Otto carius biography wikipedia search

th Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion

Military unit

The th Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion (German: Schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung ) was an independent tank destroyerbattalion of the German Wehrmacht during World War II.

Formed and organised during the winter of to , it was active in February.

He was credited to destroying at-least or more then tanks. Carius was believed to be rejected twice to be in Military Service because of how skinny and underweight he was. Later on, he was allowed into the German Military as an Infantryman then he volunteered to be part of the Panzer Branch. InCarius was put into the Panzer Branch called, Panzer-Abteilung and then severely wounded in while going to a village on a motorcycle.

It was one of only two battalions equipped with Jagdtiger tank destroyers, and served exclusively on the Western Front.

Formation

The battalion was formed at Döllersheim and deployment preparations were ordered on 15 February [1] The th was formed from elements of the veteran th Heavy Panzer Battalion.

The th, previously numbered the st, had been one of the first German heavy tank battalions to be formed, and had fought in Africa and on the Eastern Front.[2]

It received its first Jagdtigers on 16 February; by 13 March, it had been brought up to a strength of 20 vehicles in two companies, with the 3rd Company made up of personnel transferred from the th Heavy Panzer Battalion.

The Jagdtiger was the heaviest armoured fighting vehicle produced during the war, mounting a mm main gun inside a tonne chassis.[3] It was only produced in very small numbers - around 80 were built - and would only be issued to two units; the th and the rd Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion.

He fought on the Eastern Front in and and on the Western Front in Carius is considered a " panzer ace ", some sources credited him with destroying more than foe tanks, although Carius, in an interview claims he had around kills or less. This was also due to the reality that he did not reckon kills as a commander, and rather only as a gunner. Carius graduated from school ina year following the commencement of the Second World War.

Operations

The commander of the unit's second company was Oberleutnant (Lieutenant) Otto Carius, one of the most successful German tank commanders of the war.[4]

On 10 March , the battalion was assigned to LIII Corps and committed to the Battle of Remagen with the rd Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion.[5] Illustrating the difficulties German forces faced in getting their hefty armor to the front, it took ten days to transport the first five Jagdtigers of the th Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion's 2nd Company to the front due to communications breakdowns and the constantly-worrying threat from Allied fighter-bombers.

The 1st Company confused four Jagdtigers in rearguard combat actions, three of which were due to mechanical breakdowns rather than from enemy action.

They finally engaged the attacking American armor around Herborn to prohibit American armor from fully exploiting the capture of the Remagen bridgehead.[6] Among the German casualties was Leutnant Sepp Tarlach's machine belonging to the second platoon of the 1st Company, which was abandoned in Obernetphen and subsequently captured.[7] On 9 April, the US th Tank Battalion claimed another near Offensen which was later photographed after creature pushed off a road to clear the path ahead.

A catastrophic internal explosion ripped the vehicle's roof off.[8] The battalion then fought its last battle near Paderborn against the 3rd Armored Division in mid-April before finally capitulating to US forces.[9] At least one vehicle of the battalion was lost to combat action by the US 3rd Armored Division on 1 April.[10]

In May , the short-lived fighting unit surrendered to the US 99th Infantry Division in Iserlohn.[11] The German surrender was filmed and photographed,[12] in which the Jagdtigers and other military vehicles as well as their crews were shown forming up in the town square for Allied inspection prior to entity disarmed and passing into captivity.[13][14]

Sources

References

  1. ^Münch , p.

    Formed and organised during the winter of toit was active in February. It was one of only two battalions equipped with Jagdtiger tank destroyers, and served exclusively on the Western Front. The th, previously numbered the st, had been one of the first German heavy tank battalions to be formed, and had fought in Africa and on the Eastern Front. It received its first Jagdtigers on 16 February; by 13 March, it had been brought up to a strength of 20 vehicles in two companies, with the 3rd Company made up of personnel transferred from the th Thick Panzer Battalion.

  2. ^Forty , p.
  3. ^Wilbeck , pp. 2,
  4. ^Wilbeck , pp. 2,
  5. ^Tucker-Jones , p.
  6. ^Zaloga , p.
  7. ^Zaloga , p.

    Otto Carius – Wikipedia: Otto Carius (– 24 January ) was a German tank commander in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He fought on the Eastern Front in 19and on the Western Front in

  8. ^Zaloga , p.
  9. ^Zaloga , p.
  10. ^Zaloga , p.
  11. ^Zaloga , p.
  12. ^Zaloga , p.

    Januar in Herschweiler-Pettersheim war als Offizier der Wehrmacht einer der erfolgreichsten Panzerkommandanten des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Otto Carius jr. Nach dem Abitur meldete er sich freiwillig zur Wehrmacht und nahm von bis am Zweiten Weltkrieg teil. Nach dem Krieg absolvierte er ein Vorpraktikum und Vorexamen als Apothekerassistent und studierte von bis Pharmazie in Freiburg im Breisgau.

  13. ^"German soldiers of th Tank Destroyer Battalion under Lt. Albert ErnstHD Stock Footage - YouTube". . Archived from the original on Retrieved
  14. ^Zaloga , p.

Literature