The Super-King Encounter

[DEY]

I don't know if anyone else has ever posted this before, but it's the first time I recall seeing this.

It's an account of the only encounter of the Super Pershing versus the King Tiger.

http://3ad.com/history/news/super.pershing.1.htm

Of course neither one of these are in cmak, but I had too post the link somewhere.

[...................................]

The 3AD had begun a four-pronged attack on the city, which was heavily defended. Division armor were finally able to enter the city slowly after numerous concrete tank barriers were destroyed. With 3AD tanks fanning out, and 36th Infantry riflemen following, the Super Pershing reached an intersection and began to round a corner to its right. Unknown to its crew, a King Tiger had apparently been waiting in ambush at a distance of two blocks or roughly 600 yards away, and in the same direction that the Americans were turning into.

At this distance, easily within its capability, the Tiger fired at the Super Pershing. But its infamous high-velocity 88mm shell, of the type that had destroyed so many American tanks and vehicles during the war, went high and was not even close. Gunner Cpl John "Jack" Irwin, only 18 years old, responded almost instantly with a round that struck the Tiger's huge angled glasis, or front plate. But the shot, a non-armor-piercing high explosive (HE) shell, had no effect. Ricocheting off the armor, it shot skyward and exploded harmlessly. The Super Pershing had been loaded with an HE only because Irwin had been expecting urban targets, such as buildings, personnel, and light anti-tank guns. "AP!", he shouted to his loader "Pete," which meant an armor-piercing shell would be next.

Maduri and crew then felt a concussion or thud on the turret. It was never known if this shot came from the Tiger, or from some other anti-tank weapon. In any case, no serious damage was done - probably a lucky glancing impact. In the next instant, Irwin aimed and fired a second time, just as the royal monster was moving forward and raising up over a pile of rubble. The 90mm AP round penetrated the Tiger's underbelly, apparently striking the ammo well and resulting in a tremendous explosion that blew its turret loose. With near certainty, the entire crew was killed.

OK, why would a King Tiger waiting in ambush decide to move forward in mid-combat to a target only 600m away and expose its belly? Oh and I thought that Germans shooting without being able to hit the broad side of a barn door was a Hollywood myth, but maybe not

[hoolaman]

I doubt that the crew in april '45 were a bunch of Michael Wittmanns.

[Gpig]

Here's another one (15 April, 1945 - from the South Alberta Regiment History), but this is a STUART vs KingTiger;

. . . RHQ called them back with orders to circle around the other squadrons and secure a hamlet with the interesting name of Amerika. Their advance would take them over the ground of a small Luftwaffe airfield northeast of the village of Varrelbusch.

Halkyard had been out that way in the morning with his tank and a Sherman troop. Halkie was in the lead and "it was a beautiful morning," George Gallimore recalled, when suddenly, "Right out of the ground from a ditch or dug out," like some primeval behemoth, lumbered their worst nightmare - a German Tiger II tank. Called the King, or Royal Tiger, this 68-ton monster from the Henschel factory at Cassel, with face-hardened armour plate up to four inches thick and an 88mm gun almost longer than their Stuart, represented the ultimate in Wehrmacht tank design. "Get in reverse, back up!" Halkyard shouted at his driver, Sonny Plotsky, just as the first 88 round hit nearby and the "dust rose, the tank was just full of dust." Plotsky threw the automatic transmission into reverse but the tank nearly stalled because his foot was on the gas pedal and there was some anxious seconds until the Stuart jerked backwards. Another round came in, and then another - that "bugger fired three shots at us and missed," remembered Gallimore, which allowed Halkyard to take cover behind a building where the four Shermans of their supporting troop were waiting. The South Albertas only had one weapon that could even damage a Tiger and that was a 17-pdr. so the suppoorting troop's Firefly moved up to fire and was just as promptly knocked out.

[snip]

RHQ was anxious for Danny "to press on." Having heard of a Tiger in the vicinity he was not about to take chances so decided to make a foot recce forward and dismounted from his tank. Years later he thought to himself, "You dumb bastard, they could have had snipers in those woods" but he arrived at the tree line, where in the fading light he could make out an armoured vehicle some eight hundred to a thousand yards ahead behind a blown bridge over a small creek. As he recalled, "I put the binoculars up to my eyes and I swear that the muzzle of this thing was sitting at the edge of my binoculars, it was so huge." Danny was looking at the same King Tiger Halkyard had enocountered that morning.

Returning to his troop, he discussed the situation with Tom Milner and they decided to move the troop's two 17-pdr. tanks forward clear of the trees and open fire. This was done, and they immediately came under fire from the Tiger but just as quickly returned it. Carson Daley recalled that he fired "three shots and they ricocheted into the air off the Tiger and my knees were knocking something terrible." Tom Milner recalls firing eight rounds of 17-pdr. AP and that "either the first or the second did something to the gun in the turret, and the barrel was left pointing cockamamy." Danny remembers watching the 17-pdr. rounds go "wheww" and they just glanced off. Matters were not helped by RHQ, which prodded Danny by asking "how are you making out, we've got to move." Danny pointed out to them that, even if he got the Tiger, they would still need a bridge to get across the creek ahead. A few thousand yards away, the other troops in the squadron were monitoring the fight on their wireless and Bill Luton remembered "it was fascinating to sit there and listen to Danny McLeod masterminding the battle over the air and hear the firing, which was not far away. The pyrotechnics were not bad either.

Danny now brought his two 75mm Shermans up to add weight to his fire. "We fired everything," he remembered, and "to this day, I cannot tell you what happened, whether an HE hit the muzzle brake and bent it back or it was a 17-pdr round that hit, but it was bent back about six inches." At this point the Tiger commander decided that perhaps discretion was the better part of valour and began to back away, but "backed a little more broadside to us" and Danny "thinks it was an HE round that set the engine compartment on fire." The Tiger began to brew. When it was over, Milner recalled, "a Tiger tank lay all shattered and in pieces, a barn had burned to the ground, and a house had been blown to bits." By now it was dark and Danny was ordered to pull back and Laager for the night. As they did so, Tom Milner remembers that a British SAS jeep pulled up beside his tank and the driver shouted, "Thanks, chaps, we weren't too sure how we were going to get around that corner" and then drove off into the darkness. Danny moved his troop back some distance and they "lit up the landscape" pouring HE into every flammable structure they could see. That done, they settled down for the night, having fought one of the most successful single-troop actions in the history of the South Alberta Regiment. It had been, the War Diarist concluded, "a ding dong fight in the failing light."

Gpig

[Jack Carr]

Thanks for posting these stories. Very interesting.

[Mick15]

In the same vein you may or may not know that on night of 7/8th August 1944 elements of the 5 DCLI took out a Royal Tiger with a single 2" mortar round in Le Plessis Grimoult - small village on the southern slopes of Mt Pincon.

This is the first hand account of CSM R Philp:

"To our surprise across the other side of the road was a large German tank being loaded with ammunition from a lorry, which was parked right against it. We stopped under cover and watched the Germans, carrying ammunition, smoking cigarettes, talking casually - and they weren't aware we were there! Then a message came to me from the company commander telling me to mortar them. The first HE landed right on the truck it blew up, caught fire and killed the crew; it must have killed them all. The tank also caught fire and exploded from inside. So that was all cleared."

Sgt F. Bolt was with the 2" mortar his account is:

"We came down the road from Mt Pincon leading towards the village. There was a row of trees on the left hand side of the road. I was there with the man who fired the 2" mortar.... It [round 1] went up in the air and dropped right on the crossroads were the tank was. I thought the bomb went down the tank turret and then exploded, but other witnesses say it hit the lorry. There was a big bang and then flames and that was it!"

Possibly the first Royal Tiger destroyed in Normandy - anyone know?

[Gpig]

Excellent! Thanks.

Now, let's see if I can reproduce that in a CMAK scenario . . .

Gpig

[gibsonm]

Except of course for the fact that CMAK doesn’t come with Tiger II’s or Super Pershings.

[Kingfish]

Originally posted by Mick15:

In the same vein you may or may not know that on night of 7/8th August 1944 elements of the 5 DCLI took out a Royal Tiger with a single 2" mortar round in Le Plessis Grimoult - small village on the southern slopes of Mt Pincon.

This is the first hand account of CSM R Philp:

"To our surprise across the other side of the road was a large German tank being loaded with ammunition from a lorry, which was parked right against it. We stopped under cover and watched the Germans, carrying ammunition, smoking cigarettes, talking casually - and they weren't aware we were there! Then a message came to me from the company commander telling me to mortar them. The first HE landed right on the truck it blew up, caught fire and killed the crew; it must have killed them all. The tank also caught fire and exploded from inside. So that was all cleared."

Sgt F. Bolt was with the 2" mortar his account is:

"We came down the road from Mt Pincon leading towards the village. There was a row of trees on the left hand side of the road. I was there with the man who fired the 2" mortar.... It [round 1] went up in the air and dropped right on the crossroads were the tank was. I thought the bomb went down the tank turret and then exploded, but other witnesses say it hit the lorry. There was a big bang and then flames and that was it!"

Possibly the first Royal Tiger destroyed in Normandy - anyone know?

Click here for details on the KT in Normandy. You may see some familiar names posting there