Tiger Heat: German Panzers on the Eastern Front

The Panther continued to burn until there was nothing left to burn and the remaining crew inside had been incinerated. Another SU-100 was hit by a Tiger shell, it seemed to move backwards slightly in a large plume of dirty grey smoke before catching fire. Further Tiger fire hit another SU-100 in the tracks and hull, splitting open a section of the hull and allowing a dismembered crew member to fall out lifeless onto the snow. The German armour had an elevation advantage and were able to fire shots at the weaker top sections of the SU-100s hull. Another SU-100 was hit in the transmission and it ground to a halt, still firing back. Trying to hit another Panther, which it did with great success knocking out the driver and right hand track. The German infantry was ordered to begin an attack on the last two remaining SU-100s using a Panzerfaust. The IS-2s suddenly reappeared obviously having been ordered to come to the aid of the SU-100s. In doing so they exposed their weaker hull and the first IS-2 had its lower hull blown apart. The dead MG gunner was half hanging out the hole made by the explosion. The IS-2 continued to moved forward before a well-aimed shot through the existing hole with a HE round caused the whole tank to lift up a few feet into the air with a very large and loud explosion ripping through the hull as if it as made of tissue paper. Inside the commander desperately tried to open the turret hatch as he was engulfed in flames screaming and wailing away before falling down into the inferno raging in the hull. Ammunition started to cook off and explode and this black oily residue started to run down the hull of the IS-2 which was now full ablaze. The other IS-2s pushed forward missing the volley of rounds being fired from the Tigers. The speed at which they were moving made it difficult for them to get a proper aim and their shots missed the Tigers completely. The German Infantry were cut down by the IS-2s MG guns their bodies and heads exploding as rounds impacted on them. One infantry man had his insides blown clean out by a single well placed MG round. Another 88mm shell from a Tiger hit an IS-2s track and blew three road wheels clean off in the process. The IS-2 swung round exposing its weaker side armour and another well-placed round hit the rear side of the tank, blowing the engine clean out of the tank and causing the fuel tanks to explode. Whilst diesel does not burn easily, when it becomes compressed it ignites quite easily, especially any compressed diesel vapour. The pressure wave caused by the impact of a well-placed round was enough to put the diesel under enough pressure to cause it to ignite into a fireball.

Finally, an IS-2 round found its mark on a Tiger and penetrated the frontal armour killing all the crew in an instant. It took three rounds in rapid succession to immobilize the advancing IS-2. The first round punched through the lower hull, the second round hit the front sprocket, blowing it off and the third hit the lower hull causing it to go out of control and tip over after falling into a ditch, with smoke pouring out as it lay stranded. As the crew tried to escape they were cut down by German MG gunners who had witnessed the same tank mowing down and shooting at their friends and fellow soldiers.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN – Forest Fire

March 1944

Through the gunsight, the gunner got his first glimpse of two T-34s moving at full-speed down a hill going from left to right towards a treeline. Their vulnerable flanks were right in the Panthers line of sight. The gunner traversed the gun onto the target ensuring the targeting triangle on the lead tank was in the centre of the target. Allowing for the movement of the target. Dirty black exhaust plumes emanated from their twin exhausts from the rear of the tanks as they belted along on the rough track. Russia had very few paved roads, most were just stony tracks that became hard in the winter and summer. Then turned into a thick gooey mud as the snow melted, causing men, horses and armour to become stuck.

About 65% of the Russian territory is underlined by permafrost. Most areas of Russia including European Russia, in the south of West Siberia and in the south of the Russian Far East, including the cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, experience a humid continental climate. Saint Petersburg (formally Leningrad 1924-1992) which endured an 872-day siege by German forces from September 1941 to January 1944. It has a temperature average low of –9°C (record low of –36°C) in the winter to an average of 24°C (record high of 37°C) in the summer.

The gunner fired and there was an explosion of metal as the round hit the T-34s track causing it to veer off violently to one side. The second Panther shot an AP round straight through the rear flank, hitting the engine – causing the rear engine cover to blow off.