12/30/07

Tiger II Tanks Documented in the Ardennes Offensive

This list provides information on tanks positively identified by photographic evidence or veterans’ accounts as having been a part of s. SS-Pz.Abt. 501 during the Ardennes Offensive.  Tanks are listed by turret number and tank commander, where known.  The names of the tank commanders are taken from Patrick Agte’s book.  Disposition lists where the tank was knocked out or abandoned.  Description includes whether the camouflage paint was applied by brush or spray, whether or not the tank was painted in the “light and shadow pattern,” and other features.

Battalion Staff

008 - Battalion Adjutant (SS-Untersturmführer Eduard Kalinowsky)

Disposition: abandoned beside the N23 at Ferme Antoine between Stavelot and Trois Ponts, 25 Dec 44.

Description: brush, light and shadow pattern, no national cross, 1. SS-Pz.Kps. insignia not visible, large letter G painted on lower glacis plate.  The meaning of the G marking is unknown.  It has been suggested that it designated which march route a unit was to use (9), but that explanation is implausible in this case.  Kampfgruppe Peiper was to use route (Rollbahn) D, and there was no route G during the Ardennes Offensive. Another theory is that the G stood for Glysantin, a radiator antifreeze that should not be mixed with other antifreeze chemicals.  The marking also appeared on Tiger 105 and at least two other Tiger IIs in other battalions; one on the glacis plate and one on the rear plate.  It was also reportedly on the glacis plate of the Jagdpanther captured on the Eastern Front and now in the Russian museum in Kubinka (10).  Seen in SS-Kriegsberichter Tondorf film and post-battle photographs.

008 passes through Tondorf on 16 December 1944.  Note the large G on the glacis plate below the machinegun mount.  (US National Archives at College Park, RG 242 National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 242-MID-3136)

These views of Tiger 008 are from a US veteran’s collection, and were evidently taken in January or February 1945.  The tank is in the position where it was abandoned on the N23 highway beside the Antoine farm west of Stavelot.  (Baron Publishing Company)

American combat engineers prepare to move 008 away from the road in the winter of 1945.  (US Army Signal Corps)

By the time these photos were taken in the summer of 1945, 008 had been moved off the road.  These photos illustrate the hazards of trying to identify paint shades in WWII-vintage black and white photos - from looking at these photos you might say that the 008 turret numbers were solid white, but they are clearly shown to be a different shade outlined in white in the Tondorf film. (December 1944 Museum, La Gleize)

009 - Battalion Signals Officer (SS-Obersturmführer Dollinger was still the signals officer during the Ardennes Offensive, according to Werner Wendt)

Disposition: unknown.

Description: brush, light and shadow pattern, national cross not visible, 1. SS-Pz.Kps. insignia not visible.  Seen in Tondorf film.

Video clip showing the tanks of s. SS-Pz.Abt. 501 passing through Tondorf. (US National Archives at College Park, RG 242 National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 242-MID-3136)

Notes:

(9) Wolfgang Schneider, Tigers in Combat II (Winnipeg, Canada: J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing Inc., 1998), 300.

(10) Trevor Larkum, Preserved German Tanks 2: Panzer V Panther to Leopard 2 (Northampton, England: Armour Archive, 1995), 21.

Go on to a listing and photos of the Tiger tanks of the 1. Kompanie documented in the Ardennes Offensive

All text copyright 2005-2008 Gregory A. Walden. All rights reserved; material from this website may only be republished with the author’s permission.