Tiger Heat: German Panzers on the Eastern Front

A KV-1 which had concealed itself in a hollow, decided to appear. Instead of going forward the KV-1 reversed at speed. This was to avoid exposing its lower plate. The tank let off one wild shot and another that hit the Tigers frontal armour. The first round from the Tiger missed just bouncing off the corner of the frontal armour. The KV-1 got off another shot and hit the Tigers left drive sprocket with a huge impact. The Tiger responded with several rounds, which blew off the KV-1s right track and hit his driver’s visor. The KV-1 tried to move forward back into the hollow it had reversed out from. In doing this the KV-1 exposed the engine deck and grills. The gunner of the Tiger saw this as an opportunity too good to miss and got a shot off. The shot hit the KV-1 as it moved forward out of sight. Nothing happened for a few seconds there was an almighty explosion as a large fireball erupted from the hollow. Parts of the tank were thrown into the air along with a couple of the tank crew. The hollow was like a cauldron, bubbling with burning fuel and throwing out exploding heavy calibre ammunition, which went spinning out of control in all directions. The KV-1 had badly damaged the Tiger though. The right wheel and track were damaged and the Tiger reversed and moved forward to test the level of damage. If the Red Army got to them with hand-held rocket launchers, they could knock one or both of our tracks off. The left drive wheel was not operating, and they could only move on the left track. This meant the Tiger could only move at a slow speed otherwise they would curve sideways out of control. If the Tiger needed to be recovered, it would require specialist equipment. This would be at least two to three Berge Panther recovery vehicles, which were not readily available in the current area. The only option left to the Tiger crew was to withdraw by slowly reversing back. The Red Army infantry were steadily being overrun by German Infantry. Although to watch, it was quite simply an atrocity. Red Army soldiers who had nothing to lose using all they had against the attacking Germans. One German soldier was obviously out of ammunition – was slashing and stabbing at the Soviets, his bayonet fixed, lashing out in all directions slashing hands necks in a duel to the death. Another soldier threw his MP 40 to one side and used his entrenching tool to beat another Soviet soldier to death. Before being hit by some high calibre fire that blew his head apart, before his headless corpse dropped to the floor. The Tigers did their best to lay down some heavy MG fire cutting the Soviets down as they advanced like an angry hoard. The battle field hung heavy with the strong smell of cordite. Steam from hot weapons could be seen rising in all directions as the battlefield finally dropped quiet.

Thankfully, the Red Army attack had finally been repelled for the loss of one Panther and one Tiger. The biggest issue the Panther and Tigers now faced was being very low on fuel and ammunition after a short but intense battle. They reversed back into dead ground keeping a watchful out for any signs of lingering enemy forces. When a pair of Ilyushins came screaming in with a hail of bullets raining down they swooped up and down and twisted like a pair of Eagles hunting for their prey. Thankfully, a Sd.Kfz. 251 Hanamog mounted with four 20 mm Flak cannons had seen the Ilyushins roaring in and began to pump out flak. The crews of the tanks leapt out and in an insane move began to fire their MP 40s at the marauding aircraft. It was pretty ineffective but allowed the crews to vent their anger. Finally, a well-placed flak round took the tip of the wing off an Ilyushin. It carried on flying for a while before the right wing started to dip and the pilot tried to correct, but over corrected with his rudder and caused the Ilyushin to enter a spin, which was unrecoverable at its current altitude. It hit the ground with the same force as a small bomb before erupting into a fireball. The propeller in the process was blown off and landed with a few feet of a pair of Tigers being propelled through the air like a Ninja throwing star and embedding itself upright into the ground. With all its ordnance used up and nothing to show for it apart from a handful of dead German infantry, the Ilyushin broke off and headed for home.

CHAPTER TEN – Battle of Kursk