Heavy Panzer Division 505

heavy tank division 505
active	February 18, 1943 to May 8, 1945 (surrender)
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Branch of service	tank
Type	Panzer Division
structure	Headquarters company 1. – 3. Company workshop company
Second World War	Eastern Front (1943/45)

The heavy tank division 505 was an independent armored unit of the Wehrmacht in World War II , which was mainly equipped with Tiger and Tiger II battle tanks .

organization

structure

• Rod
• Headquarters company (three tanks)
  • News train
  • armored reconnaissance platoon (SPW)
  • Reconnaissance train
  • Pioneer train
  • Anti-aircraft platoon
• 1st - 3rd Tank company (14 tanks each)
  • Company squad (two tanks each)
  • 1st to 3rd platoon (four tanks each)
  • medical corps
  • Vehicle Repair group
  • Battalion I
  • Battleship II
  • Baggage train
• Workshop company
  • 1st and 2nd workshop train
  • Mountain train
  • Arms mastery
  • Radio mastery
  • Spare part group

Commanders

• February – August 1943: Major Bernhard Sauvant
• August – September 1943: Captain von Karlowitz
• September 1943 – November 1944: Captain Werner Freiherr von Beschwitz
• November 1944 – April 1945: Major Senfft von Pilsach

Special insignia

An attacking knight, armed with a lance and riding a horse, was painted on the tower of some tanks in the division.

history

The unit was formed on February 18, 1943; the first use took place at the battle in the Kursk Arch , where it was subordinated to the 9th Army equipped with 31 tigers . Although the stock of 26 operational tigers after two days of fighting was only six vehicles due to failures by anti-tank mines , the association was able to destroy 111 enemy tanks during this period. After the company was broken up, the department was subordinated to Army Group Center . At the end of June and beginning of July 1944, the division was subordinated to the 5th Panzer Division and was involved in the fierce defensive fighting in the initial phase of the Soviet summer offensive, Operation Bagration . Shrunk to 15 operational tanks, the detachment at Molodechno was withdrawn from the eastern front. In Ohrdruf the department was re-equipped with heavy tanks of the Tiger II type and used in defensive battles in Lithuania and East Prussia , in which it supported the 24th and 25th Panzer Divisions . She stayed in Poland , Lithuania and East Prussia until the end of the war . The unit fought in Warsaw , on the Narev , among others , and was involved in the retaking of Nemmersdorf on October 21, 1944. In the spring of 1945, the division defended Königsberg with its remaining tanks . The remnants of the unit were taken prisoner by the Soviets on the Curonian Spit .

Strength message	Oct. 1, 1944	Nov 1	Dec 1	Jan 15, 1945	Feb 5	March, 15
Actual strength	43	39	29	44	30th	2
Ready to use	32	36	11	17th	0	0
In repair	10	3	18th	27	30th	2
Losses (in the period)	2	6th	10	4th	13	30th

literature

• Gordon Williamson: German Army Elite Units 1939-45. , Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-84176-405-1 (English).
• Thomas L. Jentz : Tiger I & II. Combat and tactics. Podzun Pallas Verlag 2000, ISBN 3-7909-0691-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christopher Wilbeck: Sledgehammers. Aberjona Press 2004, ISBN 0-9717650-2-2 , p. 73
2. ^ David Glantz : The Battle of Kursk 2004. University of Kansas Press, ISBN 978-0-7006-1335-9 , p. 17
3. ^ Von Plato: History of the 5th Panzer Division , pp. 343-348
4. ↑ Thomas L. Jentz: Tiger I and II. Combat and tactics. , Podzun Pallas Verlag, ISBN 3-7909-0691-3 , p. 127