The U.S. Army raised eyebrows Tuesday after it touted the restoration of a memorial to a Nazi-era German tank regiment, without once mentioning World War II.
In a report published Monday, U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart — the Army command that runs U.S. military bases in and around Stuttgart, Germany — praised a local Scouting America project that restored the 8th Panzer Regiment Memorial on Panzer Kaserne — a U.S. military installation — in Böblingen, Germany.
The report’s author, U.S. Army Public Affairs Specialist Balmina Sehra, called the weathered monument “a piece of local history” and framed the restoration as a symbol of German-American friendship. As flagged by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein, however, Sehra left out a critical detail regarding the memorial.
“Uh, why is the U.S. Army celebrating the restoration of a memorial to a panzer regiment from Hitler’s Wehrmacht??” Klippenstein asked in a social media post on X to his more than 560,000 followers.
“Army says the ceremony ‘recognizes the soldiers of 8th Panzer Regiment in anticipation of Veteran’s Day.’ That regiment fought Americans at Kasserine Pass in 1943. But the Army’s announcement makes no mention of World War II!”
The regiment served in the 15th Panzer Division, part of the Deutsches Afrikakorps, and the division took part in the battle of Kasserine Pass against inexperienced U.S. forces in February 1943.
Journalist and podcast host Jane Coaston also weighed in, writing that the episode had “real ‘Bonzo Goes to Bitburg’ energy.” The line refers to the Ramones’ 1985 song mocking President Ronald Reagan’s visit that year to a West German military cemetery in Bitburg that held the graves of Waffen-SS soldiers.
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