21. Panzer (SD2)

21. Panzer is an Axis Armored division in Steel Division II, available in the Back to War pack.

Destroyed in Tunisia in 1943, the elite 21. Panzer division was reformed in France from surviving personnel and reserve units, and equipped mostly with modified captured French armoured vehicles. Close to the beaches, it was the only Panzer division to react immediately to the allied invasion and counter-attack on D-Day.

Feuchtinger was an able artillery officer, but without prior experience or knowledge of a Panzer Division, a prestigious command which he had secured through his Nazi connections. A WW1 veteran, Feuchtinger fought in the Netherlands, Belgium and Russian campaigns as an artillery officer until 1943 when, thanks to well-placed connections with high-ranking Nazi officials, he was given command of a reformed 21. Panzer Division. Having no experience in armoured warfare, he secured the posting to his division of several veteran regimental commanders, and then leant entirely on them to run his division.

On D-Day, while his division was the closest to the beaches and the only one able to react immediately, Feuchtinger was nowhere to be found, having slipped to Paris, without notifying his staff, to spend the night with his mistress! Hurrying back to Normandy, he refused to coordinate with his neighbours (even superior in rank), and launched piecemeal and therefore vain counter-attacks, before pretty much abandoning his division to fend for itself, running away when he thought he was about to be cut off.