German Panzerabwehr during the Second World War evolved rapidly from light towed guns to a layered system of heavy artillery, self-propelled hunters and mass-issued infantry weapons as enemy armour thickened and numbers grew. At the outbreak of war the standard weapon was the 3,7-cm-PaK 36 issued to the Panzerabwehrkompanien of Infanterie-Regimenter and to independent Panzerjäger-Abteilungen; though mobile and easily concealed it proved inadequate against French and British medium tanks and was derisively nicknamed Heeresanklopfgerät after encounters with the T-34 and KW series in 1941. Successive introductions of the 5-cm-PaK 38 and especially the 7,5-cm-PaK 40 from early 1942 restored effectiveness at medium ranges, while the dual-purpose 8,8-cm-FlaK and the dedicated 8,8-cm-PaK 43 provided long-range killing power against the heaviest Allied and Soviet tanks. Tactically the Germans developed the Pakfront, concentrating groups of up to ten guns under a single officer so that coordinated volleys could ambush massed armour, a method later copied by the Red Army. Self-propelled solutions appeared in the Marder series mounting captured or German PaK on obsolete chassis and in the Sturmgeschütz III and IV, which, although designed as assault guns, became the most numerous and successful Panzerjäger on both Eastern and Western Fronts. Infantry close-combat weapons progressed from the limited Panzerbüchse 39 to the single-shot recoilless Panzerfaust family introduced in 1943 and the reusable 8,8-cm-Raketenpanzerbüchse 54, popularly called Panzerschreck or Ofenrohr, which offered greater range and penetration. Late-war doctrine emphasised nested defences combining minefields, obstacles, Pakfronts and Panzerfaust teams in staggered positions to engage tanks from multiple angles at short range, while mobile reserves of Panzerjäger-Abteilungen and Sturmgeschütz-Brigaden counter-attacked breakthroughs. Despite chronic shortages of tungsten-core ammunition and towing vehicles for the heavier guns, German Panzerabwehr remained a formidable and adaptive element of combined-arms defence until the final collapse in 1945.
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HEER
Leutnant der Reserve Georg Rietscher (1918-1991) was born on 3 December 1918 in Schweinerden near Kamenz in Saxony and died on 21 September 1991 in Radibor in Saxony. He entered the Heer in 1940 as a Soldat and served throughout the Second World War with the 14. Kompanie of the III. Bataillon of Infanterie-Regiment 513, later redesignated Grenadier-Regiment 513, belonging to the 294. Infanterie-Division. Promoted to Gefreiter der Reserve in 1941, he took part in the campaign in the West and then in Operation Barbarossa, fighting at Kiev and in the battles around Kharkov. On 9 October 1941 he received the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse and on 23 May 1942 the Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse. As Richtschütze in his Kompanie he earned the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 27 June 1942 for his actions southeast of Kupjewacha east of Kharkov, where during a Soviet tank-led assault he personally knocked out nine enemy tanks, thereby decisively helping to seal off a breakthrough and allowing German forces to consolidate on the high ground to the west. Promoted to Unteroffizier der Reserve in 1943, he later served as Vorgeschobener Beobachter and received the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz on 14 March 1943 as the 210th recipient for preventing a Soviet breakthrough along the Mius river in early 1943. In his own account of the action, which occurred around Christmas, he described hearing tank engines throughout the night while manning a forward strongpoint; four T-34s were immobilized in a minefield while a fifth continued firing, and after Pak guns proved unavailable he collected jerry cans of fuel, poured their contents over the tanks and into their engines, and placed explosive charges, destroying them one after another so that they burned and exploded with their crews, thereby ending the threat. He was promoted to Leutnant der Reserve in 1944 and also received the Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz, the Infanterie-Sturmabzeichen, the Ostmedaille and two Panzervernichtungsabzeichen in Silber before the war’s end.
Oberfeldwebel der Reserve Josef Karl (1910-1962) was born on 26 December 1910 in Nuremberg and died on 31 March 1962 in Bad Tölz. Called up in August 1939, he first served with Panzerabwehr-Abteilung 17 during the Invasion of Poland, then transferred in early 1940 to Panzerjäger-Abteilung 49 of the 4. Panzer-Division, taking part in the Battle of France and from June 1941 in the fighting on the Eastern Front including the battles of Minsk, Kiev, Moscow and Kursk. As Unteroffizier der Reserve and Geschützführer in the 2./Panzerjäger-Abteilung 49 he was awarded the Eisernes Kreuz II. Klasse on 26 February 1942 and the Eisernes Kreuz I. Klasse on 21 July 1943. On 22 July 1943 near Nowo Slobodka south of Kromy, west of Orel, he destroyed eleven Soviet tanks and two anti-tank gun positions with his self-propelled anti-tank gun in roughly twenty minutes, bringing his personal total to twenty enemy armoured vehicles destroyed; for this action he received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 26 August 1943 as the 2033rd award. Continuing in the same rank and role, on 9 January 1944 east of Kuriditschi west of Reschiza he independently counter-attacked an assaulting Soviet infantry battalion, crushing the penetration with high-explosive rounds and the vehicle’s mounted MG-42 and driving the attackers back to their start lines; a few hours later his vehicle was hit by artillery and he was severely wounded, later requiring amputation of a leg so that he saw no further front-line service. By that time he had destroyed a total of thirty-eight enemy tanks. For these cumulative achievements he was awarded the 397th Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz on 16 February 1944. He also received the Verwundetenabzeichen in Black and in Silver. By the end of the war he had been promoted to Oberfeldwebel der Reserve.
Source :
https://www.tankarchives.com/2013/12/german-anti-tank-tactics.html
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