Talking about tank aces we must think about Micheal Witmann or some Germany crews, because they have the most scariest panzers with most power guns and toughest armor during World War 2. Nazi Germany always make an beast animal for their panzers, the most appealing and strongest one is no more than tiger, the following tank battalion was mostly tiger tanks, reading more history stories or find some funny mobile strategy games on our site is your choice!
History of 503. Schwere Panzerabteilung ( In English: 503rd heavy tank battalion)
From war thunder wiki
In May 1942, 503. Schwere Panzerabteilung, or the 503rd Heavy Tank Battalion, was formed at Neuruppin in Brandenburg, Germany. As the German army’s third heavy tank battalion, it was planned to be equipped with the Porsche produced Tiger tank, with the intention to deploy to North Africa to assist the 501st Heavy Tank Battalion. However, after the cancellation of Porsche’s heavy tank the unit was delayed whilst waiting for Henschel Tigers to accompany its Panzer IIIs, and instead was sent to the Eastern Front.
Initially assigned to Army Group Don, 503 deployed to the Eastern Front between December 1942 and May 1944. The unit first saw action in January 1943, where it was involved in bitter fighting against Soviet forces in the vicinity of Stavropol.
Following Kursk, the battalion was used as a ‘fire brigade’ – quickly deploying to weak areas along the German line to plug gaps against Soviet forces before rapidly moving to the next area they were needed. In January 1944, 503 joined Schwere Panzerregiment Bäke with the intention of leading a German offensive to assist forces trapped in the Korsun Pocket. 503’s 34 Tigers provided a vital component to the force, although one was lost to friendly fire.
However, with the launch of Operation Goodwood on July 18th, 503’s 3rd Company was all but completely destroyed by British bombing, with only one Tiger still operational by the end of the day. On the same day a Kingtiger of the 1st Company was disabled and the crew captured when it was rammed by a Sherman of the Irish Guards.
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The 2nd Company was able to engage British forces, however, and was one of the main contributing factors to halting the entire British advance in the area. Meanwhile, the 1st Company was also in action but lost two Kingtigers against the British. The final action in the Normandy campaign took place on August 11th when two Tigers stood against 30 allied tanks, destroying three before they were overwhelmed.
The unit has been credited with the destruction of some 1700 enemy vehicles for the loss of 252 tanks. However, this kill to loss ratio of some 15:1 has been questioned by some post war analogists and historians.
What is clear from German records is that whilst the legendary heavy tanks performed well in battle, it was the issues outside of combat which proved to be their undoing; 503 lost more tanks to breakdown and abandonment by their own crews than to enemy action. Many of Germany’s very best tank crews served within the ranks of 503, amongst them was Kurt Knispel – possibly the greatest tank commander of all.
