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On October 23, 1942, the Allies launched a three part plan under Operations Lightfoot, Bertram, and Braganza which began the Second Battle of El Alamein. Facing the Allies was Panzerarmee Afrika commanded by Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel. Included in the order of battle for the Germans was the 21st. Panzer Division (21.Pz.Dv.) and when the Second Battle of El Alamein concluded in an Allied victory on November 11, 1942, 21.Pz.Dv. was a shell of itself with only four total tanks left operational. After fighting rear-guard actions to cover the German retreat, what was left of 21.Pz.Dv. was split into two kampfgruppen (battle groups); Kampfgruppe Pfeiffer and Kampfgruppe Gruen. Following the Battle of Kasserine Pass which occured from February 19 through February 24, 1943, the 21.Pz.Dv. ceased to be when Major General Von Hulsen surrendered the tattered remains of one of the most potent units within the Deutsches Afrikakorps on May 13, 1943.
Beginning in June 1943, in France, the Germans commenced to organizing a new type of combat unit whose key asset was being highly mobile and thus able to rapidly deploy to locations where they were most needed. In essence, these new units were to be “fire brigades” to be rushed around the front where required in order to bolster the strength of local forces. The first of these units was Schnelle Division West (Fast Division West) and its creation was directly in response to what the Germans knew was coming; the Allied invasion of Europe. Schnelle Division West was to be completely motorized in regards to combat units as well as support units such as artillery and logistical assets. In fact, Schnelle Division West would be more motorized than the standard Heer (Army) panzer division. There was a rather large problem which put a severe crimp in the idea of Schnelle Division West.The problem was that German industry could not supply enough vehicles to equip the division and make the totally mobile force a reality. The Germans were only able to equip a single brigade and so the unit changed names to Schnelle Brigade West. However, the Germans went about the process of scraping together as much armor and vehicles as possible to push the unit to division size. A good part of this process was utilizing captured French tanks and light armored vehicles but the Germans wanted to make these tanks and vehicles more useful and more potent and for that, they called in one Major Alfred Becker.
Becker, a mechanical engineer by trade, was an artillery officer both in World War One and World War Two. As much of the German artillery forces relied on horses to move their guns and ammunition trains, Becker believed in mobility but being an engineer, he began to convert captured British light tanks and Bren carriers into self-propelled guns and munition carriers while his unit (Infantarie Division 227 "Rheinisch-Westfälische") was on garrison duty in France. Within six months, he and his fellow engineers, mechanics, and metal workers assembled a complete self-propelled gun battery. Soon, Becker and his unit was sent to the Eastern Front as part of Heeresgruppe Nord (Army Group North) and there, his mobile battery proved an immense success to the point it was often used as a “fire brigade” and deployed where it was needed. In order to meet the threat of new Soviet tanks, the T-34 medium tank and the KV-1 heavy tank, Altmärkische Kettenwerk GmbH, better known as Alkett, sent modified French Renault R35 light tanks equipped with the 47mm PaK(t) anti-tank gun to Russia as the 4,7 cm PaK(t) Panzerjäger Geschützwagen 35R(f) tank destroyer. To make a lengthy story more brief, Becker was recalled to Germany and directed to partner with Alkett and formulate a way to repurpose captured tanks and vehicles. After spending a short time in Germany, Becker was sent back to France and given the monumental task of scavenging the French countryside for any and all French and British tanks and armored vehicles, collecting them all, figuring out how to re-purpose them, then produce enough such tanks and vehicles to equip two panzer divisions. And so by June 17, 1943, Baukommando Becker (Construction Unit Becker) was able to supply Schnelle Brigade West with enough additional armored vehicles to restore it to division size. On June 27, 1943, the unit was re-designated as the 21.Pz.Dv. in honor of the original unit and put under the command of Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel. Becker himself was put in command of the 21.Pz.Dv.'s assault gun battalion, Panzerjäger-Abteilung 200.
The remains of the vehicle in the photograph is a French SOMUA MCL half-track which Alkett repurposed as a self-propelled barrage mortar. The long German designation for it was Mittlerer Schützenpanzerwagen S307(f) mit Reihenwerfer (Medium Armored Personnel Carrier S307(f) with “Row Thrower”). The Reihenwerfer consisted of sixteen captured French 81mm Brandt Mle 27/31 mortars, known as the Granatwerfer 278(f) (Gr.W 278(f)) in German service, set in a frame with two rows of eight mortar tubes. The entire frame sat on a turntable which allowed for 360 degree rotation and the tubes could be elevated from 35 degrees up to a maximum of 90 degrees. To ensure a wider distribution of rounds on the target, the lower set of tubes had a slight outward angle. In operation, the firing mechanism held a round in the top of each mortar tube and when the gunner pulled the lanyard, the rounds would drop down their respective tubes, strike the firing pin at the bottom of each tube, and then be launched towards the target. A total of 90 rounds of ammunition was available for the mortars and the front of the half-track, cab, and a portion of the rear deck was protected with 12mm thick armor. For self-defense, a MG 34 or MG 42 machine-gun was carried on the vehicle. In all, Alkett produced sixteen of the Reihenwerfer equipped MCL half-tracks and all of them went to 21.Pz.Dv., likely deployed with the Nebelwerfer companies of Panzer-Grenadier-Regiment 192 (mot.) and Panzer-Grenadier-Regiment 152, these being 10.Kompanie (s-Werfer) and 10.Kompanie (Werfer) respectively.
The 21.Pz.Dv. was the only armored unit that contested the initial D-Day landing, namely at Juno Beach. Not surprisingly, it bore the brunt of Allied attacks as the U.S. and British/British Commonwealth forces pushed further inland. The unit was bleeding tanks with losses never being completely made up by replacements despite being able to achieve almost a 2 to 1 kill ratio. The last gasp for 21.Pz.Dv. Came when it was nearly wiped out in the Kessel von Falaise, the Falaise Pocket, which was closed by the Allies on August 21, 1944. The remnants were bolstered with the remains of Luftwaffen-Feld-Divisionen 16 and retreated to Lorraine where it was further battered down before its ranks were again increased by absorbing the remains of Panzer-Brigade 112. The unit would participate in the last major German offensive of the war, Unternehmen Nordwind (Operation Nordwind), from December 31, 1944 to January 25, 1945 before being redeployed to the Eastern Front where it was demolished by the Soviets during the Kesselschlacht von Halbe (Battle of Halbe). What was left surrendered to Soviet forces on April 29, 1945.
It isn't possible from the surviving photographs of this particular S307(f) to tell which regiment it was part of. It was struck at least three times, the penetration on the cab having cracked off a piece of the armor. Exactly where the S307(f) was knocked out or abandoned isn't known but it was likely in the initial area of operations of the 21.Pz.Dv. which was south-east of the city of Caen. Photographs taken of this S307(f) after the combat show that at least five of the mortar tubes were missing from the frame, both tracks were gone, and it even appeared the 4-cylinder engine was removed as it is certainly missing in the photographs. This suggests that it may have been abandoned and what could be salvaged from it was taken. This would mean the shell penetrations were done after, possibly by Allied tankers making sure it was truly disabled. This particular photograph was taken after World War Two ended though what year is unknown. By now, all of the mortar tubes are gone, rust has spread across the Reihenwerfer, chassis, and superstructure, and the Balkenkreuz is nearly washed away. Given the derelict state, in time, it was likely retrieved and taken to the scrap yard to be broken down if it wasn't scrapped where it stood.
