The 1st of July, 1944 - D + 25, Five Pyres

Panzerkampfwagen IV of the 9th SS Panzer Division
(Source)

Their vehicle was well concealed, SS-Scharführer Friedrich Engel, the commander, had made sure of that. Recently promoted, this was his first time in command of his own panzer. His crew were fairly experienced, but very young, they had all served on the Eastern Front, most recently in the attack at Tarnopol to breakthrough to Hube's encircled 1st Panzer Army. The division had been successful but had suffered heavy casualties.

They had only arrived in Normandy a few days ago, though they had begun the trip west on the 12th of June. Allied airpower had harassed the division along the route and they had lost a number of tanks, many had broken down. Engel had heard at least 50% of their vehicles had broken down. But word of reinforcements in the form of seventy-plus Panthers and an SS heavy tank battalion of Tigers had boosted everyone's spirits.

They had been sent to attack British forces in the vicinity of Caen but had to be diverted when British armor managed to force a crossing over the Odon River southwest of Caen. Their division, 9th SS Panzer Division "Hohenstaufen," were thrown into the mix, just barely arrived from the East, they had to fight or perish.

Wisely, their commanders had decided to await the Tommies from ambush. Engel had heard that the Sherman tanks were easy meat for their 7.5 cm cannon.

"Scharführer, do you think we'll get a chance to do some sightseeing while we're in Normandy?" SS-Schütze Josef "Sepp" Horn was the youngest man in the crew, he was barely 17 and had actually been drafted into the SS from the Labor Corps. As assistant driver he operated the bow machine gun and made sure the radio worked.

SS-Sturmmann Wilhelm Ziegler, the loader, started laughing, "Seriously Sepp, do you think the Führer sent us to France for a rest period? Haven't you heard the Amis and the Tommies have landed? We're here to throw them back into the Channel!"

"At ease boys, stay alert. We're expecting company any minute." Engel admonished his crew, they were so young and knew so little of life. As he eased his head out of his cupola and brought his field glasses up, two big single engined aircraft¹, with black and white stripes painted on their wings and fuselage blasted overhead, headed west. Involuntarily he ducked back down into the turret, the enemy Jabos terrified him.

British Sherman VC
(Source)

James Fitzhugh held tight as his driver, Thomas Ginns, drove their Sherman VC over a low spot in the hedgerow. They were getting closer to open country and while the mobility was great, he felt a bit naked out there after so many weeks in the closed in country of the Bocage.

He turned to watch the rest of his troop, which Chapman and Seckington (his gunner and loader) continued to refer to as the Lambs, as in sacrificial, regardless of how many times Fitzhugh had told them to stop. They were smart enough not to use the terms around the chaps manning the Sherman Vs with their short 75 mm cannon. A useful weapon but nothing like the 17-pounder gun they carried.

Over the radio Fitzhugh ordered the troop to wedge formation. "Move to the next field, sharply now!"

Engel couldn't believe his eyes, five Shermans in the open. He chose the vehicle on his right as he was on his platoon's right flank, his men knew to target their opposite numbers in situations like this.

Eye pressed to the sight, SS-Rottenführer Hans-Dieter Vogt yelled out, "Target acquired!"

"Feuer!"

The round left the tube and drilled straight into the Sherman's lower hull on the driver's side. The enemy vehicle immediately slewed right into a ditch near an old barn.

Knocked out Sherman
(Source)

The driver was screaming in agony, the enemy round had hit the transmission which had shot fragments into the man's legs.

"Tommy, help John!"

The commander could smell something burning, the shot had gone straight through the vehicle, destroying the transmission and the engine. Fuel was spilling onto the hot engine, he knew that they only had seconds to get out.

"Tommy!" He turned to look at his loader, or what was left of him. The German anti-tank round had ricocheted from the transmission and right through Corporal Thomas Jensen. His gunner was struggling to get out of his position to try and get to John Parsons, the driver.

He noticed that Parsons was no longer screaming.

"He's a dead'un Sarge! We need to get out of the bloody tank, she's on fire!" the gunner, Lance Corporal Burt Johnson screamed at his tank commander.

"Let's go!"

Sgt Winston Montgomery and LCpl Burt Johnson got out of the tank just as the engine compartment burst into flame. His bow gunner, Pvt Kenneth Wilkins was already on the ground, away from the tank. "Sarge, Burt, over here!" Montgomery noticed that the man had his Sten gun with him. The kid was thinking.

Fitzhugh saw his left flank Sherman lurch to a stop and begin to smoke in his peripheral vision. He didn't have time to ponder the crew's fate as he'd spotted the muzzle blast from an enemy tank to his left front. They were taking fire from the tree line and he'd lost one tank already. But his lads were returning fire.

Cecil Chapman, his gunner, yelled out over the intercom, "Jesus Fitzy, it's a bloody Tiger! I've got him, firing!!"

The round from the big 17-pounder gun flew straight and true.

Knocked out Pzkw IV
(Source)

"Mein Gott!" screamed SS-Scharführer Friedrich Engel as the shot from the British tank penetrated the left side of the gun mantlet on his tank and passed through the turret, hitting the ready ammunition as it passed out the right side of the vehicle. Those were Engel's last words.

The ammunition in the turret detonated, blowing all the hatches open and shredding the skirts bolted to the turret's exterior. The explosion killed all three men in the turret, the shock wave from that explosion killed the driver instantaneously. It had also jammed the bow gunner's hatch as he struggled to open it.

Before Sepp Horn burned to death, another explosion in the stored ammunition under the turret floor killed him and blew the right side of the tank open to the air.

Another tank in Fitzhugh's troop was now burning, but his gunner had killed a second Panzer IV, "Not a Tiger you bloody git," he'd yelled at his gunner. But Chapman was far too busy to pay him any mind as the 17-pounder barked and turned another Jerry tank into a funeral pyre.

Over the radio his number three tank reported a thrown track. As he figured his next move he saw movement in the tree line, the Germans were pulling back. The Sherman VC, what some called the Firefly, had surprised them.

"Hold here! Jonesy get your tank over to that hummock and watch that road. We'll cover Benson while he repairs his track. Any survivors any of you can see?"

Jonesy reported that he could see three survivors from Montgomery's tank. He didn't think that anyone had gotten out of Mitchell's tank. which was burning furiously.

Columns of smoke from five destroyed vehicles rose into the humid air. While the British had come out on top, they had still lost two tanks and seven men from their troop. The Germans had not fared as well, three of their tanks were burning and the fires had spread to the trees they'd been positioned within.

Fitzhugh couldn't have known, but only one German crewman of fifteen made it out of his tank alive. Badly burned he surrendered to Benson's crew just before the troop moved back for the night. He would survive the war but would lose an arm.

The fighting to capture Caen would continue...

¹ They were P-47 Thunderbolts, Jugs.