Talk:Battle of Cisterna

Could this article be made a little less U.S.-centric? I realize the Rangers were heroic to charge all those tanks, but the Germans did win the battle after all. How about mentioning which German Army Unit was involved? And how about a number for German casualties? And since the defeat seems to have been a lop-sided one, maybe it would be appropriate to critique the coomand decision or battle plan that the Rangers were following. Shirokuma1 16:35, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. Not only that but the facts record perhaps no more than a dozen or so killed from all 3 Ranger Bns - some Germans estimated 500 captured, other sources 6-700. If anything this was a fiasco and the Ranger myth of fighting to nearly to the last man was created by several Ranger historians who did not wish to malign Darby's Rangers.

The battle

700 Rangers were captured - I'd like to see the source for this statement:"According to U.S Army historian Steven Zaloga over 761 Army Rangers became casualties with 311 killed and 450 POWs." I have looked at the after action report which includes a subsequent list of KIAs and most of the casualties came from the sister 4th Battalion attempting to break through the encirclement - not the battalions that were trapped within. Out of 767, 700 were captured. See introduction by Mir Bahmanyar for Jim Altieri's The Spearheaders. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.230.136.30 (talk) 23:57, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

This is a really dreadful section. Inadequate information based on hearsay(?). Nothing solid on losses - for either side. Were 400 or 700 Rangers taken prisoners? How many German tanks were destroyed? Has the author checked the HG division QM reports for the dates of the fighting? How long was the battle? The author states the operation began at 01-30 hrs. Presumably the troops spent at least 2 hours moving forwards toward Cisterna. If the fighting started at 03-30 hrs and lasted for 'approximately seven hours' then that would mean an end time of around 10-30 hrs. Is this credible? 2 under-strength battalions of infantry with little or no cover fighting a Panzer division in broad daylight (sun-up in Italy would have been about 07-15 hrs at this time of the year) for around 3 hours of the 7 hours of the battle? This kind of article reduces the reputation of Wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.166.134.56 (talk) 02:23, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

How did the writer of the article get to know about the Rangers officer who shot the German tank commander and dropped the grenade down the hatch of the Panzer IV? Sounds a bit dodgy to me. I mean, this guy shot somebody in a tank turret, at night, obviously from some distance, then climbed up the tank and was able to throw a grenade into the tank? And none of the other Germans bothered? And the lightly-armed Rangers captured 2 other German tanks? At night. Did the Germans not have any infantry soldiers around to protect their tanks against this sort of thing. Doing my best but I'm having a hard time believing this. ^^^^