The article will focus on the military legend of the Third Reich - Otto Carius. This as-tanker from World War II knocked out a record number of tanks, received five wounds, and was awarded many military distinctions. In our country, his book "Tanks in the Mud" is still popular today - the memoirs of Carius Otto about that war, about the fighting vehicles of the Reich and the Soviet Union, about the valor of ordinary soldiers and the bitterness of defeat. War has always been and will be a tragedy of ordinary soldiers and civilians. Only for politicians does it remain a game and a topic for rewriting history. We will try to move away from politics and evaluation, and look at those events and the role of Otto Carius in them from the perspective of an outside observer.
Tank battle master
The name of the German tanker Carius Otto was widely used by the propaganda of the Third Reich. Together with the sergeant-major Panzerwaffe Kurt Knispel and the SS Haupsturmfuhrer Michael Wittmann, he became the legend of tank battles. It is believed that Otto Carius during his military career knocked out about 200 tanks and self-propelled guns, although he himself in his numerous interviews said that he did not count the wrecked cars.
The German command highly appreciated this tank ace, having awarded him many awards. Among them:
- Two Iron Crosses - 2 classes (1942) and 1 class (1943).
- Three badges "For the wound" - black (1941), silver (1943) and gold (1944).
- Medal "For the Winter Campaign 1941/1942" (1942).
- Two badges for a tank attack in silver (both in 1944).
- The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (1944).
And the highest reward of the Third Reich "Oak Leaves" in June 1944, tanker Otto Karius personally handed Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler.
"Germany above all"
Otto Carius was born on 05/27/1922 in the small town of Zweibruecken in southwestern Germany. He was 11 years old when the Nazis came to power. As soon as he reached adulthood, he volunteered to join the army. And his choice was obvious, because his father and older brother were already officers of the Wehrmacht, and Nazi propaganda demanded replenishment of the army by soldiers.
It was 1940, Otto twice rejected the commission, but he was persistent. He ended up in the 104th reserve infantry battalion, where he began to be trained as a tanker. After training, Otto Carius was credited with loading on the captured tank Panzer 38 (t) in the 21st Tank Regiment of the 20th Wehrmacht Division. He began his war on June 22, 1941, when his regiment crossed the border of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. But already on July 8, 1941, he was out of action with his first wound - the tank of Otto Carius blew up a shell of Soviet artillery.
The formation of tank ace
In August 1941, with the rank of Galun non-commissioned officer, Otto arrived in the 25th reserve tank battalion of the Wehrmacht, where he was trained and received the right to control the tank. He returned to his regiment in the winter of 1942 and immediately received a tank platoon under command. And already in the fall, with the rank of lieutenant, he commanded the 1st company of the 21st tank regiment of Army Group Center. On the Skoda Panzer 38 (t) tank, he takes part in battles near Orel, Kozelsky, Sukhinichi.
At this stage, the tanker's performance is zero. This is due to both the obsolete model of the tank and the fact that Otto's division was in secondary military positions, where there were no tank battles.
The first "Tiger"
January 1943 - Otto Carius leaves his division and goes to the 500th reserve tank battalion for training in the management of the new Pz.Kpfw.VI Tiger heavy tanks. These vehicles weighing 60 tons had powerful armor, an 88 mm cannon and two machine guns. The tank had a capacity of 700 horsepower, developed speeds of up to 45 km / h on the road and up to 20 km / h on the road, and was controlled very easily.
The first battle "Tiger" Otto Carius took in July 1943 near Leningrad as part of the 502th SS heavy tank battalion. From that moment on, the manner of conducting a tank battle of this ace manifests itself - do not climb on the rampage, attack from an ambush and suddenly. His motto is: "Shoot first, and if you can’t, then at least attack first." And it was then that his account of wrecked enemy vehicles began to grow.
"Tiger" No. 217 Carius is fighting near Leningrad, Narva, Dvinsk. On his account more than 75 wrecked Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns.
Tanker gaining experience
In his book Tigers in the Mud, Otto Carius describes in detail his first attack experience on the Tiger. In the summer of 1943, an offensive operation of the Wehrmacht took place near Leningrad. Soviet troops near Nevel break through the defenses and cut off the troops of Army groups Center and North from each other. The Tiger tanks were used by the command as a “fire brigade,” which was transferred to breakthrough sites. It is in this gap that a platoon of tanks of Lieutenant Otto Carius is sent as part of the 502nd SS Tank Battalion.
Here Karius organizes the first ambush, which includes 12 T-34 tanks. According to confirmed data, only two “thirty-four” could survive. In the battles near Nevel, in which the lieutenant took part until the end of 1943, he increases the number of enemy vehicles wrecked.
Tigers in battle
In January 1944, Otto Carius again took part in the battles near Leningrad. Here the tanks operate together with the infantry and cover the Germans' retreat to Narva. One of the episodes of those battles the tankman described in his memoirs.
That was March 17, 1944. Two Tigers — one commanded by Otto Carius and the other by sergeant major Kersher — destroyed 14 T-34 tanks and 5 anti-tank artillery mounts. But German technology suffered substantial losses from Soviet artillery. In addition, in the marshland, the heavy Tigers got stuck. In his memoirs, Carius noted that if the Soviet tanks acted in concert, the outcome of this battle would not be on their side.
In the 5 days of those battles, Otto's company destroyed 38 Soviet tanks, 4 self-propelled guns and 17 anti-tank guns. It was for these fights that Carius received the Oak Leaves from the hands of Heinrich Himmler himself. Along with him, the award was received by another tank ace - Johannes Belter, who accounted for 139 enemy tanks destroyed. But both were already not so sure of the victory of the German arms.
Over the course of their careers, the Tiger crew number 217 disabled 150 to 200 tanks and self-propelled guns, many anti-tank guns and, according to some, one aircraft.
The end of a military career
In July 1944, Otto received another serious wound and was sent for treatment. By the fall of 1944, Otto Carius, already injured five times, ended up on the Western Front.
In the winter of 1945, he became the commander of the self-propelled Yagdir installation of the 502nd tank battalion, and then commanded a platoon of Yagdirs. His cars are fighting with the allied forces. During the defense of Dortmund in the Ruhr Sack, Carius’s company destroyed about 15 American tanks.
And already on April 15, 1945, he and his brigade near the Ruhr were surrounded and, on the orders of the command, surrendered to American troops. In the prisoner of war camp near SaarbrĂĽcken, he did not stay long, and then in 1946 he was released. According to some reports, he left the camp fraudulently, according to others - he was released, because he did not take part in punitive operations.
Simple pharmacist
As it turned out, the tanker always dreamed of being a pharmacist. After the war, he works as an assistant pharmacist and studies. In 1952, Otto received a pharmacist diploma, and in 1956 opened his own pharmacy in Hershweiler-Pettersheim. In memory of the combat vehicle on which he fought, the pharmacy is called the Tiger.
The neighbors spoke of him as a warm-hearted and decent person, ready to help with advice and deed. It was here that Otto Carius wrote memoirs about the military service and tank battles. Until the age of 90, this most productive WWII tankman ran a pharmacy and led a quiet lifestyle.
Otto Carius died at the age of 93 on January 24, 2015 and was buried in the Herschweiler-Pettersheim Cemetery (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany).
“In battle, it’s better to deal with 30 Americans than with 5 Russians”
This is a quote from Otto Carius’s book, Tanks in the Mud: Memories of a German Tankman, published in 1960. Being an eyewitness of those grand events, in the book, Otto describes the real soldier's life, the nuances of propaganda, the conversations of soldiers and tank duels. Most of the book, which even today attracts the interest of historians and amateurs, tells of the "invincible" technique of Nazi Germany and the "rusty buckets" of the Soviet Union.
The German tankman and professional, the most successful Wehrmacht scorer in the book makes it possible to look at the terrible events of that war through the eyes of the enemy. The reader finds himself in an atmosphere of cruelty and bloodshed. And though long-time rivals have become allies today, but the point of view of an eyewitness to events is always interesting.
About fighting vehicles and propaganda
Otto Carius in his memoirs notes the dead-end development of tank building of those years, which went along the path of heavier vehicles. Worse than the Soviet "St. John's Wort", he considered only self-propelled guns "Yagdir", which became an easy target for artillery. The main advantage of the tank is mobility, maneuverability and firepower. And it was these qualities, according to Otto, that the Soviet T-34 tank combined.
In his memoirs, the author indicates that Nazi propaganda was absent inside the units. The soldier rallied the fighting spirit, not the Fuhrer. Someone fought for Hitler, someone for the country, someone for the sake of glory. Throughout the entire book of Otto Carius, the leitmotif traces the idea of ​​soldierly honor and valor, as well as respect for the enemy.
About Soviet cars and valor Ivanov
An eyewitness to the appearance of our T-34 tank on the battlefields compared it with a “ram hit”, and the appearance of “thirty-fours” at the beginning of the war, according to the author, would lead to the defeat of Germany in the winter of 1941. He believed that these light and maneuverable Soviet tanks terrified the Germans until the end of the war. With great respect, the author also describes the Joseph Stalin tank. These heavy tanks respected the enemy with their armor and 122 mm cannon.
In the book “Tigers in the Mud,” Otto Carius gives many episodes of the heroic behavior of the Russian military, whom the Germans called Ivan. Despite the fact that the book was published in 1960, the author repeatedly emphasizes that the soldiers on both sides did nothing but fulfill their duty. And they performed it bravely and with honor.
To summarize
Today, however, as always, there are many imaginary authors and researchers who rewrite history for the sake of the current political situation. That is why eyewitness accounts of events become a more valuable source of information.
And the fact that Otto Carius' book “Tigers in the Mud” continues to be in the top of historical literature, speaks of the desire of the modern reader to consider the situation from different points of view. An effective Reich tanker, a soldier doing his duty, cannot but arouse respect. Let him fought on the side of our enemy.
After all, respect for the enemy is not only a guarantee of self-respect, but also part of the military code of honor.