Here are some smaller engagements I found:
When the Ardennes Offensive began, Das Reich's panzers (28 Pz.IV's, 59
Panthers, 28 assault guns, and some 20 Jagd-Pz.IV/70) were held in
reserve to be used to exploit any significant German breakthroughs in
its battle sector. This was slow to occur, so on Dec. 23rd the 7th Pz.
company (it and the 8th had Pz.IV's, the 5th and 6th Pz. companies had
StuG's) was attached to II "Der Fuehrer" and an assault gun company to
III "DF", and given the task of seizing the important crossroads at
Baraque de Fraiture. Ostuf. Gresiak in Pz. #701 led eight Pz.IV's north
to the crossroads just after 4:20 p.m., battling a platoon of Shermans
from the U.S. 3rd Armored Division, knocking out 2 and losing 2 panzers
to the Shermans and 2 more to a howitzer. Some of the panzers then
approached from the east, finished off the Shermans, and overran the the
crossroads by 6:00 p.m. Gesiak's company claimed a total of 17 armor
kills for the day. Seriously wounded the next morning, he received the
K.C. a month later.
This is talking about the SS "Das Reich" Division - this late in the war
they were down quite a bit on tanks, so that's why the number is so low.
Here you have a panzer company and an assault gun company (should be
15-25 or so tanks apiece) seizing a crossroads. This is probably more
typical of the size of our "epic" battles...
BTW a platoon was usually 4-5 tanks, a company was 3-5 of those w/ an HQ
unit, and a battalion was usually 3-5 of those. The artillery came in
around the battalion level, but there was no set rule...
This and the following info is from
http://gpu.srv.ualberta.ca/~dreinbol/kursk.html
Interesting stuff. Kursk was the largest tank battle in history for
those of you who were unaware, and it lasted several days. It was the
first big battle for German Panther tanks and they had some problems.
Why don't some of us try and come up with some campaign ideas from this
stuff....
Kursk and Beyond
On July 4th, Das Reich had 48 Pz. III's, 30 Pz. IV's (1/4 with short
barrels), 12 Tigers, 8 Pz. III command tanks, 18 T-34's, 33 StuG's, and
10 Marders combat ready. On the fifth, the first day of Citadel for the
division, its Tigers knocked out 23 tanks in some 6 hours of heavy
figting near Beresoff and Hill 233.3 to the north. On the 6th, south of
Lutschki, I Bn. Tigers destroyed 10 tanks of the 2nd Guards Tank Corps,
but anti-tank fire killed the 6th Pz. company commander, Ustuf.
Worthmann. After being awarded the Iron Cross First Class as a company
c/o in I/"Langemark" Hstuf. Dieter Kesten took over the 6th Pz. company.
By July 13th, Ustuf. Hans Mennel in Pz. IV #621had knocked out 24 tanks
during the campaign.
Although from July 5th through the 16th, Das Reich accounted for 448
Russian tanks and SU's, losing a total of 46 panzers and assault guns
destroyed, Army Group South failed to completely break through to the
final Russian defense line south of Kursk. On the 28th, before it
departed for Italy, the Leibstandarte handed over to Das Reich 9 Tigers,
39 Pz. IV's, and 4 Pz. III's, which already had 33 Pz. III's, 17 Pz.
IV's, 2 T-34's, and 2 Tigers combat ready.
After being transferred south to oppose the Russian counterattack across
the Mius River, and destroying 391 tanks and SU's from July 30th to
August 21st, Das Reich moved to the outskirts of Kharkov, where it was
involved in even heavier fighting. Its Panther battalion first saw
combat on the 22nd, around Starja-Ljubotin and Kommuna, knocking out 53
Soviet tanks. The next day, 12 Km west of Kharkov, the platoon of Ustuf.
Karl Meileck (Panther 211) broke up a Russian tank assault. He alone
destroyed 7 tanks. On the 24th, Hstuf. Kesten's 6th Pz. Company, newly
supplied with side-skirted Pz. IV's, battled 60 T-34's between
Udy-Bogens and Orkan, just SW of Charkow, which had fallen to the
Soviets on the previous day. Kesten's panzers knocked out 29 tanks of
the 60. Mueleck and Kesten later received K.C.'s for these actions.
In battles around Kharkov from Aug. 22 through Sept. 2, Das Reich scored
463 armor kills. On Aug. 27 it had 4 Pz. III's, 31 Pz. IV's, 6 Tigers,
and 6 command tanks combat fit, plus one Panther company. The other
Panther companies were briefly attached to other divisions. Das Reich
panzers moved to the Walki area early in Sept. On the 13th, some 60 km
SW of Charkow and 20 km west of Walki, over 70 T-34's attacked Das
Reich's recon battalion. From their reserve position, Hstuf. Friedrich
Holzer in Panther #101 led 7 tanks of his company to the rescue. In a 40
minute battle the Panthers destroyed 28 T-34's. In 2 days, 78 Soviet
tanks were left burning on the long grass of the steppes.
Throughout September Das Reich Tigers scored heavily against Russian
armor. On the 23rd, Ustuf. Alois Kalls (Tiger S31) received the G.C. in
Gold for his adept leadership of his platoon during the late summer. His
assistant platoon leader, Hsch. Johann Reinhardt was posthumously
awarded the G.C. in Gold on the 25th. At the end of the month Das Reich
moved to the Dnjepr front, having destroyed 268 tanks around Walki.
On October 29th, just outside of Khodorov on the western bank of the
Dnjepr River, some 75 km SE of Kiev, 20 T-34's pierced Das Reich's
defense line after 5 a.m.. Quickly advancing to this dangerous
breakthrough, Hscha. Willy Simke in Pz. IV #531 and his third platoon,
5th Pz. Co., fired upon the T-34's from 20 to 30 meters, and knocked out
17 of them. In the same area on Nov. 1 the Russians tried to secure
their bridgehead over the Dnjepr. Stubaf. Tychsen's IInd Pz. Abt. was on
the right flank of Das Reich's position. When enemy tanks and infantry
attempted to outflank his unit, Tychsen led his panzer HQ stab and an
engineer platoon to the attack around Hill 188. Three T-34's appeared
over a rise: Tychsen's BeflPz.III knocked out two, then his swiftly
advancing force destroyed 6 more and drove off the rest. That same day
in Tiger S11, Hsha. Hans Soretz, I Zug leader 8/Pz.Rgt. DR, scored the
2000th armor kill for the division in 1943. Its panzer regiment had
accounted for some 1100 of these, to its ownlosses of over 250 tanks. On
the 11th in Slavia, Tigers shot up more than a dozen Russian tanks.
Previous to becoming an Ostuf. (on the 18th), Alois Kalls was wounded
after taking over as acting commander of the Tiger Company. On the
morning of the 13th near Bolschaja Grab, Soviet infantry assaulted the
IInd Pz.Abt. headquarters. Ostuf. Karl-Heinz Boska, its adjutant, led 5
panzers in a counterattack that destroyed 12 anti-tank guns, 2 infantry
guns, and killed over 300 troops. That same day, the Pz.Rgt's commander
Obersturmbannfuehrer (Ostubaf.) vom Reitzenstein received the K.C. for
the efforts of his unit during the summer and fall. Soon afterward,
charged with off-duty misconduct, he committed suicide on the 30th.
Tychsen assumed command of the regiment.
On Nov. 26, Das Reich had 9 Pz.IV's, 2 Tigers, 7 Panthers and 2 command
tanks combat fit. In mid-December, most of the division was ordered to
France to resupply and retrain. A kampfgruppe remained behind, its
depleted panzer force formed a battalion of only 2 companies, one led by
Ostuf. Schomka, the second led by Ostuf. Kloskowski. The acting
battalion c/o was Hstuf. Willi Endemann. Six Pz.IV's, 4 Panthers, and 5
Tigers were combat fit. From Dec. 25 through Jan. 18, 1944, the
battalion destroyed only 12 tanks, 14 SU's, and 12 anti-tank guns. Three
of its Tigers were knocked out on March 4th east of Semjalintzy. Ustuf.
Tegthoff and Sta.Ju. von Einboeck were mortally wounded. A handful of
Das Reich tanks fought on until April.
The Tiger Company was disbanded that spring, its surviving personnel
distrubuted among the 3 companies of the forming 102 sSS Pz.Abt. (most
D.R. veterans went to its first company). In all, Das Reich's Pz.Rgt.
scored 1200 armor kills by April, and lost c. 300 tanks in combat
against the Russians.
One final batch -this is from the fights around Kharkov...
On the 19th, 33 Pz. III's were combat fit. Just after 9:15 a.m. on the
22nd, 150 km south of Kharkov, Hauptscharfuehrer (Hscha.) Karl
Kloskowski in Pz. III #431 seized a bridge across the Woltschia River on
the western outskirts of Pavlograd, in the process destroying three
T-34s and a number of anti-tank guns. Soon, assisted by
Unterscharfuehrer (Uscha.) Paul Egger's Tiger, the two panzers held the
bridge until reinforcements arrived, allowing Das Reich panzergrenadiers
to secure the town less than 2 hours later. Kloskowski was awarded the
Knight's Cross in July, 1943 for this action.
Eleven Pz. III's remained combat fit on March 4th. At 2:00 p.m. on March
14th, Hscha. Karl-Heinz Worthmann in Pz. IV #631 raced ahead of
Kampfgruppe Harmel to storm Hill 209.3 near Wossyschtschewo, 13 km
southeast of Kharkov. He destroyed 27 heavy anti-tank guns, 2 artillery
pieces, and numerous MG nests, driving the Russians from a strongpoint
that was preventing the encirclement of the city. After Kharkov fell to
the SS Panzer Korps, Das Reich tanks were involved in the seizing of
Belgorod during the third week in March. The division knocked out a
total of 292 tanks and SU's in the Kharkov-Belgorod campaign, and lost
77 tanks and assault guns.
Alright, this should have some people in a tank-ish mood...
Chris Miller
Received on Wed Jul 23 1997 - 16:23:27 UTC