Tiger Heat: German Panzers on the Eastern Front

One IS-2 had been taken out after multiple Panzerfaust hits to its rear. German infantry swarmed over the other IS-2 as it moved along. With German infantry frantically trying to get the hatches open before throwing in a couple of grenades and killing the crew inside. The IS-2 finally ground to a halt. The Red Army advanced had been halted but not without the loss of several tanks.

CHAPTER TWELVE – Lead Tiger

January 1944

From over the ridge a mixture of T-34s, IS-2s and SU-100s appeared. All of these tanks would be a formidable foe. The lead Tiger commander through his binocular saw the approaching Soviet Army and shouted over the intercom “feindliche Panzer von Westen.” The T-34s were not quite as much of a worry as the IS-2s and SU-100 self-propelled guns. The SU-100 was essentially an upgraded SU-85, which had been rendered obsolete with its gun being mounted on the T-34-85. Although the T-34-85 could still not quite match the Tiger, as a Tiger could destroy a T-34 from 1,500 to 2,000 meters compared to the 600 metres of the T-34-85. The SU-100 took the same T-34 chassis as used on the SU-85 and added stronger armour, which went from 45mm to 74mm in thickness. It also had a better ventilation system compared to the SU-85. Finally, it was fitted with the 100 mm D-10S gun, the SU-100 could penetrate around 125 mm of vertical armour from a range of 1.2 miles and the sloped 80 mm front armour of the Panther from 0.93 miles. They got given the name Cat Hunters as they could take out Tiger and Panther tanks.

The Tigers got off the first shots followed by two Panthers. The first round bounced off the huge frontal armour. The second Tiger round hit the left-hand track. The track shattered and track links blew off in all directions. The SU-100 still fired its gun and the round screamed towards the German armour before finding the side of Panzer IV and knocking off its slim armour covering the wheels. The German crews felt fearful, as they knew they were up against some powerful tanks. It was a case of kill or be killed as the crews loaded the next salvo of rounds into their gun breaches. More shells screamed over from the SU-100s, the IS-2s had moved out of sight and were going to try and flank us to the left. Just behind the SU-100s were three T-34s. The HE rounds from the SU-100s exploded in the snow around the German armour. Throwing up shrapnel that could be heard bouncing off the tank armour. They had been lucky so far, with not one round having knocked a single tank out far.

Both sides continued to fire, with a round finally hitting the top of a SU-100 causing it to explode. One of the T-34s behind was hit in the turret, which was blown off by the force of the round. Another SU-100 was hit in the front and the round penetrated the armour, causing it to fall silent. The crew were either dead or had been knocked unconscious.

A Panther was struck in the turret by a 100mm round from an SU-100, the subsequent explosion caused the turret to lift off from the hull of the Panther and roll off the hull and end up on it side a few feet away. The crew lay dead inside before the tank exploded throwing out body parts in all directions that fell back onto the hull and into the surrounding snow.