Monday 11 January 2016

AA Panther

Who needs a Coelian? You can deal with just a regular old Panther, if you're good enough. From the combat journal of the 20th Tank Corps, January 30th, 1944:

"The enemy continued to bomb the brigades' positions near Zvenigorodka nonstop. Over 80 sorties per day were detected above the brigades. No AA assets were available to cover them. Personnel fired on the planes rifles and machineguns. Two Heinkel-113 planes were shot down with rifles. The commander of a Panther tank, Lieutenant Harlamov, shot down a low flying Ju-52 airplane.

The following losses were dealt by aircraft:
  • T-70: 1
  • Killed: 5
  • Wounded: 6
The brave commander of the 96th Independent Motorized Infantry Battalion, Major Zagalskiy, was among the dead."
CAMD RF 3417-1-1

Harlamov was pretty handy with his captured tank.

"Award Order
  1. Name: Harlamov, Petr Mihailovich
  2. Rank: Lieutenant
  3. Position, unit: commander of a Panther tank, 342nd Tank Battalion, 155th Order of the Red Banner Tank Brigade, 20th Tank Corps.
    is nominated for the state award of the Order of the Red Banner.
  4. Year of birth: 1923
  5. Nationality: Russian
  6. Party affiliation: VLKSM member
  7. Participation in the Civil War, and subsequent conflicts in defense of the Soviet Union, Patriotic War: in the Patriotic War since June 2nd, 1942, North-West and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts.
  8. Wounds and concussions in the Patriotic War: none
  9. In the Red Army since: 1942
  10. Recruited by: Kirov recruitment office, Smolensk oblast
Brief and specific description of heroism or achievements: Lieutenant Harlamov fought decisively and courageously in the region of Zhurovka, Shpola, and Zvenigorodka. With fire from his tank, he destroyed three enemy Panther tanks, one PzIII tank, three guns, and 5 cars, killing 65 enemy soldiers and officers.

I nominate him for the state award of the Order of the Red Banner."

Via altyn73.

5 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. A pretty interesting piece of propaganda by the Nazis. What they were actually shooting at could be any of the single-engine planes the Axis were using, from Stukas to 109's.

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  2. I have a question after reading a couple of times about destroyed cars or different weapon usability in them, ie. the 14.5x113mm. Do they refer to cars as we know them nowadays or do they refer to halftracks?

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    Replies
    1. "Car" is a light passenger car, a halftrack would be called "APC" or "tractor".

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    2. What has make me thinking the "car" denomination could also have been used for halftracks is the large quantity of halftracks used in the war and the few mentions made about them in the archives, specially if we compare it with the amount of times they mention cars.

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