Tiger Command! by Bob Carruthers

Author:Bob Carruthers [Carruthers, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783830725
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2013-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

The day at Paderborn was an important one. Instead of firing from fixed positions, the crew was now to practice firing from the tank itself. In order to locate the target, they roamed over the range. Bobby Junge was sure he had a grip of her now.

For von Schroif, the thought process was quite simple: “Preparation! Observation! Penetration! And don’t push her too hard, let her live within herself.”

Hans eventually found the target they were searching for – an old French Char B in a stationary position.

“Target spotted. 700 metres.”

“800,” replied Michael, giving his best estimate.

“Average 750,” replied Hans. “Anti-tank 39.”

“Mo-Fu-Fa-La-Ba,” replied the crew in turn as hatches and lamps were checked before firing, after which Otto Wohl loaded and Bobby Junge stopped her in her tracks.

Then von Schroif gave a new turret position and Knispel rotated the turret, Otto set the gear emergency lever up, Bobby accelerated, and Karl set the selector lever for the turret position. Then more measurements.

“750.”

Michael adjusted range, aiming for the centre of the target.

“Fire!”

“Direct hit!” exclaimed von Schroif proudly, but he had not really expected anything else. “Satisfying, but strangely unsatisfying,” he thought. “We need to be a little more stretched.”

“Wendorff,” he barked through the intercom, “request moving target!”

Wendorff duly did so and the instructors indicated that they would roll an old Soviet truck down the hill.

“Junge, take her back 500 metres.”

This was ambitious. Taking a shot at a moving target over 1,200 metres was not usually attempted in the field. After reversing the prescribed 500 metres, Bobby Junge then positioned the tank in the direction of the target.

Hans, through his binoculars, could see the truck being readied and then, with an almighty heave, being pushed down the hill by a small team who scattered like rabbits, all running back up the hill as fast as they could.

Now this was going to be difficult, and not just because of the distance, but because the truck, as it hurtled down the hill, would be accelerating. Normally, the calculations for hitting a moving target involved estimating the speed of the target and deciding how far in front of the target to aim the shot. In firing at a moving target at over 200 metres, the gunner did not aim at where the target was, but where it was going to be!

Many would consider this request to be folly, the result of overconfidence or cockiness, but the opposite was in fact true. Hans knew that, if you pushed yourself further on the training ground, anything within those parameters that were encountered on the battlefield could be approached with more confidence. He also knew that, at these kinds of distances and circumstances, the science would be of absolutely no help. Gunnery in this situation was more of an art, and Michael Knispel was an artist. A landscape artist whose brush was his gun, his shells his paint.

Knispel estimated the speed of the truck at 10 km/h, giving a lead on the main reticule – by the book – of three notches.

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