook.com/worldwarincolor/photos/ss-obersturmbannf%C3%BChrer-max-w%C3%BCnsche-with-the-bandaged-head-rgt-komm-of-ss-pzrgt-1/823898601073267/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/43033214@N07/5341240983/
https://twitter.com/WWIIpix/status/1137657059804176385/photo/1
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/68385806

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