Chapter III, Part 9: Tigers in China
- Location
- Hamburg, Germany
Liuchow, China, September 4th 1944, 08:35:
Oberleutnant Michael Wittmann was driving his Tiger I tank on one of the many unnamed roads to the frontline. Wittmann was one of the few former Waffen-SS officers to be accepted by the Bundeswehr with their former rank. Most of them, if they were accepted at all, had to accept a lower rank, like the now Brigadier General Paul Hausser. Unknown to Wittmann, Hausser had regained the rank of Major General for his actions on the Eastern Front.
The Waffen-SS had been disbanded shortly after the Event due to obvious political circumstances and severe losses taken in the Minsk pocket. Most men and units were transferred to a separate branch considered to be a "penal army". Some officers had been arrested while the others, like him, had been transferred to the regular forces.
And so he was suddenly here in China. The Tiger Brigade was part of German assistance to the Japanese. The equipment was transferred from Germany by plane to Manchukuo. The six An-124 planes could transport one Tiger I tank and other equipment to Peking. From there the brigade was formed on the Shandong peninsula which became operational after 8 weeks.
As a part of Operation Ichi-Go, the capture of Liuchow was one of the most important. Liuchow had an airfield, which could allow US B-29 bombers to attack the Japanese home islands. The airfield had been evacuated before the Japanese were in a position to directly threaten it.
However, Chiang was forced to make a counter strike, partly forced by US-general Stillwell, who wanted to get the supreme command for himself, and partly to show the other members of the Kuomintang government, that he, Chiang, was able to defeat the Japanese. As such he had sent his elite tank units to this battle, amongst them was his son Wei-Kuo. He had received modern M4 Sherman tanks from the US. They were better than nearly all Japanese tanks, besides the Type 97 Shinhoto Chi-Ha, which was slightly inferior.
Rikugun Taii (Army Captain) Eji Takimoto looked out the viewing ports of his tanks cupola, searching for the enemy. Finding nothing, he looked down and reflected on the new tank he received.
Until a couple of weeks ago, Eji and his crew had driven a Type 97 Shinhoto and had been successful against the enemies of their Tenno. Which had been the reason he was one of a select few company leaders to get new equipment for the currently running Operations Ichi-Go and To-Go.
Compared to the old ride, their new sensha was a monster. The "Tora I" was about 3 1/2 times as heavy as their Type 97 had been, with a gun outranging every enemy tank, heavy armour and unexpectedly nimble for its size. Cross-country mobility was reportedly better than the M4 Shermans! Something about wide tracks and better length/width ratio than the allied constructions.
They were it the "Mahlzeitstellung" (lit. enjoy your meal position, meaning the Tiger was standing tilted, "creating" angled armour with it), if your Tiger was positioned in that way, it´s armour was impervious to any enemy tank in the theatre. (1)
The Tora still had some flaws too. While the uptime German MTU multi-fuel engine installed had lowered fuel consumption somewhat and raised top speeds for the Tiger I fleet, the fuel consumption was still a lot higher than that of the Type 97.
And it could be a hangar queen, not because of it's reliability which was quite good, but due to high maintenance arising from its complex design.
-
The Chinese were waiting for the Japanese behind strong defences. But when the Japanese came, the Chinese forces made the first move and carried out an aggressive attack, which seemed to surprise the combined German-Japanese command staff. Among the first to attack was Chiang Wei-Kuo's M4 Sherman.
The Chinese had overcome the first Japanese line and were attacking further. Chiang Wei-Kuo thought it was a mistake to attack so aggressively and felt that they were running headlong into an ambush.
Boom. The gun of his tank fired. It destroyed a Japanese Ha-Go light tank. Wei-Kuo looked for other targets when he suddenly saw a Chinese M4 being destroyed. He looked for an anti-tank gun but found none. Another M4 got hit. Now he could see that his unit under a counterattack from tanks that he had never seen before. It was a huge machine. His gun fired and although it was a direct hit, the tanks seemed to be undamaged.
-
The mighty 8.8 cm gun roared again. Wittmann saw a third M4 Sherman being destroyed by his gun crew. He felt a dull thump reverberate through the tank. He looked around for the source of fire and saw yet another Chinese tank. He ordered the gunner to engage the threat. Thump. He was hit again, but that didn't matter much, as the thick armour protected him. Now his gun was pointing at the M4.
Wei-Kuo looked at this monster. He was surprised, that it carried an Iron Cross, German markings. Germans? Here? If that was a German tank, then lit was likely a Tiger I.
Chiang's son did not know it, but the M4 with the shorter 75mm cannon the Chinese had gotten, was something German tank crews called "Panzeranklopfgerät" (panzer tapping gadget).
Wei-Kuo seeing that his rounds were ineffective decided to close in. However, that was a decision taken too late and the German tank responded to his earlier attack. The first shell the German fired damaged the starboard track and suspension. Immobilised and unable to return effective fire Wei-Kuo chose to give up and surrender.
-
Wittmann saw the enemy crew leaving the tank. He wanted to cease firing but the gunner was unable to listen to his orders on time. The next hit destroyed the engine of the M4, which was set the tank on fire. He then continued onwards. Panzergrenadiere, both German and Japanese, who followed his tank, would deal with the crew which was hiding somewhere.
-
Wei-Kuo and his crew had taken cover when they saw the enemy tank continuing its path of destruction. He ordered his men to run for their lines, when he saw other German and Japanese vehicles following the Tiger I tanks. However, his hideout was spotted and he soon became a prisoner of war.
-
Wittmann, further up, drove on. The Chinese counter strike would have been much more effective if they hadn't deciphered encrypted messages and had copies of orders from history books. They knew the orders of the Chinese HQ before the Chinese field officers even received them. In the history that would now never come, the Japanese had won the battle too, but this time the victory came easier, losses much fewer and the rout significantly larger.
The battle plan was to have German-Japanese armour attack the Chinese lines and aggressively advance deeper behind Chinese lines allowing the Panzergrenadiere behind to mop up pockets of infantry. The Chinese attack which proved to be successful initially but after the attack was blunted and crushed by German-Japanese armour lead to significant disorder in the Chinese forward lines.
Soon Wittmann met enemy infantry and fired his HE shells. As the other Tigers joined them, the Chinese infantry retreated towards their fortifications. But the new Axis tank forces were faster and pushed through the lines with ease, as they were only poorly manned. A counterstrike by the Allies including an attack by armour was fought off. Wittmann and his crew added another four kills to their numbers from the morning. Takimoto and his crew added three to theirs.
Liuchow airfield fell before dusk. The city of Liuchow resisted for three more days before it fell.
Chiang Wei-Kuo was a German prisoner of war and sent to the HQ immediately after he was recognised.
Gensui Sugiyama, commander of the Operation, asked Tokyo to order more tanks from Germany until a new and more capable Japanese tank design could be made.
(1) Author note: The following events have been proven and happened, showing that things in the field are never quite the same as on paper. For example in 1944 a Tiger destroyed a JS-1 at 4000m. One day Tiger 121 was hit over 250 (!) times by calibers up to 100mm and drove home under it´s own power, having dished out serious hurt. The Tiger´s reputation did not pop up without reason.
Oberleutnant Michael Wittmann was driving his Tiger I tank on one of the many unnamed roads to the frontline. Wittmann was one of the few former Waffen-SS officers to be accepted by the Bundeswehr with their former rank. Most of them, if they were accepted at all, had to accept a lower rank, like the now Brigadier General Paul Hausser. Unknown to Wittmann, Hausser had regained the rank of Major General for his actions on the Eastern Front.
The Waffen-SS had been disbanded shortly after the Event due to obvious political circumstances and severe losses taken in the Minsk pocket. Most men and units were transferred to a separate branch considered to be a "penal army". Some officers had been arrested while the others, like him, had been transferred to the regular forces.
And so he was suddenly here in China. The Tiger Brigade was part of German assistance to the Japanese. The equipment was transferred from Germany by plane to Manchukuo. The six An-124 planes could transport one Tiger I tank and other equipment to Peking. From there the brigade was formed on the Shandong peninsula which became operational after 8 weeks.
As a part of Operation Ichi-Go, the capture of Liuchow was one of the most important. Liuchow had an airfield, which could allow US B-29 bombers to attack the Japanese home islands. The airfield had been evacuated before the Japanese were in a position to directly threaten it.
However, Chiang was forced to make a counter strike, partly forced by US-general Stillwell, who wanted to get the supreme command for himself, and partly to show the other members of the Kuomintang government, that he, Chiang, was able to defeat the Japanese. As such he had sent his elite tank units to this battle, amongst them was his son Wei-Kuo. He had received modern M4 Sherman tanks from the US. They were better than nearly all Japanese tanks, besides the Type 97 Shinhoto Chi-Ha, which was slightly inferior.
Rikugun Taii (Army Captain) Eji Takimoto looked out the viewing ports of his tanks cupola, searching for the enemy. Finding nothing, he looked down and reflected on the new tank he received.
Until a couple of weeks ago, Eji and his crew had driven a Type 97 Shinhoto and had been successful against the enemies of their Tenno. Which had been the reason he was one of a select few company leaders to get new equipment for the currently running Operations Ichi-Go and To-Go.
Compared to the old ride, their new sensha was a monster. The "Tora I" was about 3 1/2 times as heavy as their Type 97 had been, with a gun outranging every enemy tank, heavy armour and unexpectedly nimble for its size. Cross-country mobility was reportedly better than the M4 Shermans! Something about wide tracks and better length/width ratio than the allied constructions.
They were it the "Mahlzeitstellung" (lit. enjoy your meal position, meaning the Tiger was standing tilted, "creating" angled armour with it), if your Tiger was positioned in that way, it´s armour was impervious to any enemy tank in the theatre. (1)
The Tora still had some flaws too. While the uptime German MTU multi-fuel engine installed had lowered fuel consumption somewhat and raised top speeds for the Tiger I fleet, the fuel consumption was still a lot higher than that of the Type 97.
And it could be a hangar queen, not because of it's reliability which was quite good, but due to high maintenance arising from its complex design.
-
The Chinese were waiting for the Japanese behind strong defences. But when the Japanese came, the Chinese forces made the first move and carried out an aggressive attack, which seemed to surprise the combined German-Japanese command staff. Among the first to attack was Chiang Wei-Kuo's M4 Sherman.
The Chinese had overcome the first Japanese line and were attacking further. Chiang Wei-Kuo thought it was a mistake to attack so aggressively and felt that they were running headlong into an ambush.
Boom. The gun of his tank fired. It destroyed a Japanese Ha-Go light tank. Wei-Kuo looked for other targets when he suddenly saw a Chinese M4 being destroyed. He looked for an anti-tank gun but found none. Another M4 got hit. Now he could see that his unit under a counterattack from tanks that he had never seen before. It was a huge machine. His gun fired and although it was a direct hit, the tanks seemed to be undamaged.
-
The mighty 8.8 cm gun roared again. Wittmann saw a third M4 Sherman being destroyed by his gun crew. He felt a dull thump reverberate through the tank. He looked around for the source of fire and saw yet another Chinese tank. He ordered the gunner to engage the threat. Thump. He was hit again, but that didn't matter much, as the thick armour protected him. Now his gun was pointing at the M4.
Wei-Kuo looked at this monster. He was surprised, that it carried an Iron Cross, German markings. Germans? Here? If that was a German tank, then lit was likely a Tiger I.
Chiang's son did not know it, but the M4 with the shorter 75mm cannon the Chinese had gotten, was something German tank crews called "Panzeranklopfgerät" (panzer tapping gadget).
Wei-Kuo seeing that his rounds were ineffective decided to close in. However, that was a decision taken too late and the German tank responded to his earlier attack. The first shell the German fired damaged the starboard track and suspension. Immobilised and unable to return effective fire Wei-Kuo chose to give up and surrender.
-
Wittmann saw the enemy crew leaving the tank. He wanted to cease firing but the gunner was unable to listen to his orders on time. The next hit destroyed the engine of the M4, which was set the tank on fire. He then continued onwards. Panzergrenadiere, both German and Japanese, who followed his tank, would deal with the crew which was hiding somewhere.
-
Wei-Kuo and his crew had taken cover when they saw the enemy tank continuing its path of destruction. He ordered his men to run for their lines, when he saw other German and Japanese vehicles following the Tiger I tanks. However, his hideout was spotted and he soon became a prisoner of war.
-
Wittmann, further up, drove on. The Chinese counter strike would have been much more effective if they hadn't deciphered encrypted messages and had copies of orders from history books. They knew the orders of the Chinese HQ before the Chinese field officers even received them. In the history that would now never come, the Japanese had won the battle too, but this time the victory came easier, losses much fewer and the rout significantly larger.
The battle plan was to have German-Japanese armour attack the Chinese lines and aggressively advance deeper behind Chinese lines allowing the Panzergrenadiere behind to mop up pockets of infantry. The Chinese attack which proved to be successful initially but after the attack was blunted and crushed by German-Japanese armour lead to significant disorder in the Chinese forward lines.
Soon Wittmann met enemy infantry and fired his HE shells. As the other Tigers joined them, the Chinese infantry retreated towards their fortifications. But the new Axis tank forces were faster and pushed through the lines with ease, as they were only poorly manned. A counterstrike by the Allies including an attack by armour was fought off. Wittmann and his crew added another four kills to their numbers from the morning. Takimoto and his crew added three to theirs.
Liuchow airfield fell before dusk. The city of Liuchow resisted for three more days before it fell.
Chiang Wei-Kuo was a German prisoner of war and sent to the HQ immediately after he was recognised.
Gensui Sugiyama, commander of the Operation, asked Tokyo to order more tanks from Germany until a new and more capable Japanese tank design could be made.
(1) Author note: The following events have been proven and happened, showing that things in the field are never quite the same as on paper. For example in 1944 a Tiger destroyed a JS-1 at 4000m. One day Tiger 121 was hit over 250 (!) times by calibers up to 100mm and drove home under it´s own power, having dished out serious hurt. The Tiger´s reputation did not pop up without reason.
