The story of the actions of the four LSSAH Tiger’s on this day are also not based upon any documentation I am aware of. As far as I know (and I admit that I have not exhaustively researched this aspect of the battle), the only source of its operations is a post-war account by Georg Loetzsch, who was in command of the one of the four Tigers on the 12 July. The account as provided by Karl-Heinz Frieser (page 127). It simply states that:
‘In the morning, the company was on the left wing of the II Armoured Battalion when about 50 enemy tanks, from the cover of copses and hedges, came storming towards us in broad wedge formation….I shot two T-34s, one of which drove towards me in flames. At the last moment I managed to avoid the burning bomb.’
Frieser footnotes Wendt, Tiger, pages 29-20. There may be more to the account than that, but I have not pursued it.
The German intelligence map for 12 July (see page 950 in my Kursk book or page 343 in my Prokhorovka book) does show a breakthrough that is turned back. It does not show what forces were engaged or turned them back. This whole fight, and who might of been involved has already been discussed in more depth in an earlier post:
I did not include the Georg Loetzsch account in my book, as I was not familiar with its source. Perhaps I should have. I do tend to be suspicious of personal accounts that I cannot otherwise confirm.
“I do tend to be suspicious of personal accounts that I cannot otherwise confirm.”
Quite right.
For detail that this action was against the 170th Tank Brigade see the map in Zamulin’s book for 12th July.
Georg Loetzsch testimony matches the images of destroyed Soviet tanks in a wedge formation in my article. No other wedge of tank wrecks is visible across the entire battlefield. Clearly this validates Georg Loetzsch claim that the Tigers were on the left flank of the LSSAH and destroyed Soviet tanks in a wedge formation.
All testimony of the battle is dubious until evidence can prove its worth. The first part of Georg Loetzsch testimony has been proved to be true (by archival sources). The latter part regarding tank ramming will have to remain open to debate.
Well, it looks like he has the 170th Tank Brigade (on one map before page 385) going all the way to Ivanovskii Vyiselok, along with the 1/32 Tank Brigade, where they are stopped by the 2nd SS Panzer Regiment (Das Reich SS Division). No such penetration is shown on the German intel map for the 12th (pages 950 and 343 of my books). It is also not shown on the II Guards Tank Corps map of 12 July 1943 (pages 946/337).
I assume you are talking figure 32. I am not seeing much there. In the center of the picture I am seeing what appears to be seven or more blotches that form a wedge. This, of course, is where the “tanks” would have been halted by fire….vice the formation they were in at the time. I am guessing if a formation is advancing towards you, you shoot the tanks in the lead first, which means the location of the shot tanks will be different than the formation they were in.
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