World War II Magazine
The Tigers Strike
Ludwig Heinrich Dyck
“The rattle of tank tracts, the clanking of steel, the crash of main guns…that is the brazen melody of the “Tiger” tanks- War Correspondent Herbert Steinert
By mid-July 1944, Operation Bagration, the Soviet Summer offensive in Belorussia, had killed or captured over 300,000 German troops. Virtually all of German Army Group Center (AGC) was annihilated. Tens of thousands of German soldiers marched into captivity and an uncertain future. Their Soviets captors were scarcely in a forgiving mood. In Belorussia, where trackless forest hid nests of partisans, the viscous cycle of terror and counter terror initiated by the Nazis spiraled down to lowest depths of humanity. If this were not enough, the German army destroyed everything that could be of use to the advancing Soviet juggernaut- leaving behind a scorched wasteland.
Bagration had torn a 250-mile-long hole into the German front. Only the wings of a reeling AGC were still able to put up a fight. In the north, the Third Panzer Army held on, while to the south, the Second Army fought for its life. Every German reserve was rushed in to stem the Soviet tide bursting forth, ever further, westward, toward Poland and the Fatherland. The roads were jammed with leaderless German soldiers streaming toward the west, while others pushed through the panicked mob to engage the oncoming enemy. Soviet dive-bombers strafed their victims below. Artillery fire plastered the roads, collapsed houses and set them aflame. Streams of civilian men, women and children fled before wrath of the Soviet army, whose 1st Baltic Front (Army Group) struck relentlessly towards the Latvian town of Daugavpils (Dvinsk/Dünaburg), a strategic rail and road network and the gateway to the Baltic. The Red Army’s advance threatened to sever General of Artillery Christian Hansen’s Sixteenth Army from the right wing of Army Group North (AGN), which was defending of Estonia and Latvia.
Holding Daugavpils was imperative to the Germans, who rushed reinforcements to the area. The railway box carts rolled into the town and into Turmont to the south carrying division after division. When they got a chance, the stiff-legged Landsers (German infantrymen) relaxed beneath the pine trees, shaded from Soviet aircraft and the summer heat, to pass around the obligatory bottle of Schnapps. Then it was back into the transports and south through clouds of dust. The Sixteenth Army’s II Army Corps was being reinforced with infantry from AGN’s Eighteenth Army. Additional support, again mostly from Eighteenth Army sector, came from assault gun, Flak (anti aircraft gun- often used in ground support) and heavy artillery battalions and Major Hans-Joachim Schwaner’s 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion. The 502nd was a veteran outfit that had already proved it worth fighting around Leningrad.
The Landsers dug themselves in around Daugavpils on the southern bank of the Dvina River, covering a line from Druja to Daugailiai. It was hoped that they would link up with the left wing of AGC, preventing the Soviets from enveloping Daugavpils from the south. The remnants of AGC, however, just continued their retreat, unable to bear the Soviet pressure. “The chance of re-establishing the former contact with Army Group Center does not exist!” exclaimed an AGN situation report to the Oberkommando des Heeres (Army High Command).
The most formidable German fighting units at the Sixteenth Army’s disposal were the 502nd’s 2nd and 3rd companies and their colossal Tiger tanks, which arrived on the transports from Briganowo and Ostroff between July 4 and 6. Originally assembled in the woods north of Daugavpils, the Tigers could not be moved across the Dvina until suitable planking was laid across the Daugavpils Railroad Bridge. While they were waiting, the Panzer crews pitched their tents, lazed in the sun and wrote a few letters. Although, for a change, the official rations were readily available, most of the soldiers preferred to “help” themselves to the local livestock, rounding up cows, pigs, geese, ducks and chickens. When it was time to move on, the 22 combat-ready Tigers were deployed south of Daugavpils, at Peski and Laucesy.
Between July 4 to 8, German reconnaissance half-tracks, Volkswagens and motorcycles, probed the country ahead. The half-tracks of Lieutenant Ruwiedel’s scout platoon reported only weak Soviet infantry units. Due to a lack of reconnaissance units and planes, however, most Soviet activity went undetected by the Germans. The Soviets, of course, were meanwhile carrying out their own reconnaissance as well.
Engineer battalions and a workforce, pressed into service by the Daugavpils City Commandant, Lieutenant General Pflugfeil, built up the march routes from Daugavpils to the main battle line. Since the railroad-bridge was the only available crossing point within 60 miles east and northwest of Daugavpils, which was suitable for the 56-ton Tigers, engineers reinforced and laid additional bridges across the Dvina.
Early clashes for Daugavpils occurred in the villages sprinkled among the hills, lakes and marshy ground to the east and south of the city. Along the southern bank of the Dvina, Maj. Gen. Herbert Wagner’s 132nd Infantry Division was the first to be hit by Lt. Gen. Ivan Chistyakov’s Sixth Guards Army. Wagner’s men were waiting for the Russians. “The Landsers prepared themselves for action,” Lieutenant Gottlob Bidermann recalled, “securing chin straps to their steel helmets, checking canteens of water, ensuring that magazines were fully loaded and that weapons were again functioning faultlessly.”
Bidermann’s men could not hold their position. Encircled on July 4th, his battle group fought its way back to the German lines. While bypassing burning villages, a Russian major suddenly jumped out of a waist-high wheat field shouting in broken German “Surrender, Fritz! You’re surrounded!” Bidermann miraculously survived what happened next. “For only a heartbeat the air remained still when without warning a burst from a German submachine gun sawed across the major’s breast,” he wrote. Instantly the Landsers hit the ground. Soviet and German submachine guns erupted at nearly point-blank range and grenades from both sides were hurled through the air. But unseen by the Soviets, in a wood behind the pinned down Germans, a 20mm self-propelled German Flak gun moved into position and was soon joined by another. The Flak rounds snapped above the Germans’ heads. “We could clearly see the tiny clouds of gray smoke as they exploded in the field before us,” continued Bidermann. The Soviets could not survive such devastating firepower, and 100 of them soon scattered to seek shelter behind a depression in the ground.
The sp Flak guns saved the battle group, but in the next village one of them received a hit in the engine from a T-26’s light tank’s 45mm gun. As Bidermann crouched beside the smoking chassis, the Flak- gunner “continued hammering with uninterrupted fire at the enemy, a crimson stream of blood running from the sleeve to his tunic.” A T-26 was destroyed with a shaped charge in close combat; another was abandoned by the Soviets under a hail of German small arms fire. Firing from the hip, Bidermann and his tired and hungry comrades fought their way through the flaming village and back to the German lines.
To the south of the 132nd Infantry Division, reconnaissance troops of the 215th and 205th Infantry divisions also found themselves under attack. All indications were that the Soviets were making for the Daugavpils-Utena-Kauen road to envelop Daugavpils to the south and southwest. The situation in the 205th’s sector at Deguziai soon became critical. On the 9th, the Tiger battalion received the order at 1000hrs to speed to the infantry division’s aid. The Tigers baked in the midday sun. Clouds of dust ground down the motor and the running gears. Only eight of the 22 Tigers were fit for combat on arrival, although by midnight another four had been repaired.
A bridge was being reinforced for the Tigers southwest of Deguziai. The next day it carried the Tigers of 3rd Company toward Pilkoniai to break through to an encircled Kampfgruppe (battle group). During the ensuing combat, the Tigers silenced a large number of Soviet anti-tank guns and mortars. But the German infantry failed to clear the local woods, where Soviet anti-tank and infantry close-combat units lurked. As a result of this oversight, two of the Tigers were knocked out with hits to the commander’s cupola and to a turret. The attack had to be called off because clearing the woods without infantry was suicidal for the tanks.
After most of the afternoon was wasted in conflicting orders, the 502nd’s 3rd Company commanded by Hauptmann Leonhardt Company tried again, this time supported by elements of the 335th Grenadier regiment (205th Infantry Division) and two assault guns. The fight for the woods went well, but the attack ran out of steam when Soviet resistance stiffened. Although the Germans estimated 200 enemy killed and 16 antitank guns destroyed, overexertion left only two of the seven remaining Tigers in shape for action. It mattered little, however, for the encircled Kampfgruppe had managed to break through to the west.
In spite of marshy terrain, broken bridges and poor roads, Leonhardt’s maintenance squads and prime movers recovered all the broken-down Tigers. Soviet pressure meanwhile increased in both the 205th and 215th Infantry division sectors. The Tigers of the 502nd’s 2nd Company, under the command of a Lieutenant Eichhorn, were forced to cover the withdrawal of some grenadiers. Gigantic clouds of dust revealed that enemy tanks and trucks were pushing farther to the north. The Tigers’ high explosive rounds killed more infantry and blasted apart two more of the Soviet guns but an anti-tank round disabled one of Eichenhorn’s Tigers with a turret hit. Whilst supporting the 215th Infantry Division in its attack on the village of Karasino on the same day, another Tiger was crippled by an 85mm antitank gun shell and two more went down due to motor damage. In turn, the Tigers helped recapture and hold the village, and accounted for ten enemy tanks; T34s, T-60 light tanks and SU-76 76mm assault guns, and two heavy anti-tank guns. Despite the intense combat, German casualties were negligible. Nevertheless, while standing on his tank and loading ammunition, Oberfeldwebel (Sergeant) Zwetti was seriously hit in his ass by a ricochet. North of Karasino, however, the Soviets enjoyed greater success, breaching the main battle line held by Estonian and Lithuanian police elements.
By July 12, the 1st Baltic Front had crossed the Dvina while advance guards had reached Utena in Lithuania. General Andrei Yeremenko’s 2nd Baltic Front also joined the battle against the Sixteenth Army, now commanded by General of Infantry Paul Laux. Two days later, General Ivan Maslennikov’s 3rd Baltic Front smashed against the right flank of Eighteenth Army. Army Group North was strained to the limits, and it was only a matter of time before the Soviets would breach the defensive lines and reach Riga. If that happened Army Group North would be isolated. Its commander, General of Infantry Johannes Friessner, futilely pleaded with Hitler to allow him to pull back his forces behind the left (south) bank of the Dvina, but since this meant the abandonment of Estonia and northern Latvia, Hitler refused.
Although exhausted, with the situation deteriorating, on July 12 and 13, the 502nd’s 2nd and 3rd companies continued to shore up the hard-pressed infantry divisions. The 12th saw the belated arrival of the battalion’s 1st Company via rail in Daugavpils. Half of its 10 Tigers were ordered to reinforce 3rd Company in the 225th Infantry Division area. The remaining five Tigers were sent to the Silesian 81st Infantry Division, 20 kilometers east of Daugavpils. On the 13th a newsreel reporter came along for a ride in the Tiger of 22-year-old Knight’s Cross holder, Lieutenant Otto Carius of the 502nd’s 2nd Company. The boom of the Tiger’s 88mm gun so frightened the cameraman that he fell back into the turret, impeding the loader and allowing the Soviets to make a getaway.
With uncanny skill, the Soviet infantry infiltrated the German lines through woods and depressions while their tanks attempted to exploit every sign of weakness. The July 14 saw the reinforced 3rd Company on a hill, dueling with six enemy tanks and a handful of anti-tank guns firing from the high ground on the far side of Svantoji Creek. The dull thumps of Soviet artillery and screeching rocket fire continually plastered the hill, preventing the accompanying 377th Grenadier Regiment from eliminating a large Soviet bridgehead that had crossed the creek and dug themselves in at the village of Stossjunai. The Germans had better luck in the 215th Infantry Division sector. North of Karasino the Soviets gave way to smothering artillery fire and the assault of three 30-infantry strong battle groups supported by assault guns and by the covering fire from two Tigers.
After a lull on in the fighting, on the 15th the Soviets were back, slicing through the main battle line on the right flank of the 215th at Marnga. Although the hills and marshy gullies were ill-suited for tank maneuver, Lieutenant Carius acted on his own initiative to spearhead a German counterattack. A spotted Tiger evoked Soviet screams of “Tiiigriii! Tiiigriii!” A hurricane of Soviet artillery fire immediately descended upon the area. Shrapnel viscously raked the Tigers’ armor and prevented the accompanying German infantry from exploiting Carius’ advance. The Tigers were forced to pull back behind the high ground north of Marnga.
The 1st Company Tigers, under Lieutenant Baumann had no more success in the 132nd and 81st Infantry divisions’ sectors, where Soviets infiltrated the woods southeast of Silene. The Tigers flattened the forward infantry posts, but eight heavy anti-tank guns holed up at the village of Dubinovo put three Tigers out of action. A simultaneous attack by assault guns bogged down with even heavier losses and, once again, the German infantry failed to properly support the attack. But from many an infantryman’s perspective, things looked different. According to the 132nd’s Bidermann, “ during day light hours we could barely show our heads from the muddy holes we had dug without drawing enemy mortar and small arms fire.”
By July 18th, only two of the 16th Army’s fourteen divisions were considered fully combat effective. Nevertheless, the 81st Infantry Division, under Colonel (Oberst) Meyer, was ordered to retake the lost German positions between Lakes Ricu and Suadi. Support came from artillery, a Lithuanian grenadier battalion, 15 assault guns of various types, including ones with mounted infantry, 20mm Flak and 88mm Flak, and from Baumann’s four Tigers. Southeast of Silene, the Kampfgruppe ran into deep anti-tank defenses with many of the guns skillfully hidden in nearby woods and supported by infantry. When the Lithuanian grenadiers went to the ground at the first sign of enemy resistance, the counterattack had to be called off.
Despite the indecisive results of the German counterattacks in the last few days it was evident that the Soviets too had enough. Along the entire II Corps, pressure ceased as the Soviets withdrew south and from there to the west. This meant that II Corps was still being outflanked, but unlike before there was no concentrated Soviet attempt to envelop the forces at Daugavplis. The German defensive success was in no small part due to the Tigers of the 502nd, which in two weeks of fighting claimed to have destroyed 63 anti-tank guns, 11 tanks and large numbers of Soviet infantry. As impressive as these tallies were, they would be dwarfed by what lay ahead.
The first round of battles for Daugavplis was at an end, the second was about to begin. At 0100 on July 22, the 502nd Battalion received yet another alarming radio message from II Corps. On the evening of July 21 strong Russian armored formations broke through Major General Henke’s 290th Infantry Division on the northern bank of the Dvina. With the Soviets on their tail, the Landers of the 290th were falling back toward Izalta. One of the retreating soldiers revealed in his diary: “We are exhausted. One cannot recognize another; over the tanned, dusty faces are sweat-encrusted furrows. Stubby beards are pasted with sweat and dirt…We haven’t slept for days, the dust burns in our throats. No one speaks.”
Tales from terrified infantrymen told of up to 100 Soviet tanks approaching in force. At this stage of the war, the Soviet tanks and tactics were described by Major General von Mellenthin as “a keenly edged tool, handled by daring and capable commanders…the most formidable offensive weapon of the war.” The Germans threw in all the Pak (anti-tank gun), assault guns, Flak and Tigers they could. Both the 502nd’s 1st and 2nd companies were to be hurled into the fray.
At 0500hrs, the 1st Company’s Lieutenant Eichhorn, with four Tigers, was the first to arrive northeast of Daugavplis. From there he drove on to Izalta, to conduct reconnaissance and meet up with the 290th. An hour later, Knight’s Cross holder, Lieutenant Hans Bölter, followed in Eichhorn’s wake with six more Tigers.
Lieutenant Otto Carius with the 2nd Company did not arrive until 0800, just in time to see Bölter depart. As he drove by Carius, Bölter called out “ By the time you guys arrive, we’ll have already taken care of everything ourselves!” Carius wished him good luck and then went on to get his briefing and to refuel and re-supply. Shortly after a divisional vehicle raced up and a major with red general staff stripes leapt out. The Russians had renewed their attacks in the morning and everything was in shambles he exclaimed. With this ominous news, Carius’ Tiger rolled onward to Izalta. The sun burnt on the steel of the Tigers and somewhere ahead, on the steel of awaiting Russian tanks.
Just south of the village of Leikuni, Lieutenant Bölter ran into eight T34s supported by a number of deployed anti-tank guns, with more being towed into position. The Tigers chewed up six of the T34s, the antitank guns and accompanying trucks, but two Tigers were knocked out as well. The remaining four took and held Leikuni, sealing off the Russian supply route. Lieutenant Eichhorn’s Tigers meanwhile covered the 290th’s supply route. The decisive tank action of the day, however, was not with Bölter or Eichhorn, but awaited Carius’ 2nd Company.
While giving their Tigers a break from the merciless heat every 45 minutes or so, the 2nd Company men relaxed on their tanks, or checked the oil and water. Toward the north there resounded the “unmistakable, hard barking of tank cannons,” recalled Carius. He hopped into his VW-Kübel, which he always took along, with Staff Sgt (Feldwebel) Albert Kerscher, to reconnaissance ahead. What they found were masses of panicked German troops fleeing before the Soviet onslaught. “Everything and everybody was heading toward Dünaburg [Daugavplis] – trucks, wheeled vehicles, motorcycles,” he wrote. Everything was completely loaded down. No one could be persuaded to stop. It was like a river that swells whenever its tributaries flow into it after a rainstorm.” After the mob subsided, Carius and Kerscher saw an corporal (Unteroffizier) running in a ditch. “There are already Russian tanks in the next village,” the frightened man cried. The corporal hopped into the Kübel and the three of them drove farther ahead.
The road climbed up a hill in front of the village of Malinava (Malinovka). The three left their vehicle and hiked to the ridge on foot. From the ridge, the road descended north to enter the village about a kilometer below. Scanning with his binoculars, Carius spotted two 32-ton Soviet T34/85 tanks at the nearer entrance. More tanks were entering the village from the north.
Soon a motorcycle with a lieutenant sped in from the south. It seemed that an assault gun battalion was encircled to the north of the village. Efforts to break through only resulted in the loss of seven assault guns. The lieutenant had slipped through Soviet lines to get help from Daugavplis. Unfortunately there were no more heavy weapons left in Daugavplis. At loss at what to do, the disheartened lieutenant was now returning from Daugavplis. In an effort to raise his spirits, Carius promised the lieutenant that he would be back with his battalion in two hours.
With no time to loose, the four officers hastened back to the waiting Tigers. Carius led his company up the hill and addressed his men: “We are completely on our own… We have to get through this without losses, if at all possible. Behind the village, an assault gun battalion has already suffered heavy losses. But that’s not going to happen to us!
“Two tanks will drive into the village at full speed and surprise Ivan. He must not be allowed to fire a shot. Lieutenant Nienstedt will bring up the remaining six tanks. Herr Nienstedt! You will remain on the reverse slope until I give you further orders. Lets hope that the patron saint of radios isn’t sleeping! Herr Nienstedt, this is your first operation with us…as long as you are patient everything will work. The first two are Kerscher and me…What will happen later will be determined be the situation as it develops.”
Taking Kerscher aside, Carius further explained: “ I’ll lead and both of us will advance to the center of the village as quickly as possible where we will quickly get our bearings. You will orient to the rear and I’ll orient to the front. We will then take care of anything that stands in our way. I estimate at least one company in the village unless the rest of the Russian battalion has closed in the meantime.”
Carius gave Kerscher a pad on the shoulder and with a “Let’s go,” the two entered their tanks to check the radio and rev up their 700 horsepower Maybach engines. The drivers pushed their tanks to the limits, cresting the rise and instantly falling into the line of sight of the Soviet tanks below. Down thundered the two Tigers, completely startling the Russians who failed to get a shot off before Carius’ Tiger zoomed past them, straight into the village. A 500 feet behind Carius, Kerscher saw the turrets of the Soviet tanks begin to move. Instantly, Kerscher’s Tiger screamed to a halt, and his 88mm aimed and fired away, knocking out both T34s.
Kerscher lost no time in catching up to Carius. Ahead he saw another Soviet tank, next to a barn and broadside to the Tigers. Kerscher radioed to Carius who at first thought it was a captured King Tiger. Carius fired and the Soviet tank, a Joseph Stalin armed with the long and deadly 122mm cannon, burst into flames.
All hell now broke loose. For 15 minutes or so the two Tigers indiscriminately blasted away at a multitude of Soviet tanks holed up in the village. For the Soviets, many of whom were busy looting when the Tigers pounced upon them, it was pure slaughter. Carius radioed to Nienstedt ordering him to “move slowly over the high ground and to make sure that no Russians could flee from the village,” and alert the main body of the enemy. Only two Stalin tanks managed to break out of the village to the east, but they did not escape. Within a few hundred meters the covering Tigers brought them to a halt. Out jumped two Russians, running for the lives. A Tiger rumbled after them, the ground shaking under its grinding steel tracks. According to Carius’ account; one of the Russians, a major, allegedly commander of the 1st Tank Brigade Joseph Stalin, shot himself. A “Hero of the Soviet Union,” he wore the Order of Lenin on his breast. His comrade received a mortal wound.
After the rest of Carius’ company arrived and took covering positions to the east, Carius radioed to his battalion commander that he destroyed “seventeen “Stalins” and five T34s.” Just then, a motorcycle with sidecar raced in from the north. It was the commander of the assault gun battalion, now freed by Carius’ attack. The assault gun commander was so happy that he could barely control himself. The assault gun battalion would escort the Soviet wounded and prisoners back to Daugavpils.
From the tank graveyard at Malinava, the 2nd Company moved east along a small field path to the village of Barsuki at around 1700. Carius was already thinking of his next attack. Four kilometers beyond Barsuki, Carius, in his Kübel with Kerscher and Nienstedt, found what he was looking for: fresh Soviet tank tracks of the 1st Tank Brigade. Unaware of the massacre at Malinava, the rest of the brigade was bound to show up and when it did, Carius’ Tigers would be waiting. Carius found a good ambush site, but to get to it his company across he had to ford a muddy creek. The first six Tigers managed to get across but the seventh got stuck and had to back up. Carius decided to leave the last two behind. His other six Tigers went into hiding behind a rise in the ground, expertly camouflaged, with their 88s leveled at a 2-mile visible stretch of the road.
As Carius’ Tiger was one of the ones left behind, he sat in Kerscher’s tank with the radio operator. The minutes dragged like hours, as the Tiger crews anxiously awaited the enemy. Nienstedt couldn’t wait to get some action; he was not to be disappointed. Finally, after half an hour, dust clouds appeared in the east- the Soviets were coming! Carius scanned with his scope; 10 to 15 brown-clad infantry were piled up on each tank, fuel and munitions trucks drove between the tanks. Observed Carius, “Those guys were moving past us, directly in front of our eyes, as if on parade.”
Just as the first tank was about to disappear behind a rise in the road, the Tigers opened fire. The Soviet infantry caught the shimmer of a yellow muzzle flash and the impact of the Tiger’s 88mm shells before they heard the metallic sound of the gun’s report. Kerscher’s Tiger, on the extreme left, blew away the first Soviet tank, while the rightmost Tiger knocked out the last. Their front and ear blocked by smoldering tank husks, the rest of the Soviets were sitting ducks. Carius was so beside himself that he leapt out of his tank for a better view of the “horrible beautiful sight!” The deadly 88s tore into the Soviet armor, knocking out tanks and trucks, shredding apart the hapless infantry. Overcome by uncontrollable panic, the Soviet tanks failed to fire a single shot. Trucks rammed into each other. The Soviet infantry fled in mindless fear, leaving behind mangled charred corpses and groaning wounded. Everything was on fire, trucks lay overturned, and oily, thick black smoke spiraled into the blue sky. Every vehicle, including 28 tanks, fell victim to the Tiger ambush. “Fuel tanks exploded, ammunition rattled and ripped the turrets apart,” Carius remembered.“ We had done a great job. I was firmly convinced that we had given Ivan something to think about.”
The above accounts of Carius’ charge into Malinava on July 22, his destruction of the Soviet tanks holding the village, and his subsequent ambush of enemy tanks of the 1st Tank Brigade Joseph Stalin east of Barsuki, are based on his own memoirs. However, Carius’ claims of the number and types of Soviet tanks destroyed at Malinava are at odds with Major Schwaner’s after-action report (included in Carius’ biography “Tigers in the Mud”). Documenting the 502nd’s actions between July 4- August 17, Schwaner reported 17 tanks destroyed at Malinava (10 of them by Carius’ Tiger) and that three tanks escaped (unlike Carius who claimed 23 tanks destroyed). According to Schwaner’s report, the majority of the tanks were T-34s; not “Stalins” as Carius claimed. Somewhat backing up Schwaner’s report are the losses reported by the Soviet 5th Tank Corps, which was in the area at the time. The Soviets reported a loss of 10 T-34s and five Joseph Stalin-2s. However, according to the 5th Tank Corps, the “Stalins” were supposedly lost in the region of Malinovo (Malinovka) while defending from “folds in the terrain” against the enemy, including attacks by airplanes and artillery. Carius’ ambush east of Barsuki is even more problematic. Schwaner wrote that “the village was reached [by Carius’ 2nd company] without any noticeable resistance and makes no mention of Carius’ ambush. Indeed, there appears to be no record of the 1st Tank Brigade Joseph Stalin having existed. In general, Soviet accounts of battle casualties in WW2 tend to be less reliable than German ones, as the Soviets tried to hide the great losses they suffered at the hands of their hated enemy. Nevertheless, German claimed tank kills were also exaggerated; either due to propaganda, the confusion and chaos of battle, or due to knocked-out tanks being recovered and repaired. Memories can fade and Carius may have unintentionally mixed up the dates and events of the many battles he fought.
However successful, Carius’ bold attack only temporarily blunted the Soviet advance. During the next day, July 23, artillery barrages softened up the way for Soviet tanks and infantry. On the 24th, 2nd Company found itself split, with Nienstedt in command of six Tigers at the village of Krivani while Carius with four Tigers pushed toward Kokoniski.
News arrived that a strong Soviet tank force with heavy infantry burst through the German infantry east of the village of Silacirsi, Nienstedt hurried to the rescue with only his own and another Tiger, to face 20 Soviet tanks. Incredibly, Nienstedt knocked out ten Soviet tanks himself while his accompanying Tiger took care of another seven. A subsequent counterattack with all six Tigers and soldiers of the 44th Engineer Battalion retook the German positions.
Fortune smiled upon Nienstedt that day but it frowned terribly upon Carius. His own Kübel out of action, Carius reconnoitered ahead of the Tigers in the sidecar of a Zündapp motorcycle. Suddenly the sound of high-pitch small-arms fire erupted from a nearby farmhouse. Lokey, the driver, cried “ Russians in the farmhouse.” “Turn around” Carius shouted back. Both threw themselves into a ditch but a bullet zipped into Carius’ leg. The two attempted to crawl back to a nearby village of Kokoniski, but the pain in Carius’ leg was too great. In mad desperation, Carius cried Eichhorn’s name- but there was no way he could hear him.
The Soviets were coming closer, their side arms blazing away, unable to see the Tigers in the village due to a rise in the ground. They jumped into the ditch, spraying the Germans with bullets. A shot ripped through Carius’ upper left arm and four others penetrated his back. Lokey, his body blocked by Carius, got away with a flesh wound. It would have been all over, when Carius heard the distinct sound of Tiger engines: “ the sound of salvation to my ears. But then death suddenly stood in front of me!” A Soviet soldier armed with a pistol and flanked by two others with sub-machine guns stood only a few feet from Carius’ bleeding, exhausted body.
“Hands up,” ordered the Russian with the pistol, when suddenly the Tigers’ machine guns wildly burst forth. Firing on the go, the Tiger’s MG34s failed to hit anything but convinced two of the Soviets that it was high time to leave. But not before the Soviet with the pistol fired three panicked shots at Carius, who turned toward the nearing Tigers. Two shots missed but the third struck Carius in the neck, barely missing the spinal cord. Eichhorn’s Tiger drove past, killing the enemy infantry, while the second Tiger slammed to a full stop. Carius was propped up on the Tiger and driven back to the village. Here, on top of everything, Soviets who had been in hiding earlier came alive and started shooting at the Germans.
Whisked off to safety, Carius miraculously managed a full recovery. He went on to command the new Jadgtigers (Hunting Tigers). His recent tank kills earned him the Oak Leaves to his Knight’s Cross. While Carius was headed back to Germany, the Tigers of the 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion continued to be fed into the Soviet maelstrom. On the 25th, Nienstedt was back at Malinava, supporting the 503rd Grenadier Regiment in its effort to retake the village. The fighting seesawed back and forth, with heavy casualties on both sides. Although wounded in the battle, Nienstedt remained with his company and destroyed two tanks and three heavy anti-tank guns. On the same day, Eichhorn led a counterattack on the village of Ausgliani and nearby ran into 16 Stalin tanks and T43s. In a close-range battle, the Tigers firing at less than 300 yards, Eichhorn knocked out all sixteen tanks without a single loss of his own.
July 26 saw the continuation of heavy fighting for Malinava and Ausgliani. No matter how many Soviet soldiers died and how many tanks and anti tank guns were destroyed, their numbers only seemed to increase. A massive assault gun, probably a ISU-122, was seen in action against the Germans. It too was destroyed alongside 12 more Soviet tanks. This time, however, the Tigers bled as well. For the first time since the battle for Daugavpils began, two Tigers were burnt up and completely lost. Although the crew of the first escaped unscathed, three men of second Tiger’s crew were killed and one was severely wounded. Forced to withdraw, Eichhorn fought his way back through Soviet held Ausgliani. His two Tigers overran a number of anti-tank guns, while being engulfed in a hurricane of fire. Innumerable tank and anti-tank rounds smashed into the Tigers’ armor. As many as 40 anti-tank guns were trying to bring down the Tigers. Yet the Tigers’ armor, up to 100mm thick, carried them through the gauntlet of fire and steel. Afterwards, not surprisingly, both tanks were incapable of further combat.
The story was the same everywhere along the II Corps front lines where increasing Soviet pressure pushed the Germans back to the west and north. North of the Daugavplis battleground, 3rd Baltic Front joined the offensive against AGN. A dozen armies with over 80 divisions were hurled at the exhausted soldiers of AGN who had been in almost ceaseless combat for the last six months. The continued defense of Daugavplis was considered pointless.
On the 23rd, Hitler’s favorite General, the fervent Bavarian Nazi, Colonel General Ferdinand Schröner, replaced Friessner as commander of AGN. Schröner, infamous for his draconian executions of “cowardly” officers, was no more able to restore the situation than Friessner had been. On the 26th the Army Group ordered the evacuation of burning Daugavplis which fell into the hands of the 2nd Baltic Front. Soviet hesitancy in following up their victories allowed the Germans to pull back and establish new front lines during the nights of the July 27-29. Yet it was only a matter of time before those front lines too cracked as well. On August 1, the soldiers of 1st Baltic Front reached the Gulf of Riga, leaving charred tank husks and swaths of dead Russian and German soldiers in their wake. As General Friessner had predicted, the 30 divisions of AGN were now cut off from AGC and trapped in northern Latvia and Estonia.
The 502nd Panzer Battalion virtually met its end fighting near Daugavplis. In Carius’ words: “ Only one Tiger managed to reach the bridge of the Düna [Dvina]…the men who could get out of their burning tanks had to swim across the Düna. Our company never recovered from this severe bloodletting…the rest of our tanks were farmed out individually and were lost one after another.” Eichhorn and Nienstedt were both wounded and replaced with less capable officers.
The Soviets, however, had paid dearly for the 502nd’s destruction. During the month long battle for Daugavplis, over 160 Soviet anti-tank guns and tanks were claimed to have fallen prey to the big cats. Such tallies justifiably reinforced the fearsome reputation of the Tiger. Yet the Tiger’s chief enemies, the Joseph Stalins, T-34/85s and related assault guns, too were among the best tanks in the war, inferior to the Tiger in some ways, superior in others. Hidden in villages and woods, heavy anti-tank guns could also easily spell a Tiger’s end. In the end, the Tigers’ victory laurels belong not so much to the tanks, but to their skilled and daring soldiers.
“The Tigers’ Strike,” was first published in World War II Magazine, May 2005.
Sources
Bauer, Eddy, Illustrated World War II Encyclopedia, H.S. Stuttman Inc. 1978, Bidermann, Gottlob H., In Deadly Combat, Kansas: The University of Kansas, 2000, Buttar, Prit, Between Giants, Osprey Publishing, 2015, Carius, Otto, Tigers in the Mud, Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books, 1992, Haupt, Werner, Army Group North: the Wehrmacht in Russia 1941-1945, Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub, 1997, Keegan Editor, Encyclopedia of WWII, London: Bison Books. 1977, Mitcham, Samuel W., Hitler’s Field Marshals and their Battles, Lanham: Scarborough House, 1990, Mellenthin, Panzer Battles. New York: Ballantine Books, 1973, Seaton, Albert, The Russo-German War 1941-45. London: Arthur Barker Limited, 1971, Schwaner, Hans Joachim, “After Action Report on the Employment of the 502nd” in Otto Carius, Tigers in the Mud, Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books, 1992, Winchester Charles, Ostfront, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1998, Ziemke Earl F., The Soviet Juggernaut, Alexandria: Time-Life Books, 1980.
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