Panzer Lehr on June 8th

[John McGillivray]

I take back what I said in my last post. The following is from Georges Bernage’s book "The Panzers and the Battle of Normandy” (p76):

“1. These photographs were taken during the afternoon of 10 June near the farm known as Pallieres at Mondaye (8 km. south of Bayeux). This time scale is confirmed by the following evidence : the last elements of the division had to withdraw shortly afterwards from Mondaye as a result of British pressure. We see here the Panther tanks of the 1st. Battalion of the 130th Pz. Lehr Regt. which appear to contradict the fact that the battalion had already been loaded on trains for the Russian front and only reached the Normandy front several days later. In fact, recent studies have shown that a section of five Panthers from the battalion were present right from the beginning of the deployment of the division in Normandy. Those are the ones we see in these photos which were destined for a propaganda report designed to demonstrate to the public how powerful the panzers were in the face of the Allied landings - even though that elite division only had those five Panthers available on the front. They are "A" models.”

Note that in the battle at la Bergerie Ferme there were nine Panthers involved. Four were KOed, leaving five. The number of surviving Panthers equals the number of Panthers reported by Georges Bernage.