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150 of 158 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
..into the thick of battle on the Eastern Front.., September 11, 2003
Otto Carius was one of the most successful Panzerkommandanten ever to take a Tiger tank into battle, destroying some 150 tanks and being decorated with the Oakleaves to the Knights Cross. Stackpole are to be heartily congratulated for this cheap paperback edition of a long-out-print Fedorowicz classic, a classic of Eastern Front literature and a marvellous account of Panzer warfare. When World War II broke out Carius had volunteered for 104th Infantry Placement Battalion in May of 1940. Following training, he was assigned to the 21st Panzer Regiment and experienced his first battle as a loader on a Panzer 38(t) during the "Barbarossa" operation in June of 1941. After about a year of war experience on the Eastern Front, Carius was accepted in an Officer Candidate Course and following its completion, was assigned to the 502nd Heavy Tank Battalion in April of 1943. Equipped with the new Tiger tanks, he was assigned as a tank commander to the 2nd Company of 502nd Tank Battalion. That summer, the 2nd Company was deployed to the Russian Leningrad Front and took part in several operations in that area. During that time, 502nd Tank Battalion was ordered to reinforce the front along with 11th SS Freiwillige Panzergrenadier Division "Nordland" at Narva Bridgehead. During one of his engagements, Carius destroyed four Soviet SU-85s and successfully withdrew without losses. In June of 1944, the company was transferred to Dunaburg (Daugavpils in Latvia) to defend the city from a concentrated Russian offensive. In the July of 1944, Russians outflanked the German defensive lines via the motorways west of Minsk and Borissov to Witebsk (same route was used by Germans in 1941). By using tanks in vast numbers, Soviets intended to divide the German occupied territory into small salients and then take port city of Riga. Since Riga is situated at the mouth of Dvina River, Dunaburg was an important strategic point for both Germans and Russians. On July 22 of 1944, 1st Lieutenant Otto Carius with his company of eight (early and mid production) Tigers advanced towards village of Malinava (northern suburb of Dunaburg) in order to halt the Russian advance. 1st Lieutenant Otto Carius and 1st Lieutenant Albert Kerscher (one of the most decorated commanders of sPzAbt 502) took a Kubelwagen in order to check if the village was already occupied by Russians. They discovered that village of Malinava was already occupied by the enemy. Carius recognized that the Russian tanks in the village were only advance troops waiting for the main force to arrive. He decided to recapture the village before the arrival of reinforcements. Carius returned to his company for briefing and explained his plan to take the village. He decided to attack the village using only two tanks because there was only one road leading to the village and rushing all of his Tigers would be dangerous. Six Tigers remained in the reserve while Carius and Kerscher's Tigers moved towards the village of Malinava. Speed was the essence of Carius' strategy and it was decisive to upset Russians and immobilize their tanks.
When Carius' Tiger No.217 was about to enter the village, two T-34/85 tanks were observed rotating their turrets. At this moment, Kerscher's Tiger No.213, which followed Carius at about 150m, fired and knocked them out. Also for the first time, Otto Carius encountered Russian's latest JS-1 (or possibly JS-2) heavy tank. Its silhouette was somewhat similar to the German King Tiger and Carius was confused at first but after hesitating a bit, he fired and JS-1 burst into flames. Afterwards, Otto Carius recalls that the entire battle did not last more than 20 minutes. In such a short time, Carius and Kerscher's Tigers knocked out 17 Russian tanks including the new JS-1. Although the Russians were attacked by suprise, Carius' quick and accurate recognition of the situation and the excellent tactics used were the main factors in the outcome. Carius' achievement at Malinava is perhaps as equally outstanding as Michael Wittmann's achievement at Villers-Bocage. In November of 1943, Otto Carius destroyed 10 Soviet T-34/76 tanks at distances as close as 50 meters. In August of 1944, Otto Carius was transferred to Paderborn to the newly created schwere Panzerjager Abteilung 512 and received the command of the 2nd company. sPzJagAbt 512 was equipped with powerful Jagdtigers, armed with 128mm Pak 44 L/55 gun. Carius commanded the 2nd company, which was training at Senne Camp near Paderborn and at Dollersheim near Vienna. On March 8th of 1945, without finishing its training, 2nd company was directed to the frontline near Siegburg. It then took part in the defence of the River Rhine and eventually surrendered to the US Army on April 15th of 1945.
All of this is related in great detail with marvellous accounts of what it was to fight, live & die in the Tiger tank. The book is completed with the reprinting of period newspaper articles, both in the orginal German and in translated form.
Highly recommended.
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52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Treading in Death's Sphere., July 16, 2004
The famous Tiger Ace, Otto Carius, has provided a valuable memoir of his experiences in WWII. This book is an asset whether you are a professional soldier, WWII historian, or Tiger tank afficinado.
Valuable lessons are gained by learning the problems associated with fielding new technology in the time of war. While the Tiger tank proved to be an awesome weapon while operational; its' Achilles heel was the tremendous amount of logistic and maintenance support required to keep it running.
I was reminded of Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage" when reading about Carius' first engagement as an officer, but by the end of the book one thing that is not in dispute is the personal courage of Carius and many of the tankers he led, especially Albert Kerscher. They would slug out the battle from extreme close ranges often so close that traversing the main gun was not possible!
The drama of tank warfare on the Eastern Front is simply told in this book and valuable lessons can be learned by those in the profession of arms. Much like Patton, Carius relays his frustration that the German and Anglo-American forces did not join together and turn on the forces of the Soviet Union. The desperation of German forces to retard the advance of the Red Army allowed many Germans to escape and avoid Communist 0ppression is noteworthy.
Yet these brave German soldiers were an embarrassment to the Post-War Germany and unlike the US where our veterans are dubbed the "greatest generation," German veterans are shunned and instead monuments go up to the draft dodgers and deserters.
In light of the recent prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, his comments concerning the treatment of Prisoners of War by the Americans are interesting.
I am fortunate to have met Otto Carius, who is still alive and active as a pharmicist at his Tiger Apothecary. A generous man, he personally delivers medicines to those homebound.
One of the most telling comments he made to me concerned his leadership as the Company Commander of 2d Company, 502d Heavy Tank Battalion; while in command he did not have one soldier killed in the company - many were wounded, but all lived. That fact, tied with his successes on the Armor battlefield in high intensity conflict truly makes him one-of-a-kind.
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119 of 137 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very rare breed of tank, a very rare breed of man..., November 5, 2003
Generations come and go, this is the age of the History Channel generation, one that still believes in fairy tales; that germans were representative of all the evils in the world and the western powers and Russia stood for a wholesome mixture of goodness and fairness. Although a very large portion are seeking alternative answers. Tigers in the Mud opens a window in time and allows the reader a glimpse into a totally different generation and a way of making war that is as sound today as it was back then. This is an age where technology breeds an instantaneous breed of everything including soldiers, take away that technology and what you have left is an individual lacking in fundamental soldierly skills. Otto Carius warns us about this in the afterword of his fine tome. If you are in or are about to join the military, do yourself a favor and read this book. 90% of all battlefield situations are not found in the battlefield manuals and are subject to change in an instant and this book offers a rare glimpse into battlefield command at company level unavailable elsewhere. Otto Carius was a soldier reared in classic german military tradition and it shows through out his book. Contrary to History Channel standards three very important qualities about the German fighting man jump out from the pages of this book:
1) The ability of the german soldier to improvise and adapt according to the ever changing battlefield situation with limited resources
2) The capacity of the next in rank to perform the tasks of his immediate superior
3) The employment of the Kampfgruppe concept (the employment of adhoc units and weapons in concerted form) nowdays called task force (and made to seem like it was just invented by today's military). These three qualities were angular in our ability to endure for as long as we did against overwhelming odds, the breaking of our enigma code and those who stabbed the German soldier in the field in the back to further their egotistical goals on behalf of alien creeds (Speidel, Krebbs, Fromm, Canaris, Beck amongst the many). Apart from that Carius raises one of the few voices in defense of axis soldiers in era of apologetical and repentful submission and made all the more courageous when we remember that the original book in German was published relatively shortly after WWII. His criticism of the German people as the only nation to turn their back on their native sons and those of us who did our utmost to defend that nation reminds me of those soldierly brothers that served in Viet Nam. I strongly recommend this book to those of you interested in the eastern front for a number of reasons, it is one the few accounts from a Tiger company commander who also had a grasp for the overall strategic situation as it applied to his command. It gives you an unbiased view of the Tiger tank as a combat weapon along with its limitations and advantages, he also offers a very rare glimpse about the JagdTiger tankhunter. Believe me it wasn't as unreliable as most western authors have led you to believe, (you had to know how to use it though). It did excel in the defensive role as Carius book amply demonstrates. The book is an honest and unapologetic legacy by a proud soldier with no regrets, who performed his duties for love of nation and it's people; the way it's meant to be. Raim?nd Fonseca
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