Helmut Schneider - Tiger Battalion 507: Eyewitness Accounts from Hitlers Regiment

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

HELMUT SCHNEIDER Aged 19, Schneider volunteered for the German Panzer Arm in March 1941. He was one of the first five men sent to the Eastern Front. He took part in the Caucasus campaigns in and joined the Heavy Panzer Battalion 507 in 1943. He next moved on to the panzer grenadiers where he was given a Wanderer bicycle, a Panzerfaust and an assault rifle and was sent to fight the US Army on the Western Front. His decorations included the Panzer Assault Badge and the Iron Cross Second Class.

Robert Forczyk is a leading expert on the history of armored warfare, and he has made a particular study of the Second World War on the Eastern Front. His many books include Georgy Zhukov, Demyansk 1942-43, Red Christmas: The Tatsinskaya Airfield Raid 1942, Rescuing Mussolini: Gran Sasso 1943, Sevastopol 1942: Von Mansteins Triumph, Leningrad 1941-44, Model, Erich Von Manstein and Panther Vs T-34: Ukraine 194

Chapter 1

FORMATION AND INDUCTION,
HEAVY PANZER BATTALION 507

The period of time covered in this chapter extends from October 1943 to March 1944. As a result of the disaster at Stalingrad and giving up the Caucasus the German front line, particularly the southern sector, had been greatly shortened. Nevertheless, following the offensive by the Ukrainian fronts in January 1944, it was anything but stable, not least because of the massive thinning out as a consequence of the expected invasion in France.

The wheels must roll for Victory! - an optimistic message on an early-war train.

Rail transport in the autumn of 1943 for members of 1st Battalion,
Panzer Regiment 4, from Vienna to Angers in France to join personnel
of Heavy Panzer Battalion 507. The photo shows Karl Krestan (1)
and Heinz Zinke (2) at the wagon doors.

Large areas of Soviet territory conquered by the Wehrmacht in the summer of 1941, shortly after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, had long since had to be abandoned. The overall situation provided few signs giving rise to optimism. Despite that, we men of the panzer arm could look forward to the new panzer of which much had been predicted and for which selected men had been picked out since the beginning of 1943. We had convinced ourselves that, if handled correctly, its armour and firepower would provide a kind of life insurance!

The initial mustering of personnel for Heavy Panzer Battalion 507 took place in Vienna. Officers, NCOs and men forming the nucleus came from Panzer Regiment 4, its Reserve and Training Battalion, and from Reserve Battalion 500 at Paderborn, which had meanwhile become the home port of all Tiger battalions. The distribution of the available personnel into companies and specific roles would take place later, once the instruction at Paderborn had begun.

When Gefreiter Helmut Schneider returned to Maria Enzersdorf at the end of his bombed-out leave on 24 October 1943, the entire battalion had already moved on from Vienna. Reserve and Training Battalion 4 at Mdling, to which Schneider first reported, had no precise knowledge as to the whereabouts of his company and battalion but spoke vaguely of a deployment to Italy. Sensing that this was a prelude to his being pocketed by the Mdling Battalion he made his excuses and left for the Frontsammelstelle (Front Assembly Post) from where he was directed to the Frontleitstelle (Front Control Post) in Paris.

By this point, Schneider had experience of a chaotic organisation. We take up his diary entries:

25 October 1943

I took a train from Vienna to Mulhouse in Alsace. Here I tarried awhile before I got the Paris express at the crack of dawn. The Paris Frontleitstelle told me to wait. I did some sightseeing.

28 October 1943

Frontleitstelle Paris told me to go by train to Rouen. I arrived there early next morning. Frontleitstelle Rouen, which took some finding, re-directed me to Le Mans.

29 October 1943

At Le Mans I was told to go to Angers. The next train was at 2300 hrs. I did some sightseeing first, then boarded the through-express for Nantes. I had a compartment to myself and fell asleep. I awoke just as we pulled away from Angers. Therefore I went on to Nantes and spent the remainder of the night in the Wehrmacht soldiers hostel.

30 October 1943

My connection back to Angers left at 1100 hrs and arrived at 1300 hrs. An hour later I took the local stopping train to Baug where the battalion was said to be located, but in fact only the staff company. Since nobody was going to my company today I went on a drinking bout and slept in the quarters of a boozing companion.

31 October 1943

A despatch rider of our company took me to Longu where the billets were dispersed across the village. I was shown to a gymnasium, home to fifty men. The life there was leisurely and the duties the best ever. When I reported to the commanding officer he told me I was scheduled for the Tiger commanders course. The word course always gave me a thrill, always something new to learn. It was a great honour for me as a Gefreiter, a private soldier, to be selected to command such a valuable fighting machine.

3 November 1943

The selected course participants were driven to Baug where a train had been laid on to take us the same day to Paris and then down the Moselle stretch. On the fourth day we reached our destination at Paderborn. The town was the mustering garrison for the Tiger battalions while Panzer Regiment 11, the training and recruitment battalion, had been relocated to Bielefeld.

Late autumn 1943 at Le Mans, France: Heavy Panzer Battalion 507 was formed
near here from elements of 1st Battalion, Panzer Regiment 4, and other units.
It is not known if the chteau was used for accommodation purposes
or was merely visited as a local attraction.

7 November 1943

The course began with separation into three groups: panzer commanders, gunners/loaders and radio operators. A special training course was planned for drivers, workshop personnel and repair staffs. The commanders group consisted of officers and sergeants, three corporals and myself, a private. Initially this caused me the problem of where to eat. I was not entitled to dine in the officers or NCOs mess, and lower ranks ate at a different time. Finally Unteroffizier Ziegeler managed to have me included as an honorary NCO in his mess by virtue of my having been his classmate on the NCOs course at Stary Krym. Otherwise the course was very interesting and enjoyable.

Map showing the location of the Troop Training Depot at Wezep near Zwolle
in Holland where Heavy Panzer Battalion 507 was brought up to strength
with Tigers and other vehicles.

15 November 1943

My parents came to visit and reserved good rooms in the town for a stay of eight days. My duty hours, consisting of much instruction together with practical training on the panzers, lasted from six in the morning until six at night with one hour for lunch. I spent the evenings with my parents.