Eye of the Tiger -Tank ace Kurt Knispel

Kurt Knispel is widely recognized as the number one tank-ace of WW2, he had 168 confirmed kills with his tank, some sources as high as 195-Knispel wasnt known for being to occupied with numbers and didnt quarrel if there was debate around a destroyd vehicle. (Note-kills here do not mean confirmed people killed, but vehicles destroyed!)

Kurt Knispel was from Czechoslovakia but enrolled in the german army in 1940. He received basic training with Panzer I-IV before being sendt to action in summer of 1941. He took part in Operatin Barbarossa-the attack on the Soviet Union and variuous other campaigns on the eastern front. In 1943 Knispel was sendt back to Germany to train with the new Tiger tanks, at that time he had "only" 12 confirmed kills, but Knispel soon felt very familiar in the new Tiger, which many allied tanks would experience...

Allied tanks was soon being blown away from the map by Knispel and his Tiger-and later King Tiger, one soviet T-34 heavy-tank was destroyed from a distance of about 3000m-while driving..... Knispels skills as gunner was unparallelled.

Unfortunately for Knispel-his behaviour was not up to the same standard-at least not from the Nazi-point of view. Long hair,goatee- beard, unwillingness to obey orders he disagreed with was one thing, refusing to take part in attacks on civilians was another. On one occiasion he attacked an officer from a "Einsatzgruppe" when he saw him mistreating soviet POW`s.

Even if he received the Iron Cross I and II class, the Panzer Badge and the German Cross in Gold he never got the same honours as many of the other german war-aces-not that he cared, by his fellow soldiers he stood in the highest regards.

Knispel was killed ten days before the war ended in a battle with overwheliming soviet forces near Wostitz. In 2013 his body-still with the dog-tags- was  recovered behind a  church wall in Urbau in Czechia.

German Panzers in WW2 with numbers

Even if Germany made some of the best tanks in WW2, they (luckily) never stood a chance against the combined production rate of allied tanks and anti-tank weapons. Russia alone produced far more T-34`s than Germany produced tanks all together. I think its interesting to see what tanks Germany had- and maybe even more-how many they had of each type. The list starts with the earliest tank and ends with the last produced

1. Panzer 1 

Produced: 1934-1937

Number built:1493 

In service: 1934-1945

2. Panzer 2

Produced: 1935-1943

Number built: 1856

In service: 1936-1945

3. Panzer 3

Produced: 1939-1943

Number built: 5774

In service: 1939-1945

4. Panzer 4

Produced: 1936-1945

Number built: 8553

In service: 1939-1945 (Germany) up til 1967 other countries

5. Panther

Produced: 1943-1945 (some sources include up till 46- for British forces)

Number built: 6000

In service: 1943-1945 (Germany) also post-war by other countries

6. Tiger

Produced:1942-1944

Number built: 1327

In service: 1942-1945  

7. King Tiger

Produced: 1943-1945

Number built: 493 

In service: 1944-1945

Sturmtiger - the bigger the better?

Sturmtiger or to be more precise - the "Sturmmörserwagen 606/4 mit 38 cm RW 61" was a assault gun built on a Tiger chassis and equipped with a rocket launcher. It was designed to be used as infantry support, especially in urban areas. It looks absolutely insane with that launcher, kinda like a tank that where the cannon is cut of.... The need for such a weapon was clear to the germans after the loss at Stalingrad, the main purpose of it being destroying buildings and fortifications. The gun is actually taken from the Kriegsmarine- and was a depth-charge launcher...the shells are rocket-propelled!

Only 18 was produced, and they was mainly used in the defense of Germany in the late part of the war, being produced from late 1943 until the end of the war.

It was mainly used in three battles- the Warzaw uprising, the Battle of Bulge and the Battle of the Reichswald.


Numbers:
Weight: 68 tons
Length: 6.28 metres
 Width: 3.57 metres
Height: 2.85 metres
Armour: up to 150 mm of steel....
Armament: 380 mm RW 61 rocket launcher L/5.4
Speed: 40 km/h (road)

Surviving units:
There are three Sturmtigers in museums today, located in Kubinka Tank Museum in Russia, Bovington Tank Museum in the UK and one in Germany currently at loan to Deutsches Panzermuseum in Munster.


Sturmtiger firing, I belive this is in the Warzaw uprising.

Captured Sturmtiger

Sturmtiger at museum-look at that insane projectile!!!

Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf.E -ruler of the battlefield info photos and video

The Tiger Tank as it is most known as, or in the usual light german language "Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf.E" , is one of the most known tanks from WW2-if not the best known. The reason of course is that it was an absolutely masterpiece of engineering, and head to head swept all other tanks away from the moment it began hitting the battlefields of Europa in 1942.

Brief background history:
The Tiger was the german response to russian tanks-especially the great T-34- giving up a much better fight than expected in the inasion of Russia fra 22.june 1941. The germans soon realised they needed a bigger tank. Actually they needed a bigger gun-but to hold a bigger gun-you need a bigger tank-and the Tiger was the answer. The best gun against the russian big tanks was the 88gun, wich was actually a flak gun but proved for a fantastic anti-panzer gun as well.  The Tiger was the first tank equipped with the 88mm gun. Production began in 1942 and ended in 1944, when it was faded out for the Tiger 2-or the King Tiger as most call it. (more on that beast in another article!)

Fun fact: 
The Bovington Tank Museum has a running Tiger tank, the only one in the world! The tank numbered 131 was captured in Tunisia in 1943. See video and the bottom of this article

Fun fact 2: 
 Because of its weight naturally the Tigerhad problems with sinking into...well-mostly everything. The recomended test for the crew was this: TAke one of the other crewmembers on your back and stand on one fot. If your fot sinks in, so will the Tiger

Numbers:
Weight:56.9 tons
Length:6.3 metres
Width:3.7 metres
height: 3.0 metres
Main armament: 88mm
Secondary armamaent: 2*7.92 MG
Speed: 38km/h
Armour: Up til 120mm at the turret, 100mm in the front-this was strong enough to resist a direct hit frem the american Sherman tanks 75mm guns, its main opponent at the western front.

About 1300 Tigers were produced from 1942 til 1944.

Problems:
Even a Tiger have problems- for the Tiger tank this was mainly related to the fact that it was timeconsuming and expencive to produce. While russian factories were pouring out T-34`s many of the Tigerparts had to be handmade, it also used a lot of fuel (which became a big issue for Germany as the war starting going poorly) and there was also some problems with traction and transportation.

Despite this problems, the Tiger was the most feared sight on the battlefields in 1942-1944, a fully working Tiger tank was almost impossible to destroy for enemy tanks, and it kill-.death ratio on the battlefield was legendary. In the largest tank battle in history-the battle of Kursk in russia, the Tigers fell as often to mechanical problems as they did to enemy fire.

Tiger Ace:
Michael Wittman is the most famous tank commander from the Tigers, involved in panzer battles from the invasion of Poland (not in a Tiger then of course) and until 1944 when he was killed in France. He is most known from the Battle of Villers-Bocage, when he from a Tiger tank destroyd 14 enemy tanks, 15 personel carriers and 2 anti-tank guns. In 15 minutes-with a little help of course....

This is how this column of british vehicles looked after Wittmann had a go at them from a single Tiger...

Tiger assembly line

Tiger destroying a russian tank at the battle of Kursk

A Tiger battalion has the right of way. Always.

Tiger tanks in russia 1943 (Probably the Grossdeutschland division)

The only running Tiger tank today-cool video