In the defense of the passes through the Teutonberger Wald the German Wehrkreis rallied. The Sixth SS Panzer Army had its roots here.  There was a tank training center near Augustdorf on the west side and another near Detmond on the east side. About 400 students from the Officer Candidate School at Detmond joined with some regular German troops to put up a fanatical fight.  About two German infantry battalions held the easily defended passes. They were commanded by SS officers and there was a large number of SS troops present. Although the Germans had almost no artillery, they were heavily supplied with panzerfaust. The Detmond training center for officers and tank troops was said to be the largest in the country. Those German troops present were well-trained and equipped.

The Panzerfaust is a hand-held, single-shot, shape-charged anti-tank weapon. They were easily manufactured and designed to be cheap, one-use, throw away weapons to be used with little field training. However, accidents often happened in the field because of ill-trained soldiers and defective manufacture. Due to material shortage during the war, the "disposable" tubes were often collected and returned to the factory for re-arming.

Description: The Panzerfaust consisted of a warhead attached to a long tube with a factory-sealed cardboard cap in the rear of the tube. This cap was to protect against dirt and was kept in place even when firing the weapon. Simple instructions were often printed right on the warhead. They often also had warnings in large red lettering printed on the upper rear end of the tube "Achtung! Feuerstrahl! (which means, Beware! Fire Jet!). This was to warn soldiers to avoid the backblast.