Bretagne Panther Origin Story - eu-wotp.wgcdn.co€¦ · Bretagne Panther Origin Story. Scene 1, Part 1 [Towards the end of the war Americans push back the Germans, the fighting leaves

Bretagne Panther Origin Story

Scene 1, Part 1

[Towards the end of the war Americans push back the Germans, the fighting leaves a lot of

wrecks behind]

When the Allies came ashore at Normandy, Hitler threw everything he had at them.

Divisions of tanks drove west to fight, burn, and die in the hedgerows.

The Panther was one of them.

Six months before, we’d been resistance fighters. But D-Day had come, and we were

done fighting in the shadows.

Now, we were the Besnier Independent Tank Squadron.

We used whatever we could get while scouting enemy lines - but we needed something

heavier.

Scene 1, Part 2

We found the Panther buried in the snow. It was one among many—a field full of cold,

armoured hulks. The German war machine, broken in the Falaise Pocket of Normandy.

There were so many of them—but this one we made ours.

We had to cannibalize other vehicles, but we got the Panther working, along with

several others, and we learned how to use them. We named the tanks after provinces of the

homeland—ours was Bretagne.

Scene 2

We painted them with the tricolor and wrote their names on the hulls. And we hit the

holdouts in the Saint-Nazaire Pocket.

Villages draped long-hidden flags out their windows. Years before, German tanks had

come to occupy them—now, they’d come to liberate them.

Scene 3

On March 11th, 1945 we made our last liberation—the village of Tharon-Plage.

That night, we held a grand ball, lit by the lamps of our vehicles. We danced, encircled

by tanks that used to belong to our enemies.

The war was over. Hitler was dead, and we—we were alive.

Within a year, Bretagne languished in a depot. Sitting for decades among other

deteriorating vehicles…

Scene 4

Then, someone else found the Panther.

The Musée des Blindés acquired the vehicle, and in 2017, began restoring it with the

assistance of World of Tanks. A new engine and suspension. Fresh camouflage—including a

Tricolor and the name Bretagne on its hull. A tribute to the resourcefulness of the Free French

who fought in Besnier’s squadron.

Scene 5

Now, the Bretagne is on its way to Tankfest, the largest display of moving armour in the

world, and will roll again in the digital battlefield of World of Tanks.

Join us… as we make the Panther roar.