Search results for ""Author Dale Richard Ritter""

The third book in the series covers the story of a panzer soldat from Germany's Wehrmacht of the Second World War. Günter Polzin served his brief military career with Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503, an outfit that was equipped throughout the war with Germany's vaunted Tiger tank. With a significant contribution from Martin Burmester, his story with Tiger-abteilung 503 is unusual, in that there has been little told from the perspective of a former member of the 2nd Company of 503. While there are several books available that cover 503, there has been limited coverage of the 2nd Company. From training to the harsh battles on the Eastern Front, on the invasion front in the West to the final battles in Hungary, and finally ending the war in captivity, both Polzin and Burmester were with 503 throughout the entire combat deployment of that unit. Combining their experiences with photographs, many previously unseen, and other, better-known photographs, a more complete picture of 503 is presented within the context of a Tiger tank veteran.

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This book is the second in a series that will delve in to the inner workings of Germany's most fearsome panzers of the Second World War, the Tiger and Tiger II. There are many books already in publication that deal with various aspects of the Tiger series of tanks but few include more than minimal biographical information of the men who crewed these battlefield behemoths. Based mainly on interviews, personal diaries, and recollections, the series will present to the reader the German Tiger and King Tiger crewmen as soldiers who had the opportunity to serve as a member of a crew and unit that fielded an extraordinary and deadly weapon. The series will include all levels of soldiers from the Tiger-abteilung commanders, down to the drivers, loaders, gunners, and radio-operators. As with the first book in this series covering the experiences of Alfred Rubbel, this second book is strictly the story of one man: Horst Krönke. The story combines the experiences of Krönke with approximately 400 photographs (most which are unpublished), hand-drawn maps, and original documents, to tell the story of a veteran of Germany's elite panzerwaffe and feared Tiger tanks. His initial experience was in training with Panzer Ersatz Abteilung 5. From there he was assigned to Panzer Regiment 6, of the 3rd Panzer Division and experienced the opening of the war in Russia. Krönke was in action on the Eastern Front through the end of 1942 at which time he was sent back to Germany to attend officer cadet and then officer's schools. Upon his return to the front and Panzer Regiment 6 he was sidetracked by an old comrade and was incorporated into schwere Panzer Abteilung 503. At that point, Horst was introduced to the new Tiger tank and served with a Tiger unit, transferring to schwere Panzer Abteilung 505 to serve with his brother, until the end of the war.

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