Richard Siegert - The Tiger from Poznań

THE

TIGER

FROM

POZNA

RICHARD SIEGERT

TRANSLATED BY MACIEJ SZCZSNY

This edition is taken from the Polish edition originally published by Wydawnicto

Pomost in 2010 as Tygrys Z Poznania

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by

PEN AND SWORD MILITARY

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Richard Siegert, 2021

ISBN 978 1 52677 917 5

eISBN 978 1 52677 918 2

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52677 918 2

The right of Richard Siegert to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

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The Tiger from Pozna by Richard Siegert is another instalment in the Festung Pozna 1945 series. For several reasons, for me, this is the most important one: I have a special, personal relationship with this title after meeting the author by chance in 2001 and with whom I conducted a very heartfelt and sincere correspondence. I would like to thank Dr Dieter Friese, head of Hilfsgemeinschaft ehem. Posenkmpfer , who forwarded my letter to Richard Siegert and informed him about my interest in German armoured vehicles from the Battle of Festung Pozna. I soon received a comprehensive reply from Richard Siegert, a name I didnt know at the time, along with a signed copy of his book. On the cover was the title Der Tiger von Posen [The Tiger from Pozna] and the author turned out to be the ex-gunner of the only fighting Tiger tank in Pozna in January and February 1945. I still treasure my copy of the book to this day.

Thats when our relationship, which I can now without any hesitation call a friendship, started, despite never meeting in person. Over the course of four years we exchanged dozens of letters, allowing us to investigate the story of Tiger and its crew, together. Richard Siegert contributed his memories, while I, living close to Pozna, helped him with numerous clues from the local area. This cooperation resulted in a book entitled Armoured Striking Reserve Poznan 1945 , first published by Pomost Publishing in 2003.

The friendship which began then and developed until Siegerts death in February 2012, was a completely new and unexpected experience for me. Richard Siegert was the first German Wehrmacht soldier Id met, bearing in mind that the Wehrmacht army had caused the Poles such great suffering and harrowing experiences during the war. Likewise, I know for him it was surprising that a 30-year-old Pole had such a strong interest in his personal story.

I wanted to find out as much as possible about the man who sent the letters and his current views on these past events. My head was filled with questions and doubts, but these were soon dispelled thanks to the other members of Hilfsgemein- schaft ehem. Posenkmpfer . Never have I met individuals so strongly and sincerely engaged in unifying the Polish, German and Russian people. In one of his letters from April 2005, Richard Siegert wrote to me: 2005 was declared the year of Polish-German friendship. Weve been cultivating such a relationship since 2001. Were faster than our politicians!

This is why its been my desire to share The Tiger from Pozna with new readers as soon as possible. Previously only published in Germany and Poland, the story of the Tigers crew is unbelievable and provides new and detailed information regarding the battle for Pozna in 1945.

The Polish edition was extended with additional chapters: Guarded by a Polish Sentry in Part One and Captivity in Part Two. Theres also a new chapter regarding Gefreiter Alfred Leupold.

I asked the author to elaborate further on his period of captivity as I believed it would interest new readers. At the time, few memoirs of German soldiers held captive by Poles or Russians were available in Polish bookstores. However, these are only individual experiences, stored deep within the authors memory and which, as he himself claims, are unable to fully reflect the mental and physical suffering experienced by a person living on the brink of starvation and exhaustion for four years. Richard Siegert vividly describes his experiences from this period of his life and, most importantly, doesnt describe himself as an innocent victim. He was fully aware that his suffering was an inevitable consequence of Germany losing the Second World War, as well as a result of his own decisions.

Maciej Karalus

Pomost Publishers

It took nearly fifty years after the end of the Second World War for the former enemies to start developing friendly relations.

German soldiers had fought for almost five weeks in desperate circumstances in Festung Pozna, right until the bitter end. Polish people have often asked what for? This very question was also posed by young Maciej Karalus, who studies these circumstances from a historical perspective. He also analysed German documentation regarding the battles for Pozna in order to search for the answer. He discovered that the main drive for the German soldiers wasnt the wish to preserve Nazism, but rather their loyalty to the soldiers oath. This is the main theme of my memoires.

I would like to thank Maciej Karalus for the work put into preparing the Polish edition of The Tiger from Pozna and Pomost publishing house for its publication, which was made possible thanks to the political and systematic changes that have taken place in Poland over the last sixteen years.