Officer 116 Pz Div Windhund Alpine Miniatures (38)

The 116th Panzer Division "Windhund" (German 116th Panzer Division) was formed in March 1944 in France from the remains of the 16th Panzer Division defeated during the fighting on the Eastern Front and units of the 179th Panzer Division in Reserve. At the beginning of its existence, the unit was stationed in France, more precisely in the Pas-de-Calais area. Curiously, after the Western Allies landed in Normandy, he was not immediately transferred to the combat zone. She was only sent there in August 1944. During the last fighting in Normandy and during the retreat to the borders of Germany, she suffered significant losses. In September 1944 she was transferred to Aachen, where she received supplements. In early 1945 he joined the German 5th Panzer Army and took part in the fighting in the Ardennes. She then retreated to the Saar Basin, where she was stationed until April 1945. That same month she capitulated to the Allied forces.

The first tanks of the German army appeared at the end of the First World War: they were the A7V vehicles. After the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the German armed forces were prohibited from developing armored weapons, but the German side did not respect these restrictions and secretly developed armored weapons. However, after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, this development became fully official and in 1935 the 1st Armored Division was formed. In the period 1935-1939, more divisions were formed, the main equipment of which was the Pz.Kpfw cars: I, II, III and IV. A single armored division at that time was made up of a tank brigade divided into two armored regiments, a motorized infantry brigade and support units, among others: reconnaissance, artillery, anti-aircraft and sappers. It consisted of about 300 fully operational tanks. It is also worth adding that the German armored forces (German: Panzerwaffe) were trained and prepared to implement blitzkrieg doctrine and not, as in many armies of the time, to support infantry activities. Therefore, in the training of the "pancerniaków" emphasis was placed on the interchangeability of functions, the independence in decision-making of officers and non-commissioned officers and the best technical mastery of the tanks they owned. All this resulted in great successes of German armored weapons in Poland in 1939, but especially in Western Europe in 1940. Also in the course of the fighting in North Africa, especially in the period 1941-1942, German armored forces They turned out to be a very difficult opponent. Before the invasion of the USSR, the number of German armored divisions almost doubled, but the number of tanks in these units was reduced to about 150-200 vehicles. Also during the fighting on the Eastern Front, especially in 1941-1942, the German armored forces were superior in training and organization to their Soviet opponent. However, contact with vehicles such as the T-34 or the KW-1 forced the introduction of the Pz.Kpfw V and VI tanks into line in 1942 and 1943. Increasing losses on the Eastern Front, as well as lost battles, at Stalingrad or Kursk- weakened the German Panzerwaffe. Its structure included heavy tank battalions (with 3 tank companies) and in 1943 armored grenadier divisions were established. There was also an increasingly clear advantage on the Soviet side and, from 1944, the need to simultaneously fight Soviet troops in the east and the Allies in the west. It is also assumed that it was then (in the years 1944-1945) that the training of the German armored forces was weaker than in the previous period and did not constitute as significant an advantage for the Germans as before. The last large-scale operations of the German Panzerwaffe were the offensives in the Ardennes (1944-1945) and in Hungary (1945).