The Shermans were not back on equal footing with German tanks until 76mm guns were added in December of 1944. New tanks introduced by Germany were a significant threat: the Panther and Tiger tanks had stronger armor and a longer firing range with more penetrating power and higher accuracy. Until the German Panzers up-gunned to 75mm L/48s in mid-1944, the M4 Sherman was clearly superior. The new M4 Sherman rolled off the line in 1942 and was first employed in North Africa. Medium M2 and M3 tanks, among others, soon went into production, first to supply to Britain, and later for use by the U.S. forces had only a handful of tanks in use even though light tanks had been in production since 1940. Tank warfare was an integral part of the war in Europe and mechanization for the war effort occurred rapidly.

The tank battles in Fury feature face-offs between the M4 Sherman and German Tiger tanks. While there may not be specific footage of the 2 nd Armored Division, these Universal News stories feature tank warfare in Germany during April 1945.Īllied troops taking cities in West Germany, trying to keep the peace in conquered cities, and liberating work camps. To get a sense of what the men of the Armored Divisions experienced as they fought to end the war, we can look to the Universal Newsreel Collection and see the stories the public was shown at the time. Between 19, the 2 nd Armored Division lost 1,160 men in battle. The 2 nd Armored Division was the first to reach the Elbe River in mid-April 1945, which is where the Fury story begins.ĭuring their period of service in World War II, the 2nd Armored Division took 76,963 prisoners of war, liberated tens of thousands of Allied POWs, and destroyed or captured thousands of enemy tanks, including Panzers and Tigers. There the division known as “Hell on Wheels” fought the Germans near Avranches and then crossed through France as part of the Third Army before reaching Germany in September 1944. On June 9, 1944, the 2 nd Armored Division landed on Omaha Beach in the invasion of the Normandy. After nine months the division moved on to Sicily in July of 1943. military armored divisions serving in North Africa when they landed at Casablanca on November 8, 1942.

Parts of the division were among the first U.S. The 2 nd Armored Division was created in July 1940 under the command of then Colonel George S. (Still from Universal News)įury’s fictionalized account of events at the end of the war focus on a small platoon within the 2 nd Armored Division.

Allied tanks in the German city of Koblenz. The new feature film, Fury, depicts the last month of the war in these startlingly real terms. The men fighting in Germany were either battle-hardened or green recruits, but all of them were sleepless and racing to end the war at breakneck speed. In spite of Allied superiority in weaponry, divisions often had to fight in close quarters with hand-to-hand combat. Limited maneuverability in small German towns resulted in heavy losses. The culmination of the war in Europe brought with it the most mechanized force the planet had ever seen with the sheer firepower of the United States military. American troops encountered some of the most tenacious and ruthless fighting of the war and faced the cruelest and vilest of human nature as they liberated concentration camps throughout the region. Small offensives, cutting supply lines, and rounding up fractured German units was far from the reality of the situation, however.

Germany in April 1945 is often depicted as the Allies capturing scattered Axis soldiers and liberating citizens from the clutches of the Third Reich. Ten months after the D-Day invasion, Allied forces were sweeping through western Europe. Criss is the supervisor of the National Archives Motion Picture Preservation Lab.

World war 2 tank battles