#Other
German PaK 40 remains
In the small square in the centre of Manhay are the remains of a German army cannon. This “PaK 40” served during the Battle of the Bulge near the village crossroads. In this sector, the American army halted the advance of the 2nd SS “Das Reich” Armoured Division in December 1944.
The PaK 40 75-mm gun had been developed between 1939 and 1941 to counter the arrival of new Soviet armoured vehicles on the Eastern Front. Its effectiveness was confirmed and the model became a reference for the German army during the second half of the war. Some of the 20,000 or so produced were mounted on tank fighters. It could also be used individually and moved to the front by a vehicle, or installed in a bunker. It was not until the arrival of more robust armoured vehicles at the end of the conflict that the PaK 40 lost its effectiveness.
In 1996, an incomplete model was found in Manhay during drainage work under the main road. The village elders remembered that a military machine had been buried in a huge shell hole a few metres from the crossroads. In the post-war confusion, it was probably buried when the debris from the fighting was cleared away. The gun received a new coat of paint and is now displayed alongside the monument to the 325th Parachute Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 82nd American Airborne Division that took up position at Vaux-Chavanne to protect the area.