Bottom 5 Tanks from the Parola Armour Museum

In the second blog about Parola Armour Museum I’ll list my 5 Bottom Tanks from the museum's collection. 

But we start with some basic information about the museum. The Parola Armour Museum (opened 1961) is a specialized war museum of the Finnish Tank Core. The museum preserves the traditions of the WWII era Finnish Panssaridivisioona (Armoured Division) and Jääkäriprikaati (Jäger Brigade). In the Museum there are some 100 exhibits all of whom are not on display. Several tanks in the museum are still roadworthy.

So, You may ask, why these tanks and the museum is worthy of to write about? It goes back to the year of 1944. The Soviets had unleashed their major summer offensive against Finns. Front lines were breached, defensive posts overrun. The Finnish HQ used the Panssaridivisioona and Jääkäriprikaati as a decisive elite force to stop Soviet breakouts and advances. If possible, to push them back in order to regain the lost main defensive lines in Kuuterselkä, Viipuri, Portinhoikka, Tali, Ihantala and Vuosalmi.

WWII era tanks of the museum and the men that used them in their part saved Finland from the Soviet occupation by being the necessary "Fire Brigade" to stabilize the front. However not all of those tanks were of the first class, a far cry from it. In fact some of them were so bad they even couldn't be used in the front line service.

Thus here they are: the bottom ones!

5 Soviet KV-1E Model 1940 Heavy Tank  

KV-1E at Parola 2026 © Historix

Bottom 5 and 4 tanks have a special connection between them: the reason why the KV-1 tank was developed in the first place came from the battle experiences of the Spanish Civil War 1935-1939. There Soviet T-26 light tanks had been the masters of tank combat against Italian CV L3/33-35 tankettes and German PzKpfw I tanks. The entry of a new German anti-tank gun the 3,7 cm Pak 36 (Panzerabwehrkanone) and anti-aircraft gun 8,8 cm Flak 18 (Flugabwehrkanone) changed the situation. Now it became clear for the Soviets something heavier and better armoured has to be manufactured in order to regain initiative and proper armour protection.

KV-1 was designed to meet the challenge: it had to be protected well enough to be immune against 3,7 cm Pak 36 and other modern anti-tank guns. This was achieved by making the armour protection previously unseen heavy. As a rule in order to be successful tank has to find a balance between three factors: protection, firepower and mobility. KV-1 had the protection and also firepower to to some extent, but mobility and reliability became much of an issue. Poor mobility and high weight combined with unreliable transmission and drive train made KV-1 to struggle to keep up with faster and more agile T-34/76. 

Despite the heavy structure of KV-1 it had no firepower advantage over the much lighter T-34/76 as both tanks shared the same F-32/F-34 tank cannon. KV-1 had very poor ergonomics and crew layout with limited visibility. This led to poor overall situational awareness - crews were essentially blind. Last, but not the least, KV-1 was significantly more expensive and slower to produce than the T-34/76.

To summarize; KV-1's heavy armour came at too high a cost in other vital areas. In fact these issues stayed unsolved leading to the cancellation of KV-1 production in 1943. KV-1 was replaced by more balanced designs like the IS series and upgraded T-34s.

Parola museum has the sole surviving KV-1E in the world. It was captured at Solomanni, north of Petrozavodsk, East Karelia, in the autumn of 1941. Finns had captured several KV-1s in various technical conditions but could take into use only two of them, one being this registered as Ps 272-1 and in Finnish use it was named as KV-1B. 

Finnish troops gave it a nickname "Pulttiklimi" or "Boltklimi" referring to sub-index E (Ekranyi = Reinforced or with Screens) which meant that the tank had additional 25 mm applique armour riveted onto hull and turret with large bolts. 

Due to mechanical unreliability and lack of spare parts KV-1E was seldom used in combat and was released from the army inventory in 1945. Today KV-1E is a very interesting and rare museum exhibit but as a fighting weapon it belongs to the list of bottom ones.

KV-1E technical data:

Weight: 45 t         

Armour: 30 – 110 mm 

Armament: F-32 cannon 76,2 mm, 2x7,62 MG

Penetration: at 90 angles at 500 m distance 69 mm with standard BR-350A AP round (initial velocity of 662m/sec)

Powerplant: V-2K, 12-cylinder diesel, 600 hp

Speed: 35 km/h    

Range: 225 km

Crew: 5 men; commander, gunner, loader, driver and assistant driver/bow gunner

4 Soviet T-26 light tank 

Early in the 1930's Soviets purchased 15 Vickers 6-ton Model A tanks and manufacturing licences from England. It marked the beginning of a Soviet nine year production run of T-26 tanks with many sub variants. There were twin turreted MG and single turreted cannon tanks, flamethrowers, bridge layers, radio controlled versions, artillery tractors and ammunition carriers as well as fire support tanks with 76 mm regimental guns and even 122 mm howitzers. Soviets produced some 10 000 gun tanks and another 2 000 specialized versions.

 Very rare T-26 Model 1933 at Parola 2026 © Historix

The combat debut for T-26 was the Spanish Civil War. There it first shined, and at the same time Spain became it's swansong. After initial successes in the last part of 1936 the role of T-26 tanks declined. T-26 suffered multiple issues like weak tracks prone to break, poor vision devices which made the crew almost blind, practically nonexistent ventilation inside the turret and troublesome 71-TK-1 radio. But the most alarming feature was the thin armour of max. 15 mm. That had been sufficient when enemy tanks had no cannons. 

Armour penetrated, T-26 at Parola 2026 © Historix

Things changed dramatically at the beginning of 1937 when Germans supplied 3,7 cm PAK 36 anti-tank guns to Nationalist Forces. 

The PAK 36 swept T-26 tanks like MG's the infantry: simply the thin armour of T-26 wasn't able to resist new German gun.

Exit holes, T-26 at Parola 2026 © Historix

Adding the unreliable mechanics of the T-26, Soviets came to conclusion to start design a completely new battle tanks on their own resources. This, after couple of years, lead to the famous KV-1 and T-34/76 series. 

The Spanish Civil War gave the T-26 reputation as the best interwar period tank
and at the same time destroyed it's fame. As the World War Two started the T-26 had already sunken to the category of bottom tanks with all its deadly shortcomings. 

Finns captured numerous T-26s in the Winter and Continuation Wars. Some 100 examples were put in the front line service until mid July 1944, the last ones retiring as conscript trainers early in the 1960's.

T-26 with penetration holes, Winter War booty, at Parola 2026 © Historix

T-26 technical data (in Soviet use):

Weight: 9,4 – 11 t            

Armour: 6 – 15 mm

Armament: 45 mm 20-K cannon, 1 – 2 x 7,62 MG

Penetration at 90 angles at 300 m distance 53 mm

Powerplant: 4-cylinder, 6,4 liter horizontal air-cooled petrol. 90 hp

Speed: 35 km/h        

Range: 340 km

Crew: 3 men; commander/loader, gunner, driver

3 Soviet T-60 M 1941 light tank

                                         ”братская могила на двоих” 

T-60 Light Tank at Parola 2026 © Historix

This is how Soviet tankers named the T-60. In English it says "The Coffin for Two Brothers". The Soviet Union was attacked by Germans in June 1941 and Soviet tank losses had been tremendous. 

Soviet tank factories had been transferred to the Urals and before their output become sufficient to make good amounting losses and Lend-Lease program to take effect, Soviets had make do what they got. That wasn't much and  in the desperation even stopgap T-60 tanks were sent to fight German Panzers. Soviet tankers' losses were predictably horrifying.

T-60 had a 20 mm TNSh-1 automatic cannon as a main weapon. The cannon, actually a modified aircraft gun, couldn't penetrate the frontal armour of German tanks from mid-1941 onward. Though it could deal with lighter vehicles, half-tracks or side/rear shots on early tanks at close range. This limited the tank mostly to infantry support and recce roles. Failed attempts were made to up-gun the T-60 with 37 or 45 mm cannons. These led to the development of better armed T-70. 

T-60 shows the 20 mm cannon at Parola 2026 © Historix

Finns captured one T-60 in the summer of 1944 at Portinhoikka, on the Karelian Isthmus, while fighting a decisive defensive battle by stopping the advancing Soviet elite Guards tank formations dash to the inner part of Finland. T-60 never served with the Finnish army - perhaps it was only better that way. Since the T-60 definitely belongs to the bottom tanks.  

 

T-60 technical data:

Weight: 6,4 t            

Armour: 7 – 35 mm

Armament: 20 mm TNSh automatic cannon, DT MG 7,62 mm

Penetration: at 90 angles at 500 m distance 15 mm

Powerplant: Gaz 202 6-cylinder petrol, 76 hp

Speed: 45 km/h        

Range: 450 km

Crew: 2 men; commander/gunner, driver

2 Finnish BT-42 Assault Gun 

What You expect the outcome to be if You take two obsolete weapon, put them together and hope to get a sound fighting combination? In 1942 Finns tried to get this done. Predictably the outcome was just one more tank straight into the Bottom Tank list.

Just before the start of the Continuation War, June 1941, Finns had a tank core of some 200 tanks, armoured cars or armoured tractors. Most of those were captured from the Soviet Red Army in the Winter War. However, of these Finns could field only some 50 battle worthy tanks. These were the British Vickers 6-ton tanks purchased to Finland before the Winter War (now equipped with captured Soviet 45 mm cannons) and war booty T-26 tanks of various sub-models.

German Panzerwaffe was taken as an example for the Finnish tank core how to improve and develop its structure and tactics. That in mind Finns formed in first half of the 1942 the Panssaridivisioona (Armour Division).  It was done to replace the 1941 Panssaripataljoona (Armour Battalion) by adding new units to the composition of new Armoured Division. The main units of the body being HQ, Jääkäriprikaati (Jäger Brigade) and Panssariprikaati (Armoured Brigade). These were supported by Artillery-, Engineer-, Armoured AA- and Assault Gun Battalions among others and Quartermaster's Corps. 

Now the BT-42 enters the stage: at the time Germans were unwilling to sell modern equipment to Finland, such as assault guns like Stug40. With no other options available, the Finns decided to build their own. In 1942 they took captured Soviet BT-7 tanks - already known to be unreliable and largely unusable - and rebuild them into a Finnish assault gun.

Lets have a look how it materialized. Timo Teräsvalli writes:

"The turrets of BT-7 tanks were renewed, and British howitzers of caliber 114 mm, year-model 1918 were installed. The new turret was large and sighting- and viewing equipment sorrowful."

And what can be said about the BT-7 chassis itself? 

"The vehicle was indeed fast, but constantly suffered from all sorts of technical faults. The tracks often slipped off, and the track/road wheel changing mechanism was a poor concept". 

Not much good it seems. What about the BT-42 in combat, how did it score? There was just one battle in which BT-42s took part. It was quite a significant one as well: to help the 20. Prikaati (20. Brigade) to defend the second largest city of Finland in 1944 - Viipuri, modern day Russian Vyborg in the Karelian Isthmus.

So, how did it go - the battle? Mr. Teräsvalli describes the situation:

"The explosive squash head (HESH) grenades from the old British howitzer had no effect on the Red Army tanks."

In fact one of the BT-42s hit enemy tank 18 times with no results. Respectively the very same enemy tank fired eight rounds back and scored no hits! 

In Viipuri there were 9 BT-42 assault guns taking part to the defensive battle. Five (5) of them were lost during the fight. Other four ones withdrew the battleground. After the Battle of Viipuri all but one were scrapped. Good riddance, I suggest, their crews must have thought. Today the one remaining BT-42 is preserved at the Armour Museum of Parola.

The BT-42 at Parola 2026 © Historix

P.S. the sorrowful career of BT-42s was a result of misunderstood tactical use as an anti-tank weapon. Had it been used as an armoured mobile indirect fire artillery against infantry, it would have been a sound weapon system with its potent HE round.

BT-42 technical data (in Finnish use):

Weight: 15,5 t            

Armour: 6 – 22 mm

Armament: 114 mm H 18 howitzer, velocity of 345m/sec)  

Penetration: HE and HESH round, armour penetraton almost nil

Powerplant: M-17T, V-12 petrol liquid cooled, 450 hp

Speed: on tracks 52 km/h, on wheels 72 km/h       

Range: on tracks 230 km, on wheels 500 km

Crew: 3 men; commander/gunner, loader, driver

1 British Vickers-Carden-Loyd MkVI tankette

Finally the number one on my list. To be precise, it's not really a tank. We better characterize it as a tankette. That is to say a small tracked combat vehicle, usually with only two man crew, lightly armoured just to stop bullets and usually with no rotating turret. Armament consisting only machine guns of various calibers. One might not expect much of a fighting capabilities with this kind of mix. Still in the 1920's-1930's this concept became surprisingly popular. How that came to be?

To find an answer we must look at politicians and money. Tankettes were cheap and easy to produce by great numbers. The numbers and at the same time saving costs seemed to be more important than to produce for the army capable tanks. The concept was born in Great Britain but was widely accepted by various armies around the world. Some nations purchased tankettes, others bought their manufacturing licences.

One of the most notable tankette is the British Vickers-Carden-Loyd MkVI. It was copied by Italy (CV L3/33 - 35), Poland (TK, TKS), Czechoslovakia (Tancik vz. 33), Japan (Type 94) and Soviet Union (T-27). 

Vickers-Carden-Loyd MkVI at Parola 2026 © Historix

Tankettes fought on during the 1930's in Bolivia Chacao War between Bolivia and Paraguay, in Abyssinia (modern day Ethiopia) as Italy invaded and colonized the country, in Spanish Civil War and by Polish Army trying to stop the invading German forces in 1939. Needless to highlight the fact: tankettes were of little combat value. 

MkVI Produced in July 1933 © Historix

That's why they were phased out of service or were relegated to secondary roles after the early stages of the Second World War. With the exception of Italy, whose tankers had to fight on with their tankettes in North Africa 1940-1943. Germans used captured Polish TKS-tankettes as a security vehicles around airfields in Norway. Soviet T-27 was seen in the front lines of the Eastern Front 1941 but soon vanished the scene.

In the early 1930's Finland was seeking for replacement to its ageing and obsolete fleet of Renault FT-17 tanks. That's why an order of four Vickers tanks were made for trials. One of these was MkVI tankette. It had several serious drawbacks: in summer MkVI became unbearable hot for its crew due to engine which lay unprotected between the two crew members. It was armed only with one 7,7 mm MG and the armour protection barely managed to stop rifle bullets. Its cross-country mobility was weak and the engine kept interiors very noisy.

After the trials Finns selected wisely another option for their new service tank. The chosen one was Vickers 6-ton Tank type E.

MkVI has got some style of its own © Historix

And there You have it: my choices for the 5 Bottom Tanks from the collection of The Armour Museum of Parola.

Vickers-Carden-Loyd Mk VI technical data:

Weight: 1,36 t            

Armour: 4 – 9 mm

Armament: 7,7 mm MG

Powerplant: Ford four cylinder petrol, 40 hp

Speed: 45 km/h        

Range: 160 km

Crew: 2 men; commander/gunner, driver

Notes

Soviet KV-1E Heavy Tank

1. Zaloga, Steven J. KV-1 & 2 Heavy Tanks 1939-45. p. 6-11

2. Teräsvalli, Timo. The Parola Armour Museum. p. 32-33

3. Green, Michael. Russian Armour in the Second World War.p. 117-126

Soviet T-26 Light Tank 

1. Teräsvalli, Timo. The Parola Armour Museum. p. 25-27

2. Zaloga, Steven J. T-26 light tank. p. 4-5

3. Green, Michael. Russian Armour in the Second World War.p. 20-25

Soviet T-60 Light Tank

1. Teräsvalli, Timo. The Parola Armour Museum. p. 41

2. Green, Michael. Russian Armour in the Second World War. p. 19, 28-32

3. Kantakoski, Pekka. Panssarimuseo. p.24

4. Grog AI

Finnish BT-42 Assault Gun

1. Teräsvalli, Timo. The Parola Armour Museum. p. 29-31

2. Käkelä, Erkki. Panssaridivisioona 1942-1944. p. 170-175

3. Haapanen, Atso. Suomen Panssariase 1918-1944. p. 81, 96-97, 127

4. Zaloga, Steven J. BT Fast Tank The Red Army's Cavalry Tank 1931-45. p. 44

British Vickers-Carden-Loyd MkVI Tankette

1. Teräsvalli, Timo. The Parola Armour Museum. p. 15-16

2. Kantakoski, Pekka. Panssarimuseo. p. 10-11

3. Grog AI

Red Army Tank Commander on the Tiger Hunt

Vasiliy Krysov, the Panzer Destroyer, was an extremely lucky Red Army soldier to survive the war to tell his story in this book. He started the fighting at Stalingrad, soldiered on through the massive tank battle of Kursk, crossed the mighty river of Dnepr to liberate Kiev and finally ended up his war capturing Königsberg, present time city of Kaliningrad in the former East Prussia. His first assignment was to be the leader of a KV-1S tank. Not before long he changed over to the assault guns. There he was to become a platoon and soon a battery leader having as a tool of war SU-122 self-propelled howitzer and later SU-85 tank destroyer. Krysov ended up the fighting commanding the best battle tank Russians could offer: the T-34/85. There are 15 chapters in his memoirs leading the reader from the initial tank training boot camp to the fighting and post war officer training school in Leningrad. The reader is pleased to use fine tactical maps, Index and helpful Notes to amplify the experience.  Although there are just few pictures available in the book, they give an interesting and rarely in the West seen insight to the world of Soviet tankers.

Panzer Destroyer opens up the game with no modesty. On the 29 the of July 1942 there was a battle of Lipologovo taking place in a village near Kalats na Don. Krysov claims the Soviets captured there thirty Panzer IV -tanks and other armoured vehicles intact while Germans, horrified by Katjusha rocket launchers, fled the battlefield.

It gets even better as he describes the battle of Jastrebenka village near Kiev in November - December 1943: he claims he destroyed as many as eight Tiger I -tanks with his own SU-85 self-propelled gun. The opposing troops were no less than the elements of 1st Waffen-SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. It becomes clear what is the main issue of this book - it is exaggeration, we may even say hyperbole. In the book Germans are presented as an incompetent and weak combatant. One may wonder why and by whom there were any casualties on the Soviet side at all. Krysov says he once saw an entire German infantry company equipped with submachine guns. That's not very likely to be true. It was customary for Germans to have Kar98k rifle as a standard weapon for infantry soldier, submachine guns were reserved for squad leaders or other officers. What really may amaze the reader is the number of Tiger I –tanks Krysov claims to have seen or destroyed on the battlefield. Where did all these Tigers come? Since Tigers were a scare resource deployed only with small numbers to the elite Waffen-SS troops and the Gross Deutschland elite Wehrmacht division.

On July 1944 Krysov, with his unit, crossed the river Bug into a "neighbouring country" as he labels the territory of the East-Poland. Thus he actually approves and confirms the notorious Molotov-Ribbentrop -pact and the partition of Poland between the Nazi-Germany and Soviet Union.  Battles fought alongside the crossing gave Krysov more fame, at least he thinks so. He claims his battery of five SU-85 self-propelled guns destroyed uncounted numbers of Tigers of the 5th Waffen-SS Panzer division Wiking by penetrating Tigers through the frontal armour with their 85 mm D-5T cannons. Near the Polish village of Stulno Krysov and another SU-85 backed up with some submachine gunners destroyed a whole German motorized infantry regiment.

How to call the enemy, that's the question for Krysov! He fought from Stalingrad to Königsberg, it was a long and hard way to go. Through the time - until the very end - he confronted, according to his statement, Germans, Fritzes, Nazis and Fascists. He does not mention having any battles against Italians. So we can count out Fascist forces, especially when Italy withdrew from the Eastern front after the disaster of Don late 1942. Why does Krysov claim to have a fight against fascists when there was no such opponent around? Fascists were Italians who wanted to build corporate state according to their view of socialism. Fascists were not the Nazi-German Wehrmacht forces you might think. Why all this controversy? The answer is quite simple: Stalin wanted to fade out any logical links between the two rivalling forms of socialism, which were the Soviet International communism and German National socialism. It was imperative for the Soviets to obscure the reality of the struggle of two similar ideologies by labelling Germans as Fascist or Fritzis (the latter was a non-political, more like a nation based definition). Unfortunately comrade Stalin was more than successful in his mission to misinform, since even the modern day media in the western world can not make a clear distinction between the two. So even today we have to read news where reporters do not have any clue of realism or they are constantly abusing political terms. To make it simple: Nazis, Fascist and Communists were all the same leftist lot! It was only a matter of details which made the difference between them, like the question: are you for nationalism or internationalism?

The strength of the book can be found in its occasionally presented honesty. For instance, Krysov openly describes one of the dubious practices of the Red Army, that is to say the PPzh front wives. The name is a reference and Russian language wordplay to the famous PPSh -machine gun. Again, in this book it is easy to see how the Red Army officers or Stavka did not have much sympathy at all for their subordinates.  On one particular occasion, near Königsberg, Krysov had to roast some loaves of bread in a frying pan using engine oil as a substitute for frying fat.

Krysov claims he destroyed 19 tanks and set on fire 12 ones. Of those, he says, eight were Tigers and one a Panther. He was never decorated nor mentioned by the Red Army.  It seems his story contains a strong element of personal bias. For instance he can’t understand why German civilians fled to the West as the advancing Red Army was approaching their homes. Krysov concludes the German civilians were merely betrayed by the Fascist propaganda to flee. After all this being said the memoirs of Vasiliy Krysov give an interesting and vividly told insight to the everyday life and fighting of the Red Army tankers.

Kryzov, Vasiliy: Panzer Destroyer - Memoirs of a Red Army Tank Commander, English translation by Vladimir Kroupnik, Pen & Sword, Barnsley 2010, 205 pages.

About the armoured fighting vehicles used by Vasiliy Krysov

Soviets had in the early 1930s started their tank mass production by either buying licences (T-26) or simply copying foreign models (T-28, T-35, BT-tanks). The Spanish civil war, Hahin-Gol skirmishes against the Japanese tanks and the Russo-Finnish Winter war had clearly shown the need for a new generation of tanks.

The rise of Nazi-Germany made the modernization programme a priority for the Soviet Union. Thus a new range of airplanes and AFVs were introduced at the opening stages of the Second World War. The Soviet tank core received two battle tanks, KV-1 and T-34/76, which were to play key roles in the battles ahead. The latter one would prove to have a huge and profound impact on the tank design and the history of armoured warfare.

KV-1S

KV-1S
Wikimedia Commons

The first of the new tanks to reach the front line service was KV-1 also known as Klimenti Voroshilov. The name of the KV-1 was carefully chosen. The father-in-law of the chief designer of the tank, S. Kotin, was no one else than the Marshall of the Soviet Union Klimenti Voroshilov. He was then the People’s Commissar for Defence of the Soviet Union and close aide to Stalin himself.

S. Kotin saw it clearly how the single turreted prototype of KV-1 was far superior to the two or more turreted vehicles. To verify his testing results KV-1 was sent in December 1939 to the Russo-Finnish War. While in the Karelian Isthmus the new tank was designated to infantry close support role. The positive demonstration of ruggedness and combat survivability led to the decision to start mass production of KV-1 in December 1939.  The KV-1 shared some components with T-34. Both tanks had the same engines and later on same main gun, the 76,2 mm F-34 (for the KV-1 the gun was named ZiS-5). As the KV-1 was more than 10 tonnes heavier than T-34, it was natural that speed, off road manoeuvrability and ground pressure values of the KV-1 were inferior. The mechanical reliability of the tank was dismal; especially this was true with the powertrain of the tank. However, the KV-1 was heavily armed and armoured. It proved to be a formidable opponent on the battlefield.

Germans had no tank to put up against the KV-1 in the summer of 1941.  The only effective way to kill a KV-1 was to either call Junkers Ju-87 Stukas in or try shoot it with 8,8 cm FlaK 18 Anti-Aircraft cannon. On the other side KV-1 had poor cross-country manoeuvrability, mechanical defects and almost non-existing optics to observe the battlefield. In fact if the hatches were closed, the KV-1 was virtually blind. To make things worse the crew layout was poorly-designed: the vehicle commander was at the same time employed as the gun-loader and he did not have his own hatch or cupola to monitor the battlefield. There was an obvious need for upgrade.

To fix the well known defects of the KV-1 a new version came out of production lines in August 1942. The new design was called KV-1S, suffix S stood for skorostnoi – speedy.  KV-1S was much lighter due to thinned armour: protection had been traded for mobility. Improved powertrain and overhead armoured cupola for the tank commander to observe the battlefield were among the upgrades. The turret had been totally redesigned.  While it was smaller it housed a dedicated tank commander as the fifth crew member. This is how the Soviets learned to follow the German crew layout which had proved to be superior. Despite the upgrades KV-1S was manufactured only for the period of one year. After 1370 units were completed the arrival of new heavy German Tiger and especially Panther tanks made KV-1S obsolete. To meet the new opponents the Soviets composed an interim model of KV-85 while waiting for their own ‘heavies’ like IS-2.

The KV-1S tanks rolled out of production lines just in time to take part of the battle of Stalingrad. In fact, Krysov had his tank from the Stalingrad Tractor Factory overhaul line to have his baptism of fire.


KV-1S technical data

Weight: 42,5 ton
Crew: 5 (commander, gunner, loader, driver, co-driver)
Engine: V-2K-s, four-stroke V-12 diesel, liquid cooling
Max horsepower: 600 hp / 2000 rpm
Power to weight ratio: 12,9 hp / ton
Top speed: 42 km/h
Range: 250 km
Ground pressure: 0,72 kp/cm2
Steering system: clutch-brake
Suspension system: Torsion bar
Gearbox: forward / reverse 5 / 1
Armour thickness: 82-30 mm
Communication: radio and intercom
Main gun: 76,2 mm ZiS-5 / 41,5 calibre

Penetrating performance of the standard armour-piercing round against steel armour at 90 degree angle from 500 metres: 92 mm

T-34/85

T-34/85

 Foto © Historix

The real flagship and legacy maker of the Soviet tank industry saw its birth in the summer of 1939 as the upgraded prototype of A-34 emerged. This version would later be known as the T-34/76 medium tank. Actually the hole range of Soviet medium and later main battle tanks (MBT) were related to T-34/76 basic design and engine. For instance T-72 MBT used the same basic engine layout, only to be upgraded and improved by many ways and fitted with a turbocharger. The first Russian MBT with no connection to the T-34/76 is T-14 Armata.

It is extraordinary for a tank to get such a fame that the T-34 range achieved. But this time Russians had developed something that the world had never seen before: a successful combination of highly advanced technical solutions. The tank was well ahead of its time and later a model for other foreign combat vehicles to come. Perhaps the best known example of this is the mighty German PzKpfw V Panther. The armour of T-34/76 was a result of a huge innovation to use highly-sloped steel plates at the angle of 30 degrees. While the frontal armour was only 45 mm thick, it offered up to three times better protection against an AP-shell than normal 45 mm steel plate at 90 degrees.

Another big innovation was the use of a brand new V-2 diesel engine. This would increase the operational range. Which, in turn, would be exploited by the use of Christie type suspension with wide tracks. The combination enabled T-34/76 to run through swamps or high snow like no other tank. The new T-34/76 tank was simple by design and very robust. It had as its main weapon the 76,2 mm F-34 cannon, which in fact was a loan from KV-1 design. The long barrelled cannon proved to be superior against any opposing tank until late 1942 as the Tiger I came to front line service.

Naturally there were downsides offsetting the battlefield superiority of the T-34/76: the tank was hard to command. Optics were of poor quality and there weren't enough of them. The commander of the tank had to work as a gunner at the same time. Interestingly enough, inside the turret of KV-1 it was the loader who had to be also the commander of the tank. Only a small number of T-34/76s were equipped with radios or intercom. This, of course, made it impossible to command a tank unit during the battle. In this respect the most advanced tank of its time was no better than its predecessors from the early 1930s, namely the T-26 and BT-7.

During the summer of 1941 it was astonishing that Germans had no idea that they would soon meet new Russian tank designs like T-34/76 or KV-1. What a nasty surprise T-34/76 must have been for German tankers who in disbelief saw how their PzKpfw III and IV tanks could practically do  nothing against the enemy tank. This obviously led Germans hurriedly to build something to match the new threat. The interim solution was the introduction of 7,5 cm Pak 40 anti-tank cannon and its tank cannon version of 7,5 cm KwK 40 L/43. New German cannons reduced the battle worthiness of T-34/76 and balanced the situation for Germans. It was, however, the introduction of German heavy Tiger I and medium Panther V tanks that made T-34/76 obsolete.

It was the turn of the Red Army to find a countermeasure against the new menace. The improved T-34/85 design was not yet ready for mass production. As a stopgap solution Russians introduced a new tank hunter SU-85.  It combined a battle worthy chassis and hull of T-34/76 but had bigger and more potent 85 mm anti-aircraft cannon in a fixed superstructure. This cannon was to be the new main weapon of the T-34/85.

As the new T-34/85 got to the front lines in spring of 1944, it was a design with many improvements over the older version. The most important one, besides the stronger cannon, was the introduction of a dedicated tank commander operating with better prisms in his own cupola. Now all T-34/85s were fitted with radios and intercoms. The monstrous four speed gearbox had been changed to new five speed one for the joy of every T-34/85 driver. The new medium tank didn't altogether solve the very basic problem Russians still had: they did not possess a cannon with adequate penetrating power against German late-war tanks like Tigers and Panthers. ZiS-S-53 cannon, the main weapon of T-34/85, and its principal AP-shell BR-365 could destroy a Tiger only when shot from the very favourable position and worse to come: BR-365 couldn't penetrate the frontal armour of a Panther at all.

Despite its obvious limitations T-34/85 was mass produced well into the late 1950s. In fact Soviets released two upgrading programs for the tank in the 1960s. Most post war T-34/85 tanks were exported into the Third World countries and Middle East. As the Soviets attempted to improve their tank inventory, the hull of the T-34/85 was redesigned which gave birth to T-44. This proved to be an unsatisfactory model since it still carried the old 85 mm ZiS-S-53 cannon and was mechanically unreliable. When the turret was redesigned and enlarged to house a 100 mm D-10T naval cannon, a new highly successful family of tanks was born: T-54 and T-55. The production of T-54 started in the late 1940s and its further improved successor T-55 turned out to be a real export hit and universal tank soldiering on all around the world. It is estimated that some 80 - 100 000 pieces were produced. What a legacy for the T-34/76 tank indeed!

T-34/85 technical data

Weight: 32 ton
Crew: 5
Engine: V-2, four-stroke V-12 diesel, liquid cooling
Max horsepower: 500 hp / 1900 rpm
Power to weight ratio: 15,8 hp / ton
Top speed: 55 km/h
Range: 300 km
Ground pressure: 0,85 kp/cm2
Steering system: clutch-brake
Suspension system: Christie
Gearbox: early forward / reverse 4 / 1,  late forward / reverse 5 / 1
Armour thickness: 70-22 mm
Communication: radio and intercom
Main gun: 85 mm ZiS-S-53 / 51,5 calibre

Penetrating performance of the standard armour-piercing round against steel armour at 90 degree angle from 500 metres: 111 mm

SU-122

SU-122 in Kubinka
Wikimedia commons

The Soviet heavy industry managed to design and produce in the Word War II a wide range of armoured fighting vehicles for special roles.  One of the AFVs used by Krysov, the SU-122 medium self-propelled howitzer, was a sound example of this. The SU-122 had a five-man crew in an armoured casemate with limited traverse on a chassis of the T-34/76 tank. The production started by the fall of 1942 and it came to frontline service by the beginning of 1943.

The armament of SU-122, 122 mm Howitzer M-30 barrel length just 22,7 calibre, gave a hint of its designated role on the battlefield. It was to support tank units on the offensive with direct and indirect fire. One additional mission, which, however, proved to be quite unsuccessful, was to fight against enemy tanks. Krysov boasts to have killed Tigers in the battle of Kursk with his SU-122.  There was indeed an anti-tank round available for M-30 howitzer, but it had no real armour penetrating power. So it seems more likely that if there were Tigers destroyed by the fire of SU-122s then the most probable cause would have been the kinetic energy of the HE, or High Explosive, round. It could have severely damaged the turret of the Tiger or even torn it away from the hull. Anyway, the Soviets quickly replaced SU-122s with more potent models based on the chassis of the KV-1.

SU-85

SU-85
Wikimedia Commons

As the Soviet tank core was obligated to wait for the new medium T-34/85 tank until the spring of 1944, a stopgap solutions were pressed into service. One of these was the SU-85. It was fielded to operate in a strictly dedicated anti-tank role. The given role was more than ambitious: the SU-85 was to fight up against Tigers and Panthers to protect the less well-armed T-34/76 tanks still widely in use.

SU-85 tank destroyer, or Istrebitelj as the Soviets called it, had its baptism of fire by the September of 1943 when The Red Army was crossing the river Dnepr. The annoying battle experience was that even the 85 mm cannon didn't have adequate penetrating power to fight on equal basis against new German tanks.

By the summer of 1944 the T-34/85 had become widely available and the production of four man SU-85 was cancelled. To improve the anti-tank hitting performance, the rugged chassis of SU-85 was fitted with an 100 mm D-10S naval gun. The subsequent tank killer was designated the SU-100. Due to production problems of the 100 mm guns, some early SU-100s had to arm with old 85 mm guns. These variants are known as the SU-85M.

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Schäufler, Hans: Panzer Warfare on the Eastern Front

It was easy to feel impatient while waiting to get Schäufler's book and be able to start reading it. The author was himself a veteran of the Fourth Panzer of the once mighty Wehrmacht Panzerwaffe. Some other tank divisions would also be presented. One of the most interesting parts of the book for me was the chapter 5. It covers the story of the 16th Panzer's last months inside the Kessel of Stalingrad told by division's operations officer Oberstleutnant i.G Hubert Menzel.  I handled the same subject when writing about Count von Strachwitz's life and battles alongside the 16th Panzer.  Last but not least the book would offer memoirs from the last battles of West Prussia and in particular of the siege of Danzig.

As a matter of fact the book is a collection of brief memoirs of the frontline veterans from various panzer units. These units are the 4th, 9th, 11th, 16th and 18th Panzers which fought alongside the Army Group Centre or South.  There are altogether 14 chapters in the book, which follows the chronological order of events from the very start of the Operation Barbarossa in 1941 into a capitulation of Germany in May 1945. The book comes with six appendixes showing a Rank Table and Order of Battle for the presented panzer divisions. Sadly, maps in the book a rare and almost useless. Fortunately some exceptions are present! When dealing with battles of Stalingrad and West Prussia the handmade maps are quite fine.  Pictures are highly interesting and their placement is chronologically sound. It's just that the quality of paper used in the book doesn't allow the pictures to be of high quality. Some dismal mistakes have been made in the captions when certain tank identifications have failed to be correct: for instance how on earth one could take PzKpfw IV as PzKpfw III or Russian T-26B as BT-5? Small mistakes, you might add. The point here is that in a book specialising on the tank warfare one expects not have such errors at all. There are lots of  of names of places and people in the book, but no Index, Notes or Bibliography.

As mentioned earlier Schäufler covers the time span of the Eastern Front. That being said I have to add that he misses some six months when hopping from the late autumn of 1943 to the summer of 1944. Anyway, at the opening stages of the Operation Barbarossa Germans faced with the new Russian tanks T-34/76 and KV-1 as an unwelcome and unexpected surprise. Soon German tankers learned the inferiority of their principal fighting vehicle (PzKpfw III) against the new Russian models. This, in fact, caused Germans to loose their fighting spirits and demoralized them. It even produced a major crisis for the troops of the Eastern Front. It may have been the first one of a kind, but certainly, not the last one.

Russians fought the war like any German had never seen: often they defended their land fiercely and persistently, many times until the very end. The way Russians used deception and camouflage (Maskirovka) was efficient and masterly. All this made German Blitzkrieg time tables useless as they had not reached targeted A-A-line (Arkhangelsk - Astrakhan) including Moscow by the autumn 1941. As the autumn thaw (Rasputitsa) halted all movement the worn out Germans could only wait for the winter to make roads once more manoeuvrable. As the winter came it made roads and terrain once more passable. Although the Germans didn't have a clue of what kind of an experience the Russian winter would prove to be. Schäufler and the other veterans recollects the miseries of winter battles of 1941 - 1942 so vividly the reader almost can feel the frost, snow and the lonely vastness of the Russian landscape. Germans about to freeze to death in their summer uniforms had to somehow keep themselves alive and weapons functioning. Besides, the Russians had broke through the German lines in early December 1941 just in front of Moscow and the German Army Group Centre was about to collapse. As a pinnacle of German miseries Schäufler memorizes his last moment escape from the hungry wolf pack hunting him for lunch in the vast desert of snow.

Victories of the next summer of 1942 were later wasted in Stalingrad. New harsh reality for Germans came through the stalemate situation and draw as a result of the battle of Kursk. It was the beginning of a long and hopeless retreat. In Kursk Schäufler, a platoon leader in Panzer-Nachrichten-Abteilung 79 of the 4th Panzer, served in the signals corps. His experiences have little in common with von Strachwitz's ones as a tanker in the first wave of attack. The last section of the book concentrates on the last 11 months of the war in the Eastern Front. The reader is taken to the besieged garrison of Courland and into the West Prussia where the remnants of the Army Group North and Centre are fighting for their life. The story is by now very one-sided: Germans have lost too much men and materiel to stop the Russian red steamroller. The only option for Germans is to try to buy some precious time for civilian refugees to escape Russian revenge through the ports of Danzig, Pillau and Hela. This is why, in the page of 280, Unteroffizier Robert Poensgen, a war correspondent with the 4th Panzer, states laconically: "Danzig had to die so that the hundreds of thousand in the Vistula lowlands could survive. The horrible fate of a German city!". The end is inevitable. When the defenders of Berlin had already capitulated, in the West Prussia fighting goes on while the Kriegmarine does its heroic act of rescuing German refugees and soldiers through the dangerous waters of the Baltic Sea.

One of the finest narratives in the book deals, quite naturally, with the tank warfare.  Reader will see through the eyes of a gunner what happens inside a PzKpfw III as it gets a direct hit and is disabled and lying helpless just in front of the enemy bunker line. Equally interesting is to find out how to wage a tank war when the temperature is -54 C below zero. Even in the brutality of the WW II Eastern Front all isn’t just black or white. A German soldier assists a young Russian mother and her child risking his own life, if caught, in the hands of the German Military Police. Thankful local partisans issue the German with a code word. This lets him get unscratched through the partisan ambushes even far away from the village where he helped the young mother.  A group of English officers are being liberated by the Russians from the POW camp somewhere in the West Prussia. It will not take long for Englishmen to sneak through the frontline back to German side and ask Wehrmacht for protection. Likewise numerous French POWs who had been working for the East or West Prussian farms or estates since 1940 ask Germans a permission to join refuge columns heading west via harbours of Danzig, Pillau and finally Hela.

By the spring of 1945 the Red Army had encircled Danzig. Among the defenders were the remnants

of the Panzer-Regiment 35 of the 4th Panzer. Married men, fathers and the only surviving sons are gathered together to form a 200 men strong detachment. It is named after its leader Hauptmann Küspert and given a marching order to be sent home for refit. They took off from Hela docks with 6000 others on the troop ship Goya on the 16th April 1945.  Less than a day later a Soviet submarine had sunk Goya. Only 250 people on board survived including seven men of the Panzer-Regiment 35. Their leader did not make it.

One Jagdpanther crew in Preussisch-Stargard is in the middle of a fierce defensive fight against an overwhelming and charging Russian tank force. After successfully decimating a company of Soviet tanks, the crew suddenly, to their horror, notices a lonely enemy tank facing their vulnerable side armour. In a muddy terrain it takes time, the crew thinks too much time, to swing the heavy tank destroyer 90 degrees to gain a new firing position. Why isn't the Russian tank shooting at us? The crew looks through the prisms and just can't believe their eyes: the enemy tank is desperately, but in vain, trying to depress its cannon to shoot. The muddy terrain gives and takes. This time the Germans had their day by using the two last AP rounds left in the ammunition racks of their Jagdpanther.

Why it seems so hard to put together a decent study of a tank warfare? What I'm trying to say is that the actual content of a book has not always matched with the given title of it.This has been the case for various books of tank warfare I've read. Author may loose his touch from the given title and start writing  something quite irrelevant, with basically nothing to do with tanks. Another tribe are the ones who exaggerates themselves out of business like Vasiliy Kryzov. It's not over yet, the author may also face the shortage of sources so bad he must find more than enough background information to fill in the gaps within the story. This is what, I believe, happened to Mr. Bagnodas with his biography of the Count von Strachwitz.

Panzer Warfare on the Eastern Front is a work with a variable content. Once it offers a poetry which does not seem to have any possible link to the topic of the book. The very last story of the book takes us to the Baltic Sea struggling with seagoing and elements. However, the book is a credible, verbal and very personal war history on the tactical level. It is no wonder the perspective is from the German side - I mean what would you expect to get when you have a collection of small 4-5 page vignettes of front line Landser's stories. In the cover of the book there is a fine picture of a Tiger I -tank.  Oh no, don't expect to see or read about it any more inside the pages of the book. Too bad, the emphasis is on the foot soldier's experiences all the way along. That being said, the remaining coverage of the actual tank warfare is more than worth of reading.

What happened to the 16th Panzer and how it perished inside the Kessel of Stalingrad probably forms the most notable asset to the scholars and war history enthusiast that the book can offer. Hand made maps of 16th Panzer's last struggles just amplify the feeling. Here it is, this makes the book so hard to judge: it fails to complete its given mission, but at the same time, in few cases, it manages to raise high above the average. What if the title of the book would have been "Warfare on the Eastern Front"? I tell you, I would have given the book straight away five stars.

* * 

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Bagnodas, Raymond: The Devil's General - The Life of Hyazinth Graf von Strachwitz, "The Panzer Graf" - part 2/3

Count von Strachwitz had pretty much reasons to be satisfied with the previous year of 1942 as he was treated for his wounds in a hospital in Breslau. He had already gained the Ritterkreuz of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. His troops had given him an honour name of "Der Panzer Graf", which translates to English as The Panzer Count. After the disaster of Stalingrad, individual units of the 6th Army, which were destroyed inside the Kessel, were recreated. Strachwitz, however, did not join the ranks of reformed 16th Panzer. Instead, he was, after his recovery, sent to the elite Wehrmacht formation - the Großdeutschland Panzergrenadier Division. Strachwitz was to lead its panzer regiment.

The Großdeutschland Panzergrenadier Division had evolved from the Guards Company of the General Staff in Berlin. This Guards Company was founded in 1921 to serve on sentry and parade duties. However, as the war broke out in 1939 it had become a truly battle worthy infantry regiment. To amplify its status as an elite formation, regiment was given some privileges. For instance it had  a special regimental insignia of GD with styled font in the collar tabs. The official regimental insignia was the side profile of the German standard steel helmet M35. The Großdeutschland Division was kept better armed, equipped and resupplied all through the war than any other Wehrmacht division. After the victorious Fall Gelb, or the Case Yellow, the German invasion of France in May - June 1940, Großdeutschland was given in Wehrmacht a rare honour of the right to wear a regimental armband.

Operation Barbarossa led the division near the gates of Moscow, where it fought with the 3rd Panzer (also known as the Bear Division of Berlin) to capture city of Tula. Stiff Soviet resistance and harsh winter mounted heavy casualties. Battalions had lost more than 50 % of their ranks.  It was time for GD to be sent home for reinforcements. In April 1942 GD become a motorized division. It was augmented with another infantry regiment, a panzer battalion of two companies, anti-tank, anti-aircraft and reconnaissance battalions. Equally important was the artillery regiment of three batteries.  All these required, naturally, more signals corps and strengthened supply train. All in all, the reformed GD was very potent and capable fighting unit. Although GD was officially a motorized division, it, with all respects, equalled  normal Wehrmacht panzer division. Summer 1942 meant for GD busy times and hard fighting in Voronezh, Rostov of Don and Rzhev. Division was used as a role of a fire brigade, which was trying to stabilize threatened or collapsing sectors of the front.  This resulted, obviously,  in mounting heavy casualties. GD had to withdraw the front to resupply and rest.

The latest resupply of winter 1943 in fact made the GD to be a full sized panzer division and even more. It received another panzer battalion and, most interestingly, a company of new heavy PzKpfw VI Tiger Ausf H tanks.

A PzKpfw VI Tiger Ausf H with some crewmembers

The famous Tiger had a cannon almost second to none! The 8,8 cm KwK 36 L/56 was powerful and very accurate. It had a penetration power to match all used firing ranges and armour protection until the introduction of Soviet JS-2 heavy tank.  As a basic AT-round Germans used PzGr. 39, which had an astonishing penetrating power of 83 mm at 2000 metres and 100 mm at 1000 metres. This was achieved by the sole physics of kinetic energy: the projectile weighted 10,2 kg and the muzzle velocity was as high as 800 m/s.  The accuracy of the cannon was legendary.  The hit probability in combat circumstances at 2000 meters was still 50 % and at 1000 meters much higher 93 %.  There were also other AT-rounds for the cannon,  for instance especially potent PzGr. 40 with a sub-calibre tungsten core. It scored even better than previous ammunition, but, since tungsten was rare and expensive, and not really needed here, it was not widely used.  One important factor related to the accuracy was the use of electric detonating cap, which enabled smoother firing.

PzGr.39 HL, shaped-charge warhead projectile or HEAT, had fixed penetrating power of 90 mm at all ranges, but it lost dramatically its accuracy as the shooting range got longer: at 1000 meters hitting probability was 63 % and at 2000 meters only dismal 20 %.  The very idea of shaped-charge warhead is interesting, lets have a closer look on how it works. In the HEAT projectile the explosive is packed around an inverted metal cone. On detonation, the cone collapses inwards to form a high velocity liquid-like jet which is capable of penetrating armour. I've seen the effects of HEAT penetration in the front turrets of T-55 and T-72 MBTs. The actual hole in the armour is relatively small, one could not always stick a finger though the hole, but the tanks were destroyed all right. Let's get back to Tiger, shall we? Some enemy tanks were destroyed by simply shooting them with High Explosive or HE-rounds, just another proof of the kinetic power the Tiger's cannon could provide.

The armour protection of a Tiger tank was outstanding and enabled its crew to survive and carry on fighting as Soviet T-34 shells were fired at it. Frontal armour was as thick as 100 mm, this, however, led to other problems such as very heavy weight and poor power to weight ratio. Tiger was like an up scaled PzKpfw IV with a lot of more of everything. This led to a design error: the armour was not sloped, but almost at 90 degree angle.

A direct hit, but no penetration. Tiger fights on...

The Tiger company of the GD was later augmented to full sized battalion and Strachwitz become the leader of Tiger battalion. He did a great job, as usual. Tigers of GD destroyed all together 1034 enemy tanks during the war and had a winning ratio of 16,67. Most of these were scored during the time Strachwitz was on the lead. The Großdeutschland Division was supplied and ready for front line service once again. It received orders to march to Belgorod in Ukraine.


The Third Battle of Kharkov

As GD arrived in Belgorod it was attached to German Army Detachment Lanz (Armee-Abteilung Lanz). With GD in the detachment there was the 168th Infantry Division led by General Lanz. The mission was to help 2nd SS-Panzer Corps commanded by SS-General Paul Hausser to defend and hold firmly Kharkov at any cost. The SS-Panzer Corps was the ultimate best what Germans could deploy on the battlefield: the elite troops of divisions like Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, Das Reich and Totenkopf were nothing but battle hardened and ferocious panzergrenadier veterans of many engagements with the enemy.

The Red Army had advanced from the killing grounds of Stalingrad to the outskirts of Kharkov. Yet, Soviets had only one goal in mind, to trust further west and liberate Kharkov. The Third Battle of Kharkov was an outstanding success for Germans, although it was at the same time their last tactical or any major victory at all over the Red Army. By disobeying the direct Führerbefehl from Hitler himself not to leave the city but stay firm, General Hausser evacuated Kharkov and thus saved 2nd SS-Panzer Corps from the fate of the unfortunate 6th Army. Even better was to came, Hausser managed to encircle and annihilate Soviet forces involving the battle in and around the city. With his outstanding victory he was left unpunished by Hitler.

The initial phase of the battle in February was not opening promisingly for the Germans. The practically immobile 168th Infantry was cracking when facing a full Soviet onslaught. The GD managed to stabilize their situation for a moment, but finally the 168th collapsed and started to escape westwards. There was a gap in the front, which was fully exploited by the Soviets. They send 69th Army to push through the gap all the way to Kharkov. Germans had no other choice than to split the Großdeutschland Division into three separate battle groups in order to back up the wobbling 168th Infantry and 2nd SS-Panzer Corps. The strongest of these battle groups was the one named as "Strachwitz".  By this far the battle group was the biggest one Strachwitz had ever commanded. 

The Panzer Graf did not hold on and wait for things to happen. No, he seized the initiative and let his high professionalism, courage and use of innovative, if sometimes unorthodox, methods to lead the way to success. By studying three different examples of his methods one can form a picture of his brilliance. Strachwitz used the long range capabilities of  his Tiger's cannons as well as two individual trickery to cope with overwhelming enemy. In Perekop Strachwitz with his Tiger company saw an incoming large Soviet tank formation far ahead on the steppe. He quickly gave orders to take ambush positions and to wait for command to open fire. Some Tiger crews, in a brink of losing their nerves, watched unsuspicious enemy tank column getting nearer and nearer from the horizon with no authorisation to open fire. Suddenly Strachwitz's voice was heard over the radio: Feuer frei! Nine enemy T-34/76s and one KV-1 tank were left burning on the battlefield with no German losses. Remaining enemy tanks fled the scene.

The war diary of the Großdeutschland's 13th company of the Panzer Regiment stated on the 27th of March 1943 as follows: "Usually the first shot scored a hit at ranges between 600 to 1000 metres. At these ranges panzergranate penetrated the frontal armour with devastating results, destroying also the engine of the tank located in the back of the vehicle."

Tigers on the hunt

It was snowing and roads were slippery for the panzer drivers when Strachwitz's troops took the village of Popov. Soviets tried instantly to recapture Popov by sending in a reinforced tank battalion of 30 T-34/76 tanks.  Strachwitz divided his panzers to two groups: first was to form a defensive line to counter incoming enemy. The second was to make a pincer move and get into the back of the enemy.  The plan worked well and as the second group had Soviet tanks in their crosshairs they fired a salvo. Totally surprised Soviet tankers turned their turrets to six o'clock to face the treat.  It was the moment the first group had waited for: now it was their turn to fire a salvo at the most vulnerable armour of the enemy tanks, their rear plates. The outcome of the battle was evident, 28 tanks out of 30 were destroyed while only two managed to escape.

Even if Strachwitz's Tigers were temporarily out of battle condition, that couldn't stop him. He arranged an ambush by setting up a special decoy team out of couple of PzKpfw IIIs and SdKfz 251 halftracks. These lured pursuiting Soviet tanks to a prearranged position, where German PzKfpw IIIs, IVs and StuG 40s opened fire hitting the side armour of enemy tanks at point blank range. Again the Soviet tanks had no chances of survival.

The Third Battle of Kharkov

The Third Battle of Kharkov took place between the 19th of January and the 15th of March, 1943. For Strachwitz it had been quite a successful one, for his merits he received swords to his ritterkreuz.  It has been estimated that this battle cost the Red Army huge casualties of 154 000 troops (dead and wounded) and some 1000 tanks, not to mention 20 000 dead civilian inhabitants of Kharkov. Losses for Wehrmacht were 11 500 troops but annoyingly Bagnodas doesn't supply us with the exact figures of KIA and WIA proportions or any figures concerning German tank losses. As the Red Army had stretched its supply lines to the extreme, losses were mounting and the spring thaw, the Rasputitsa, was beginning,  the front in Ukraine stabilized. Kharkov was firmly in the German hands. The Großdeutschland Division was once again sent to the rear for rest and refit.


A Conspirator

A growing dissatisfaction had been evolving among the officer core of the Wehrmacht against the way National Socialists were waging the war. Several incidents had been starting to compromise the trust, notably the infamous "Komissarbefehl", the Commissar Order, which dictated all communist commissars to be shot on the spot of their captivity. In the 16th Panzer of General Hube, however, this order was not followed. Many individuals in the Wehrmacht, especially officers who had had some access to the general situation, blamed Hitler and Göring for the disaster of Stalingrad. These were also concerns for Strachwitz as he tried to understand what had happened to him and to the German Army. Sacking the qualified leader of the XIV Panzer Corps, von Wietersheim, by Hitler, only gave Strachwitz a personal motive to start doubting the skills of the Führer himself.

Bagnodas quotes the first published Strachwitz biography (Günther Fraschka: Der Panzergraf: Ein Leben für Deutschland, Rastatt 1962) by giving us an insight what was troubling him at the time. This is the comment Strachwitz gave right after the successful medical evacuation flight from the Kessel of Stalingrad. He said: "The day I abandoned my comrades into a hopeless situation... I firmly decided to invent a way to let loose our military leadership from the power of Hitler and liberate the political life of Germany from its burdens."

Before the battle of Kharkov, early in the 1943, Strachwitz took part in a conspiracy plot to arrest Hitler and put him in trial for war crimes. The plan was called "The Poltava Plot". Strachwitz was to form a small, but loyal panzer unit out of Großdeutschland's panzer regiment to arrest Hitler as  he was to make a front line visit to Poltava. The plot never worked as Hitler changed his plans and instead flew to Manstein's HQ in Zaporozhye.

Interestingly enough, an another member of Großdeutschland Division had a major role in suppressing the von Stauffenberg coup on the 20th of June, 1944 in Berlin. Major Otto Remer, commander of the Infantry Regiment of Großdeutschland took direct orders by the telephone from the Führer himself, out of Wolfschanze in Rastenburg, to crush the conspirators. Hitler and the Third Reich were saved, at least for the moment. In the aftermath of the 20th of June Strachwitz got his name into the files of Gestapo. He was, however, not arrested and no consequences ever fell upon him. It's probable that early, pre 1933, party membership, membership of the SS and the favour of Himmler saved him.




SOURCES:

Anderson, Thomas (2014) Tiger - Raskas Panssarivaunu. Helsinki: Koala-Kustannus.

Guderian, Heinz (1956) Sotilaan Muistelmia. Helsinki: Otava.

Quarrie, Bruce (1989) Encylopaedia of the German Army in the 20th Century. London: Patrick Stephens Limited.


Internet  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.8_cm_KwK_36

Pictures Wikimedia Commons

Bagnodas, Raymond: The Devil's General - The Life of Hyazinth Graf von Strachwitz, "The Panzer Graf" - part I/3

Panzer vor! Feuer frei - Abschuss! In a nutshell, this is all what this book is about. However, Raymond Bagnodas has taken for himself a bit challenging task to depict the life of Count Hyazinth Strachwitz von Groß-Zauche und Cammienetz.  As we know all war diaries and other documents of the 16th Panzer division were destroyed alongside the division on the banks of Volga. Likewise during the chaotic last year of the WW II no war diaries could be maintained. Things being like this, it is hard to produce a comprehensive and solid biography. Bagnodas tries to evade this by describing general events on the Eastern front and within the current unit where the Panzer Graf is serving. This, in the end, however, leads into a strange composition where the reader occasionally lost his sights on the Panzer Graf.

There are plenty of books about famous German panzer aces, we have read about Michael Wittmann, Otto Carius or Heinz Guderian. This book, even with its flaws, is a valuable account on the life and amazing service career of the Panzer Graf in the Panzerwaffe. His life was unusually eventful, if even dramatic and for sure it took a lot of self-restraint and will power to pull through all the hardships that came along.  One major shortcoming of the book is definitely the low amount or near absence of the study of tank technology and its development alongside the world war. That's why I have augmented the review with some data concerning tank gunnery and ballistics.  

The early days

Hyazinth von Strachwitz was born in Gross Stein of Silesia on July 30th, 1893. His family were rich land owning aristocrats who had the 700 years old tradition of naming their oldest son after the Saint Hyacinthus of 1594. Thus, we may learn, the family was Catholic by the religion. Living in the German Empire it was quite obvious for young Hyazinth to choose military career in the Imperial Kaiser's Army. Furthermore, as it later became evident, he was well suited for the task. He graduated from the prestigious Lichterfelde Cadet Academy only to get a commission in the Garde du Corps cuirassier regiment as a leuntnant. He had made friends in the Lichterfelde, most notable of them was Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the future Red Baron. Another notable graduates before Strachwitz were Heinz Guderian, Erich von Manstein and Hermann Göring.

As the First Wold War broke out, it was  Strachwitz who just couldn't wait to get to the frontline action. This suited more than well his character, which was bold and ready to execute the most unconventional solutions if needed. His career in the Great War was spectacular, if brief.  As a cavalry scout he and his team spread havoc behind the French lines. Despite skill and courage he was caught as a prisoner of war by the French. To make matters worse, he and his men were wearing civilian clothes. Strachwitz was sent to a special camp to wait court marshalling for espionage. After unsuccessful escape attempts his treatment got very harsh and this led his health to deteriorate. In order to avoid his death the French sent him to Geneva to get special medical treatment for septicaemia. Treatment was a success and he got his strengths back. Strachwitz masked himself a lunatic to avoid bitter return to French POW camp. Swiss authorities swallowed the bait and send him to a Swiss mental asylum.  The Great War was over for him.

Germany didn't offer much for Kaiser's soldiers returning home after a war lost. The country was in a chaos: internal power struggle led into red revolutions. Strachwitz joined the Freikops cavalry guard and did fight to suppress reds in Berlin. Versailles peace treaty did set up territorial claims by the Poles and Czechs. In Upper-Silesia Strachwitz joined local Freikorps with his brother in order to protect Groß-Stein and Annaberg areas from the Polish mob. Weimar republic was weak and even more suppressed by the French and Brits not to intervene. After unsuccessful referendum clashes broke out between Freikorps and Polish militia. Multiculturalism led into a war.  Extremely fierce fighting took place around Annaberg hill, where there was a monastery and a hill top dominating the river Oder valley. Other voluntary forces, such as Oberland from Bavaria, came to help local Germans. Combined Freikorps and Oberland forces recaptured Annaberg and defeated Polish militia by the experience gained from the Great War trenches. With Oberland Korps fought some future top brass SS leaders, such as Heinrich Himmler and Sepp Dietrich. Strachwitz was personally very proud of his commitment and performance in the cadres of Upper-Silesian Freikorps and especially of the campaign of the Annaberg for the rest of his life.

Annaberg.

Another World War breaks out

Between the two World Wars Strachwitz concentrated on management of his family estate and farming as a living. He did join in the Reichsheer’s Cavalry Regiment as a reserve officer and the Nazi party. Joining the party was a political statement against communism, Strachwitz did not have any racial agendas to follow. Rebirth of the German Army in 1934, now as the Wehrmacht, introduced Strachwitz with the idea of armoured warfare. He did like what he saw and in no time had his application accepted to join the ranks of the 1st Panzer Division and its 2nd Panzer Regiment. The 1st Panzer became his basic unit with which he soldiered from Poland until the Balkans campaign. This period did not mix him with frontline battles. Strachwitz was more than busy by keeping the tracks of panzers rolling and guns blazing by taking care of the logistic services. His time would come to prove himself as a true armoured warrior, for it was time to prepare the Wehrmacht for the execution of the Operation Barbarossa.

The main goal of the ambitious Operation Barbarossa was to terminate the ability and will of the Soviet Union to wage war against Germany. Just as von Clausewitz had formulated it. In order to achieve all this three huge army groups were established. The main striking capacity of army groups were four panzer groups. These were mechanized or at least motorized formations capable of independent fighting. The 1st Panzer Group, under command of von Kleist, was attached to the Army Group South. The 1st Panzer Group had five panzer and three motorized divisions. This meant they had some 600 Panzer III tanks, which at the time being, were the only battle worthy ones in the German inventory. Bagnodas doesn't analyze which sub-models Germans had in service at time, nor do we know exactly what sub-model of Panzer III was used by Strachwitz. The reader is forced to conclude technical details by combining individual fractions of data out of the text. It has its meanings to know which sub-model was used by the Germans since they confronted two brand new Soviet tank designs which caused them a lot of trouble, namely the KV-1 and T-34/76 tanks. Both of these were better armoured and armed than any German model. In order to fight these Soviet tanks with Panzer III, it certainly made the difference which sub-model was being used.

T-34/76.

In the opening phase of Operation Barbarossa, summer and autumn 1941, Germans had two armament options to use for tank duels:  3,7 cm KwK 35/36 L/45 and 5,0 KwK 38 L/42 cannons. Early Panzer III models, Ausf E and early F, had 3,7 cm cannons which were totally useless against new Soviet designs - no penetration could be achieved at any distances. Panzer crews gave the cannon a nickname "Panzerknocker". Newer sub-models, such as Ausf F, G, H and to a some extent early J, had better performing 5,0 cm cannons. However, German panzer crews made a horrifying discovery: even with their 5,0 cm cannons they could achieve penetration only by shooting extremely and suicidal close distances or by aiming side or rear armour plates.  The best projectile Germans had, PzGr.40 with tungsten core,  had maximum muzzle velocity of 1050 m/s and it had average penetrating performance against rolled homogenous steel armour at 30 degree angle from the vertical as follows: 500 meters 55 millimetres and 100 meters 94 millimetres.  The frontal armour of  the T-34/76 was only 45 millimetres thick, but as it was laid back at 30 degrees angle, it was three times stronger than normal plate at 90 degree angle. This meant German panzers had to get within the range of 500 - 100 meters to ensure penetration.   

 

PzKfpw III Ausf H, this time in the Western Desert.

Next year Panzer III Ausf J late, L and M had even better and longer barrelled 5,0 cm KwK 39 L/60 cannons (muzzle velocity 1180 m/s, penetration at 30 degrees angles 500 m 72 mm and 100 m 130 mm). On the other hand, the Soviets had by that time increased the frontal armour of newer sub-models of T-34/76 from 45 mm up to 70 mm.  So even the new and more powerful cannon for the last tank versus tank models of Panzer III did not solve the basic shortcoming of its design: the lack of penetrating power. Panzer III, with all sub-models, was destined to be inferior to T-34/76 all its service life. This can be used as a statement to underline and emphasize the skills of Strachwitz as he had to fight and made his astonishing combat record with inferior equipment! 

PzKfpw III Ausf J with 5,0 cm KwK 39 L/60. 24. PD, 1942.

 

As the Operation Barbarossa finally started Count Strachwitz was serving in the ranks of 16th Panzer Division which was attached to XIV Panzer Korps. The main objective for the 1st Panzer Group was to cut through Soviet border defences and to advance deep into the Ukraine. At first 16th Panzer, commanded by General Hans Hube,  was kept in reserve. Strachwitz served as a commander of the second panzer battalion of the 16th Panzer's panzer regiment.  Usually battalion commander had a special Befelswagen, or command tank, which did not have a cannon but a machine gun and enforced radio equipment. Battalion commander  would follow up the front panzer company with his command tank. This did not suit Strachwitz.  Oh no, he  did not like the Befelswagen and used normal cannon equipped panzer instead. Besides he wanted to command his battalion by following the front panzer squad. Sometimes he was even in the very front panzer to monitor battlefield. What an extraordinary character he was indeed. In the heat of the battle he was often seen commanding his panzers half way out of the commander's turret. That was extremely dangerous practice, no wonder he was injured 14 times.

The advancing phase of the Operation Barbarossa was often pictured as hi-tech "Blitzkrieg" or lightning war by the German propaganda apparatus. That couldn't be further away from the front line reality in Ukraine. Soviets had concentrated their best troops against Germans namely in Ukraine, presumably to defend huge industrial capacity and vast grain fields of Ukraine. Advancing German troops met with fierce Soviet counter attacks and offensives, rain that virtually made roads pretty much useless and vastness of Ukrainian steppe. In the end of June 1941 there was a huge tank battle near Dubno with 250 German and 720 Soviet tanks. Actually it remained to be the biggest tank battle until 1943 Kursk offensive. Germans trying to encircle Dubno had to switch into defence mode as the Soviet 8th Motorized Corps, with two tank divisions with fearsome T-34/76 tanks, charged against surprised 16th Panzer. It was time for Germans to get encircled.  In fact, it was quite close for the 16th Panzer to get altogether destroyed by the Soviets. Strachwitz as leader of recon detachment had his day! As a former cavalryman he fully understood the meaning of movement and fire. Strachwitz quickly cut through Soviet lines and entered their rear area. There he, with his Panzer III tanks, caused havoc and panic over the surprised enemy.  Soviets started to lose momentum and initiative. Soon they turned their tanks 180 degrees and headed east. Hube and his 16th Panzer were saved. Actually Strachwitz was applying old cavalry lessons he had learned in France at the opening stages of the Great War - only this time he had switched horses to panzers.  

KV-1 model 1941.

  

Der Panzer Graf took part in the great encirclement battle of Kiev as a member of the southern panzer pincer force. Late in the autumn 16th Panzer had to help Waffen-SS Wiking Division in a dire straits near river Mius. The year 1941 ended for 16th Panzer in the carefully prepared winter position at the western banks of river Mius. 

Der Kessel - The Cauldron

Panzer Graf had had a leave in Heimat, or homeland, and as he got back to the 16th Panzer he was promoted to a rank of a Lieutenant Colonel of the reserve. It meant he was officially capable of commanding his panzer regiment if such a need should occur. Another significant development was the introduction of a new sub-model of the Panzer IV tank. The new Panzer IV Ausf F2 or even G was actually an up gunned version of the old basic construction. Former Ausf D or F1 had a short 7,5 KwK 37 L/24 infantry support gun.  It had very low muzzle velocity of 385 m/s and likewise poor armour penetration capability of just 39 mm at 500 m and respectively 41 mm at 100 m at angles of 30 degrees. Old Panzer IV could not fight and survive new Soviet KV-1 and T-34/76 models. On the other hand, by the German panzer doctrine, it was not even meant to fight other tanks - it was the duty of Panzer III. Old Panzer IV had a High Explosive Anti-Tank round, but it was primarily meant for self defence and against pillboxes. 

Old PzKfpw IV Ausf F1 and Ausf F2 with 7,5 cm Kwk 40 L/43.

The new Panzer IV variant gave enormous rise to the firepower with its long barrelled 7,5 KwK 40 L/43 cannon. Its muzzle velocity was  740 m/s and penetration ability was enough to enable it to meet its opponents on equal terms. At 500 m it could penetrate 91 mm and at 1500 m still astonishing 72 mm. This meant that Germans could destroy T-34/76 tanks at all normal combat distances. Some issues still remained: thin and unsloped armour as well as narrow tracks which limited manoeuvrability. And then, of course, the worst problem of all: German armaments industry couldn't meet the ever increasing demand of the fronts for new panzer deliveries.  In May 1942 16th Panzer was reinforced and thus it had 140 operational panzers. Odd enough, some of the panzers were already obsolete and not battle worthy Panzer II models. This was the composition for the 16th Panzer as it headed for its assignment in the Operation Blau, the conquest of rivers Don and Volga. At this stage the city of Stalingrad had no great significance - primary goal was to stop and harass all supply and raw material shipping down the Volga.

Bagnodas does not tell us any information about the model of tank which was used by the Panzer Graf on his way to Volga. Perhaps he already had the new Panzer IV Ausf F2 or G, since some of the described shooting ranges do imply that. During the advance he met with a cunning Soviet "weapon" near the river Oskol: mine dogs running towards trying to get underneath the panzers and detonate explosives carried on their backs. On the open steppe there were few hideouts and it didn't take long for a squad of Panzer IIIs to hunt down dog instructors. 

XIV Panzer Korps fought its way across river Don and was getting closer to Stalingrad. In the 23rd of August troops led by the Panzer Graf reached Gumrak airfield. Surprise was total, Soviets couldn't expect to see Germans so deep in their rear. Little did they know about the character of the Panzer Graf! Airfield was left in flames and smoke as Panzer Graf led his troops to carry on. Some estimates claim Panzer Graf had destroyed with his troops as many as 150 enemy aeroplanes. On a bold swing they pushed themselves through the northern districts of Stalingrad and industrial centre of Rynok all the way to the western banks of the mighty river Volga. Panzer Graf's battle group was the first German unit to reach their goal. The success came with a new danger and risk for the entire 16th Panzer. The division had made a tremendous advance of 80 km in a day, but at the same time motorized infantry divisions (3rd and 60th Mot) had stayed behind the progress. Despite of this 16th Panzer tried to capture the Tractor Factory (STZ) via Spartanovka. The effort was met with stiff Soviet resistance and even a counterattack made by brand new products out of the lines of the STZ,  T-34/76 tanks.

The main forces of the XIV Panzer Korps as well as the whole 6th Army were far behind the 16th Panzer. Situation started to develop threatening for the entire 16th Panzer so Hube had no other alternative than to organize a defensive perimeter and to stay firm. The entire division was encircled, to make matters worse the supply line had broken. For now on division had to rely on air supply by the Luftwaffe. The consumption of ammunition became seriously high and air drops couldn't fill the demand. As the petrol reserve got very low, Hube faced a grim decision to make. If division stays on the Volga, there is a risk of it being eliminated by the Soviets or if division attempts to brake west it will act against the Führerbefehl with all following consequences. For Hans Hube odds were all against. Before he and his subordinates, in a meeting to solve this dilemma, had to reach a decision, one of their own divisions, 3rd Motorized, fought its way through to isolated 16th Panzer. To make the day, 3rd Motorized had alongside a supply column of more than 200 lorries. 16th Panzer managed to accomplish what later was tried to handle by the entire 6th Army.  

The crisis for the 16th Panzer was yet not over by the arrival of the 3rd Motorized. There was still a huge gap of 50 km between the Volga bank and the main forces of the 6th Army. Defensive battles followed each other. Panzer Graf quite against his character was forced to stay on the defensive. Division lost its panzers and tankers ever increasing numbers. Yet not a straight and deceive victory was seen. Wearing street fighting had been going on for months and winter was coming. Then the inevitable happened: Soviets launched their Operation Uranus on November 19th which was to capture almost a hole German army encircled.  

Encirlement of the 6. Army in Stalingrad.

 Paulus, the commander of the 6th Army, sent all available panzer units to deal with the Soviet breakthrough. In a complete confusion German manoeuvres were doomed to failure. For instance the 16th Panzer was cut into two halves by the Soviet tank pincers.  Panzer Graf stayed inside the pocket or the cauldron of Stalingrad - Der Kessel. Sometime after the encirclement the Panzer Graf got seriously injured in one these chaotic battles. He did not want to be evacuated but to stay with his comrades. Eventually it was the order of his divisional commander Hans Hube that forced him to leave Der Kessel by airlift. The 16th Panzer stayed behind and perished with all hands, panzers, war diaries and archives.    

SOURCES:

Culver, Bruce (1988) PzKpfw III in action. Carrollton: Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc.

Kantakoski, Pekka (1998) Punaiset Panssarit. Puna-Armeijan Panssarijoukot 1918-1945. Hämeenlinna: PS-Elso Oy.

Quarrie, Bruce (1989) Encylopaedia of the German Army in the 20th Century. London: Patrick Stephens Limited.

Teräsvalli, Timo (2010) The Parola Armour Museum - Guide Book. Hämeenlinna: Ilves-Paino Oy.

Internet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_cm_KwK_38

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_cm_KwK_39

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.5_cm_KwK_37

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.5_cm_KwK_40

Pictures

Wikimedia Commons