Chapter Seventy-Nine
Fawcett saw a huge war chariot, with a bouncing exterior completely different from that of the tiger, a higher body and longer pipes - in front of him was the Tiger King tank.
The first production batch of Tiger IIs, after completion and testing, were allocated to the 503rd Heavy Tank Battalion's 1st and 2nd companies, with twenty vehicles in total.
Fawley and his companions immediately threw themselves into the tense familiarization and training, leaving them with only a month at most. The Tiger II tank was indeed a good tank - at least in defensive battles, it was not suitable for mobile warfare. During training, they also heard rumors that the Tiger II and Tiger I tanks had been discontinued? The new Tiger II tank had just been finalized and was already discontinued? It seemed that fewer than 100 vehicles were produced. There were rumors that something good was being worked on, but these were unverifiable. Fawley soon received orders: the first company would still go to the Italian front, where the Italians were as unreliable as ever; the second company returned to the Eastern Front, where the Russians had launched a new attack and the Eastern Front was on the verge of collapse. This time, Fawley's destination was - Odessa.
In January 1944, the Soviet Red Army launched a powerful offensive in Ukraine, preparing to drive or destroy the Germans from the right bank of Ukraine. At that time, Favni had just arrived at the Black Sea resort of Odessa and had not yet enjoyed the famous white Russian beauties when he was thrown into the front line by his superiors. In April, the Soviet Red Army had just annihilated the remaining German troops in the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky region. In the battle, Favni's 503rd Battalion, 2nd Company, fought hard to break through the encirclement of the Soviet Red Army and held open the mouth of the encirclement for a week, allowing many surrounded German troops to escape their fate of annihilation. However, without a doubt, almost all technical equipment was abandoned or destroyed, and it can be said that the Germans escaped with empty hands. In the battle, Favni's Tiger demonstrated its design concept, perfectly realizing the designer's idea - accurately destroying all types of Soviet tanks at a distance of 2 km. Favni's 223rd Tiger tank, painted with a tiger skull, plunged Soviet tank soldiers into a nightmare, and one by one, tanks were destroyed from a distance by this devil, while their counterattacks had no effect on this demon. This led to the spread of a slogan among Soviet tank soldiers: "Stay away from the Skull Tiger!" When Favni and his Tiger companions withdrew from the battlefield back to Odessa, countless Soviet tank wrecks were left behind.
The reliability of the Tiger's final drive was ultimately a tragedy. Of the 10 Tigers that took part in the second company, not one was knocked out by the Soviet Red Army, but three had to be abandoned due to transmission failure and were blown up by engineers. The rumor was also confirmed that the battalion commander said that the lost Tigers were gone for good, with no subsequent replenishment, while the old Tigers still had some spare parts left over to repair and give to those three unlucky groups.
In April, the first echelon also arrived at the Odessa front line. Favni saw a head wrapped like a mummy - Karl. This guy was hit by shrapnel from American naval gunfire while directing reconnaissance, although he didn't die, it's certain that his face is ruined...
Across the Ukrainian Third Front, troops and equipment were moving frequently, and a massive offensive was about to be launched. The 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Regiment was withdrawn and formed into a combat group with other units in an attempt to launch a counterattack to disrupt the Soviet army's preparations for the attack, to gain time for the Germans. On the night of April 12th, under the cover of superior German air power, this combat group launched an offensive against the Ukrainian Third Front's forward deployment area in the direction of Kishinev.
The Soviet Red Army was initially caught off guard, and before dawn on the 13th, the Germans had wedged into the Soviet positions for over 20 kilometers, with a large number of weapons destroyed and an estimated regiment-sized force defeated. However, after sunrise, the Soviet Red Army immediately stabilized the front line, with a large number of troops deployed to seal off the German breakthrough, while the Soviet Red Army launched a preemptive attack, with both wings launching a pincer movement against the German positions, aiming for a deep encirclement of this German combat group.
Fawley was in a fierce battle at the arrow position, with a large number of Soviet Red Army T34 and Stalin 2 tanks appearing before him, while behind him were only five Tiger Kings and more than twenty Black Panthers, plus about the same number of No. 4 Hs. The firepower support came from a small team of Rhinos and several No. 4 assault guns, as well as a larger number of Pursuers. The Soviet Red Army tanks in front of him roughly counted over a hundred vehicles, scattered around to surround them. The Tiger King tank took advantage of its range superiority to fire from a distance, while using its own body to block the Soviet artillery fire for the weak assault guns.
"Damn it! 4 o'clock! 2300 meters Stalin 2!" Favoniel roared. A burst of armor-piercing shells was fired under his command, and he and his wingman covered each other as they fought against the overwhelming number of Soviet tanks. The Soviet tanks also had exceptional guys - their experience values had also reached... ... Shooting became more accurate, and premonitions became stronger. The improved Stalin 2 heavy tank was a tough opponent, with powerful firepower and mobility surpassing that of the Tiger King. Fortunately, the Tiger King's 88mm gun had an advantage in terms of aiming and range, and it destroyed them one by one on the advancing road. The Tiger King ignored the T34's 85mm gun, and this big-headed 34 was countered by the Black Panther and the 4th H.
The battle lasted all day, and the Germans were once again exhausted, their inferiority in manpower and weapons made them powerless to attack - they only delayed the Soviet Red Army for one day. Favniel's armor-piercing ammunition was almost depleted, and fuel was running out, after a replenishment, the Germans began to retreat, leaving some snipers behind to strike at the Soviet pursuit troops.
Matthias Hensen, a German infantry sniper who was recognized by Vasily Zaitsev after the assault, entered the Black Forest with his observer Markus Shoen under the gaze of Vasily. They were preparing to set up an ambush on the highway passing through the forest to hunt down Soviet Red Army targets. In previous battles, Vasily had seen Matthias' shooting skills more than once - accurately shooting and killing half-exposed Soviet tankers at a distance of almost one kilometer, quickly taking out Soviet snipers and soldiers flashing by in the ruins of buildings at distances of hundreds of meters... This situation occurred not just once. Vasily also asked about the achievements of Matthias and Markus Shoen, "255" Matthias did not say, while Markus opened his mouth to say "The achievements of our sniper team!" Matthias proudly stroked the first-class Iron Cross on his collar.
What happened later, Favniel did not know, but for a whole day, the Soviet Red Army did not appear to pursue them from the forest highway, and later Favniel saw that piece of forest covered by Soviet heavy artillery, with flames soaring into the sky. He never saw those two snipers again.
Matti H?yh? and Simo H?yh? did their duty in the forest, Soviet war history acknowledges that at the time there may have been 90-120 people shot dead in the forest and on the road, an entire tank regiment was blocked by snipers in the forest, more than 15 car commanders and tank regiment commanders were possibly shot dead by German snipers in the forest. In the end, it was necessary to call up the division's and army's heavy artillery to flatten the entire forest before passing through.
