Listen up. Just after midnight, 11 July ’44, Panzer Lehr—Germany’s showpiece—came rumbling through Hauts-Vents, tanks up front, infantry in tow. We didn’t wait for introductions. Our guns spoke first.

Lehr was fresh in January; by July they were tough but tired. In the hedgerows, strength on paper doesn’t matter—fire discipline and nerve do. My units cut their infantry to pieces in a string of sharp dawn fights and bloodied the panzers until their thrusts lost steam. By mid-afternoon, our lines were firm, their armor still dribbling in without mass, and the initiative was back in American hands.

Lesson: meet steel with steel, kill the spearhead, and the rest of the phalanx goes nowhere. Hold the line, then drive.

~~ General Howitzer