| Original caption: “Three M4A3E8 Sherman and a M4A1 Sherman medium tank from the Fourteenth Armored Division, United States Seventh Army on the drive through the shell damaged inner city of Nuremburg following the surrender of German Army (Wehrmacht) units defending the city.” 4 M4 Sherman tanks of the 14th Armored Division maneuver through the shattered city of Nuremberg on Albrecht-Dürer-Straße, near the intersection of Burgstraße and Innere Laufer Gasse converge just below the castle walls. This is very close to Tiergärtnertorplatz, the northwestern entrance to the historic Altstadt (“Old Town”). The M4A3E8 Sherman was up gunned with the M1 76.2 millimeter (3-inch) gun and Horizontal Volute Spring System (HVSS) suspension. Like all major German cities, Nuremberg had a ring of fixed antiaircraft guns. These and their crews constituted the core of the defense. The commander and staff of an otherwise defunct 9th Volksgrenadier Division, operating under General Max Otto Simon’s (January 6, 1899 – February 1, 1961) 13th Schutzstaffel SS Corps, were in charge. To the northwest, blocking the United States XXI Corps, whence the Nazi Germans expected the main blow on Nuremberg to come, was the 2nd Mountain Division. To the east of the city, trying to shore up the faltering LXXXII Corps, went the 17th SS Panzergrenadiers, minus 1 regiment, which was committed inside the city. Within Nuremberg, in addition, were several Luftwaffe and Volkssturm battalions and a regiment provided by Wehrkreis (“Military district”) 13. Available a few miles northeast of the city was Gruppe Grafenwoehr, composed of 2 battalions of infantry and 35 tanks of various types gleaned from factories in Nuremberg and from a panzer training center whence the force drew its name. The Germans wasted their few available tanks on the 14th Armored Division northeast of Nuremberg. In a counterattack on April 15, Gruppe Grafenwoehr struck the 94th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, but reinforcements rushed from the reserve combat command helped bring the strike to a standstill. Within 2 days Gruppe Grafenwoehr had ceased to exist. It was a grueling fight for Nuremberg, made all the more difficult by deadly antiaircraft fire directed against the men on the ground. Once the ring of flak guns was broken, the fight developed into the slow, often costly, business of clearing 1 crumbling building after another, 1 more heap of rubble, 1 more cellar, defeating 1 more futile though dangerous counterattack launched by a few men, a squad, a platoon. All the while fighter-bombers and artillery kept pounding an already ruined metropolis. Late on April 19, the 3rd Division’s 30th Infantry penetrated medieval walls to enter the old town in the heart of the city. Before daylight the next morning, the Nazi Oberburgermeister Willy Liebel (August 31, 1897 – April 20, 1945), who had vowed in a message to Hitler to fight to the death, directed a final, fanatic counterattack. Except for a few Germans who had to be rooted from the rubble, that ended the fight. Liebel himself was found dead in a cellar. The shrine of Nazism fell, ironically, on April 20, 1945, Hitler’s birthday. Horace J. Abrahams (October 17, 1904 – March 19, 1958) photographed the Spanish Civil War before joining the War Press Pool following the United States Army through Germany. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0863.jpg |
| Image Size | 675.86 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2048 x 1612 |
| Photographer | Horace J. Abrahams |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 20, 1945 |
| Location | Albrecht-Dürer-Straße |
| City | Nuremberg |
| State or Province | Bavaria |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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