Panzer Raid Netherlands 1944 - Ardennes Offensive Dress Rehearsal?
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In October 1944, two German panzer divisions launched a raid in strength against the US 7th Armored Division that was defending an area of the eastern Netherlands called the Peel Marshes. The surprise attack saw the Germans quickly capture several towns and villages, causing consternation in the Allied camp. The Peel Marshes attack looked like a mini-Ardennes Offensive, a dress-rehearsal for the much bigger German attack 2 months later in Belgium and Luxembourg. Today, it remains almost unknown.
Dr. Mark Felton FRHistS, FRSA, is a well-known British historian, the author of 22 non-fiction books, including bestsellers 'Zero Night' and 'Castle of the Eagles', both currently being developed into movies in Hollywood. In addition to writing, Mark also appears regularly in television documentaries around the world, including on The History Channel, Netflix, National Geographic, Quest, American Heroes Channel and RMC Decouverte. His books have formed the background to several TV and radio documentaries. More information about Mark can be found at: en.wikipedia.o...
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Primary Source: MacDonald, Charles B., US Army in World War II, European Theater of Operations - The Siegfried Line Campaign: Chapter 10: The Peel Marshes
Credits: US National Archives; Library of Congress; Bundesarchiv
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love ya sm mark :33
Thank you Sir
Shoe🇺🇸
Mr. Felton, the Ardennes offensive was called Operation Wacht am Rhein and not Operation Herbstnebel.
It was a WW2 big tank battle.
Mark as a Colchester boy can you tell the story of the link between the English civil war Lewis Carols egg and St. Mary's on the wall and why the bell tower is brick
The battle at Overloon is the reason why there's a great WW2 museum in that city today. The locals simply collected the leftovers from the fields and built an exhibit of them. Today it's one of Europe's best WW2 collections.
I was just there a few months ago. I just wanted to second this and highly recommend. Overloon is amazing!
I live close to OVerloon and I visited the museum often. I also work for Militracks, 2 days were they drive around with German WW2 vehicles.
This video also explains why there is a commenwealth gravesite at Nederweert.
Market garden, the battle of the Buldge at the south and operation Veritable are much more known then Overloon.
@@KH-ye6qg Militracks 17 and 18 May this year and yes its a must see Museum.
Well that’s on the list for when I finally find myself on “ fortress Europe “
Never change your intro music.
Dude I’ve been watching this stuff since high school, that was over 10 years ago and it’s still the same, and it’s great lol
The Theme of outstanding military history. Never change it. I really need an extended version of this music, perhaps 4 hours long to loop while tabletop wargaming😊
@ there are like 10 hours loops on TH-cam lol
It has been changed, you should know that if you watched so long.
@@outdoorvideoswithbradit was changed, but you would know that if you have been watching that long..
My mother is from Meijel. My grandmother was evacuated to Asten. She stayed at a farm. She told me there was allied artillery on the same farm. I still have 2 fired 105mm shell casings from this battle. Grandpa was involved in the resistance and stayed in Meijel to help out.
"Scheverningen! Schecerningen"!😅
Thanks again for revealing a largely and forgotten and unknown event. You're so good at that!
Thanks for making this video. I'm from Venray. My great grandfather died in the shelling of Venray while trying to feed his cattle while being shelled. My grandmother who lived about 15km south, where the supplylines and field kitchens were, told me of seeing a german soldier throwing himself infront of a truck just to avoid going to the frontlines. Later after the battle of Overloon and Venray there were british soldiers (or canadians, she doesnt remember correctly) which looted and destroyed furniture in their home because they were angry after having so many losses.
My dad drove an M5A1 Stuart tank for the Seventh Armored Division during the war. He was in the Reconnaissance TROOP F branch. He had his tracks blown off by a German tank. His crew ran for their lives but all made it back to the Allied lines. Other than this one story, he never really spoke about the war. And I only heard it from his crew buddies at a reunion years later. He only confirmed that the incident happened. Very reticent to speak about the war.
I was told, not by him, that when they helped liberate a Concentration Camp, he used his language skills in speaking Yiddish to communicate with the "prisoners", as he was Jewish.
Thank you for sharing this and to your father for his service.
Hello Alan Rogers , always welcome in my private museum about the 7th armored
Thanks for sharing
F Troop...😅
@niekhendrix1402 Hi, I would like to know more about my dad's service as the US Archives had a huge fire that destroyed his records among thousands of others. I do know that while he was a Corporal, he was advanced to Technical Sergeant as I had his uniform shirt with that insignia when I was a teenager.
Thanks for any information you can provide. I do know that he went to Europe aboard the Queen Mary ocean liner and arrived in France two weeks after D-Day.
I only learned about this when I lived in Goch for a year - went to a local history society's presentation and I was surprised that it was rarely covered - especially in relation to the events that followed in late 44. Excellent summary - really enjoyed it!
Footage that I've never seen before. Kudo's, Doc Felton. Much appreciated.
Outstanding video and presentation
Well done, it is highlighting the forgotten Battle around Overloon. The museum there is a marvel too. Also coveren by Mark and his team. Very professional!
Perfect time for a historical video from Dr. Felton! Thank you for your dedication and hard work, it’s really appreciated!
Very detailed and well documented video Doctor Felton, and your archival footage is beyond amazing.👍👍
I'm a simple man. When I see Mark Felton post a new video. I click on the new video.
Thanks for posting :) Generally, small offensives used as dress-rehearsals for larger ones backfire; they make the enemy more prepared for one. That makes the Germans achieving complete surprise in the Ardennes offensive all the more astounding.
As always, extremely well done and informative. Very much appreciate all of the pictures and video that add to the history being shared.
Thanks!
Amazing how they went through the Ardennes in 1940 and in 44' it seemed like it wouldn't or couldn't happen again. Add on this rehearsal and you do wonder how people miss history so obviously "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce"
Yeah, but there’s a difference between Summer ‘40 and Winter ‘44. On top of everything else, the air superiority once the weather cleared made the difference even greater.
Look the Americans were at The Battle of Hamel WW1 and promptly forgot how to use that technique that was the beginning of future warfare to this day , in the inter war years as doctrine and in African landings. Not surprised . It wasnt taught at West Point
Damn. WWII sure is a lot more complicated than it looks in old war movies. Good show.
Babe wake up, another Mark Felton production dropped. Great content Mark keep it up!
Hey Mark,
I just wanted to let you know about something interesting that I experienced this past week. I saw one of your videos in the Palm Springs Air Museum playing on a mounted TV in a hangar (designated for WWII) surrounded by neat artifacts and planes. I got a video of it too. I just thought you might find it cool that your contributions are appreciated around the world.
I understand that some Dutch place and region names can be challenging to pronounce for English native speakers, so take my additions as advice and not negative comment. Places as Maastricht and the river Maas are very accurately pronounced. The region Peel in northern Limburg and Brabant pronounces as the a in the English word 'pale'. Two e's in Dutch words have almost always the same pronounciation. So is the city of Venray: the ay in the -ray syllabe has the same sound as the two e-'s. The last two o-'s in the city of Overloon pronounce as the oa in ' loan'.
I pronounce Venray as Venr-high (without the h). Am I misunderstanding your explanation?
Apart from that I agree with your reaction. And Dr. Felton usually does a great job in pronouncing Dutch names.
Thanks again Mark for yet another piece of WWll history l was completely unaware of ! Superb work !
Very nice video. I live in the town of Meijel. I heard that there was some hard fighting but this i did not expect. Thank You
You keep providing well-researched presentations on material that is significant yet overlooked. Many thanks.
Hi Mark, love your work. I would like to see an episode on the inundation and battle of Walcheren Island during the Battle of the Scheldt.
Very nice video, Deurne is my hometown. And Overloon has a nice museum about this battle 👌🏻
Leave it to Dr. Mark Felton to uncover forgotten WWII battles.........great job!
top notch reporting on this offensive. I'm always keen to hear stories related to The Netherlands. May I ask if you plan to do some reporting on what happened in Romania in ww2? thank you. best regards
Another nice one! Didn’t know this either, even on my native soil! Thanks for bringing history to life Mark!
5:56 Ive seen this tank in person last year. Very impressive, as is the museum. Its located in Overloon.
0:48 - the arrow for the ardennes offensive is placed wrong, it locates to Limburg.
Still thank you for covering the battle of overloon
Correct
Every time you have another video, i have to seen what you have found. Wish you could put these in book form, i love reading, and the way tou do these is you break them down. Instead of talking about some huge offensive, you go after the smaller units, division's and the like, so one can get a better knowledge of what happened all the way around. These are the kinds of books i hunt for, based off of different divisions, battalion's, and follow them around that way, your work is magnificent, please keep up the great work.
He has several books, perhaps some may interest you.
Thank you Professor Felton. I appreciate the attention to detail shown through your in depth research.
Sometimes as I listen to your narration, and look to follow along on the battle maps provided, the area in question is not highlighted, and I'm afraid I lose acme of the moment, and the whole of the story is thus weakened. What to do?
All the same its still head and shoulders above the rest. Cheers!
amazing vids as always mark :D
Really great episode !
Good job, as always Mark !
Thanks Mark... and Cheers on Groundnews
I live only 20 km’s from here and i never knew this happend on this scale very interesting thank u!
Another wonderful piece Mark. Thanks mate 👌
Very insightful and interesting presentation!
Perfect timing... now I'll have something interesting to watch when I get home from work. 😲
Another excellent video 👍👍
Awesome as always 👍
My old foreman was in the battle of the Bulge. He had been issued with the new winter pack boot. Similar to an LL Bean boot but highly insulated. He was issued 2 pairs of socks and kept one pair inside his sweater criss crossed around his chest and neck, changing them every 8 hours or so if able. Cold wet feet was an armies Achilles heel!
Trench foot. US soldiers in Hürtgenwald suffered heavily from it, numbering tens of thousands of non-combat casualties.
Brits had better boots. I live in the Aachen region, November and December are f***ing wet and temperatures are just slightly above freezing point during the day. Ideal conditions for trench foot.
My old foreman when I jobbed at construction many moons ago was in the Hitlerjugend and drafted into Volksturm (together with his grandfather). He was 13.
@@ottovonbismarck2443 It's easy to forget that the troops on both sides were also fighting the bad weather. Frostbite and trench foot were very real dangers.
@@davidcox3076 And that was the warm part. Now imagine the Eastern front where you live in wet cold mud for "half the year". The rest of the year is either -40 or +40°C.
thanks Mark you do Amazing Work!!!!
Anyone else in today’s class wish you had Professor Doctor Felton at the lectern when you were in class?
The footage at 12:30 of the US infantry firing from that breastwork with the road in the background looks like it’s from Le Poteau in the Ardennes - on this site for many years was a working museum full of armoured vehicles , some of which the owner would use to take people out on to the scene of the famous US Reconnaissance patrol which was ambushed by the Germans at the start of the Ardennes offensive. When we visited many years back we found that breastwork still in situ- you could jump down into it and look out towards the bend in the road , just like those GIs ….
Excellent post, thank you.
Thanks for highlighting this battle, in the official chronicles of the Netherlands in the Second World War this is almost totally ignored.
The heavy shelling of the Allied counterattack destroyed much but the population was happy to be liberated. Just before liberation, the occupying forces had taken away many men between 16 and 60 to be put to work as forced labour in Germany, the allied forces were less than a kilometer away on the other side of the canal (South Willemsvaart).
I live in this area at a point of heavy fighting. Some traces are still visible.
Another great video Dr Felton, your style has inspired my approach to video making and narration! Thanks
Great videos! The introduction is great. I’m grateful for all your research and passing it on to the rest of us! ❤️🤙
Great to see something about this offensive which took a heavy toll on my mother's family living just south of Roermond during the war.
However the map shown at 0:48 and a few other times during the video is quite a bit off.
The arrow pointing to the Ardennes offensive actually points at the Kempen forest in the Belgian province of Limburg.
The Ardennes are south of the cities of Liège and Verviers stretching out to the south Belgian and Luxembourg borders, with the heaviest fighting taking place on the line starting just south of Verviers trough Bastogne to Arlon.
The location of the Peel marshes on this map is correct, the heavy fighting against the Germans took place from Echt, a place just south of Roermond up to the area of the main offensive described in the video.
another great video Mark! Tank you!
I had some family member living in this battle zone, but by this time he would be hiding as a farmhand somewhere in Groningen to avoid forced labour in Germany so he wasn't in the area at all when it happened and knew nothing about it. He had false papers and a job that was classified as 'essential for the national food supply' and was relatively safe there and also had enough food in the famine winter of 44-45. When he returned to the south in 1945 he discovered the family home was gone, hit by a tank shell and burned to the ground
🥺🇺🇸
How do you make these videos so often? Felton must be on modern combat stimulants to keep up with this upload schedule while maintaining the quality.
Very interesting as always !!
This battle makes me think that Kelly's Heroes is based on true events! Thanks Mark, great channel!
My grandparents on my mom's side we're from that area. They moved to Canada in the 50s.
Enough with games, etc. I'd like to hear: "But first, a word from our sponsor... Guinness Beer". And then use Dr. Mark Felton/Brewski to get huge discounts on beer!
Thank you Mark, for another widely unknown exposé!
Having watched SAS Rogue Heroes series 2, it’d be great if you did a vlog on the SAS from that period. No doubt you’d come up with something unknown to tell us 👍🏴🇬🇧
Very interesting! Greetings from East Tennessee 🤠
Thanks Dr Felton for this super informative episode. I live near Asten in the Town Someren-Eind. I know that heavy fighting was done here. Nice to know more about this.
Dr Felton always Educates me
Thanks for this Mark.
Great video on an obscure topic. I would submit that your map that shows the relative locations of the Peel Marches Offensives and the Ardennes Offensive has the latter taking place far too far to the north. Its arrow should be pointing just south of Liège and Verviers.
so great to see some stuff about my local area! i live in Boxmeer 15 km north of Venray! thx again Mark for this very informative video!
Niet vergeten weer naar "Militracks" te gaan in mei
We zijn er dit jaar ook zeker weer bij!
Interesting, sir. Cheers, Mark!
Hell Yeah! A new video on a snowy day! Thanks Mark!
👍👍👍👍 thank you so much giving the order of battle of the divisions , which tanks and how many !
Professor Felton, could you please recommend any books on this fascinating subject? I greatly enjoy your channel & the WWII history discussed. Thank you!
Great as usual buddy.P.s,is'Ysselsteyn Cemetery'worth a visit?
We were stationed 1981-1984 first at RAF Bruggen then RAF Laarbruch in Germany. I was only a teenager at the time. Would you do a vlog if possible regarding what happened during WW2 at these places. 🏴🇬🇧
Thank you Mark.
Very good video covering things and places almost never mentioned in WW2 historical videos / lessons. About the only mention of things going on in The Netherlands in WW2 is about what was covered in the book & movie "A Bridge Too Far".
{I will now put on my Armchair General hat and speculate / think / surmise / guess / plan what Monty SHOULD have done instead of trying to fight in a place that is KNOWN to have marshes and soft ground.... He should have kept a few British and allied troops in the land of Gouda & Edam cheese and tulips to periodically take shots at the Nazi forces.... but most of his soldiers and equipment should have loaded up on anything that floats and head north and east and attacked Denmark and push into Germany from the north, with some help from R.A.F. bombers and Mosquitos....instead of the west side of Germany. The Nazi Navy was almost non-existent in 1944 so the landings in Denmark would have been much easier than Normandy was. I think that would have shortened the war by at least a month, or two. Okay... taking off my Armchair General Hat now... Carry On!}
Very detailed analysis of these complex ground operations by both sides. Allied superiority in artillery and air tipped the scales whenever possible otherwise the tale might have been different.😅😊❤
Cheers Mark.. learned alot here.
Monty just becomes a Bigger Legend the more you hear about him ;)
I've often wondered what was happening on the ground between Market Garden and the Bulge. Cheers
Opening comment: Oh thank goodness Dr Felton dropped a new vid. For a minute there, I was wandering back to politics. Sigh. Thanks Mark you're the man
Good presentation. Only issue I have is that I would have liked to hear what lessons the Germans drew from the battle they then applied to the ardennes offensive. Did they they consider this a dress rehearsal, and so, how did this impact their plans for the December offensive? that
Hi there Mark, could you perhaps go into more detail about the polish parachute brigade as my great grandfather was serving with the polish and i don't really know much about it 2:36
Wonderful research , stiy telling and fotage .
Thankyou
Thanks Mr Felton
Very nice museum at Overloon 👍🏼 one of the best
Nice you discuss the battle of Overloon.
Think so. Mud , rain and 6000 deaths.
Thanks for sharing.
Great video sir
Still waiting for a bad Dr. Felton video. I think he plans on making me wait forever.
The forgotten Battle of Overloon! I have a video on my youtube channel about that battle. It is weird you never really hear about it. But that might be because the Americans lost that battle and when the British took over, they pushed the Germans back.
Another good video on another neglected area. Many thanks.
Awesome video!
Now I shall watch it.
shoutout mark felton always uploading around dinner time
I wouldn't doubt there are many skirmishes and battles we haven't heard about that were as intense as this.
This proved that the German Army had the resolve to still make things difficult for the allies. Even with dwindling numbers and supplies.
Dr. Felton, I've often wondered where Montgomery seemed to be his strongest as a tactician. In Africa or in the European campaign? The same question could, I guess, apply to Rommel and other generals of the time?
Can you please do a video about Goring's fascination with train dioramas?
Thanks Mark
Grateful for every video you post Dr. Felton. Many thanks.
Dear Dr. Felton, will you be aiming to make a video on the WWII the 8th SS German cavalry division ? Say, Florian Geyer? Thank you for answering in advance.
While many just focused on the tactical downfall in the Bulge operation, actually the 1944 Ardennes offensive was in strategic level a rather sound plan out of all available actions, which there were little given Germany desperate situation.
The battle would likely contribute the delay of a few months of German defeat by again re-convincing the US (who was the main target in this operation) to stay put for more powerful reinforcement and advance more carefully. It took Allies almost half a year, till March 45 to enter Rhine region from France border, a vast difference compared to the sheer distance covered by Soviets 1944 onwards.
And the German High Command was making decision to actually buy time (with their troops), instead of mindlessly "conserving" German tanks or materials, as evident in this battle - Germans had more tanks than they had fuel to proper utilize them - letting them idle in defense and they would just slowly chipped away by Allied airpower and outmaneuvered by more mobile Allied armies.
Hence why the typical argument "they should have built more Stugs and Panzer 4" makes no sense.
In 1944 Germany had more tanks and planes than people and fuel to actually use them.
Playing the quantity game was not an option for them
_"A Bulge Too Far"_
lots of previously unseen footage here? one wonders how much is still out there?
All images with tanks in the Second World War are works of art. Europe is a beautiful place, even as a setting for a war. (I don't live in Europe)