A German Wehrmacht article on the redesignation of panzers from the German WWII publication Nachrichtenblatt der Panzertruppen, Generalinspekteur der Panzertruppen, No. 17, November 1944:
III. Neubenennung gepanzerter Fahrzeuge
Nachstehend aufgeführte Neubenennungen treten mit sofortiger Wirkung in Kraft:
Officers of the Ninth Air Force pose with a German Panther tank of Kampfgruppe Peiper knocked out in front of the Hotel des Ardennes in Ligneuville, Belgium on December 17th, 1944. The Panther was commanded by SS Untersturmführer Arndt Fisher who was badly burned in the battle. (U.S. Air Force Photograph.)
Knocked-out Panther tank at the Hotel des Ardennes in Ligneuville, Belgium
Battleline I: Workhorse—The Panzer III in North Africa by Claude Gillono Over 50 black-and-white photographs and 5 pages of full color illustrations. Part of the Firefly Collection.
When the Allied forces first encountered the Tiger II in Normandy in the summer of 1944, the panzer was briefly referred to as the “Pantiger”. The Associated Press picked up the name “Pantiger” in their article on August 19th:
Germans have thrown a huge new, heavily armored tank into action on both the Russian and northern French fronts in an effort to stem the Allied advances, but first reports denied it was a “super weapon.”
One of the new monsters weighing over 65 tons and with six inch armor plate—an inch and a half thicker than anything the enemy yet has put into action—was taken by the British on the Orne river front. The tank was a victim of a mechanical breakdown and never had fired a shot in battle.
Christened the “Pantiger” by its captors, the tank combines the best features of the Nazi Tiger and Panther tanks, which weigh 45 tons each. It is 23 feet long and over 11 feet wide, has an extra wheel on each side of its tracks and a huge, clumsy looking turret.
A new 67-ton German heavy tank—referred to variously as Pantiger and Tiger II—has been employed against the Allies this summer in France. Actually a redesigned Tiger (Pz. Kpfw. VI), it mounts the 8.8-cm Kw. K. 43 gun. On the basis of a preliminary report, the general appearance of the new tank is that of a scaled-up Pz. Kpfw. V (Panther) on the wide Tiger tracks. It conforms to normal German tank practice insofar as the design, lay-out, welding, and interlocking of the main plates are concerned. All sides are sloping. The gun is larger than the Panther gun, and longer than the ordinary Tiger gun. Armor is also thicker than that on either the Panther or the Tiger. The turret is of new design, with bent side plates. In all respects the new tank is larger than the standard Tiger.
Panzer wallpaper for use as iPad/iPhone backgrounds — U.S. Air Force photographs from WWII showing destroyed German panzers in Europe.
Click on any wallpaper thumbnail to download the large 1024 x 1024 pixel image.
Instructions to save an image as wallpaper on the iPad: • Step 1: When browsing the Internet in Safari on the iPad, simply press and hold on an image and a menu will appear to save the image in “Saved Photos” on your iPad. • Step 2: On your iPad home screen or desktop, open “Settings” and then choose “Brightness & Wallpaper.” Touch that to open it, and a “Wallpaper” box will appear. Click on the “Wallpaper” box to select images from your “Saved Photos”.
During WW2, the Germans mounted the powerful 8.8cm PaK43 on a self-propelled mount based on the Panzer III/IV chassis. The tank destroyer was officially designated the 8.8cm PaK43 (L/71) auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampfwagen III/IV (Sf), but the Panzerjäger was nicknamed the Hornisse (hornet) and the Nashorn (rhinoceros). The Panzerjäger Hornisse/Nashorn was issued to the schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilungen (heavy antitank battalions) 88, 93, 519 525, 560 and 655.
Column on Nashorn tank destroyers advance in Russia in early 1944. (Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-278-0889-11 / Wehmeyer / CC-BY-SA)
Video of captured Tiger II of sPzAbt. 506 at Gereonsweiler, Germany in 1945:
Transcript: At Gereonsweiler, a knocked out King Tiger tank is put back into working order. With the help of a wrecker, the turret is forced into line by men of Company B, 129th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion, 7th Armored Division. The King Tiger tank weighs approximately 72 tons. It has 34 inch wide treads which spread the great weight over a large area. Top speed: 20 mph. Armor: up to 6 inches thick. It mounts the vaunted 88mm gun whose barrel is more than 21 feet long. The rebuilt tank will be used to familiarize our troops with the enemy weapon.
Panzerbeobachtungswagen III (Pz Beob Wg III) were German armored, fully-tracked artillery observation vehicles developed on obsolete PzKpfw. III chassis. The hull machine gun and main armament were removed to allow more interior space for radios and equipment. A single machine gun was mounted in the center of the mantlet alongside dummy armament. Approximately 260 Panzer III chassis were modified from Feb. 1943 to April 1944.
The following photographs of Panzerbeobachtungswagen III were included in a confidential SHAEF intelligence publication on German tanks: Summary of German Tanks in Photographs, Office of Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, October 1944.
The Sturmpanzer IV (also known as Sturmpanzer 43, Sturmgeschütz IV für 15 cm Sturmhaubitze 43, or SdKfz. 166) was a German heavily-armored infantry support panzer based on the Panzer IV chassis. The Sturmpanzer IV was nicknamed Brummbär (“Grizzly Bear”) by the Allies, although German soldiers nicknamed it “Stupa”. The Sturmpanzer IV was armed with a 15 cm StuH 43 L/12 mounted in a superstructure with 100 mm frontal armor.
A camouflaged Brummbär from Sturmpanzer-Abteilung 216 in action near the Anzio bridgehead in Italy during WWII. The large armor Schürzen mounted on the side of the panzer are clearly visible. (Attribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-476-2069-19 / Bayer / CC-BY-SA)
A pair of dusty, camouflaged Brummbär are parked on a street in Rome, Italy. (Attribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-476-2069-19 / Bayer / CC-BY-SA)
Brummbär were issued to specialized Sturmpanzer-Abteilung (Stu.Pz.Abt.) 216, Stu.Pz.Abt. 217, Stu.Pz.Abt. z.b.V. 218, and Stu.Pz.Abt. 219 and served on all major fronts.
In searching Allied intelligence reports, note that Brummbär may be spelled Brummbär, Brummbaer, Brummbar, or Brummbarr along with all these spellings with only one “m”.
Two photographs of Tiger IIs destroyed by the 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion from “The Employment of Four Tank Destroyer Battalions in the ETO,” The Armored School, Fort Knox, Kentucky, May 1950.
Tank knocked out by 823rd TD Battalion (equipped with 3-inch towed guns) shows ineffectiveness of hits on front glacis plate of Tiger II. At a range of 500 yards, frontal hits merely gouged out armor and ricocheted off. A track hit only partially severed the track, which did break completely as the tank attempted to back up.
Two rounds in same hole on side of tank knocked out by 1st Platoon, Company A, 823rd TD Battalion.
At least one of these Tiger II is from schwere Panzer Abteilung 506 (sPzAbt. 506) and was lost near Freialdenhoven, Germany.
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