Did 1 Tiger Beat 50 Tanks?

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One of the most famous Tiger battles took place on July 8th 1943 during the Battle of Kursk when supposedly a lone Tiger under the command of Franz Staudegger destroyed 22 T-34s. The Soviet's fielded a total force of 50 to 60 Russian tanks. How could 1 tiger hold against that many tanks? This episode is still hotly debated. What really happened there? We use both German and Soviet sources to shine some light on the incident and show you both sides of the story in this film.

For the German side we used internet articles “Panzer Aces Wittmann and Staudegger at Kursk” and “Revised footnote on Staudegger” by Christopher A. Lawrence, and also “Franz Staudegger – German Tiger Ace in the Battle of Kursk” by Evan Pinter.

For the Soviet side we looked through archive documents in Russian, scans of which can be found on the site of TsAMO, “Memory of People” page. First one is ”Excerpt from the War Diary of 26th Tank Brigade from June 23rd to July 6th of 1943”, second - "Combat Directive for units of 2nd Tank Corps for July 7th - July 8th 1943”, and third - "After-action report of 2nd Tank Corps for July 1943”.

Photo Credits:

”Unternehmen Zitadelle" Zwei Soldaten beim Betrachten eines Treffers an einem Panzer VI "Tiger I" - image provided by Bundesarchiv (Bild 101I-219-0553A-36)

"Unternehmen Zitadelle" - Soldat beim Betrachten eines abgeschossenen, noch leicht qualmenden sowjetischen Panzer T-34 - image provided by Bundesarchiv (Bild 101I-022-2935-24)

00:00 Battle of Kursk - the largest tank battle of WW2
00:28 German perspective - German soldiers vs Soviet T-34 tanks
02:10 Staudegger and his Tiger I start their hunt
06:13 Tiger I on the move
09:39 Staudegger chases remaining T-34s and T-70s
11:57 Soviet perspective - Raigorodskii prepares his attack on Teterovino village
13:47 Attack of the Stuka
14:59 Raigorodskii faces the fire from Tiger I
16:52 Soviets retreat
18:29 Aftermath of the battle

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[Yarnhub]

Thank you World of Tanks for sponsoring this video.
During registration use the code COMBAT to get for free: 7 days of premium access, 250k credits, the premium tank Cromwell B (tier 6), and 3 rental tanks for 10 battles each: Tiger 131, T78, and Type 64.
Applicable to new users only.

[KHK]

Tiger's crew: Sir! We are surrounded!

Staudegger: Good! Now we can fire in every direction!

[Cool_guy-iu]

I love the perspective idea, gives the impression and feeling of actually understanding what they probably thought during this insane battle

[ajhaygumaad]

Tiger crew: Sir we only have 49 rounds left


Soviets: *sends 50 tanks*

[Athrun]

You should do another episode about the battle of Kursk about the Tiger that refused to die. There was one Tiger that went into battle, got hit by tank guns, anti tank rifles, had it's Mg destroyed, the main gun got hit and froze in place, the fuel and oil tank ruptured but it survived the battle and later returned to base pulling a thick black line of fuel and oil behind it. Imagine being a soviet soldier: you threw everything against that one tank then it turns around and drives home.

[karlsson]

It wasn´t only the Tiger itself that was lethal, what made it so effective was their crews. They´ve been chosen pretty meticulously amongst many other tank crews. Deadly combination, excellent machinery and top notch skills.

[survivr]

It's truly insane, as not only you get just the perspective of the Germans, but you have also a Soviet perspective too. It's creative and a awesome idea!

[BlazingMichael]

your animation and commentary have both gotten so much better, I'm genuinely proud to see this channel growing.

[oswisso]

The german perspective was pure heroic
The soviet one was just horror

[Knight_]

"And it only took them 5 tanks" that is the coldest line i've ever heard from a Tank commander

[wilhelmburgdorf]

this new perspective way of telling stories is awesome and original, it gives a much better understanding of the battle as well as making it feel more like a real event rather than a video game or propaganda

[SpanishAvenger]

The two-perspective approach gave me a striking moment...

At first, I am like, "Hell yeah, Tiger, get them!", with Staudegger doing cool one-liners and coming up as a battle hero...

...but then we see the Russian perspective, begin rooting for Raigorodskii, and, suddenly, the VERY Tiger tank shot seen earlier through the German perspective as a glorious moment hits his tank and kills him and his crew, and the moment goes from feeling glorious, to just... sad.

That's what basically what war is about, and this evoked the feeling to perfection. After all, behind every armored vehicle, behind every sight, are human beings who die because of some people sitting in a desk hundreds of km away.

[ilickplanes]

You know that you're getting good when your animation looks better than the sponser's game.

[LancelotChan]

Faction aside, this tank ace is really admirable in his judgement, skill and courage.

[Jun_mobileplays]

When the Russian bias stops working and the Germans angle for once

[somewhereinnevada-rnvz]

German Engineering during WW2 was insane but it was no use against the quantity of Sherman's and T-34's. R.I.P every solider who died in WW2.

[nigelmorroll]

Even if the German tank commander didn't get all the kills, he and his crew still did good despite being outnumbered.

[pachequiinsuarez]

tiger crew: there are 50 against us...

tiger commander: FINALLY...IT'S AN EQUAL FIGHT

[Creamypie]

The horror of not knowing if your tank would be the next one to explode.

[Amateur_Aviation]

It is very interesting to see how different accounts of the war clash. Not just this example but across all conflicts.