German Armored Forces & Vehicles

Panther Ausf G '151'

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La Gleize, Ardennes, December 1944. Panther Ausf G '151' (Befehls Panther or Command version.) of (Major) Werner Pötschke .. Commander of the .I / SS-Panzer Regiment 1 (1st.SS-Panzer Division.) abandoned out of gasoline. (Probably a demolition charge set in the breech of the gun has blown off the turret roof..) This is at the Wérimont Farm at La Gleize. In November 1944 Pötschke was promoted to SS Sturmbannführer (Major) and given Command of the SS Panzer Regiment 1 (LSSAH), which led the German attack during the Ardennes offensive - including the so-called "Malmédy massacre". Due to his death, it will probably never be clarified, whether this "incident" at the crossroads near Baugnez had actually been ordered to him by his commander, SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lt. Colonel) Joachim Peiper (who had already left the scene by the time the alleged massacre happened, but was nethertheless put to trial for it after the War), whether Pötschke ordered it by himself or whether the situation simply got out of hand. (Anyhow and guilty or not, the man in question, gives me the shivers.) SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) Werner Pötschke was decorated with Ritterkreuz (Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, 04.06.1944) and Eichenlaub (Oak Leaves, 15.03.1945), the latter shortly before his death near Veszprém / Hungary on 24 March, 1945 as a result of wounds caused by a mortar shell splinter (Mörsergranaten-Splitter) during a commanders' briefing on March 23, 1945. Major. Werner Hermann Gustav Pötschke. BIRTH; 6 March 1914 Brussels, Arrondissement Brussel-Hoofdstad, Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium DEATH; 24 March 1945 Hungary. BURIAL; German Military Cemetery Mattersburg, Mattersburg Bezirk, Burgenland, Austria. PLOT Block 10 Reihe 2 Grab 1586. MEMORIAL ID 43197266. taken fromfb/Places of war