Assault guns were armored fighting vehicles similar to tanks, with the chassis and tracks of a panzer but without the rotating turret and with a larger gun. Used to support infantry assaults, they were also effective as tank destroyers. Hans Wijers has assembled hundreds of photos of these vehicles at war on the Eastern Front of World War II.
When German forces attacked in the Ardennes in December 1944, the paratroopers of the 3rd Fallschirmjager Division traded their parachutes for snow boots and fought on the ground with the 6th Panzer Army in the northern sector of the Battle of the Bulge. For six cold, bloody weeks, the Germans struggled and ultimately failed to make gains against a tenacious American defense. This is the story of their bitter combat--in the words of German and American soldiers who were there.
In these firsthand accounts--never before published in English--German soldiers describe the horrors of combat on the Eastern Front during World War II. A panzer crewman holds out to the bitter end at Stalingrad, fighting the Soviets as well as cold and hunger. An assault gun commander seeks out and destroys enemy tanks in Poland.