schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 "Feldherrenhalle"

[Bernie Brule]

I wish to model a 1/16th Tamiya King Tiger on a tank of the sPzAbt 503 "Feldherrenhalle" at the Battle for Budapest in January-Februery 1945. I have scoured the net for pictures of any King Tigers in Budapest but only found one on Wikipedia and am unable to read the turret number. Can anyone read the number? Any assistance with this project would be most appreciated.

Bernie

[Robin Lumsden]

Bernie.

The first number is obscured by a piece of spare track.

The next two are '3' and '5', I think.

[Robin Lumsden]

Here's another Budapest FHH King Tiger.....the number is '233'. It could be the same tank.

Edited December 9, 2006 by Robin Lumsden

[Robin Lumsden]

.....and another.....'233'.

Edited December 9, 2006 by Robin Lumsden

[Bernie Brule]

Thanks Robin,

I do believe that they are very possibly one and the same King Tiger. This helps immensely. May I ask where you found the other two pictures? Perhaps there would be more information available on it.

Tiger "233" was the 3rd tank of the 3rd platoon of the 2nd company of schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 "Feldherrenhalle". I have Tigers in Combat 1 & 2 but nowhere is tank 233 mentioned (although it is listed in the OOB).

Bernie

Edited December 9, 2006 by Bernie Brule

[Robin Lumsden]

Bernie.

Believe it or not, I just did a Google Images search on 'Tiger Tank Budapest' (or something similar) and up popped these and several other pictures.

The miracles of modern technology!

[Gordon Craig]

Robin,

Did the site you found these pictures on identify where the pictures were taken?

Regards,

Gordon

[Per]

I would to add to this topic that when I did a Google search for the '233' Tiger, I found a page (with plastic models) where they had a model of the '233' with one of the crewmen's name written on the box. His name is (or was) Alfred Kurzmaul and he was a Private First Class.

Per

[Per]

During my search I also found this: 233 king tiger

[PKeating]

These photographs were taken on 15.10.1944 when thirty-five King Tigers from s.Pz.Abt. 503 moved into Budapest as part of the German forces implementing the coup d'?tat - codename Unternehmen Panzerfaust - against the Horthy regime under Otto Skorzeny's command and direct orders from Hitler. Horthy had attempted to sue for peace with fast-closing Soviet forces. Some of the tanks entered the citadel.

Here is some additional information which may be interesting to you:

On 21 October 1944, during the fighting in Hungary, Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 destroyed its 1,500 enemy tank. Lt. Von Rosen accounted for the 1,500th kill. The Red Army in its first attempt to take Budapest on November 7, 1944 failed. Here the Russians committed Joseph Stalin II heavy tanks, where they were picked-off one after another and were destroyed thanks to the King Tiger's greater rate of fire. Further Russian attacks were repulsed in the days that followed. Leutnant Freiherr Von Rosen's King Tiger company alone destroyed 25 Soviet tanks. On January 4, 1945, Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 was renamed Schwere Panzer Abteilung Feldherrnhalle. Lt Von Rosen continued to fight with distinction with the Division Feldherrnhalle in these last desperate battles in Hungary against superior Russian forces at the Command of his King Tiger tanks, in which he was awarded the German Cross in Gold. He was wounded in the final weeks of the war and sent to a military hospital and was not released until June 30, 1945. For which the war was already over. There is no doubt that the King Tiger attained legendary fame, and was superior to all other tanks in the world at that time. In a post-war interview, Freiherr Von Rosen was asked to say which was the most formidable opponent he experienced in the King Tiger tank, in the east, he said it was the JS II, in the west, he said no tank whatsoever, that it was the US Air Force!

PK