503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion

The unit was created on May 4, 1942. The unit consisted of 45 Tiger Is on May 10, 1943. In the aftermath of the Battle of Stalingrad, the battalion was deployed to Army Group Don and arrived at the front on January 1, 1943. The battalion, along with several divisions of the 4th Panzer Army, was tasked with securing the withdrawal of Army Group A; it then retreated to Rostov. On February 11, 1943, the unit was transferred to Kharkov. It took part in the Third Battle of Kharkov and the Operation Citadel in 1943. Four days before the start of Citadel, the battalion reported that 42 of their 45 Tiger tanks were operational. The unit lost three Tigers during the operation and five more during the subsequent retreat.

In January 1944, the battalion, together with a panzer regiment and infantry units, formed Panzer Regiment Bäke. The regiment was part of the relief force, which tried to unsuccessfully break through to encircled forces in the Battle of the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket. The battalion was then trapped in the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket. In late April 1944, the regiment was dissolved and sent West for refitting and equipped with 45 new Tiger IIs.

 

In Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, the unit was transferred to the command of 5th Panzer Army. On the launch of Operation Goodwood, the 3rd company, which was based in Cagny, Calvados, was destroyed in the preliminary Allied bombing, with impacts powerful enough to turn a 56-ton Tiger upside down. Only one Tiger was operational at the end of the day. During the first day of Goodwood, the unit reported the loss of thirteen tanks.

 

At the end of July, the 3rd company received new Tiger II tanks, which were subsequently destroyed in the Allied aerial attacks, with only two brought back to Germany. In October 1944, the refitted 503rd took part in the Battle of Debrecen. In early-November, the battalion provided a mobile reserve for the 6th Army (Wehrmacht), re-designated as Army Group Hermann Balck. By mid-December, the German forces had been pushed back to Budapest. In January 1945, the unit took part in several failed attempts to relieve Budapest, code-named Operation Konrad. Though the 17-24 of February, the 503rd took part in one of the last successful German offensives of the war, Operation Südwind (G:Southwind).

During the Battle of Berlin, from 16 April to 2 May 1945, a Tiger II from the 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion, bearing the turret number 314, was the last Tiger II to be destroyed in action.^[1] At the time, Tiger 314 was commanded by SS-Unterscharfüher Georg Diers. During the battle, Diers was ordered to take up a position by the Reichstag to help the SS garrison defend it from advancing Soviet troops.^[2] During the battle, Diers' Tiger was heavily damaged by Soviet T-34-85s and subsequently abandoned.^[1]

Following Hitler's suicide, Diers repaired his Tiger II to operating condition and joined a German breakout attempt with other armored vehicles. While attempting to escape, the Tiger ran over a German landmine and was disabled. Diers and his crew survived, abandoning the tank for the final time. Soon after, they were captured by Soviet troops. Georg Diers was then sent to a Soviet labor camp, where he stayed until 1949 when he was finally allowed to return to Germany.^[3]

During the Battle of Berlin, Tiger 314 and another Tiger II of the 503rd, Number 311, commanded by Karl Korner, claimed a total of 100 Soviet tanks and 29 artillery pieces destroyed.^[2]

• ??? Post (May 1942 - 28 January 1943)
• Erich Hoheisel (28 January 1943 – May 1943)
• Clemens-Heinrich Graf von Kageneck (July 1943 – 30 January 1944)
• Rolf Fromme (February 1944 – December 1944)
• Nordwin von Diest-Körber (December 1944 – February 1945)
• Fritt Herzig (February 1945 – May 1945)

• German heavy tank battalion
• Organisation of a SS Panzer Division
• Panzer division

• Schwere Panzer-Abteilung 503 unit history