Iron Grave: KO & Wrecked Panzers in Normandy 1944

Beneath are a selection of photographs from KO’d and destroyed Tanks (“Panzers”) from the German armed forces during the Normandy campaign in 1944.

“And if we are abandoned by treacherous luck,

And if we don’t return home again,

If death’s bullet finds us, and fate calls us away, yes, us away.

Then our tank shall become an iron grave!”

Photographs of Panzer wrecks

Panther wreck being inspected by U.S. Soldiers in Normandy.

Men of 3rd Armored Division look at the front of a knocked out Sturmgeschütz, the corpse of one of the crew found itself suspended on the end of the barrel of the cannon.

A knocked-out German PzKpfw IV tank with the burnt bodies of two of its crew in the Falaise pocket, 24 August 1944.

Destroyed Panther in Normandy

Panzerkampfwagen IV wreck in Normandy.

Aftermath of bombardment of Mortain in front of the station of Mortain-Le-Neufbourg, in the foreground a half-track vehicle Sdkfz of the 2.SS-Panzer division “Das Reich”, in the foreground the corpse of a dead German soldier.

A Sherman tank passes a wrecked German Mk IV near Cagny during Operation ‘Goodwood’, 18 July 1944.

Turretless King Tiger Normandy.

A StuG III destroyed in Normandy, 1944.

A Wespe destroyed in Normandy, 1944.

Dwight D. Eisenhower walking past a destroyed German Tiger Tank after the battle of Chambois, France 1944.

A StuG IV destroyed and abandoned in Normandy, 1944.

A knocked-out Panzerkampfwagen IV, August 1944. German panzer divisions had one battalion equipped with the Pzkpfw IV and another with Panthers, with a total of 160 tanks at full strength. Actual numbers varied widely though, and the Germans were unable to replace their losses.

A knocked-out German Panther tank and a dead infantryman in the Falaise pocket, 25 August 1944.

A Panther of Panzer Lehr Division, one of five knocked out in the village of Lingèvres by a single Sherman Firefly of 4th/7th Dragoon Guards on 14 June 1944. The Panther was a formidable opponent, superior to most Allied tanks, but vulnerable to the British 17-pounder gun mounted on the Firefly.

Destroyed German Panzerkampfwagen IV in Falaise, Normandy.

Hummel destroyed in the Falaise Gap, Normandy.

German remains of a Panther tank and SdKfz 251 vehicle inspected by American soldiers somewhere in Normandy.

L/Cpl Phillips, Pte Best, Pte Watson and Cpl Walter of 6th Airborne Division investigate the remains of a German self-propelled gun which they knocked-out, 5 August 1944.

References:

Photographic Credits: U.S. Army Signal Corps

Photographic Credits: Imperial War Museum

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