Like a lot of people I've watched Band of Brothers and was always awed by all the heroic and kind of unbelievable things the U.S. paratroopers did in the 2nd world War. In the the miniseries, the book, and online articles about the subject, the paratroopers are depicted as going head to head with other infantry units who are backed by tank units. During the battle of the bulge, tanks and other armored vehicles are shown a few times rolling toward the paratrooper lines, and in a few articles the the XLVII Panzerkorps are said to have engaged with these infantry units and been completely destroyed when they were supposedly cutoff from supply lines (except for ammo drops) and so you would think they would be without much anti tank gear. Is there something I'm missing here? Were the paratroopers in strategic positions that tanks couldn't reach or something like that?
The two main sub-battles in the Battle of the Bulge where US airborne forces fought were the Siege of Bastogne (101st Airborne Division) and the fighting to block the advance of Kampfgruppe Peiper (82nd Airborne Division). I'll discuss both of these battles, in that order.
The 101st Airborne Division was only part of the force defending Bastogne. Very relevant to fighting against German armour were Combat Command B (CCB) of the 10th Armored Division, Combat Command Reserve (CCR) of the 9th Armored Division, and 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion. US divisions of the time would divide into "combat commands", combined-arms taskforces of about regimental size. CCB 10th Armored consisted of 2 tank battalions, 1 tank destroyer battalion, 2 infantry battalions, 1 artillery battalion, and support troops. CCR 9th Armored originally consisted of 1 tank battalion, 1 tank destroyer battalion, 1 infantry battalion, 1 artillery battalion, and support troops, but had been involved in heavy fighting to slow the German advance on Bastogne, and had taken heavy losses. 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion had 36 M18 Hellcat tank destroyers as its main force. Other important units for fighting against armour were the engineering units (including 326th Airborne Engineer Battalion as part of the 101st Airborne). Especially in defensive fighting, engineering units could and did contribute to defeating enemy armour by laying anti-tank mines, and more general use of their explosives.
The tank battalions and tank destroyer battalions gave the defenders of Bastogne and effective answer to German armour at medium and long ranges (e.g., the 705th TD destroyed about 40 German tanks for the loss of 6 of its own Hellcats). Some of the fighting took place at night or in heavy fog, which brought German armour into range of bazookas, which inflicted significant losses on German armour. Artillery (including anti-aircraft) also contributed to the anti-tank efforts. To highlight the importance of the artillery in this role, on the 20th of December alone, seven artillery battalions fired about 2600 rounds in the anti-tank role.
The defence was helped by poor coordination of German attacks, allowing forces to be shifted to meet successive attacks (in particular, tank destroyers could be moved to meet enemy armour), and by the Germans making little effort to destroy the relatively vulnerable US artillery.
Overall, the defenders of Bastogne destroyed about 200 German armoured vehicles, which was approximately the total armoured strength of the German forces at the start of the battle (Panzer Lehr with 72 tanks, 2nd Panzer Division with 85 tanks and 48 StuG IIIs).
82nd Airborne Division had a more difficult time with enemy armour. First, they went into battle without proper preparation, and their engineers were low on mines and explosives. Second, they lacked the armoured units that accompanied the 101st in the defence of Bastogne. This meant that the 82nd depended on its artillery, mines, and bazookas for its anti-tank defences (plus a truckload of Panzerfausts that they had acquired in the Netherlands).
As a result, units of the 82nd were forced to retreat when German attacks were strongly supported by armour. For example, in the fight at Trois Ponts, where 2/505th Parachute Infantry Regiment and C Company of the 51st Engineer Combat Battalion defended a bridge over the Salm River. The engineer company had been in place already when the 505th arrived, much to their mutual surprise. The engineers had commandeered a straggling 57mm anti-tank gun - this, artillery, mines, and bazookas were the anti-tank weapons the engineers and 2/505th had to face the Germans. The Germans attacked, supported by armour. A couple of hours later, having lost some tanks and many infantry, the Germans were close to the US positions, with about 15 tanks providing fire support at close range. The US troops withdrew, and blew the bridge. Fights like this demonstrated the importance of the tank and tank destroyer units helping defend Bastogne - at Bastogne, the paratroopers held, while elsewhere without such support, they were forced to retreat.
From the 23rd of December, some of the units of the 82nd had significant armour support, when they were joined by tanks and tank destroyers retreating from St Vith. In the fighting on the 23rd and 24th, sometimes they were forced to retreat, and sometimes they stopped German attacks, depending in large part on how much supporting armour each side had. The 82nd was helped by some of the German units being of low quality, and by German shortages of fuel and ammunition.
In summary, a key element of the anti-tank defences of the 101st and 92nd Airborne divisions was accompanying tanks and tank destroyers. These were usually some distance behind the infantry position (artillery units were also to the rear of the infantry). Their lack of visibility in photos and books is not necessarily deliberate - they were often not visible to the infantry they were helping. With such accompanying units, their anti-tank defences were much weaker (artillery, mines, and bazookas). This could still be sufficient against weak attacks, but would often fail against large determined attacks.