Steve Stone: 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.

Suddenly, almost as if there was a dragon in the woods a large flame erupted out of the treeline and towards the tank column, the fire reached out far enough to envelop a Tiger. The commander standing up proud in the turret was showered in an orange flame. He let out a high pitch scream as clothes caught fire and his torso began to burn. He jumped out of his cupola and hit the snow hard before rolling around frantically trying to put the flames out. His torso and head had been badly burnt and he pleaded in his croaky and almost incoherent voice “Töte mich, Töte mich.” His face had melted into a back and red bloody mess and his jacket had burnt into his torso. As strips of the burnt jacket came off it pulled off huge chunks of skin. The pain from his burns must have been excruciating. His crew reluctantly agreed to kill him and fired a couple of rounds from their MP 40 straight into his skull. It was the right thing to do, as they did not have the medical support or supplies to deal with such horrific burns. He would have mostly died from either shock or infection before making it to a field hospital. The smell of burnt tank and burnt flesh now hung heavy in the air. It was almost a choking smell, but nowhere as bad as a rotting corpse. Although, the cold climate of the winter tended to preserve and slow down the decay of human remains. It also greatly reduced the smell as well. In the summer, the sweet yet nauseous smell of death made it almost difficult to breath. This very pungent smell became ingrained like a memory in the noses of all those that smelt it.

Everyone turned their MP 40s towards the location of the flamethrower and put down a large amount of fire. Everyone knew that the situation was only going to get worse and they needed to get out of the forest as quickly as possible. A flamethrower in close proximity could easily destroy a Tiger by sending burning liquid into engine air vents or even through the viewing slits or hatch seals. A Tiger managed to get a round off at the flamethrowers position and scored a hit. Shrapnel from the round pierced the flamethrowers fuel tank he carried on his back. This caused his tank to exploded sending a plume of fire high up into the air and setting several trees alight. He fell back and was consumed by the explosion and intense fire all around him. The Tiger crews could feel the heat from the fire and any Red Army within the vicinity would have either been incinerated themselves or had to make a run for it.

The fire on the Tiger had been put out, but they were still a Tiger down. Max’s Tiger repelled the last of the Soviets with a several HE rounds, which ripped through the treeline shattering branches and left swirls of thick grey smoke hanging in the air. Sunlight seeped through where trees had once stood. After climbing down Max fired off his MP 40 as some figures disappeared into the darkness of the trees beyond the smoke. He slung his MP 40 over his shoulder, lit a cigarette, and surveyed the scene. Before shouting “wir müssen aus dem Wald zu bekommen.” Telling everyone that they needed to get out of the forest. The Red Army would retreat, regroup and attack in greater numbers. The crews quickly scooped up their dead and placed them into the first tiger to be knocked out and poured petrol into the hull before setting it light. Animals would not be able to eat the dead and the Red Army could not capture a Tiger and either use it if they got it to run or steal parts from it.

The crew quickly mounted their Tigers and moved forward trying to make it out of the forest, one tank skidded as it tried to avoid an obstacle and nearly skidded off the track and into some trees. The very hard icy surface meant the tracks struggled to get a grip and power had to be put down slowly and smoothly to prevent skidding. Trying to turn too sharply sent the tank almost onto a pirouette – although more of a drunken pirouette.

Max decided it would be safer to go through the forest crashing through the trees than stick to the much more dangerous forest path. The Red Army had infantry forces in the area and posed a real danger to the column. With five Tigers left the column made its way through a less dense area of the forest, the darkness aided in moving covertly even if the noise from trees cracking as they fell disguised the noise of the Tigers engines. As they finally burst out of the forest they found a safe location to perform essential checks and maintenance on the tanks. The first job was to move the bits of trees and body parts that had become stuck in the tracks. The forest had seen intense fighting and bodies and body parts lay scattered in all directions.