Historical Background

116th Panzer Division - More Unit History & background on armoured and other vehicles types used by the Division in 1944.

The 116th Panzer Division was formed by merging the remnants of 16th Panzer Grenadier Division, a unit down worn after battles on the Eastern Front, with the 179th Reserve Panzer Division. The 16th Panzer Grenadier Division did not arrive in France until April 1944. This made it impossible to create a new fully battle worthy division before the allies landed.

The organization of the new division was as follows:

Including four Panthers sent to I./Pz.Rgt. 24 in January, two Panthers (Bef.Wg.) with the 16th Pz.Rgt. and the 70 sent at the beginning of June the division had 76 Panthers available when it departed for Normandy. It seems that the division had 86 Panzer IV's. No further tanks were sent to the division during the summer of 1944. The Pz.Jäg.Abt. 228 received 21 JagdPz IV in July, bringing it upto its authorized strength.

The division also had a few extra armoured vehicles. According to a report dated 8th June 1944 it had three PzKpfw IV kz., seven PzKpfw. III lg., three PzKpfw.Wg. III kz., six StuG III lg. and six 7.5 cm Pak (Sf).  These vehicles were not included in the authorized organization for the division, and it was planned that some of them would be handed away.

The manpower strength of the division improved gradually:

1 April	5452
1 May	12494
15 May	13414
1 June	13621
1 July	14358

Like many other Panzer Divisions in France the 116th Panzer Division was short of transport. On 15th May 1944 it only had 342 cars, 725 trucks and 25 towing vehicles. Also it had 163 armoured troop carriers.  This had improved by 1st June 1944, when it had 1065 trucks, or almost 2/3 of the authorized strength of 1688.  A major problem was the age of many of the trucks. This was aggravated by the shortage of spare parts. Also the division was insufficiently trained.

On the 1st July 1944 the truck situation had only improved slightly.  This was only temporary though, since it was soon obliged to send some of its trucks to Normandy to alleviate the shortages with the units there.

The division had 25 operational artillery pieces on 1st July 1944. The number of armoured troop carriers had increased to 243 operational and 9 in short term repair. The division had the thirteen 7.5 cm Pak it was authorized to have.

Flak-Abt. 281 had no guns and it did not receive any until the division had retreated from France.

On 18 July the division had 67 % mobility.  Soon it was ordered to Normandy. On 20th July 1944 the division began crossing the Seine by ferries.  On 24th July 1944 the following elements had reached the assembly area:

 Pz.Gren.Rgt. 156, Pz.Aufkl.Abt. 16, Pz.Gren.Rgt. 60, II./Pz.Rgt. 16, Pz.Jäg.Abt. 228.

The last combat units to arrive were the I./Pz.Rgt. 24 and Pi.Btl. 675.  Marching always took its toll on the tanks. The following tank strengths were reported:

Date	Panzer IV Combat Ready	Pz IV in Short Term Repair	Panthers Combat Ready	Panthers in Short Term Repair	JagdPz IV and StuG Combat Ready	JagdPz IV and StuG in Short Term Repair
25 July	24	?	39	?	25	?
27 July	64	15	57	17	25	?
30 July	30	?	32	?	15	?
22 August	4	?	11	?	3	?

Initially the division was in reserve south-east of Caen, but due to the American breakthrough west of St. Lô the 116th Panzer Division was ordered to move to the Vire area on 28th July. It reached its assembly area on the 29th July.

Thus far the division had not seen much combat and on 30th July it was assessed to have "Kampfwert I", the highest rating available for combat capabilities. All its battalions were considered strong and the mobility stood at 80%.

During the German Mortain counter attack the I./Pz.Rgt. 24 was subordinated to 2nd Panzer Division. It advanced to Le Mesnil-Adelée.

On 11th August the division was ordered to move to the Alençon area. It remained in the Alençon - Argentan area until 20th August.  The division broke out of the Falaise pocket.

The division received 665 men as replacements during August. Also it received 127 men on 6th September and another 442 six days later.  According to a report dated 23rd September the division suffered 5186 casualties from the allied invasion until 13th September.

According to the status report sent to the Inspector General of Panzer Troops at the beginning of October the division had a strength of 11875 on the 1st of October. During September, 1998 replacements and convalescents had been received by the division. Casualties during September amounted to 677 and simultaneously 121 men had left the division for other reasons. This would indicate a strength of 10675 on 1 September.

Compared to the strength on 1 July this would indicate a loss of 3683 men. But since the division received 665 replacements during August, losses must have amounted to 4348.

It seems not very likely that the division would have suffered 838 casualties between the 1st and 13th September, especially since the division only suffered 677 casualties during the entire month of September. There are three probable explanations for this:

•  The figure of 5186 casualties may include men that had absorbed by other units during the retreat
• or else stragglers may later have shown up with the division.
•  Another explanation is that it may include losses suffered by units temporarily attached to the 116th Panzer Division.

Since the division must have suffered losses during the retreat from 22nd August to 1st September not all of the 448 casualties indicated above may have occurred in Normandy. Probably slightly less than 4000 were sustained during the battles in Normandy.  

 TRANSCRIPT

Annex 2 to 116th Pz Div. Ia #1101/44 as of 29 December 1944

Battle strengths	Officers	NCOs	Men
Pz. Gren. Rgt 60
1st Battalion Mounted	8	36	192
(Of which number are purely infantry)	(3)	(18)	(102)
Additionally unarmed	-	11	55
2nd Battalion	4	19	167
(Of which number are purely infantry)	(2)	(8)	(90)
Regimental Units	7	28	129
Total	19	94	543
Pz. Gren. Rgt 156
1st Battalion	3	19	96
(Of which number are purely infantry)	(2)	(4)	(31)
2nd Battalion	5	31	175
(Of which number are purely infantry)	(1)	(6)	(35)
Regimental Units	6	31	162
Total	14	81	433
Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion 116 (Mounted)
Staff, Recon Co & Heavy Co	8	44	196
Recon Companies	2	14	99
Total	10	58	295
Armoured Engineer Battalion 675 (Mounted)	5	28	260
Total	5	28	260

 

Annex 3 to 116th Pz Div. Ia #1101/44 as of 29 December 1944

Losses of weapons
Machine Pistols	163
Flare Pistols	38
Rifle lg. gear	97
Light Machine guns	158
Heavy Machine guns	22
MG 151/15s	6
Heavy Anti-Tank Guns (7.5cm Pak 40)	5
8cm Mortars 34	15
Heavy Rocket Launchers	2

"Our Panther was surrounded and had been crippled by eight Shermans. My Commander, Leutnant Stetza, continued grimly to try to fight them off but we were hit again. I managed to drive the burning Panther for a further 300 metres to try to seek some cover, but the heat was too intense and we had to abandon the tank. I sought shelter in the lee of the smouldering tank and saw the radio operator bail out, then the tank was hit once more. I heard my commander's voice nearby so I crawled over to investigate. He had lost both his legs below the knees and shock seemed to have deadened the pain for he did not cry out. I tried to bandage the stumps but as I did, Leutnant Stetza said 'Leave them alone, it's pointless!'. I could not pull him away from the burning tank because machine gun rounds were bursting all around, so I pleaded with him to surrender so that he could get urgent medical attention. Leutnant Stetza said to me, 'Müller, take my identity disc and pay-book and give them to the company, give my love to my parents and now I order you to get out of here and get back to company'. There was nothing more I could do but do as I was ordered and with deep regret I left him to his fate!"

                                                                                                           Wachtmeister Müller, Panther Driver, Panzer Regiment 16.

Black German humour from the time, in response to the claim that a Panther tank could take out ten Sherman tanks would wryly be 'Ja, but they always have eleven!'