Tiger Heat: German Panzers on the Eastern Front

One by one the column of Tigers formed up on the rough track and began to pick up speed on the slightly smoother rough track covered in snow. They headed west coming across a battle damaged panzer and truck column, which had been destroyed the previous day. Three sooty black and rusty brown tank carcasses were still smouldering along with several badly damaged and burnt out trucks, which blocked the path in front. The lead Tiger pushed one of the destroyed trucks out of the way and they had to drive round the others. The bodies of dead soldiers frozen in strange positions lay to the left and right of the column. The smell of burnt metal and charred bodies still hung in the air as they passed.

A couple of horses lay dead with their leg bones sticking out and their eyes wide open as if their last breath was one of terror. This scene of carnage went on for a hundred yards. The column stopped briefly to pick up some food supplies that had come off a shattered horse drawn cart, the horse was still partially alive and a single round to it head, put it out of its misery. The Tiger crews knew the Red Army were not far away. A lone and burnt out T-34 lay just above them, its turret half blown off.

The column of Tigers headed towards the forest and over the intercom Max Wenck as the lead Tiger commander, shouted over the intercom “biegen Sie rechts auf dieser Strecke vor.” The driver immediately turned the Tiger towards a narrow track leading into the forest. The forest was very dark with plenty of places for the enemy to hide. The column bunched up to offer better protection and travelled slowly down the track in an uneventful manner. Hanz in the lead Tiger was operating the coaxial MG 34 and swivelling it around in its ball mounting like a man possessed hunting for any potential target that could harm the Tigers.

From behind, Max heard a loud explosion and looking back Max saw a flickering orange light that lit up the trees. Acrid dark grey Smoke drifted towards Max. He was not sure if it was an engine fire or due to enemy action. The column halted, several crews climbed out of their tanks with MP 40s slung over their shoulder and ran to the Tiger now fully ablaze. The engine was on fire and the fire had become intense in a short period. Burning liquid was dripping onto the ground causing instant steam as it hit the snow and ice. A crewmember was trying his best to extinguish the flames with a handheld extinguisher that seemed completely inadequate for the task in hand. Hanz was still sitting in the lead Tiger hunched over his MG. He spotted movement just to his right and fired several short bursts of fire, which were soon followed by the crashing and cracking of branches that had been sliced through by the hail of bullets from Hanz’s MG 34.

The crew from the burning Tiger were leaping out of the hatch as the fire began to engulf the whole tank. The crew had left the intense heat of their burning tank to stand out in the bitter cold. A sudden burst of fire from the trees leapt out as the crew made their escape, narrowly missing them as they sought cover. One Tiger turned its turret and let off an 88mm round into the tree line where the machine gun fire had emanated from. Inside the tank turret, the crews had to suffer not only an explosion that felt like a small explosion in a building, but the turret quickly filled with chocking ammonia fumes. A switched-on tank crew would turn the extractor fan on before they began to fire helping reduce the unpleasant gasses. Without proper ventilation, the crew would often quickly become nauseous and it had been known for crews to vomit in their tanks after quite a few rounds had been fired. The tiger had a good extractor fan mounted in the turret and this did a good job of extracting noxious fumes.