news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

[part 1] my days working at "black panther"

[part 2] my days working at "black panther"

the third part begins. copy the male protagonist’s information again below.

henk kistmakel

our narrator is from amsterdam, the netherlands, named henk kistemaker, born on november 4, 1922. in 1941, he voluntarily joined the german waffen ss and served in the "germania" regiment of the "viking" division. after recovering from an injury, kistmarker was transferred to the 6th company of the 2nd battalion, armored regiment of the "viking" division, and became the radio operator of the "panther". his story with the "panther" begins here - —

(the time range of this recollection should be from the end of july to the beginning of august 1944, but some of the plots told by the male protagonist kester markel may have jumped to around mid-august)

stanyslaviv (now ivano-frankivsk) was directly in front of us, separated only by a large forest. the russians had taken the city from us, and because of the strategic location it occupied we had to take it back again. the stavka transferred an infantry battalion from the "western europe" regiment to us, thinking that together we could accomplish this task.

infantrymen climbed onto our tanks. we drove through a clearing in the forest and as we approached the wooded area on the other side, without warning, we began to come under fire. it turned out that the russians had blocked the edge of the forest. our infantry immediately jumped from the tanks and ran for cover.

the commander of the "panther" in the picture is grossrock, the commander of the hero kist markle. the vehicle carries wehrmacht infantry, who are waiting for the order to attack. this photo was taken earlier in the kovel area on april 27, 1944. please take a look.

one or more of the infantrymen may have been wounded, for i heard on the radio someone calling for medics. then, ten russian fighter jets flew inexplicably to the scene and started shooting at us and dropping bombs. luckily, they all landed in the forest to our left and exploded. after the air raid, only our infantry suffered casualties.

when the planes left, our infantry regrouped and began to attack the russian lines.

our infantrymen spread out into wide columns. several of them suddenly stood up at random, ran a few meters before squatting down. immediately afterwards, several more soldiers stood up, ran forward a few meters and then squatted down. doing so minimizes the risk of being hit by enemy machine gun fire. before they could target us, the target was gone. suddenly, (enemy) infantry appeared elsewhere. we used machine guns to fire over the heads of our infantry to provide them with cover. we fired in short bursts and had to be very careful not to hit one of our own.

the tank gunners fired some high-explosive shells at the russians to round out the battle. as the shells exploded in the trees, large amounts of wood and steel fragments fell on the enemy soldiers.

the commander ordered me to contact our artillery and launch an attack on the russians in front of us. as long as there are still their infantry there, it is not suitable for our tanks to drive through. the russians could easily take us out with magnetic grenades, panzerfausts (german-made rocket launchers) or molotov cocktails (homemade molotov cocktails). if the russians succeeded in getting hold of those weapons and used our "iron fist" against us, it would be painful, in my opinion, to be killed by a weapon made by their own army.

amelin, a red army soldier, carries the innocent german "iron fist" on his shoulders.

after the artillery got the coordinates of the russians, they fired a barrage of high-explosive shells at their defense lines. another hail of metal fragments and wooden blocks fell on the russians in the forest, but it caused more damage to them than we had done before. much more serious. we could all hear the screams of the wounded russians.

our artillery shifted its fire from left to right and back again. so, later on, on the russian side, no one could complain that they were forgotten, we tried to treat them equally. not even a foxhole can protect you from such a dense blast, because the foxhole is open and all the danger comes from above.

accompanied by our infantry, our tanks began to drive into the forest one after another. in the forest we found many dead and wounded russians. the injured were all injured by pieces of wood and steel flying around. the russians decided to retreat so we could knock down the surrounding trees and make our way through the forest.

as we entered a clearing we came under furious attack from russian anti-tank guns. our tank was hit so many times that it became immobile. our commander threw a smoke grenade and ordered "ausbooten" which means "get off the tank".

the good thing about the russian anti-tank gun units opening fire is that we now know where they are. the other tanks in our group took this opportunity to fire high-explosive shells, destroying all nine of their anti-tank guns. our infantry, which had been close to the ground during this round of fire, now stood up and regrouped with the rest of their unit.

however, at this moment, on the other side of the clearing, five "sherman" tanks appeared from the forest. obviously, they didn't know about our existence, so they calmly drove through the open space from the left to the right! well, you couldn't ask for a better goal than this, and this looks like an early christmas gift to us. the distance was only 1,000 meters, and our tank commander quickly issued orders to other tanks to engage the enemy. although at this time (we) only had a few tanks coming out of the forest, it was enough to complete the mission. our two tanks aimed at the "sherman" tanks on the far left and right respectively.

the gunfire sounded, and before we had time to confirm the shooting effect, we had already reloaded the shells and aimed at the next "sherman". the sherman we hit first exploded with a loud bang. its turret was blown off and landed a few meters away from the tank. needless to say, the sherman was no match for the black panther.

as we continued to move toward the killing fields ahead, we noticed that some of the crews had survived and were desperately trying to climb out of the destroyed tanks. we fired at them with machine guns, but as we were still on the move it had no effect. by the time our infantry arrived at the "crime scene," the surviving crew members had disappeared into the forest behind them. however, some wounded russian crew members remained with their tanks, one of whom lay beside his destroyed tank. as we approached him, he quickly pulled out his gun and shot one of our crew members in the shoulder.

we never appreciate such "jokes", so this is the last "joke" he makes. we shot him dead on the spot. why did he do this? maybe it's because of fear. he was wounded and probably feared he would be executed anyway, so he committed this act in a last desperate attempt. the rest of the wounded had burns, which was also common for tank crews. they became prisoners of war and were taken back behind our lines.

after our maintenance crew repaired our panther, we were back in the game.

the forest in front of us was shaped like a middle finger, and we noticed a gap to the left of it where the shermans entered their final battle. from there we could bypass the forest and gain a greater the land is in an open area. tanks like to operate in open areas. as our convoy of tanks moved slowly and carefully around this middle finger of forest, we watched our surroundings carefully for any enemy movements.

all went well and we drove right up to the top of the "middle finger" and were ready to go around it. ahead of us appeared a field, followed by another forest, and the moment we turned the corner we came under heavy fire from anti-tank guns. since we were at the front of the line, we were the first to be hit. fortunately, the russian anti-tank guns had to be distracted as more tanks appeared on the battlefield. now, everyone gets a fair shake. as i said before, we like to be treated equally.

although our ventilation equipment was running at full speed, the combination of gunpowder smoke and high temperature made it difficult to breathe in the tank. in addition, on the russian side, several t-34s also decided to join the battle. soon we were engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with enemy tanks and anti-tank gun units.

our other tanks drove past our tank group, and they concentrated their fire on the t-34, while we concentrated our fire on the anti-tank gun.

our tanks had the advantage because we were facing the enemy's tanks. compared to the t-34, the panther's front armor can withstand more hits. at such ranges they cannot even penetrate our armor, but we can destroy them, except our tracks and front drive wheels.

at the same time, 10 more t-34s arrived on the scene, and we now have so many targets to choose from!

now the roar of those artillery pieces and the crash of shells was deafening. one after another, the t-34s burst into flames. the surviving crews tried to escape, but our infantry fired at everyone who managed to escape from the russian tanks. the russians began to attempt to retreat, but in doing so exposed their flank to us. this was always a bad decision and they quickly became a crematorium of burning fuel and ammunition.

if we had to retreat, we wouldn't just turn around and expose the vulnerable sides or rear. no, we will use smoke bombs as cover, use reverse gear to get out of the battle line, and then turn around to try to avoid being destroyed. the current situation once again showed the lack of training of those russian tank crews.

the russian anti-tank guns had been destroyed and only the russian infantry remained.

suddenly we saw a russian, holding a very long rifle, spring out of the forest and run towards a trench in front of him. this special rifle has a very large caliber bullet, and the russians use it as an anti-tank weapon. this weapon might be effective against our less armored tanks and vehicles, but using it against a panther or a tiger? come on, it's impossible, or you have to get really close to our black panther.

the soviet army always used anti-tank rifles as its own anti-tank weapons in large quantities during the war. however, due to its slender size, it is not suitable for individual combat and is usually operated in small groups.

the russian must have been crazy, or a complete patriot, to try to do all this on his own.

we waited for him, but it took him a while before he emerged from the trench again. foolishly, he emerged from the same position as he jumped into the trench, a major tactical blunder. our anti-tank gun had already loaded a high-explosive round and was aimed at where the guy jumped into the trench. if he moved a little to the left or right, we would be surprised. and now, just hearing a loud bang from our anti-tank gun, the russian was blown into the air together with his toy gun, and then fell to the ground like a bag of potatoes.

(to be continued)