CHAPTER SIXTEEN – Last Stand
The commander stood up in his cupola to see better, as the column of King Tigers with two Panthers and a Jagdpanther following. The Jagdpanther was based on the chassis of the Panther tank with the powerful 8.8 cm PaK 43 cannon of the King Tiger. It entered service late in 1944 and saw service in both the Eastern and Western Fronts.
As the tank column got close, the town looked very peaceful. However, in the streets and in the gardens, was the bodies of soldiers and civilians. This town had seen some fierce fighting like so many others. Bodily fluids were leaching out and almost eating into the roughly paved streets and roads. The stench was horrific, almost bringing water to the crew’s eyes. The smell of rotting garbage was like a fine perfume in comparison.
The King Tigers positioned themselves on the main road through the town. German infantry was spreading through the town undertaking house by house clearance even if it meant burning a building down to the ground some unrecognisable as ever having been human. Any bodies of Red Army soldiers were turned over prodded. If there was any thought that, they were still alive. They were hit hard in the head a few times with their rifle butts in order to save precious ammunition. Many of the Town’s occupants were still trying to flee the raging war that had been brought to their doorstep. Carts were loaded up with belongings and people, others had their entire life on their backs.
The King Tigers continued to move cautiously up the road passing burning buildings and the odd body crunching underneath its wide tracks. The usual artillery bombardment erupted into life. Shells began to drop onto the street with pin point accuracy, the King Tigers picked up speed and the gap between them grew wider to aid in avowing one shell taking out several King Tigers in one go. Parts of the street and bodies were thrown high up into the air and rained back down on the Tanks with each explosion. German infantry was also caught up in the deadly blast killing and maiming many that had not been able to seek cover quick enough. The explosions shattered any glass remaining in the windows. The street was soon clear of any life other than the King Tigers. The two Panthers and the Jagdpanther had taken a different route around the perimeter and had been spared from the artillery bombardment for now. The flashes of light from the exploding shells was almost blinding for the driver as he peered out through his narrow slit trying to navigate around the craters left by the artillery shells.
Any cars that had remained intact on the street were now twisted burning metal. The King Tigers ploughed on through the explosions as they burst in multiples at the front rear and sides of the King Tigers. As the Tigers got towards the end of the main road through the Town – Kruger the Commander of the lead tank could see the Red Army infantry fleeing from the edge of the town as the artillery bombardment continued.
They would either trap the King Tigers by blocking them so the artillery could finish them off or possibly fleeing as German armour and infantry approached. The Red Army were good tacticians and should never be underestimated. The King Tiger traversed its turret slightly to search for targets. An IS-2 had appeared to the left of the fleeing Red Army infantry. This looked like the start of a Red Army counter offensive. The IS-2 had appeared from the side of a building.
The Jagdpanther had moved into some cover near a group of trees and the two Panthers had moved closer to the building on the perimeter of the Town. A shot from the IS-2 hit the gun mantle on the Jagpanther. It caused the Jagpanther’s main gun to jerk upwards and in doing so broke the jaw of the gunner and knocked him out cold. The round had damaged the mechanism for raising and lowering the gun and the main gun was now stuck in a raised positon. The Jagdpanther had no choice but to reverse and try to get itself out of the line of sight of the IS-2. The slow reloading time of the IS-2 would aid in the Jagdpanthers escape and allow it to get away for repairs, although it would now be out of action for at least 24 hours. The gunner would also need to be replaced by most likely a 16-17-year-old, whom had had no battle experience and the minimum amount of training.
The IS-2 was joined by a pair of T-34s. A King Tiger quickly got off a round. The 88mm HE round hit the first T-34 in the turret and blew its turret off, the turret blew off and fell onto the rear of the second T-34 in flames. Rather than stay with their tank the crew of the second T-34, thought they had been hit and where on fire and bailed out of the T-34. They must have got a bit of a shock to see a T-34 turret resting on their rear deck.
The first T-34 was now fully ablaze and round were starting to cook off as the heat inside the hull became more intense. With one T-34 knocked out and another abandoned, a King Tiger still fired a round into the side abandoned T-34, just to make sure it could not be reused.
With the T-34 threat neutralized, attention was now drawn to the much deadlier threat posed by the IS-2 and its 122-mm gun. The IS-2 had now reloaded and was slowly moving up to get into position. The King Tigers could not get a fix on the IS-2 as their view was blocked. The two Panthers had a line of sight on the IS-2 and both got a shot off. The first shot hit the left-hand corner doing some minor damage to the front corner and the second shot missed the IS-2 totally.
The IS-2 got another shot off with an AP round and this hit the Panthers frontal armour. The shell managed to prise the interlocking plates of the frontal armour apart. The welded joint had completely failed. Inside the tank, shrapnel flew around causing a severe laceration to the MG gunner’s leg. The commander had been hit in his stomach and his guts had fallen out onto the gunner’s lap. The scene inside the Panther was horrific. The impact of the AP round had also shattered the final drive. The Panther was also immobilized. With no time to waste, the crew scrambled out the escape hatch and sought refuge in a building to the right of the Panther. With only one crewmember dead and a couple of nasty cuts, the crew had made a lucky escape.
The remaining Panther fired another round at the IS-2, this slammed into the turret of the IS-2 causing a large chunk of armour to come off. It also knocked the commander and gunner out cold, giving further valuable seconds for the Panther to fire again. The King Tigers had started to move up and try to outflank the IS-2. As they reached a gap between two buildings, they finally got sight of the frontal area of the IS-2, its mighty gun pointing out in front.
Two King Tigers fired off their 88 guns and both rounds hit the front of the IS-2. One round split the front of the IS-2 open and the other round pierced the lower frontal armour before going right through the crew area and becoming buried in the engine bay. The shock from the impact sent the engine timing out of phase, causing the valves to impact with the pistons and the engine seized. The interior of the tank was filled with carbon monoxide fumes that quickly caused the crew to become light headed. The Panther had tried to manoeuvre away so it could fire into the side of the IS-2. The Panther fired off another round that hit pierced the IS-2s side armour plate, causing the ammunition to explode and the turret hatch to blow off and a large tower of flame to shoot out of the hatch.
The MG gunner’s in the King Tigers continued to fire their MGs spitting out thousands of rounds at the fleeing Red Army. Just then, an anti-tank rocket flew from a fleeing Red Army soldier in a long trail of fire and exploded against one of the wheels of a King Tiger. This caused the wheel to fly off and land the other side of the street propped up against a wall. The commander grabbed his MP 40 and joined in laying down fire – as the gunner moved the turret round to the fleeing Red Army. Using the last of his HE rounds, he fired into the centre of the swarming mess. The round exploded and Red Army soldiers were thrown up into the air, their contorted bodies silhouetted against the bright flash from the HE round. This caused the Red Army soldiers to move in all directions trying to make it to the nearest available cover. The Tigers continued to move up and fire off their remaining rounds, stopping at the edge of the Town as fuel and ammunition supplies were nearly exhausted.