LEGENDARY CREW

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German Panzers at the battle of Totensonntag, by Peter Dennis © Osprey Publishing Ltd. Taken from Command 5: Erwin Rommel.

Taking a tank into battle called for no small amount of personal courage. Crews had to be strong, vigilant, and work well as a team to succeed. As a result, the credit for most armoured victories goes to the unit, rather than the individual commander or gunner. But even in this world there were those who rose above their peers by leadership, talent and sheer grit.

This section describes some exceptional tankers and provides rules for using them in your games.

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M24 Chaffee

USING LEGENDARY CREW

These men were exceptional individuals, and as such you can only include one of them in your army. This means that among all of your vehicles, only one of them can contain a legendary crew member.

Of course, the reputation of these heroes precedes them, so they confer a +1 morale bonus to their unit and any friendly unit within 6”, much as does a second lieutenant. This bonus is in addition to any officer bonus from which the units already benefit. However, remember that regardless of any bonuses that apply, the maximum morale value a unit can have is 10.

SKILLS

Skills are once-per-game bonuses that are explained in greater detail in the XP section. Whenever you use a skill, it is a good idea to put a tick mark next to it on your army list so you’ll remember that you’ve already used it.

GERMANY

Germany boasts many of the highest-scoring tank aces of the war. Kurt Knispel, Germany’s top tank ace (as well as the top tank ace of the war) had 168 confirmed tank kills, with many more unconfirmed. Compare that record to the top Allied tank ace, Russian Dmitry Lavrinenko with 52 kills, as well as the top US tank ace, Lafayette Pool, with 12 tank kills.

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Matilda tanks lead the assault on Fort Nibeiwa, by Peter Dennis © Osprey Publishing Ltd. Taken from Command 28: Archibald Wavell.

The reasons for this wide disparity are varied and, like many aspects of the war, debatable. The sheer number of targets available to a German tank commander is worth consideration. The Allies sent over 65,000 T-34s and 40,000 Shermans into battle, let alone all the other kinds of tanks fielded throughout the war. The Germans only made about 25,000 tanks across all different models.

The next point concerns the comparative abilities of the opposing tanks. German tanks were generally considered to be better fighting machines than their Allied counterparts in terms of their powerful guns and thicker armour. These qualities, it is argued, gave the German crews a huge advantage in any encounter, allowing them to achieve high kill counts compared to their adversaries.

Finally, it is worth remembering the German tank crews had been fighting since the Blitzkreig of 1939, and as such had greater experience (on average) than the Allied crews joining the battle later on.

While the reasons can be argued, the sheer number of German crews that fought their way to legendary status cannot; Germany had the most deadly tank crews of the war.

KURT KNISPEL

‘The last thing a soldier wants is a fair fight.’ – Kurt Knispel With 168 confirmed kills, Kurt Knispel holds the crown as World War II’s top tank ace. He was well known for camouflaging his tank and attacking the enemy from great distances, even scoring a kill on a T-34 at 3,000 meters (nearly two miles).

An unorthodox soldier, he sported long hair, a goatee and even a tattoo. While he was highly decorated for his exploits, his advancement through the ranks was slower than it should have been due to frequent conflicts with Nazi authorities.

Knispel wasn’t concerned with medals or awards. Whenever there were conflicting accounts of enemy kills, he was known for stepping back and offering the credit to other crews. As a result, he never received the coveted Knight’s Cross, even though most of his fellow aces did.

O FOR…

By 1943 the Germans knew they were losing control of the skies. They developed many anti-aircraft vehicles, but perhaps the best of them was the Ostwind (east wind), a 37mm automatic gun based on the proven Panzer IV hull. The main gun was fitted into a snug hexagonal turret, nicknamed the Keksdose (biscuit tin), and it retained the hull machine gun. Its crew of five had a powerful machine and a good gun with effective hitting power against all ground attack planes, as well as good striking power at ground targets. In 1945 there were plans to build another 100 models with twin 37mm guns, which would have undoubtedly made a truly nasty weapon system, but ultimately fewer than 50 were built.

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Tiger I Ausf H

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A lone King Tiger prepares to face the Soviet hordes

Knispel was a soldier’s soldier, a rebel, and a brilliant tank commander. On his journey to becoming the war’s top tank ace, he ruffled many feathers with his command – only his unparalleled track record kept him out of military prison.

KNISPEL’S TIGER I

Though Knispel fought in just about every tank model fielded by the Germans, he is presented here in the Tiger I, as that is the tank he would score most of his victories in.

Cost: 519pts

Quality: Veteran

Weapons: One turret-mounted super-heavy anti-tank gun with coaxial MMG and forward-facing hull-mounted MMG.

Damage Value: 10+ (heavy tank)

Special Rules:

•   Camouflage: While this tank has cover from a unit shooting at it, that unit must pass an order test in order to fire. If the shooting unit already has to take an order test to fire (because it had pin counters, etc.), then it suffers an additional –1 modifier to its morale for that test, rather than taking a separate one.

•   Long Range: Knispel could hit targets at long range with ease. As a result, he does not get the normal –1 hit modifier for shooting at long range targets.

Skills:

•   Deadeye

•   Battle Awareness

•   Skill Shot

•   Snap Shooter

KNISPEL’S FATE

During a battle near the village of Woztitz, Czechoslovakia on 28 April 1945, Knispel was fatally wounded and died in a field hospital in nearby Urbau. The war would end only ten days later.

He was buried in a local cemetery, though the exact location remained a mystery until April 2013, when Czech officials were able to verify his remains using his dog tags and a tattoo on his neck.

MICHAEL WITTMANN

‘He was a fighter in every way, he lived and breathed action.’ – SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Josef Dietrich

Known as ‘The Black Baron’, Michael Wittmann (pronounced ‘Vittmann’) was a model soldier, courageous fighter and widely considered to be the best tank commander of World War II.

This is s a bold statement to make, especially given the fact that his kill count is lower than Kurt Knispel’s – 138 to Knispel’s 168. But kill counts only tell part of the story.

Wittmann’s deadly abilities are perhaps best illustrated by his famous ambush of parts of the British 7th Armoured Division during the battle of Villers-Bocage on 13 June 1944. Hiding in cover with four tanks from his unit – one of which was damaged – he saw the British advancing into the area much sooner than he had anticipated.

He had no time for a planned assault, so he fearlessly charged into the town on his own. He cut a swathe of destruction through the British lines, leaving a staggering number of British tanks, self-propelled guns, anti-tank guns, and personnel carriers as smoking hulks in his wake.

When he finally reached the town, his tank was immobilized by a hit to the tracks, but he still managed to rack up a few more kills before he and his crew ran the 16 kilometers back to base, where he promptly acquired a new tank and went back out to the front.

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German big cats on the prowl

During this battle, in the span of 15 minutes he had knocked out 14 enemy tanks, 15 personnel carriers and two anti-tank guns. For his efforts, Wittmann was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain) and awarded swords to his Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross by Adolf Hitler himself.

WITTMANN’S TIGER I

Cost: 519pts

Quality: Veteran

Weapons: One turret-mounted super-heavy anti-tank gun with coaxial MMG and forward facing hull-mounted MMG.

Damage Value: 10+ (heavy tank)

Special Rules:

•   Fierce Ambush: Whenever this unit fires from Ambush, it may fire

•   its main gun twice, either against the same target or two different targets.

Skills:

•   Lucky

•   Hair Trigger

•   Eye for Terrain

•   Battle Awareness

WITTMANN’S FATE

Michael Wittmann was killed in action on 8 August 1944, during a German counter-attack that was trying to retake the high ground outside the French town of Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil. Oddly enough, that is about the only part of the story that everyone can agree on – just how he was killed, or by whom, remains the subject of much debate.

Some say it was a killing blow from a tank of the British Northamptonshire Yeomanry, others say it was the Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment of the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade. The Nazi propagandists even put forth the theory that his tank was destroyed by fighter-bombers, though this has been widely discredited. There are many more theories, too many to list here.

While it is almost impossible to determine without a doubt what really happened that day, few can argue that Michael Wittmann was a truly legendary tank commander.

His remains were discovered in an unmarked grave in 1983, and reinterred with honours at the German War Cemetery of La Cambe in France.

OTTO CARIUS

Otto Carius, one of Germany’s most famous tank commanders of the war, was rejected from the draft twice for being underweight. He was finally drafted in 1940, and by 1943 he was commanding the 2nd Company of the Schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502 (the 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion.) Commanding a Tiger I, and later a Jagdtiger, he would go on to destroy more than 150 enemy tanks.

He was severely wounded on 24 July 1944. He had taken up the practice of reconnoitring ahead of his tanks on a motorcycle, and while this led to many of his successes, on this day it resulted in his suffering bullet wounds in his leg, arm, back and neck.

Despite these grievous injuries, he would bounce back, returning to the front at the helm of a Jagdtiger tank destroyer. He would command this tank destroyer until the end of the war.

Like many accomplished tank commanders, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, though he would only wear it while at the front. He claimed it helped him get his requests filled faster!

CARIUS’ JAGDTIGER

Cost: 717pts

Quality: Veteran

Weapons: One casement-mounted forward-facing super-heavy anti-tank gun and one forward-facing hull-mounted MMG.

Damage Value: 11+ (super-heavy tank)

Special Rules:

•   Grit: This unit ignores the first pin marker it receives in the game; simply discard it.

•   Decisive Advance: When this unit executes a run order, it may fire its main gun.

•   128mm PaK 44: The main gun does not suffer the –1 penetration penalty when shooting at targets over half range. It counts its full +7 at all ranges.

Skills:

•   Strict Discipline

•   Eagle Eye

•   Adrenaline Rush

•   Crank Head

CARIUS’ FATE

Otto Carius was the commander of a Jagdtiger battalion in 1945 when the war ended and his unit surrendered to the US Army on 15 April of that year. He lives on at the time of writing. Watchful visitors to the Herschweiler-Pettersheim municipality of Germany might find a pharmacy with the odd name of Tiger Apotheke. One of Germany’s most decorated and successful tank commanders still works at the pharmacy he founded just after the war, named after the tanks he fought in.

ERNST BARKMANN

In the early stages of the war, Ernst Barkmann distinguished himself as an infantryman in the Waffen-SS. He fought in Poland, France and Russia. Later, after recovering from serious wounds, he asked to be transferred to the newly formed armoured SS units. He started as a gunner in Panzer IIIs of the Das Reich SS Panzer Division. His career advanced quickly and soon he was promoted to tank commander. Later he was given command of one of the new Panthers at the battle of Kursk.

It was as a Panther commander that Ernst Barkmann achieved the status of tank ace with an impressive number of victories against the Soviets. He earned the Iron Cross whilst fighting on the Eastern front. When the Allies invaded Normandy he was transferred to the Western Front. His experienced Panther crew scored many victories against their opponents during the German retreat through the Falaise Pocket. Barkmann’s heroic rearguard actions gained him the Knight’s Cross.

Later he took part in the Battle of the Bulge. He was involved in ferocious clashes with American tanks. His Panther was even rammed by a Sherman and had to retreat with a damaged engine and jammed turret. Even in such extreme conditions, Barkmann made it back to the German lines.

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Panther Ausf A

BARKMANN’S PANTHER

Cost: 496pts

Quality: Veteran

Weapons: One turret-mounted super-heavy anti-tank gun with coaxial MMG and forward-facing hull-mounted MMG.

Damage Value: 9+ (medium tank)

Special Rules:

•   Decisive Advance: When this unit executes a run order, it may fire its main gun.

•   Exceptional Leadership: After this unit executes a run order, choose a friendly unit within 6” that has an order die next to it. Place its order die back in the cup.

•   The Panther’s heavy frontal armour means that against all shots hitting the front of the vehicle it counts its damage value as 10+.

Skills:

•   Motivational Leader

•   Deadeye

•   Push Through

•   Quick Reflexes

BARKMANN’S FATE

Ernst Barkmann fought his last actions against the Soviets in the defence of Germany. After his tank was finally immobilized, Barkmann and his crew destroyed their own vehicle and made their way to the British zone to offer their surrender to the Western Allies.

After the war, Barkmann lived in the town of Kisdorf, where he held both the jobs of fire chief and later town mayor – he was obviously a capable leader in peace as well as war. He passed away in 2009.

THE UNITED STATES

When it entered service in late 1942, the US-built M4 Sherman was the best all-round tank available to the Allies. In the Western Desert the Sherman gave the Allies the weapon they needed to confront the Germans on an equal footing, while in the Pacific it was far superior in every respect to the tanks used by the Japanese. By 1944 the Sherman’s armour and firepower were barely up to the standards set by the latest Panzers, but the Sherman soldiered on with incremental improvements right up until the end of the war.

The American practice was to send the most successful crews back home to train recruits and beat the drum for the war effort. This was generally true of most of the technical aspects of war: flight crews, ship crews and tank crews. Exceptional ground-pounders were usually rewarded with more missions!

The legendary tankers who shone through generally did not do so by kill count alone, but with exemplary leadership, steadiness under fire, and sometimes by sheer bravado.

LAFAYETTE G. POOL

‘The men would draw straws to see who would lead the spearhead the next day. Pool would just say “I’m leading this time” and stand there grinning while we cussed him out.’ – Corporal Wilbert ‘Baby’ Richards, Pool’s driver

Born in Texas in 1919, Lafayette Pool tried to enlist in the Navy, though an eye injury kept him out. He went back to school, and even started college and pursued an engineering degree, but the call to serve was too strong. He left college and enlisted in the summer of 1941, months before the rest of the country would be swept up in the post-Pearl Harbor furore.

Pool was a 6’3” Texan who believed that the best way to win the war was to kill as many Germans as possible, and that his crew were the ones to do it. He always held himself and his crew to very high standards, wanting things done his way.

‘His way’ was hard to argue with, since throughout the course of the war he managed to destroy 12 enemy tanks, as well as 246 other armoured vehicles. In this time he had three tanks shot out from under him – each one named ‘In the Mood’ and each one with the same crew.

POOL’S SHERMAN, ‘IN THE MOOD’

Cost: 304pts

Quality: Veteran

Weapons: One gyro-stabilized turret-mounted medium anti-tank gun with coaxial MMG and one forward-facing hull-mounted MMG.

Damage Value: 9+ (medium tank)

Special Rules:

•   Lead from the Front: While Pool’s Sherman is further from your table edge than any of your other units, all of your units that can draw LOS to his Sherman get +1 morale.

•   Rapid Fire: When you give this unit a fire order, it may fire its main gun twice, either against the same target or two different targets.

•   HE: instead of causing D2 HE hits, an HE shell causes D6 hits.

Skills:

•   Strict Discipline

•   Quick Reflexes

•   Hair Trigger

•   Skill Shot

P IS FOR…

If Germany dabbled with many exotic weapons, then it is only understandable that the Germans were not alone. In 1937 a British private individual had a notion that he thought would revolutionize the battlefield. He made a prototype of a vehicle that would enable the infantry to bring automatic fire on to the enemy whilst keeping its body in cover. Thus was born the Praying Mantis, an extraordinarily unorthodox machine that married a universal carrier with a long extendable steel box that could be raised automatically with a boom, and engage the enemy with machine gun fire.

This inventive idea was tried out with two prototypes. The two crew had to lie down in the hull, and the boom was raised to a firing position, over a hedge, for instance, and the gunner would use periscopes to aim his twin Bren guns at the enemy, sighting and firing them individually or together. To make magazine changes easier, the guns were mounted upside-down. The idea did not catch on.

POOL’S FATE

Pool’s legendary luck ran out on 19 September 1944, while fighting in the town of Munsterbusch, Germany. He and his crew were due to rotate home in just a few days for a war bond drive, so his commanding officer put him on the flank, which was considered safer.

After spotting an anti-tank gun hidden in a house, he gave the order to fire, but his tank’s main gun jammed. The enemy shell hit right in the turret, knocking Pool off and destroying most of his right leg. He gave himself a shot of morphine and promptly attempted to cut his own leg off with his pocketknife before the medics arrived and stretchered him away.

His career did not end, though. He remained in the service and taught tank mechanics, eventually retiring from the army in 1960. He went back to school and worked the rest of his days as a pastor. He died in his sleep on 30 May 1991, and was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

CREIGHTON ABRAMS

‘I’m supposed to be the best tank commander in the army, but I have one peer: Abe Abrams. He’s the world champion.’ – General George Patton

Few men have had tanks named after them – Pershing, Sherman, Grant are all notable examples. During World War II, another man would make a name for himself that will be forever attached to the history of US armoured warfare: Creighton Abrams.

When he graduated from West Point in 1936, he went into the army as a cavalry officer, back when the cavalry still meant riding actual horses into battle.

He then moved into the armoured division in the early years of that branch’s service, and would later help mould the future of armoured warfare in the US as the head of the department of tactics at the armour school in Fort Knox.

He would spend much of the war at the front of the lines with the 4th Armoured Division. Given the technical shortcomings of the Sherman tank, he was able to use its superior speed and reliability to great success against forces that were vastly superior on paper. He also led one of the units that busted through the German lines at Bastogne and reconnected with the encircled US forces there.

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Uncle Sam’s armoured divisions roll into action

He was remembered by many who served with him as a brilliant commander and compassionate individual. He really took an interest in the lives of the soldiers around him, and as a result they fought like hell for him.

ABRAM’S SHERMAN, ‘THUNDERBOLT’

Cost: 314pts

Quality: Veteran

Weapons: One gyro-stabilized turret-mounted medium anti-tank gun with coaxial MMG and one forward-facing hull-mounted MMG.

Damage Value: 9+ (medium tank)

Special Rules:

•   Colonel: Abrams’s ‘legendary’ morale bonus is +4 instead of the normal +1.

•   Decisive: At the beginning of each turn, if this unit is already on Ambush from a previous turn, you may put the first Order die drawn back into the cup and draw again. The ambush orders represent this unit watching the battleground and directing other units as needed.

•   HE: instead of causing D2 HE hits, an HE shell causes D6 hits.

Skills:

•   Eagle Eye

•   Follow Me

•   Lead Foot

•   Quick Reflexes

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Sherman M4A3 75mm

ABRAM’S FATE

Creighton Abrams had a career befitting his legendary abilities. He would begin the war as a captain in charge of a tank battalion. In just three months he would rise to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and he would be a colonel by the war’s end.

He went on to fight in Korea and Vietnam, where he would succeed General Westmoreland as the head of the Military Assistance Command in Vietnam (MACV). He would finish his illustrious career in 1974 as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, a fitting finale for a gallant warrior.

He died on 4 September 1974 of complications from lung cancer. He was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery. His loving wife Julia would join him there 29 years later.

BRITAIN AND COMMONWEALTH

Information about the feats of British tank crews is harder to come by than for their enemies. The reason sits squarely in the realm of British propriety – it was simply not acceptable to brag about one’s accomplishments! It certainly happened from time to time, but the societal norms of English culture would ensure that not many stories of exceptional armoured action would surface.

The British people were (and are) a fierce lot, having been under Nazi guns for years before the Russians and Americans became involved. ‘Show respect to our hosts’, a US Army pamphlet for incoming servicemen said, ‘the average English woman or child has seen more combat than you have’.

GEORGE ‘KILLER’ DRING

Sergeant Dring had a quality ascribed to many able warriors: a great love for and understanding of terrain. His confidence riding atop his tank was born from a childhood of riding horses – exploring his native Lincolnshire, hunting and participating in local steeplechases.

It was a childhood that served him well as a grown man. He began his military career on horseback, joining the Sherwood Rangers in 1935 as a farrier. He went with them to Palestine in 1939, still riding horses. In 1941 the unit converted to armour and Dring got his first taste of tank warfare in North Africa.

While there, he became known for his practice of leaving his tank to climb nearby berms to get a better look at the enemy. He called these quick reconnaissance missions ‘Shuftis’ (pronounced ‘shuf-tee’) from the Arab word meaning ‘a quick look’.

While he was not the only one to employ such tactics, his shuftis were a good example of his battlefield ethic – always at the front, always aware.

He got his introduction to the European theatre on 6 June 1944, and on that day destroyed so many enemy tanks he earned the nickname ‘Killer’. He would fight through the rest of the war, even after losing three fingers during one of his ‘shuftis’.

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A British Cromwell cruises into town

GEORGE DRING’S SHERMAN, ‘AKILLA’

He had originally named his tank ‘Achilles’ with no small amount of gallows humour. After his actions on D-Day, he got the nickname ‘Killer’ and his tank’s name changed to ‘Akilla’.

Cost: 269pts

Quality: Veteran

Weapons: One turret-mounted medium anti-tank gun with coaxial MMG and one forward-facing hull-mounted MMG.

Damage Value: 9+ (medium tank)

Special Rules:

•   Shufti: You may give this unit a Down order to represent Dring going on a shufti. When you do, the tank may not do anything that turn, as normal. Place a crew model next to the tank model to represent Dring. The next time you give this unit an order, the order is automatically successful, no order test needed. In addition, roll a die for each of Dring’s Skills that have been used previously during this game – on a 4+ that Skill ‘resets’ and can be used again, as if it had not been used yet.

•   HE: instead of causing D2 HE hits, an HE shell causes D6 hits.

Skills:

•   Eye for the Terrain

•   Lucky

•   Eagle Eye

•   Snap Shooter

‘KILLER’ DRING’S FATE

Dring would survive the war with mental scars to go along with his physical ones. He didn’t like to talk much about his war experiences, and often had problems walking down a country road at night or watching a war film.

He worked with POWs after the war, learning German and French. He would finish his career years working for the UK’s immigration service.

He lived to the ripe old age of 85, a tanker until the end. Just a year before his death, he was invited to the naming ceremony of a Sherman that the owner had decided to paint up as the Akilla. Probably calling on the experience of decades before, Killer Dring started climbing right up the front armour to the turret, just like he had done in the old days. In consternation, members of the Sherwood Rangers who had gathered around to watch rushed up to help the aged soldier as he mounted the turret one last time.

George ‘Killer’ Dring died on 12 January 2003.

SYDNEY VALPY RADLEY-WALTERS, ‘RAD’

Rad was born in Gaspé, Canada in 1920. By 1940 he had graduated from college and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment.

In those days it was an infantry regiment, so Rad began his career as an infantry officer. Working with men in such close quarters, Rad learned many lessons in leadership. Chiefly, he maintained that a good leader knows his men, and honestly cares for their welfare. These traits would thrust him into distinction later in the war.

RAD VS. THE BLACK BARON

Perhaps no conflict in all of history has spawned more debate than World War II. Given the enormous complexity of the war, coupled with the more-often-than-not conflicting eyewitness accounts of the battles, it is no surprise that some momentous occasions remain controversial even today.

One such event occurred on 8 August 1944, near the French town of Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil. It was here that Michael Wittmann’s tank, part of the 12th SS Panzer Division, clashed with opposing tanks from the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry and Rad’s Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment. In the ensuing ambush, Wittmann’s tank was hit by a shot that penetrated its upper hull, igniting the ammunition and blasting the turret off. The crew compartment was engulfed in flames and none of the crewmen survived.

For decades it was believed the shot that killed the German tank ace came from a Sherman Firefly gunned by Trooper Joe Ekins. There were many other claims, though they had been generally discredited when battle records were scrutinized.

There is, however, a compelling case for giving the credit to Rad’s Fusiliers. Some say that they were closer to Wittmann’s unit than the Yeomanry, they had better cover, and their position lines up more closely with the damage suffered by Wittmann’s tank.

There is simply no way to say with certainty who fired the shot. Those who took part in the action were generally quoted as saying something to the effect of ‘it doesn’t matter who got him, it only matters that somebody did’. Rad had nothing but respect for Wittmann, and indeed, all his German foes in the field. He would later visit Germany several times, even going game hunting with men he was once trained to kill.

In 1942, his unit, by now re-organized into an armoured regiment, was off to England. He took part in the D-Day landings, and soon scored his first tank kill: a Panzer IV. It would be the first of 18 confirmed tank kills, making Rad the top tank ace of the Western Allies.

Rad was a fierce and sometimes stern commander. He was known for his concern for his troops and his ability to improvise on the battlefield. He was one of the first to ‘up-armour’ his tanks, while placing sandbags on the floor of the crew compartment to better protect his men.

It is no coincidence that leaders who genuinely cared about their men tended to excel. Warriors are quick to respond to this type of respect. Leaders like Rad proved this in combat.

RAD’S SHERMAN, ‘CARIBOU’

Cost: 304pts

Quality: Veteran

Weapons: One turret-mounted medium anti-tank gun with coaxial MMG and forward-facing hull-mounted MMG.

Damage Value: 9+ (medium tank)

Special Rules:

•   Major: Rad’s ‘legendary’ morale bonus is +4 instead of the normal +1.

•   Exceptional Leadership: After this unit executes a run order, choose a friendly unit within 6” that has an order die next to it. Place its order die back in the cup.

•   HE: instead of causing D2 HE hits, an HE shell causes D6 hits.

Skills:

•   Strict Discipline

•   Motivational Leader

•   Follow Me!

•   Hair Trigger

RAD’S FATE

Rad went on to command the Sherbrooke Fusiliers. He would later continue to mould future Canadian soldiers as the commandant of the Royal Canadian Armoured School. Later he became the director-general of training and recruiting for the whole Canadian Army. He ended his active military service as a brigadier general.

Following his retirement, Rad spent eight years in the reserves with the 8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise’s) and as commandant of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps.

At the time of writing he is 93 and still lives in Ontario, in an apartment that overlooks the armoury where his military career began. His house is filled with mementoes of his service, including the torn-up bits of the tank that was shot out from under him on D-Day!

SOVIET UNION

On 22 June 1941 the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa – the invasion of Russia. It remains the single largest invasion in military history. Three million German soldiers marched across the border accompanied by over 4,000 tanks.

The Russians were taken by surprise. They had over 15,000 tanks, but few were a match for the German Panzers.

The operation would ultimately fail in its objectives despite initial successes. Hitler’s army was stopped before taking Moscow and was obliged to wait as ‘General Winter’ once again defended his homeland. Thousands of German troops died of exposure in the icy wilderness.

Though the Russians would eventually prevail over their invaders, the German attack left the country severely wounded. Millions of soldiers and citizens were killed. Forged in this crucible were the Russian tankers. Their enemy outmatched them even though they were fewer in number. They would prove to be fierce defenders of their homeland, racking up kills that would rival many of the German aces.

Q IS FOR…

The Infantry Tank Mark II Matilda was a heavy tank developed by the British just before the start of the war. It fought in the battles in France where it acquitted itself well, even throwing back the German advance and giving them a scare. It was in the Western Desert, however, that the Matilda proved the excellence of its design, earning it the fond nickname ‘Queen of the Desert’.

The Matilda sported a good combination of gun and armour, if a rather lumbering speed performance. Its 2-pounder 40mm gun was accurate and hard-hitting, if short of a high explosive shell. The armour was simply invulnerable to standard German or Italian antitank and tank guns; anything up to and often including 50mm rounds simply bounced off the 75mm frontal plate.

Until the Germans used 88mm and long 75mm guns, the Matilda performed well enough, and it equipped many Russian tank units and many Australian tank regiments in the Far East until the end of the war.

DMITRY LAVRINENKO

Lavrinenko came from a modest background. He was a schoolteacher and a bank teller before joining the Russian Army in 1934. By the time Russia was invaded, he was a combat veteran, having taken part in the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia in northern Romania.

He was an aggressive T-34 commander, preferring to close with the enemy quickly and using the element of surprise to gain the advantage. He also had a considerable understanding of his tank’s capabilities, such as its mobility and the protective value of its sloped armour.

He would eventually obtain 52 confirmed tank kills. This pales in comparison to those of his German foes until one considers that he was able to do this in only 2½ months. Had he survived for the rest of the war, there is little doubt that number would have been far greater.

Even though his war ended early, he remains the Allied Tank Ace of Aces.

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T-34/76

LAVRINENKO’S T-34

His T-34 was painted white to make it nearly invisible against the Russian snow.

Cost: 289pts

Quality: Veteran

Weapons: One turret-mounted medium anti-tank gun with coaxial MMG and forward-facing hull mounted MMG.

Damage Value: 9+ (medium tank)

Special Rules:

•   Mobility: When you give this unit a run order, it may fire its main gun after the move.

•   Rapid Fire: When you give this unit a fire order, it may fire its main gun twice, either against the same target or two different targets.

Skills:

•   Quick Reflexes

•   Lead Foot

•   Crank Head

•   Hair Trigger

LAVRINENKO’S FATE

On 18 December 1941, Lavrinenko was killed during a battle near the village of Goriuny near Moscow. It wasn’t an enemy tank that claimed the kill; a lowly landmine would spell his demise.

Before he died he had been awarded the Order of Lenin for his valiant defence of his country. He was recommended for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union shortly after his death, but he would not receive that honour until 1990, when he was finally officially recognized for his skill and sacrifice to Russia.

He is buried in the village of Denkovo. A nearby school was named after him.

ZINOVIY KOLOBANOV

‘I’m often asked – weren’t you afraid? But I’m a military man, and my orders were to fight to the death. That means that the enemy can only go through my position after I’m dead.’ – Zinoviy Kolobanov

Born in December 1912 in the small Russian village of Arefino, Senior Lieutenant Kolobanov is something of an enigmatic figure. He is widely considered to be the second-highest scoring Russian tanker of the war, with 23 confirmed tank kills, but little else is known about him.

Twenty-two of his kills would be during a single engagement on 20 August 1941, during the Battle of Krasnogvardeysk (part of the Battle of Leningrad). The vanguard of the German 8th, 6th and 1st Panzer divisions were approaching the town, and Kolobanov’s small unit of five KV-1s was the only force standing in their way.

As the Germans moved up, the lead tank was struck by a round from one of the KV-1s. Kolobanov had a stroke of luck; the Germans thought it was an anti-tank mine at first and did not realize they were under attack. Kolobanov took advantage of the confusion and knocked out the enemy tank at the rear of the column, boxing the rest in. It was a textbook ambush executed to deadly effect.

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KV-2 self-propelled gun

It wasn’t long before the Germans realized they had been ambushed. They reacted by driving off the road and into the mud. The mud slowed them down and made them easy targets. Kolobanov took out 21 more Panzers before he ran out of ammunition. After the battle, his crew counted 135 hits on his KV-1, none of which had penetrated its thick armour.

For his actions that day, Lieutenant Kolobanov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

KOLOBANOV’S KV-1

Cost: 465pts

Quality: Veteran

Weapons: One turret-mounted medium anti-tank gun with coaxial MMG, one turret-mounted rear-facing MMG, and one forward-facing hull-mounted MMG.

Damage Value: 10+ (heavy tank)

Special Rules:

•   Fierce Ambush: Whenever this unit fires from Ambush, it may fire its main gun twice, either against the same target or two different targets.

•   Slow

•   Armoured all round: no modifiers apply for penetration when shooting at the side, rear or from above. All shots count the full armour value.

Skills:

•   Deadeye

•   Skill Shot

•   Snap Shooter

•   Lucky

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Winter War!

KOLOBANOV’S FATE

After the war, he served with the Soviet occupation zone in East Germany, but was convicted of fraternizing with the enemy when one of his subordinates fled to the western side of Germany. Instead of being discharged, he was moved to the reserves, where he retired as a lieutenant colonel. Not content with the doldrums of inactivity, he got a job at the Minsk Auto Works, where he finally retired some years later.

He died in Minsk at the age of 82. In 1980, the villagers of Noviy Uchkhoz placed a monument at the site where Kolobanov’s tank was dug in. A KV-1 could not be found, so an IS-2 heavy tank was used instead.

In 2006 a monument to this great Russian hero was unveiled in Minsk.

R IS FOR…

Canada is sometimes overlooked as a major contributor to the Allied victory, which is unfair on many levels. The Canadians sent huge amounts of troops to fight and helped produce in enormous quantities the machines and supplies to ensure victory. One such example is the Ram tank. The Commonwealth needed tanks, and fast. Rather than wait for the Sherman, Canada took the M3 Lee chassis from the USA and developed their own turret and gun. By June 1941 they had built the first models and by the end of the war had produced a staggering 2,000 tanks, none of which saw service, but were of enormous use in training. The tank had a crew of five, a 6pdr gun and up to three machine guns, as well as a useful 25mph speed. The chassis did however equip the excellent Sexton self-propelled gun, the infantry carrying Kangaroo and a small number of flame-throwing tanks.

FRANCE

The Battle of France was perhaps over too quickly for French crewmen to develop the sort of skills seen amongst German tankers of the late war. However brief that fighting might have been, the French showed no lack of courage in individual actions, often achieving localized successes in encounters against Hitler’s Panzers. Once such occasion took place outside the village of Stonne in May 1940.

CAPTAIN PIERRE BILLOTTE

The son of French general Gaston Billotte, Pierre Billotte was in command of a Char B1 bis heavy tank during the heavy fighting around the town of Stonne. This was a vital strategic point on the road to Sedan. The town had already changed hands several times in earlier fighting when, on the 16th May 1940, Billotte’s company advanced against what were now German held positions. Despite coming under heavy fire from enemy guns and tanks, Billotte’s tank, nicknamed the ‘Eure’, broke through the opposing defences. In the action that followed he destroyed two Panzer IVs, eleven Panzer IIIs and two guns. The Char B’s thick armour shrugged off 140 hits from enemy guns and tanks without any of them penetrating.

BILLOTTE’S CHAR B1 BIS

Cost: 314pts

Quality: Veteran

Weapons: One turret-mounted light anti-tank gun with coaxial MMG, one forward-facing hull-mounted light howitzer, and one forward facing hull-mounted MMG.

Damage Value: 9+ (medium tank)

Special Rules:

•   Exceptional Commander: the normal one-man turret rule does not apply to this tank. It is not necessary to make an Order test when issuing an Advance order if the tank if not pinned.

•   Slow

•   Armoured all round: no modifiers apply for penetration when shooting at the side, rear or from above. All shots count the full armour value.

Skills:

•   Push Through

•   Adrenaline Rush

•   Strict Discipline

•   Lucky

S IS FOR…

Despite the up-armouring of all of their main battle tanks, the Germans still found their Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks to be vulnerable on their flanks, particularly to the massed firepower of Soviet anti-tank rifle squads. This archaic weapon was still used in huge numbers, and enough penetrating hits to the sides meant that something had to be done.

By placing simple large flat plates of steel, 4mm thick, hung suspended from iron stanchions, the Panzer crews gained a very good measure of protection, disrupting enemy anti-tank rifle bullets and light anti-tank rounds. Much of the work was done in the field, so many varying designs appear in photographs. These thin aprons of armour were called schürzen.

Other vehicles that used schürzen widely are StuGs, and there were smaller versions on Panthers, Jagdpanthers and Hetzers. They were also of some effect in combating bazooka and PIAT rounds.

BILLOTTE’S FATE

Billotte was imprisoned by the Germans after the fall of France, but escaped to England where he became de Gaulle’s Chief of Staff. Afterwards he took command of the 10th Division of the Free French in Europe. Following the war he went on to serve in various staff roles in the French Army, becoming the French military representative to the UN. Subsequently he enjoyed a successful political career as – amongst other things – minister of national defence. He died in 1992 aged 86.

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Char B1 bis

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