January 8, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, The History Guy tells the story of one of the most extraordinary David vs. Goliath tank battles of WW2, which involved a little American M8 armored car and Hitler's enormous King Tiger tank.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American Stories, and our next story comes
to us from a man who's simply known as the
History Guy. His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands
of people of all ages on YouTube. The History Guy
has also heard here on our American Stories. Here he
is telling the story of the tank duel during the
(00:30):
Battle of the Bulge at Sonvi, Belgium.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Today, we're going to talk about an event that was
described in an after action battle report on December eighteenth,
nineteen forty four, where a US light armored car engaged
to destroyed a German heavy tank in combat, which is
something so unlikely that you might not even think it
was true, except that there were multiple witnesses and an
official army report. And while it really is an interesting
(00:55):
and exciting story worth telling, it is also an interesting
microcosm of the world chattering events that were going on
in the winter of nineteen forty four, and an interesting
life lesson is wet. But before we talk about this
duel between armored vehicles, let's talk about the events that
led up to it. The Germans launched one of their
last major offensives of the Second World War on Deceiver sixteenth,
(01:17):
nineteen forty four. They were attacking a heavily forested section
of Belgium called the ark Denn that was lightly defended
by the Allies because they believed that the terrain was
so impassable that there couldn't be an offensive there. The
goal was to drive all the way through to the
Belgian port of Antwerp that would split the Western Allies
in half, isolate entire army grooves, and Hitler hoped inflicts
(01:40):
such a defeat on the Western Allies that they would
have to sue for peace, allowing him to concentrate on
the war with the Soviet Union. It was a massive
attack that included two hundred six thousand troops, twelve hundred tanks,
and four thousand artillery pieces.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
The goal was to.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Use surprise and speed to move so quickly that the
Ally would not be able to mount a defense or
a counter attack. That required a very aggressive time table,
where the German Army needed to take certain towns that
had crossroads necessary for moving those numbers of troops. One
of those was the town of Bastone, and the defense
of Bastone by the hundred and first Airborne is pretty
(02:17):
well known, but another one that's not discussed nearly as
much is the defense of the tiny belted town samb
December seventeenth sought chaos in the tiny town of Samvie.
The German assault the night before had caught the Americans
completely off guard. Thousands of American troops were in headlong retreat.
Two entire regiments had been surrounded and forced to surrender.
(02:41):
But the Americans knew the importance of the crossroads in Sambie,
and so they were desperately trying to throw up a defense,
creating ad hoc units from the retreating troops and trying
to bring up reinforcements from the seventh and ninth Armored
Divisions through the traffic jam of retreating troops and destroyed vehicles.
But on the other side, things were almost as bad.
The Americans had held in the north, cutting off one
(03:02):
of the major roads that the Germans had intended to use,
and that meant that the entire fifth Pienzer Army was
stuck on one road. And on that road, the traffic
jam was so bad that one of the German commanders,
Field Marshall model, was standing in the road trying to
direct traffic. And that's how things stood as the day
ended on December seventeenth. The Americans were in a traffic jam,
(03:25):
desperately trying to create a defense of the Saint Ville crossroads,
and the Germans were in a traffic jam deftinually trying
to tank San Vill before the Americans could mount that defense.
And that brings us to December eighteenth, the date of
our duel between the US inmate arbored carr and a
much feared Tiger tank in the high stakes defense of
the town sam Vi. So let's talk about those two
(03:49):
vehicles that met that day. The inmate arbored car is
a reconnaissance vehicle, in this case with Troop B of
the eighty seventh Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron. The job of a
reconnaissance squadron is to make and keep contact with the
enemy so that you know the enemy's strength and intention.
Their vehicles were built around speed and agility, not armour
(04:10):
and armament. Them eight, made by Ford, was lightly armed
with a thirty seven millimeters cannon. It's not enough to
say hurt the front armour on a large tank, but
it could take on an enemy reconnaissance vehicle or a
soft vehicle like a truck or an artillery piece. The
inmate was armored, but only enough to protect it from say,
machine gun fire, not a cannon like on a tank.
(04:33):
Although the inmate's off road capability was disappointing, the inmate
was very fast on roads and capable of maintaining speeds
up to fifty five miles per hour. On the other
side of the battlefield, the Germans brought with them some
of the most powerful armored fighting vehicles of the Second
World War. Not only did they have the formidable Panzer
I and Panther medium tanks, but they brought along the
(04:55):
masters of the battlefield, the Mighty Tiger tank by the
Angel Corporation. The Tiger weighed in at more than sixty tons,
more than eight times the weight of an M eight.
Its frontal armour was one hundred and twenty millimeters thick,
which was virtually invulnerable to the thirty seven millimeters cannon
on an M eight, and its own cannon was the
(05:16):
mighty eighty eight and eight point eight centimeter gun, meant
to destroy the best armor that the Allies could bring
to the battlefield against an eighty eight and M eight
might as well be armored with paper. The only weakness
for a Tiger was the armor in the rear, because
tanks are built to be attacked from the front, but
even there, a tiger had eighty millimeters of armour, which
(05:36):
meant that for an heard a tiger would essentially have
to shoot into the back of the tank at point
blank range. But of course that's exactly what happened on
December eighteenth, witnessed by an infantry captain and recorded in
an after action report. According to the report, the inmate
was concealed in a bush and was surprised when a
tiger tank rumbled by right in front of it. The
(05:57):
commander realized that the crew of the tiger tank had
not seen his eight, and the tiger was driving on
a sunken row, so that wouldn't be able to maneuver.
Commander realized an opportunity, so we rolled out his m
eate to charge the rear of the tiger tank, hoping
to get his shot in before even being seen. Well,
it didn't work out as easily as he had hoped.
The commander of the tiger tank spotted them as they approached,
(06:19):
and so it became a desperate race. But the inmate
racing to get close enough to use its tiny thirty
seven millimeters cannon, and the commander of the tiger tank
desperately trying to traverse its massive turret so it could
shoot at the M eight At just twenty five yards
a mere seventy five feet, the inmate fired three shots
straight into the rear of the tiger tank. The huge
beast shuddered, rumbled to a stop, and exploded into flames,
(06:42):
the crew abandoning the tank, and then, in my favorite
bit of the after action report, though witness mildly noted
that having just scored perhaps the most extraordinary kill in
the entire history of our warfare, the M eight returned
to its position. Sure it's an excited story, but what
does it really teach us? Well? I think one of
(07:03):
the most interesting parts of the stories that this attack
was not an act of desperation. It was an act
of calculation. The sergeant commanding them eight knew the strengths
of his own vehicle, knew the weakness of his enemy,
saw an opportunity, and took it. And isn't that a
great life lesson? If you understand your strengths and recognize
your opportunities, you can defeat even overwhelming odds. But it's
(07:26):
also a great illustration of the plucky American defense of
the town of somb Like the M eight, the Americans
in soundb were facing overwhelming odds in a chaotic situation,
and yet they put up a defense greater than anyone
might have imagined. The Germans expected that their overwhelming numbers
would easily take Sonville on December eighteenth, and yet the
outnumbered Americans held out for an entire week. It wasn't
(07:49):
until December twenty fourth that they finally withdrew to new positions.
By the time the Germans finally took the town, it
was really just too late. While they're offensive, better known
as the Battle of the Bulls with Ray John for
another month, in practice, the Germans had no chance of
achieving their goals after they lost the initiative in the
first few days against determined defenses at places like son Vi.
(08:12):
In the end, the Germans lost more than one hundred
thousand casualties in the battle, killed or captured, and virtually
all the equipment they took was lost as well. The
surprise offensive turned out to be an astounding victory for
the Allies. May be best illustrated by that time, when
the Little Mate armored car defeated the goliath of the
battlefield on a lonely road in Belgium.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
And great job as always to Greg Hengler and special
thanks to the History Guy. If you want more stories
of forgotten history, please subscribe to his YouTube channel, The
History Guy colon history deserves to be remembered and what
terrific storytelling. And it's so true. This was not an
act of desperation but calculation and always American ingenuity and courage.
(08:58):
I mean it took guts to just leave a post.
I mean clearly they hadn't been seen. But to go
track down a tiger tank and try and take it
down not only the most extraordinary kill in the history
of armed warfare, but a sheer and pure example of
how Americans seize initiative and take risks. This is Lee Habib,
(09:21):
another great story from the History Guy. Here on our
American Stories
This is our American Stories, and our next story comes
to us from a man who's simply known as the
History Guy. His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands
of people of all ages on YouTube. The History Guy
has also heard here on our American Stories. Here he
is telling the story of the tank duel during the
(00:30):
Battle of the Bulge at Sonvi, Belgium.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Today, we're going to talk about an event that was
described in an after action battle report on December eighteenth,
nineteen forty four, where a US light armored car engaged
to destroyed a German heavy tank in combat, which is
something so unlikely that you might not even think it
was true, except that there were multiple witnesses and an
official army report. And while it really is an interesting
(00:55):
and exciting story worth telling, it is also an interesting
microcosm of the world chattering events that were going on
in the winter of nineteen forty four, and an interesting
life lesson is wet. But before we talk about this
duel between armored vehicles, let's talk about the events that
led up to it. The Germans launched one of their
last major offensives of the Second World War on Deceiver sixteenth,
(01:17):
nineteen forty four. They were attacking a heavily forested section
of Belgium called the ark Denn that was lightly defended
by the Allies because they believed that the terrain was
so impassable that there couldn't be an offensive there. The
goal was to drive all the way through to the
Belgian port of Antwerp that would split the Western Allies
in half, isolate entire army grooves, and Hitler hoped inflicts
(01:40):
such a defeat on the Western Allies that they would
have to sue for peace, allowing him to concentrate on
the war with the Soviet Union. It was a massive
attack that included two hundred six thousand troops, twelve hundred tanks,
and four thousand artillery pieces.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
The goal was to.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Use surprise and speed to move so quickly that the
Ally would not be able to mount a defense or
a counter attack. That required a very aggressive time table,
where the German Army needed to take certain towns that
had crossroads necessary for moving those numbers of troops. One
of those was the town of Bastone, and the defense
of Bastone by the hundred and first Airborne is pretty
(02:17):
well known, but another one that's not discussed nearly as
much is the defense of the tiny belted town samb
December seventeenth sought chaos in the tiny town of Samvie.
The German assault the night before had caught the Americans
completely off guard. Thousands of American troops were in headlong retreat.
Two entire regiments had been surrounded and forced to surrender.
(02:41):
But the Americans knew the importance of the crossroads in Sambie,
and so they were desperately trying to throw up a defense,
creating ad hoc units from the retreating troops and trying
to bring up reinforcements from the seventh and ninth Armored
Divisions through the traffic jam of retreating troops and destroyed vehicles.
But on the other side, things were almost as bad.
The Americans had held in the north, cutting off one
(03:02):
of the major roads that the Germans had intended to use,
and that meant that the entire fifth Pienzer Army was
stuck on one road. And on that road, the traffic
jam was so bad that one of the German commanders,
Field Marshall model, was standing in the road trying to
direct traffic. And that's how things stood as the day
ended on December seventeenth. The Americans were in a traffic jam,
(03:25):
desperately trying to create a defense of the Saint Ville crossroads,
and the Germans were in a traffic jam deftinually trying
to tank San Vill before the Americans could mount that defense.
And that brings us to December eighteenth, the date of
our duel between the US inmate arbored carr and a
much feared Tiger tank in the high stakes defense of
the town sam Vi. So let's talk about those two
(03:49):
vehicles that met that day. The inmate arbored car is
a reconnaissance vehicle, in this case with Troop B of
the eighty seventh Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron. The job of a
reconnaissance squadron is to make and keep contact with the
enemy so that you know the enemy's strength and intention.
Their vehicles were built around speed and agility, not armour
(04:10):
and armament. Them eight, made by Ford, was lightly armed
with a thirty seven millimeters cannon. It's not enough to
say hurt the front armour on a large tank, but
it could take on an enemy reconnaissance vehicle or a
soft vehicle like a truck or an artillery piece. The
inmate was armored, but only enough to protect it from say,
machine gun fire, not a cannon like on a tank.
(04:33):
Although the inmate's off road capability was disappointing, the inmate
was very fast on roads and capable of maintaining speeds
up to fifty five miles per hour. On the other
side of the battlefield, the Germans brought with them some
of the most powerful armored fighting vehicles of the Second
World War. Not only did they have the formidable Panzer
I and Panther medium tanks, but they brought along the
(04:55):
masters of the battlefield, the Mighty Tiger tank by the
Angel Corporation. The Tiger weighed in at more than sixty tons,
more than eight times the weight of an M eight.
Its frontal armour was one hundred and twenty millimeters thick,
which was virtually invulnerable to the thirty seven millimeters cannon
on an M eight, and its own cannon was the
(05:16):
mighty eighty eight and eight point eight centimeter gun, meant
to destroy the best armor that the Allies could bring
to the battlefield against an eighty eight and M eight
might as well be armored with paper. The only weakness
for a Tiger was the armor in the rear, because
tanks are built to be attacked from the front, but
even there, a tiger had eighty millimeters of armour, which
(05:36):
meant that for an heard a tiger would essentially have
to shoot into the back of the tank at point
blank range. But of course that's exactly what happened on
December eighteenth, witnessed by an infantry captain and recorded in
an after action report. According to the report, the inmate
was concealed in a bush and was surprised when a
tiger tank rumbled by right in front of it. The
(05:57):
commander realized that the crew of the tiger tank had
not seen his eight, and the tiger was driving on
a sunken row, so that wouldn't be able to maneuver.
Commander realized an opportunity, so we rolled out his m
eate to charge the rear of the tiger tank, hoping
to get his shot in before even being seen. Well,
it didn't work out as easily as he had hoped.
The commander of the tiger tank spotted them as they approached,
(06:19):
and so it became a desperate race. But the inmate
racing to get close enough to use its tiny thirty
seven millimeters cannon, and the commander of the tiger tank
desperately trying to traverse its massive turret so it could
shoot at the M eight At just twenty five yards
a mere seventy five feet, the inmate fired three shots
straight into the rear of the tiger tank. The huge
beast shuddered, rumbled to a stop, and exploded into flames,
(06:42):
the crew abandoning the tank, and then, in my favorite
bit of the after action report, though witness mildly noted
that having just scored perhaps the most extraordinary kill in
the entire history of our warfare, the M eight returned
to its position. Sure it's an excited story, but what
does it really teach us? Well? I think one of
(07:03):
the most interesting parts of the stories that this attack
was not an act of desperation. It was an act
of calculation. The sergeant commanding them eight knew the strengths
of his own vehicle, knew the weakness of his enemy,
saw an opportunity, and took it. And isn't that a
great life lesson? If you understand your strengths and recognize
your opportunities, you can defeat even overwhelming odds. But it's
(07:26):
also a great illustration of the plucky American defense of
the town of somb Like the M eight, the Americans
in soundb were facing overwhelming odds in a chaotic situation,
and yet they put up a defense greater than anyone
might have imagined. The Germans expected that their overwhelming numbers
would easily take Sonville on December eighteenth, and yet the
outnumbered Americans held out for an entire week. It wasn't
(07:49):
until December twenty fourth that they finally withdrew to new positions.
By the time the Germans finally took the town, it
was really just too late. While they're offensive, better known
as the Battle of the Bulls with Ray John for
another month, in practice, the Germans had no chance of
achieving their goals after they lost the initiative in the
first few days against determined defenses at places like son Vi.
(08:12):
In the end, the Germans lost more than one hundred
thousand casualties in the battle, killed or captured, and virtually
all the equipment they took was lost as well. The
surprise offensive turned out to be an astounding victory for
the Allies. May be best illustrated by that time, when
the Little Mate armored car defeated the goliath of the
battlefield on a lonely road in Belgium.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
And great job as always to Greg Hengler and special
thanks to the History Guy. If you want more stories
of forgotten history, please subscribe to his YouTube channel, The
History Guy colon history deserves to be remembered and what
terrific storytelling. And it's so true. This was not an
act of desperation but calculation and always American ingenuity and courage.
(08:58):
I mean it took guts to just leave a post.
I mean clearly they hadn't been seen. But to go
track down a tiger tank and try and take it
down not only the most extraordinary kill in the history
of armed warfare, but a sheer and pure example of
how Americans seize initiative and take risks. This is Lee Habib,
(09:21):
another great story from the History Guy. Here on our
American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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