Panzer Aces

540 Pages·1992·56.42 MB·English

by  Franz Kurowski

THE LEGENDARY WORLD WAR BATTLES
II
OF SIX GERMAN TANK COMMANDERS
FRANZ KUROWSKI
Translated by David Johnston
Look for these riveting accounts
of courage and heroism
World War
in II:
PANZER BATTLES
by Maj. Gen. W. von Mellenthin
F.
RANGERS WORLD WAR
IN
II
by RobertW. Black
REMEMBERING PEARL HARBOR
Eyewitness Accounts by U.S. Military Men andWomen
Edited by Robert S. La Forte and Ronald E. Marcello
RECON SCOUT
by Fred H. Salter
Ballantine / Del Rey /
Fawcett / Ivy
.
The night was filled with the roar of tank cannon
and the hectic rattle of machine gun fire. Grenades
exploded and bursts of Russian machine gun fire
sprayed the grenadiers who were struggling to re-
cover their former positions. They were able to drive
behind the Soviet troops, who had been robbed of
their covering armor.
Suddenly three more T-34s appeared. Three hits in
rapid succession shook the Tiger. None penetrated,
however.
Richter rammed the next round into the chamber
of the "eighty-eight." Groschl fired, and a direct hit
smashed the closest enemy tank. The others turned
away and fled at high speed.
"After them, Holzl!" ordered Bolter.
When the armored duel was over, Bolter had de-
stroyed seven enemy tanks in this one action.
. .
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PANZER
ACES
Franz Kurowski
Translated by David Johnston
BALLANTINE BOOKS NEW YORK
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A Ballantine Book
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group
©
Copyright 1992 by J. J. Fedorowicz Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copy-
right Conventions. Published in the United States by The Ballan-
tine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New
York, anddistributedinCanadabyRandomHouseofCanadaLim-
ited, Toronto. Originallypublished in English in Canada in slightly
different form by J. J. Fedorowicz Publishing, Inc.
Ballantine is a registered trademark and the Ballantine colophon is
a trademark ofRandom House, Inc.
www.ballantinebooks.com
ISBN 0-345-44884-7
This edition published by arrangement with J. J. Fedorowicz Pub-
lishing, Inc. (www.jjfpub.mb.ca).
Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica
First American Edition: February 2002
987654321
10
Contents
Introduction
1
1. Generalmajor Dr. Franz Bake 3
2. Hermann Bix 79
3. Rudolfvon Ribbentrop 156
4. Hans Bolter 232
5. Michael Wittmann 310
6. Albert Ernst 371
7. The German Panzer Arm ofWorld War II 461
Appendix 497
Index 499

Introduction
The tracked armored fighting vehicle, or tank, was first used
in action by the British army during the Battle ofthe Somme in
July 1916. The British hoped that the new weapon would en-
able them to break the stalemate of the trench warfare. From
the time oftheirintroduction, howeve—r, there raged aheated de-
bate as to how tanks should be used as weapons to escort the
infantry, or as independent weapons capable of breaking
through the enemy's fixed defenses. For the Germans the ap-
pearance ofthe tank came as a tremendous shock and, despite
theirbest efforts, they lagged well behind the Allies in tank de-
velopment forthe remainderofthe war. The tank hadn'tplayed
a particularly large role in Germany's defeat, but German sol-
diers who had experienced a tank attack were convinced other-
wise. The Treaty of Versailles denied Germany the right to
build orbuy tanks, but the leaders ofGermany's postwar army,
the Reichswehr, were determined to pursue the development of
the new weapon; in their view, the lack oftanks had been one
of the shortcomings of the Imperial Army during the First
World War.