Customer Reviews

The Combat History of German Tiger Tank Battalion 503 in World War II

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Another Stackpole reprint, with many illustrations lacking clear detail and crispness, but, I found the numerous individual stories to be, in the main, compelling enough to overcome the mediocre photo quality. One really comes away with some unique insights regarding life in a Tiger Tank Battalion that was always in demand on every front that in fought in. Given their results, not surprising.
This battalion, like the other Tiger battalions, had to endure constant mechanical breakdowns, which put far more tanks out of commission than the enemy did. You get the sense that they were never at full strength at any time; it must have been very frustrating to the crews to worry more about the drivetrain of your own tank than a Soviet T-34, IS tank, or anti-tank gun.
I found the personal stories quite interesting, both wartime action, and later, Soviet captivity for some. A worthwhile read for those interested in the Wehrmacht, and tank warfare in particular.

This volume is a highly personal reenactment of the 503 Battalion history written by the members of the panzer battalion. The battalion war diary was lost in battle and Mr Lochmann admits there are "holes" in the story which was reconstructed from personal recollections and diaries as well as other primary documents that survived the war. It still seems fairly comprehensive and definitely worth reading.

There are six sections to this 439 page book. The first section familiarizes the reader to the Battalion as well as a little info on the Tiger. Some of the information includes the formation and activation of the unit. It lists the individual commanders of the Battalion and its companies. It goes on and lists the recipents of medals in its combat history. It also presents a general purpose employment record, its chronology of engagements. The section finishes with comments from the individual company personnel as well as its engineering and logistic attachments. It also displays combat strength periodically throughout its history.
The remaining five sections are broken down into the different theaters of employment. The first was in the DonBasin not far from Rostov under Army Group Don in late 1942, early 1943. In mid 1943 the battalion was on the southern front of Operation Citadel and had to fight in the Kharkov sector during the Soviet counter offensive. In late 1943, they saw action on the Dniepr and in early 1944 was part of the relief attempt of the Korsun Pocket. For mid 1944, the 503 was transferred to the western front to fight Montgomery near Caen. For late 1944 and 1945, the 503rd Battalion went back to the east and tried to stop the Soviets in Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia. The final section is the demise and surrender of the Battalion. It also includes a discussion of the ones who didn't escape and became prisoners of the Soviets. In the first Appendix is a listing of battle deaths for the Battalion. It includes name, rank, date and location of his death. The second Appendix contains a short but interesting biography of eight of the key contributors.

This operational coverage is driven entirely on the personal experiences of the individuals within the battalion on an almost daily basis. With most of the survivors contributing their recollections and personal diaries to writing this book that even without the official Battalion War Diary, it still seems fairly complete. The Tiger was an awesome machine and the men were proud to be part of the fighting unit. They had confidence that the Tiger would keep them safe; there was much talk about the panzer and its upkeep in the field as well as its victum count on the battlefield.
The operational coverage was more personal than say a David Glantz book but it also didn't have as much information on the enemy but the coverage is probably sufficient for all except a demanding researcher. In addition to the operational coverage of the 503, coverage would also include the units that it was either attached to or supported during a campaign.

There were also 350 photos showing the battalion's men and Tigers in the field. There were also 14 black on white, nearly full page maps of key deployments of the war. It includes the defense of the Chir-Don line in early 1943. Kursk, the breakthrough of the Dniepr, Korsun, Caen, Budapest.
Anybody interested in the panzer action of WWII should seriously consider buying this low cost alternate that was written by its Battalion members. It has decent operational coverage along with many first hand battle accounts. It gives startup and background information for the Battalion and its individual Companies thats engaging and worthy for the oldest Tiger Battalion in the Wehrmacht.

This affordable edition of the JJ Fedorowicz English version is a must have for tactical and operational researchers. Extraordinary detail on the combat exploits of an extraordinary combat organization. Highly recommend the original and the pricier (well worth the investment) Fedorowicz editions for those Wehrmacht armour enthusiasts looking for a real treasure.

This book is similar to Stackpole's books on Tigers and heavy a/t unit 653. They all give unit reports day by day and show where the units were and what they were doing. Some people do not like this as they prefer stories of action from the soldiers that fought. However, far more time was spent doing things other than fighting and these books cover that well, especially the recovery and repair angle. The photographs help bring the units to life as well. I think this format is great as it is all factual from unit records rather than from memories and I think it shows all aspects of a unit's war far better than many more subjective offerings. The fact that this style simply reports that on day such and such five Tigers destroyed 30 T34s for no loss with no embeleshment brings home the enormity of such feats more that a long colourful narative might.

So to sum up I like these books but they are not for everyone.

This book gives the armchair historian a true insight into the German Tiger Heavy Tank Battalions. The Germans eventually mastered most situations and were able to regain the initiative in many situations but could not handle the truely gigantic numbers that the Soviet system could produce under Stalin. The battle of Russia is portrayed in a very brief simple manner by western historians. However it was the biggest land battle in history. The Germans eventually lost the war, but it should be remembered that the Germans killed 14 million Russian soldiers on the battlefield, destroyed 99 thousand tanks, shot down 122 thousand aircraft and captured 3.5 million Russian soldiers (numbers from the Soviet archives). World War two was decided in Russia.