Posted by Ron Klages on April 09, 2001 at 19:17:17 from 12.82.172.240
/240.seattle15rh15rt.wa.dial-access.att.net
Several days ago there was a thread regarding a Tiger II being rammed by a Sherman during Operation Goodwood. Here is a lengthy discourse on this incident both from a British viewpoint then by a German viewpoint. This data is directly from the book THE COMBAT HISTORY OF SCHWERE PANZER-ABTEILUNG 503 published by J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing. The 1./schwere Panzer-Abteilung 503 lost Tiger 122 in a somewhat unusual fashion during its operations in the area east of Cagny. There are two reports of that, one by Lieutenant Gorman, platoon leader and commander of a Sherman tank of the Irish Guards, and the other by Hans-Joachim Thaysen, at that time the gunner in Tiger 122.
THE GORMAN STORY
[Editor's note: With the exception of the first and last paragraphs which were not available, this passage is taken from the account in Alexander McKee's, "Caen, Anvil of Victory".]
My name is Gorman and, at the time of Goodwood, I was a platoon leader in the 2nd Irish Guards Armored Regiment, which was equipped with Shermans. During the afternoon of July 18th we fought in the hedgerow country northeast of Cagny. Two or three groups, each with four or five Tigers that were making good use of the cover, seemed to be opposing our 5th Guards Armored Brigade. They would suddenly emerge from their cover, fire, and cost us several losses. We attempted to attack with the company closed up, whereupon the Tigers again disappeared in their cover, onlt to appear again and repeat the whole process anew. This was my first time in action and I was excited. I had got across the little stream running into Cagny from the northeast, but the rest of my troop got stuck. However, I pushed on alone for a bit and found plenty of targets and was beginning to think this war business was not too bad after all; in fact, I was beginning to enjoy myself. But this didn't last long for, on glancing to my left, I saw to my horror the unmistakable shape of a Royal Tiger coming through a hedge under 200 yards away. I ordered my gunner: "Traverse left-on-fire!" He fired and I saw with dismay the 75mm shot hit the front of the Tiger, bounce off and go sizzling up into the air. I ordered the gunner to fire again, but a hollow voice came up from the bowels of the tank saying "Gun jammed, sir." This was a situation for which I had not been trained and I did not know what to do. Glancing anxiously at the Tiger. I saw with horror that his long gun was slowly swinging around in my direction. Someone had once told me that when in doubt the thing to do was advance, so I ordered my driver to advance at full speed and ram the Tiger. We lurched forward, gathered speed, and hit him amidships with a terrific crash, just before he got his sights on to me. Both crews bailed out on impact and, since there was quite heavy shelling, both crews dived for cover. My wireless operator saw a convenient slit trench and, jumping into it, found it already occupied by the Tiger's crew. However, they both stayed there together, keeping their heads down. I crawled back, brought up my 17-pounder Sherman and managed to brew the Tiger. I then collected my crew and the Tiger's crew, and we went back and got another tank. I recount this little story because it may well be the only example in the late war in which an army unit used the old naval tactic of ramming.
Sources:
1. Staff College, Camberly, Battlefield Tour 1956, p. 44 (first and last
paragraph)
2. Alexander McKee "Caen, Anvil of Victory" London 1964, page 273ff.
(remainder of narrative)
THE THAYSEN STORY
As I remember it, the English attack started at 1500 hours. Up until that time we kept ourselves busy wiping away sweat. It was a blistering hot summer day. We could scarcely keep the hatches open because of the on-going artillery fire. The attack that started at about 1500 hours was supported by a tremendous number of British tanks. The main line of resistance was overrun in a few minutes. Only the 1./schwere Panzer-Abteiling 503 and a few antitank guns held for a little time. Soon the British were between, in front of and behind us. This had as a result that neither we nor the English knew who or what was where. In the meantime, both the German and English artillery fired wildly into the midst of it all. And, of course, the British and German infantry were right in there, too.
Tiger 112, the tank in which I was gunner, was engaged with one Englishman while we were fired on by others. That caused my tank commander ( a newcomer, without combat experience), to well, let's say....to have the tank put in reverse, almost in a panic. We lunged back, right through a hedge, the type you usually found there.
Obviously, the commander was a bit out of it, since he must have seen that another tank was behind the hedge. In any case, there was a jolt, and we were hung up with an Englishman. There was no way that we intended to ram the enemy, the more so since we ran into him with the rear of the tank and I was still at 12 o'clock, busy with the Tommy that was firing at us. Scarcely had we run into the Englishman when, apparently, a 75mm PaK firing at the Englishman hit us instead. It hit us in the left between the track and the running gear. The round penetrated and sliced the seat right out from under my backside. I found myself on the turret floor. At the same time, the round tore open a shell casing and the propellant charge ignited in a jet of flame. There was nothing for us but to bail out. The radio operator, loader and tank commander were the first ones out. The driver, Horst Becher, who lives today in Braunschweig, was able to grab his pistol and, after bailing out, did target practice at the Englishmen who were around the tank. And that was quite a sight, since he still had his head-phones with the ripped-out cords dangling on his ears. On dismounting through the turret hatch, I landed on a member of the English crew who, presumably, was also somewhat out of it. Apparently he thought I was one of his crew. For a moment, we looked at each other in a daze. Then a rush of heroism awoke in both of us. Each grabbed for the place where he'd usually find his pistol. Heroism failed from a lack of lethal materials. Since our tank started to burn, both of us started to crawl away from it and, since things were lively all around, we both sought cover in a hole behind the Tommy's tank. With one of us in the left corner and the other in the right one, we eyed each other and each tried to convince the other, with hands and feet, that the other was his prisoner. Since it turned out that each of us had opposite opinoins about that, both of us shrugged our shoulders, grinned at each other and bolted for our own sides.
So that was that. It would be nice if I could meet one of the Englishmen.
(Hans-Joachim Thaysen )
notes:
1.Thaysen's comments note the Tiger as 112 while the book text noted it as
Tiger 122. I would imagine that one or the other is a typo.
2. These events occurred on July 18, 1944
I recall reading this in "Caen; Anvil of Victory". The stories
match up pretty well. The picture more or less verifies
both stories too. The main discrepancy seems to be in the amount of time
that there
was between the collision and the brew up of the Tiger. The German
account has it occurring almost simultaneously with the collision, and the
British
account has it occurring after Lt Gorman crawled off to get the Firefly.
Perhaps this is the sequence of events:
-KT backs through the hedge
-Sherman turns and engages KT with one round
-KT engages Lt Gorman's Firefly and doesn't notice being hit by Gorman's
round, or thinks round is from Sherman being engaged
-Gorman' Sherman advances on KT
-KT, backing up, and Gorman's Sherman, advancing, collide
-Sherman crew bails out; KT commander bails out
-Lt Gorman quickly moves back to Firefly (thinks KT crew has also bailed
out upon seeing the KT commander bail out)
-KT gunner (Thaysen) continues engagement with Firefly, not noticing the
commander bail out
-Lt Gorman instructs Firefly to hit Tiger, which they do or have already
done
-remainder of KT crew bail out and KT driver fires pistol at British
-Gorman's wireless operator (also the loader in the Sherman; last out of
the turret) is landed on by Thaysen and both jump into slit trench
-Gorman returns and collects his crew and some of the Tiger crew; Thaysen
escapes
I could see both of these being a description of the same thing. The distance Lt Gorman might have had to cover might have been fairly short as I am sure his platoon would have kept on advancing after getting unstuck from the stream.
What an interesting diorama this would be.