Panzerknacker! German Tank Killer Aces
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- čas přidán 19. 05. 2023
- A special kind of ace in the German armed forces was called the 'Panzerknacker' or 'Armour Breaker' - men who destroyed enemy tanks with handheld weapons. Find out how they did it and the special award they received.
Dr. Mark Felton FRHistS, FRSA, is a well-known British historian, the author of 22 non-fiction books, including bestsellers 'Zero Night' and 'Castle of the Eagles', both currently being developed into movies in Hollywood. In addition to writing, Mark also appears regularly in television documentaries around the world, including on The History Channel, Netflix, National Geographic, Quest, American Heroes Channel and RMC Decouverte. His books have formed the background to several TV and radio documentaries. More information about Mark can be found at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Fe...
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Credits: US National Archives; Library of Congress; baku13; Plber; Bundesarchiv.
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The Panzerknacker deserves an award for …. Best Award Name.
I worked for a German Engineer officer who said he earned 1 & a half of these awards. He laughed about the half. He said he blew the track off a vehicle & someone else finished it, thus he considered it a half kill.
I suppose it's logical. A mobility kill would be a half kill lol
@@scrappydoo7887 that's what I thought, it was funny anyway.
While stationed in Germany with the US Army in 1974 I met a older German fellow working on our base. We had a short talk about WW2 and I brought up the use of the Panzerfaust. He told me he has been a Sargent in a Waffen SS recon unit and had knocked out 8 t-34's in one day. I asked him if he was awarded the Knights Cross, and his replay has "Kinghts Cross? We never saw anybody that ever got a knights cross. They gave me the award we wore on the arm, One gold and three silver. I could have knocked out more t-34's that day but I ran out of PanzerFausts". He said he later surrenderd to the Americans driving an American made Jeep they had captured from the Russians. Maybe a BS story, but his laughing at perhaps being awarded the Knights Cross made it seem more believable.
The US supplied numerous jeeps to the USSR through Lend Lease.
So that is very possible.
Baumholder, 1981-1983. We named our track "Panzerknacker" Alpha 1/39 Inf.
Knight's Cross was often typically awarded to officers. Not all the time, it's just something I noticed when reading about wartime personnel and seeing them in uniform. If the guy was enlisted, despite doing all those tank kills, that sounds real that he would not receive the Knight's Cross.
@@Warmaker01 plenty of NCOs received the Knights Cross and I know of at least one enlisted man, but people in the SS had to be put forward more times for each level of the iron cross than the Wehrmacht.
Lot of guys didn’t get medals they should have
My great grandfather served on the eastern front as a Captain and was awarded two silver panzerknacker decorations. He once told me that most soldiers using a Haftholladung died on the way back to the foxholes after they completed the mission. In the beginning they had the element of surprise but when running back they were shot by supporting infantry or tanks.
Liar
@@nathanworthington4451 oh.. and you know this how kid??
Nuh-uh
@@trance9158 oh....you're lying hun
God Bless your grandfather. He was on the right side. WW2 was Man vs. Evil and Man lost
Crazy how simple but effective the panzerfaust was
Late 1942 is when you really start seeing better hand held anti-tank infantry weapons. The American Bazooka enters service in that time. The Germans capture an example during Tunisia and sometime in 1943 they build upon it and make the Panzerschreck. The British PIAT enters service mid-1943. The Panzerfaust enters service in 1943 also.
IOW, 1943 on, tank / AFV crews had to be real careful. And all this is excluding anti-tank guns that have gotten bigger, heavier, nastier.
Not so simple when you consider the science and engineering behind the shaped charge and propellants
The Soviets countered the effective range of the Panzerfaust by letting advance infantry in 100m before the own tanks, reducing significant the losses of tanks, at the cost of their soldiers.
Unfortunately after shooting the Panzerfaust the soldier who fired was an easy target due to the exaust fumes.
This video shows some of the best "Panzerknacker", but the big amount of soldiers just firing (and maybe also hitting) a tank and being killed after their shot seems incredible to mee. So one could say, that the system Panzerfaust (soldier + PzFaust) was considered by German High Command just in the same way as a Soviet infantryman: cheap cannon fodder.
@@scrappydoo7887 True, but once they had that figured out, they were very simple devices to manufacture.
@@Amputationsbesteck i have to agree, at the latter stages they were throwing anyone into the fray. pretty good cheap weapon though. usually the germans weapons and equipment was over compilcated, and expensive compared to allied weapons.
In our age of $50 million aircraft, the panzerfaust seems the epitome of cost-effectiveness.
Javelin today
If the population are willing to fight, a city becomes a very difficult thing for an armoured division to take.
RPG-7 has entered the chat....
@@unhippy1gonna need around 10 for most modern tanks
@@Fronverjl Number doesn't matter actually. You can't destroy most modern tanks with rpg7. You can only immobilize them. Which is enough.
Peichl was clearly an exceptional soldier...his ' handful ' of awards were quite staggering, when you consider what they actually were and for.... Iron Cross 1st, 2nd, Knights.. German Cross in Gold..Close Combat Clasp in Gold..Wound Badge in Gold.. Infantry Assault Badge in Silver...as well as fighting from the beginning to the end of the War, in all the major theatres/ fronts....it's great to see him mentioned in one of your videos Dr. Felton.
Pretty amazing fella! One can argue that the Close Combat Clasp in gold was more redirected even than the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross - respected more by the infantry men. Only about 660 or so of the gold Close Combat Clasps were awarded during the war.
Wound badge in gold? He practically had a ticket home and decided to keep going back to the fight to the very end. I have to respect that.
And people wonder why some are so fascinated by the German army of WWII. For reasons like this. The Germans put great value on individual heroism. Unlike many other nations. Where you out the armed service before the individual. The Germans were very keen on showing their awards. Wearing them into combat.
Like Napoleon said “men will fight long and hard for a piece of ribbon”
Nothing says heroic like rounding up unarmed women and children, making them strip and then machine gunning them in a pit. The Germans were so proud of this heroism that they took iots of pictures to show their kids and weraboos like TheRealDill. Bet you also adore the confederacy.
Meh
or probably simply historical whitewash
@@kbanghart meh what. That’s not even a proper response.
@@kbanghartWay to contribute with your intelligence professor.
21 tanks, died 1999, he would of had some stories to tell
the stories who don t want to hear from the allies
The only Story he told many guys who wrote books was that he never killed 21 tanks and he dosnt know why this myth become popular. Buy books about Tankhunters, its a fact
Usual BS stories spread by Germans, using the fact there was Iron Curtain and data could not be crosschecked. On the other hand, Americans and British did want to hear such stories, to feel better about perspective war against USSR.
Best heroic soldiers of WW2.
Did not know this award existed. Thanks and great work Dr. Felton.
These guys have balls knocking out tanks in this fashion
My grandpa fought in Berlin in 1945, he met an short guy with really big glasses and his arm was full of tank destruction badges. He later saw him dead on the street.
Rip unkown hero
Německé bandity není potřeba uctívat
@@fanda789 Pravda, stejně jako čeští vrazi německých civilistů po válce. Ať všichni společně shoří v pekle.
Nazi.
Mark. Thanks for providing my Saturday Night Entertainment!
It's nice to hear when some of these extremely brave soldiers end up living long lives after the war.
These were the lucky ones. Many didn't.
They were not particularly brave, just selected to be propaganda tools.
I disagree. They were minions doing a job as a NAZ%
They should have been done with and not survived
@@rg20322 We have new ones nowadays, antifa and leftists that love cuck pron, drink soy, and enjoy the low-t lifestyle.
@@rg20322 I'm assuming if you could, you would allow Bolsheviks to push all the way through allied France?
Thank you Mark, my grandpa had one of those from the Russian campaign, and I always thought it was his regimental or military branch insignia. So he got that from manually destroying tanks, incredible. I am very proud of how brave and kind my grandpa was and I am glad he made it back alive unlike his 5 brothers, he was riddled with bullets and had shrapnel lodged ih his body and he went through Russian cold and captivity. 😵 He was never afraid of nobody or nothing, now I know why.
A Nazzi dad?
@@henryrollins9177 FFs u mppt 🤷🤦.
Ein wahrhaftigrr großer Held.
Prostě nacista oddaný Hitlerovi.Dnes ostuda rodiny.
@@henryrollins9177better a Nazi dad than a muslim dad !
The story of Eugene Vaulot is interesting. Took out multiple Soviet tanks during the Battle in Berlin before being KIA by a sniper. He was part of the SS 33rd Charlemagne Grenadier Division, whose greatly depleted forces were amalgamated with the Nordland Division. I believe he was also one of the last handful of soldiers awarded the Knight's Cross. Many of the surviving members of that unit were executed as traitors upon return to France. Perhaps a video on that unit in the future, Mr. Felton! Cheers
Edit: Scratch that. I've seen you've already done one
It's common knowledge France supported the Communists in two wars so what did they expect? Stunods should have never returned.
@@hansgruber650 they never returned they were given back from allies thats why they should have gone east like some did because atleast they survived unlile those who trusted evil allies
Heroes of the world ❤❤❤❤❤
My admiration for any soldier displaying levels of bravery like that goes way off the charts. War proves that some people, really do stand out as exceptional.
Excellent piece. 2.3kg of HE knocks out 23 tons of tank. That's engineering! Panzerfaust, armored conflict up close and personal.
Look up the munroe effect.
My German teacher was one of the 5000 that survived a soviet pow camp and came home in 1955. He brought in everything one day to show us. Amazing what he had collected from his service and in the pow camp. Sadly he died in 2005.
More specifically; one of 5000 Stalingrad veterans who survived Soviet camps. Around 2 million in total survived POW camps in the east, out of a total of roughly 3 million POW's.
Was a chap on my road conscripted into the SS in 1944. He was a pak gunner and said the soviet tank crews were inexperienced and if you got a near miss on the tank they would swerve, too fast, this stalling the tank and then you'd put another round through them and knock it out. Obviously, didn't always work for more experienced crews and it didn't work when he fought the western allies during the Ardennes offensive
Those were awards that carried a lot of respect basically hand to hand combat and they survived with a lot of machine gun fire on their tail .
I truly can't imagine how it feels to sneak up to your 20th target.
Glad to see that you could find more great content to post and let us enjoy today.
Well done. It is interesting to note that a Panzer IV was used as the tank motif for the badge. In 1957 an almost identical badge was issued for Bundeswehr veterans to wear. The lack of swastika on the badge made this a simple affair with some veterans retaining Third Reich era awards. A similar badge was awarded for single handed destruction of an aircraft by machine gunners. The system was identical as was the badge, except the tank was replaced by an airplane. Both badges are rare, with the airplane badge being significantly more scarce.
Looks more like a Panzer III to me.
@@Chilihead3712 Based on the tank depicted having 8 road wheels, it's more likely to be PzKpfW IV than a III which (usually) only had 6 road wheels per side.
@@Riceball01
Very true. The most common variant of the Panzer III was the Ausf. E which had 6 road wheels on each side. But Ausf. B to Ausf. D had 8 road wheels.
Personally I always count the return rollers. When I count 3 it is a Panzer III, when I count 4 it is a Panzer IV. Combined with the lower hull and the thinner cannon this, albeit very stylized, depiction struck me as a Panzer III.
@@Chilihead3712 So, are return rollers a more reliable way of telling the difference between a PzKpfw III & a IV?
@@Riceball01 More reliable than counting the road wheels? Yes. Foolproof? No, as there are even different numbers of return rollers in some variants (Panzer III Ausf. A had 2). I am no expert and it is just a neat way for myself to distinguish the Panzer 3 and Panzer 4 (3=3, 4=4).
Thank You!!! Finally, a Panzerfaust is not called a "Rocket" on an informative vid.
Its so freekin' frustrating to hear/read that a panzerfaut is a 'rocket' when its a simple dynamic propulsion recoilless launcher.
Doing a vid on just the Panzerfaust series and the differences between would be an awesome.
I want to hear about an Me 163 with wing mounted panzerfaust, the German version of "Bazooka Charlie" . If need be, I will settle for taking out T34s from a Fiesler Storch.
Recoiless gun
@@Eric-kn4yn Yes!
Its form of recoilless is using its propellant charges weight and velocity in dynamic counter expulsion rather than pushing a counter weight (iron/water/plastic) to achieve the recoilless effect.
Panzerknackers had some pretty large stainless steel balls clanking between their legs.
Ah, so the British term "knackered" comes from the Anglo Saxon/ German phrase meaning broken or "done in". Interesting, Mark.
Yep, English is just a bastard language.
Ummm no it doesn’t. It comes from the “knackering” of horses, ie; du nutting them. Making geldings of them.
@@evilstorm5954 Ummm you're on the right track from the wrong direction. It comes from slaughtering old useless broken horses. Knacker, knackery, knacker's yard, knackered. Knackers/knackering as in testicles is the breaking of a stallion into a gelding. English is largely derived from Old German as a language, so yes that's where knacker comes from.
Whereas the German word comes from the verb knacken, to crack or break open, with -er added (same as in English) to mean a person or thing that does the action described by the verb.
both words probably have the exact same root.
If it’s out there. Mark will find it. And bring the story back to life.
He has me riveted every time.
@@dustylover100
Agreed, I feel I’ll miss out if I don’t catch every episode.
The Germans were fond of recognizing outstanding individuals in a country where logic and science still guided how things were done. It takes a lot of initiative and a bit of "crazy" to try to knock out a 30-40 ton tank with a handheld weapon. There were "Tiger" Aces (Michael Wittman with his Tiger I crew, etc.,) but they had 100mm of frontal armor and an 88mm gun to use. To be a tank killer ace was a special level of overcoming personal fears of facing those enemy tanks, knock them out, then come back for more. Outstanding video and excellent comments by those who knew the real aces. Great job Dr. Felton!
The first time I heard the term panzerknacker, it was the name of a stuka model (the G2) I had as a kid that had big antitank guns ... I learned about these tank aces later. Great video once again!
More excellent and important history from Sir Felton!
Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Awesome video! Didn’t expect to see this update this weekend!
Keep all the great little details of history coming !
Hello Dr. Felton! Thanks for your videos.
Another great video to watch on this day from the Great Dr. Mark Felton!
Thank for your excellent work.
Great video Mark, always enjoyable and interesting.
Most excellent video nugget of fascinating history! Thanks Dr. Felton!
Awesome Doctor Felton! Great research.
wow! x21 Tank kills with handheld that man must of had x21 lIVES!
Excellent and detailed as always. Thank you Doc for this
After a hard days work These videos Dr Mark Felton produces literally makes it all worth it
I love when I get notifications of your videos. I am well read and have researched WW2 thoroughly, you teach me something every time. Thanks.
Thank you Dr Felton for another great Video
Extremely interesting. Thank you for the insightful and educational presentation.
Love it ; Armour breaker , The Germans had some good terminology . !
Thank You Dr. Mark Felton ' You're The # 1 Best Of War History Aces.
The kills of Hauptmann Gunther Viezenz were debatable, and probably his 20+ kills is a myth than fact. His Soldbuch logged “only” 7 panzer destructions. He never admitted that he had that many 21 kills. Reportedly there was a photo of him in Bundeswehr uniform wearing a single gold badge and two silver badges, which corresponds to the WW2 period historic photo of him in Wehrmacht uniform wearing 7 silver badges. All indications of his kills are more likely to be in 7.
The top Panzerknacker was most likely Leutnant Heinrich Zubrod from 189 Infanterie Division. He destroyed 13 tanks in the western front during a relatively short period of time and was filmed in the propaganda newsreel Die Deutsche Wochenschau. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross but was killed in action on 1.27.1945
I think it is still possible that Viezenz destroyed 21 tanks single-handedly, but that was never officially confirmed as Lt. Zubrod. Maybe the answer to who was the top infantry tank killer is long buried into war history.
Rest in peace hero.
You cant where 7 silver badges , he just said . Once you get to 5 you have a gold one . And seeing as it is a black and white photo they must of been gold badges , or at least two or three of them
@@danjames5552 Technically you can not, but for chaos of the war it is more than normal to see the issuing and replacement of medals delayed. Also looking at the b/w photo of Viezenz if he was wearing both silver and gold grades there would be some difference in coloration. At least gold would appear darker but his badges appeared all white indicating seven silver badges
@@boanyang9201 they said in the film you can only wear 4 silver , and go look again at the shade then because it's obvious that you did not before, and don't say you did because you did not . You can't wear 7 silver no mater how much it suits your argument.
@@danjames5552 never say never. I wouldnt doubt it. The silver badge was instituted, then later, the gold badge for 5 kills was added. Probably realized it would be too distracting to have a sleeve of silver badges.
One of your very best. Thank you
Another absolute banger from Mark!
Always interesting, Dr. Felton. Thank you again for your work.
Tank you very much for this episode. 😊
Thanks Mark, another brilliant video
Interesting that the tank shown on the destruction award is PzKfw 4 rather than an Allied tank.
It might be that the tank symbolized the soldier as a "two-legged tank", doing the work of a war machine.
maybe they reused a tank medal for that rather than making new one
@@i.hate.swedish.ISRAELUBERALLES thats a likely answer
The reason why a PzKfw 4 tank is shown on the destruction award, instead of an Allied tank, is to avoid potential copyright infringement issues. It's important to understand that manufacturers of the Allied tanks could have raised legal objections if their tank designs were used as emblems without proper permissions.
@@hobbyrider2 Sounds reasonable.
Always informative !
Read a story, a Danish SS unit on the Eastern front the first time they got their hands on a panzerfaust, they accidentally discharged it indoors while standing around it. The warhead didn't hit any soldiers, but a couple of them got severely burned by the exhaust. It really was something new and different when it was introduced.
A great very interesting video Mr.Felton.
Another fantastic documentary doctor felton, liam from the west of Ireland
Thanks for showing us your panzerknockers
Always a good Saturday when I get notified of a new mark felton video
Outstanding video and presentation.
Simple but effective!! Well done!
Thank you for the lesson.
Always something new!
Idk what I would do without mark
Great video about an interesting topic; needless to say as always. You can see another ace in every military sense at 4:50: Major General Dr. Franz Bäke. A dentist in civil life, he was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords and three tank destruction badges (which is quite unusual for a tank commander). He was commanding officer of armoured division "Feldherrenhalle 2" at the end of the war. He survived the war and became a dentist again. Since my remark is not meant to be hero worship and only for historical reasons, I don't want to leave it unmentioned that Dr. Bäke is said to have been a high ranking leader in a SA-Sturmabteilung, too. However, I don't know any more about his political leanings. Maybe he deserves a video of his own?
Testicular fortitude more like, Mark. Another very well-told and educational video. Thank you.
My first action every time before I start a video by Dr. Felton : Thumb up.
The Panzerfaust had different ranges and was inproved over tiime. The first one had only a range of 30 m and the second one had a range of 60 m than they increased the range again on to 100 m and a 150 m version was produced at the end of the war. The Panzerfaust 60 version was the most produced and used one.
The trajectory of those weapons, meant you had to be a very good shot indeed.
Great research Mark, you always deliver.
Very interesting indeed 👍
Wow!!! Very neat topic!!!!
The "Beagle Boys" from the Walt Disney/Carl Barks comics were translated to "Panzerknacker" in the german versions. In german it also means a criminal who violently opens a safe.
Because another word for Tresor is Panzerschrank in german.
Love this stuff
Either this felton fellow is the best historians ever Or a time traveller to know so much And I don't believe hes the best historian
as always, a very interesting video & thanx for posting!🤓🇺🇸
Great video
Amazing thanks my friend....
🇺🇸
Finland had a very similar tank hunting badge, entirely fabric, marked with a line drawing of a T-34 with an explosion on the turret.
Your stories are so interesting!
Even though the Panzerknacker was an award for the enemy, this American still respects the valor it honored among the Wehrmacht soldiery.
My grandfather was a German WW2 veteran (he would have preferred not to go to war...) and I never heard him say anything bad about the other side. Except the Russians.
I had family on both sides of the World Wars, and while I am far more knowledgeable about my relatives in the U.S Army, I know that my family from Germany had no hatred for any of the Allies, except, as you said, the Russians.
excelente como siempre, un saludo.
Always wanted ro know what that award was for . Thanks mark forthe sharing of information. Have followed your u tube channel for quite a long time. Appreciate the nany historical information. Tou are one in a million. You do a very good job. Thank you respectfully david blackburn
What men can do for a reward is unbelievable.
I got that badge in first Red Orchestra, was so proud of it
Oh shit time to wake the homies up new Mark Felton drop
Thank you.
what a lovely set of panzerknackers
He never spoke about it, but my grandfather earned his iron cross second class by knocking out a tank on the eastern front with one of those Hafthohlladungen.
Interesting Dr Felton
The courage of these men is astounding.
Very interesting topic. 👌🏻👍🏻
Great work as always, professor! Thank you and please consider a show on proximity fuses from the US in the future. Cheers.
Very good! :)
It is a little know fact that ReichsMarshall Herman Goring was a notorious “bratwurstknacker” who destroyed all forms of sausages within a 1kM radius!
Little known, but quite evident! LOL!
He was also a top fighter ace in WW1 and an extremely brave man, and highly intelligent.
In fact, cumulative charges were invented not by the Germans, but by two Hungarian military engineers, Schardin and Misznay. A detonation producing a hot gas jet is still called "Schardin-Misznay effect" after them. This is what made possible to build the Panzerfaust, and later the RPG, HEAT armor piercing rounds, and many other lovely devices of international friendship.
The first functional anti-tank mines were also made by the Royal Hungarian Army. They were a simple wooden frame, with a flat explosive charge held in the middle by a steel wire mesh. On some photos made in the Castle of Buda on the day of German occupation of Hungary, March 19, 1944, German paratroopers can be seen picking up these mines.
So Mr Viezenz received his awards in July 1944. He saw Berlin fall a year later. Then in 1989 he probably watched the Berlin wall being torn down. And welcomed the German reunification in 1990 - 1991. Amazing things to witness in just one lifetime.
My grandpa was born in 1920 and had this Medal. He got it together with the Iron cross for destroying Tanks with Mines in September 42 in Russia (Heeresgruppe Mitte). He had the Sturmabzeichen and Ostmedaille too. He got several times shot and hurt by the Enemies and had the Verwundetenabzeichen in silver. In 43 He was deployed to the Western Front. After the D day He became a prisoner of war and had to work in the cherbourg at a supply harbour. He got Released 22nd August 1946. He allways said that He was treated fine as a prisoner.
Na západní frontě byla celkem pohoda,z Ruska by se už nevrátil,tam by a ním zacházeli stejně,jak Němci se Sověty.
man they loved badges!