Faust/Schreck aces?

[Marko]

There was a discussion on this topic not long ago on das-ritterkreuz.de forum and they posted some very interested facts (which I BTW have a hard time beliving).
Apparently the action involving Anding, Walle and Stützle took place in Stadensen, Krs. Uelzen/Niedersachsen.
Some other aces:
Ostuf. Wilhelm »der Zyklon« Weber from Charlemagne (this unit destroyed 62 tanks in Berlin with Pz.Fausts and Pz.Schreks alone) around 12,
Willy Fey 12,
Adolf Peichl 11.

Hope this helps (especially regarding Anding and his companions clashing with the Brits)

[charlie don't surf]

The famous encounter was, from what I've read, in Stadensen, Germany. It happened on the 14-15 April.

Andreas Düfel (the webmaster of das-ritterkreuz website, he also lives near the town Stadensen, where this action took place and talked to several witnesses)...:

»..The town was almost completly destroyed by the tank battle. A documentiation about this fightings still exist. It's interested that the town residents doubt whether there were really18-22 British tanks destroyed. The wrecks were predominantly armored vehicles (not tanks) and quite a few of them were also German. War confusions of the last days of the war could have quite led to a false evaluation of the actually destroyed tanks..«

regards

[lennardg]

I suppose the "low" number of kills of the individual "panzerknacker" is due to the fact that you´d have to get within a range of 30-100 meters from the tank to even have a chance of a hit with a panzerfaust (they came in a number of versions with different range : 30, 60 and 100 meters) it must take some unusual courage to wait for a tank to get that close to you.
In a tank or Stug, or behind a PAK, you can have hundreds of meters or whole kilometers between you and the target.
What about Dr. Bäke ? I´ve seen some photos of him with four (?) I think tank-destruction badges.

[Paul Hanson]

Thanks for the additional info on this action, guys. As for Dr. Bäke, according to the book he had 3 TDB by war's end.

Paul

[Wolfkin]

Great thread guys!

Lots of good information for someone like me who mainly studies the Panzers. It is very interesting to read about these guys. To actually sneak up on a tank and put it out of action...I know this was done in times of desperation but to do it on a daily basis requires a certain type of person. A very brave one!!!

Cheers,

Wolfkin

[charlie don't surf]

I think Dr. Bäke won most of his badges at Kursk using magnetic anti-tank mines.

regards

[Juha Hujanen]

Oberfeldwebel Heinz Heuer destroyed 13 Russian tanks on the night of 21st April 45 in Berlin.He used Panzerfaust.He was awarted with Knight's Cross,only one which was given to Feldgendarmerie.
From:Ger,am Military police Units 1939-45 by Gordon Williamson.


Cheers Juha

[charlie don't surf]

Did he recieve the tank destruction badge?

regards

[lennardg]

found this at http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com
the soldier awarded most TDB´s : 21 in all awarded to Oberstleutnant Gunter Viezenz
http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/war_bad ... e_tank.htm

Günther Nowak, the only member of the HJ to receive a Knights cross, won it for destroying 9 tanks with Panzerfausts

[xavier]

from the same site:

"The tank destruction badge was awarded to soldiers who destroyed an enemy tank single handedly by a hand held weapon. Anti-tank units were not eligible for this award."
(my remark)

does this means there were other individuals that may have destroyed more tanks, but were not given an award? is there a record of such individuals? this has to be with my first comment, numbers of tank destroyed by inddividuals with the award seemed pretty low for the numbewr of tanks claimed destroyed.

regards

Xavier

[lennardg]

I read somewhere, I can´t remember where off course , that Pak´s accounted for most tank kills (75 %) I´ve mentioned this here at feldgrau, but most agreed that Stug´s, jagdpanzers and tanks accounted for most tank-kills, does anyone know how many Pak´s of various models vere produced ?. My point is that I can understand if only a few tanks were destroyed by an individual soldier, given the extreme danger and difficulty of such a task, but if you read veterans accounts of the battles fought by the wehrmacht, many times the soldiers faced enemy tanks without the presence of their own armour, if fausts, mines and magnetic charges only took out a handfull of the enemy´s tanks the only thing capable of stopping them had to be Pak´s.

[Jason Pipes]

lennardg, check out the following Feldgrau link for detailed info on the number of Pak's produced during WWII. You'll notice that the 75mm Pak 40 comes in first with something like 22,000 being produced between 1942 and 1945! Next up would be the 50mm Pak 38 with something like 10,000. Overall, looks like about 37,000 Pak's were produced in total!!

http://www.feldgrau.com/weaprod.html

[lennardg]

Thanks for the link, I´ve checked the feldgrau statistics for AFV-production as well, and this adds up to about 45.000 tanks, stugs, self-propelled AT guns, and jagdpanzers of all models produced for the wehrmacht from Pz 1 to the Jagdtiger.Which would imply that compared to the ca. 37.000 Pak´s produced, the AFV´s possibly accounted for more tank-kills than any other weapons as they were also greater in numbers.

[xavier]

Thanks jason,

That makes more sense, at around 37,000 paks, lkets say every pak at least destroyed one tank (on all fronts..) that would account for at least 37,000 tanks knocked out....only form pak kills, leaving out stugs and infantry and artillery

regards

Xavier

[charlie don't surf]

at around 37,000 paks, lkets say every pak at least destroyed one tank (on all fronts..)

Why do you think that?

regards