From elsewhere in the net, saving me the trouble of going after von Luck's or von Mellenthin's memoirs, whichever this one was Tuesday, November 10th, 1942 ... At the Fuhrerbau in Munich, Hitler finally reacts to continual Rumanian complaints and concerns that their 3rd Army, holding Paulus's left flank north of Stalingrad, requires support. The Fuhrer orders 48th Panzer Corps, under Lt. Gen. Ferdinand Heim, to move out of its laagers behind Italian 8th Army and into position to support Rumanian 3rd Army. On Hitler's chinagraph maps, 48th Panzer Corps is an elite outfit with 40,000 men in three battle-ready panzer divisions. In reality, it consists of two divisions, the 22nd Panzer Division and the 1st Rumanian Panzer Division. 1st Rumanian Panzer Division bears a pompous name,q fielding 108 tanks. But 98 of them are Czech Pz 38s, unequal to the Soviet Union's T-34s. 22nd Panzer, on the other hand, has been stripped of its Panzer Grenadier regiment and Engineer battalion. The engineers are fighting in Stalingrad. The 22nd's tanks - in Col. Hermann Von Oppeln-Bronikowski's 204th Panzer Regiment - are mostly Czech Pz 38s, with a few Mark III and Mark IV machines. The division has been inactive since September, so short of fuel, it cannot even conduct training exercises. The tanks have been dug in, protected against reconnaissance planes and frost by straw and reeds. When the 22nd Panzer Division gets its movement orders, tank crews remove the camouflage and try to start the division's 104 tanks. To little avail. 65 of them catch fire or refuse to move. Their electrical systems develop short circuits and fires. After stamping out the fires, mechanics go to work. They find the straw has attracted mice, who have in turn developed a taste for electrical wiring. Hard work in the garages enables 42 of the 65 disabled machines to get on the road. To make things worse, more problems show up in 204th's tanks. They lack track sleeves for winter operations. They continue to suffer faulty electrical lines. They slide off roads and into the mud. The regiment's Tank Workshop Company lacks fuel to follow the panzers, so nobody can carry out major repairs en route. Oppeln-Bronikowski, a 1936 equestrian Gold Medallist, is not a happy panzer leader.
Miguel, Who would have thought that Mice could bring Panzers to a halt, I thought it was only Elephants Regards Tom
I want to get a mice. This reminds me of a tourist guide in Finland describing the 'meese' (plural of moose to her )
