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Dash to the Sea, November 1944 by David Pentland.
As allied forces pressed inland towards Caen, the 21st panzer Division launched a counterattack along a narrow three mile corridor between the Canadians on Juno beach and the British on Sword. the charge led by fifty tanks of 22nd panzer regiment and supporting Panzer grenadiers was engaged on its eastern flank by heavy British anti tank fire and the bulk of the force was pinned down or destroyed. ultimately only six PZ IVs and a company of infantry mannered to reach the coast at lion sur mer. their stay however was short lived and within a few hours the arrival of the transports and gliders of the British 6th Airborne directly overhead forced the entire division to pull back for fear of being trapped.
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Debut at Caumont, Normandy, 30th July 1944 by David Pentland.
Jagdpanthers of 654 Heavy Tank Battalion engage 6th Guards Tank Brigade Churchills.
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The Battle for Ponyri Station, Kursk, 9th July 1943 by David Pentland.
A Tiger (P) Ferdinand, 7th Company, 654th Schwere Panzerjager Abteilung passes a knocked out Soviet Su122 on the German advance towards the village of Ponyri. The fighting around this small agricultural settlement was some of the most savage of the entire battle.
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The Last Battle, Berlin, 30th April 1945 by David Pentland.
Unterscharfurher Karl-Heinz Turk of the Schwere SS Panzerabteilung 503, in one of the units few remaining Kingtigers, defends the Potsdammer Platz along with elements of the Munchberg Division against the rapidly encroaching Soviet forces.
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Barkmann's Corner by David Pentland.
Ernst Barkmann's (Das Reich, 2nd SS Panzer Division) famous day long solo engagement against an American Armoured breakthrough towards St. Lo, Normandy, 26th July 1944.
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Operation Zitadelle by David Pentland.
Panzer v Ausf. D Panthers of SS Panther Division Das Reich make their debut during the initial stages of the German summer offensive for Kursk. This unit with others of the SS Panzer Korps made the deepest advances into the well-prepared Soviet lines. Complete success however, was to elude them when outrunning their supporting divisions at Prokhorovka they were forced to halt for six days.
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Wittmann at Villers Bocage, Normandy, 0900 hrs, June 13th 1944 by David Pentland.
While other Tigers of his command struck northwest and decimated the tanks and half tracks of the Sharpshooters and Rifle Brigade parked along the road towards point 213 and Caen, Haupsturmfuhrer Michel Wittmann attacked on his own to the south east. Driving his panzer into the village of Villers Bocage. he proceeded to destroy the Stuart and Cromwell tanks of Viscount Arthur Cranleys 4th County of London Yeomanry the Sharpshooters RHQ. Although subsequently immobilized in the village center, the battle between the British 7th Armoured Division Desert Rats and Wittmanns 101st Heavy Tank Battalion continued for a full day, and blunted the British threat to the German line.
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Taming the Tiger by Geoff Lea.
It is August 1944, barely two months since the Allies landed their first troops on the beaches of Normandy. After the failed Operation Luttich (codename given to a German counterattack during the Battle of Normandy, which took place around the American positions near Mortain from 7 August to 13 August, 1944 ) The German Panzer Divisions were in full retreat, The British and American Generals believed it to be critical to halt them before they cauld regroup. Caught in the Gap at Falaise, the battle was to be decisive. Flying throughout a continuous onslaught, rocket-firing Typhoons kept up their attacks on the trapped armoured divisions from dawn to dusk. The effect was devastating: at the end of the ten day battle the 100,000 strong German force was decimated. The battle of the Falaise Pocket marked the closing phase of the Battle of Normandy with a decisive German defeat. It is believed that between 80,000 to 100,000 German troops were caught in the encirclement of which 10,000 to 15,000 were killed, 45,000 to 50,000 taken prisoner, and around 20,000 escaped . Shown here are German Tiger I tanks under continues attack by Royal Aoir Force Typhoons.
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Escape to the Elbe, Berlin, 3rd May 1945 by David Pentland.
Following Hitlers death, the decision was taken by the officers and men of Sturmartillerie Brigade 249 to break out of the doomed capital. Shortly before midnight on the 3rd, what remained of the unit fought to the edge of the city at Spandau. By this time the brigade had been split into two elements, the first under Hauptmann Herbert Jaschke successfully punched their way out to the west. The second group was not so lucky, and its survivors fell into Soviet captivity.
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Zwieroboj - Animal Hunters - Ponyri Station, Kursk, 7th July 1943 by David Pentland.
Major Sankovsky, commander of the new SU-152 battery of 1442nd SP Art Regiment, assigned to the 13th Army was in support of the 307th Rifle Division around Ponyri Station when the XXXXI Panzer Corp attacked with 200 panzers. Leading the way were Tiger Is of Schwere Panzer Abteilung 505, and the Borgward BIV remote control mine clearance tanks. On this day it is believed the major himself knocked out 10 enemy tanks, and in the ensuing three weeks of combat at Kursk the battery accounted for some 12 Tigers and 7 Ferdidnands. It was this units results which the SU152 the nickname of Zwieroboj - Animal Hunter.
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Panther at the Zoo, Tiergarten, Berlin, 2nd May 1945 by David Pentland.
Below the vast bulk of the Zoo Bunker one of three giant Flak towers designed to defend Berlin from air attack, some remnants of the citys defenders gather in an attempt to break out of the doomed capital. Amongst which are troops from the 9th Fallschirmjager and Munchberg Panzer Divisions, including a rare nightfighting equipped Panther G of Oberleutnant Rasims Company, 1/29th Panzer Regiment.
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Strike For Gela, Sicily, 11th June 1943 by David Pentland.
Tiger I tanks of 2 Kompanie/ Schwere Panzer Abteilung 504, attached to Panzer Division Herman Goring, launch their attack on the main US 7th Army landing beach at Gela, on the first day of Operation Husky. Despite the fact that the Herman Goring troops were untried in battle it was only the devastating effect of allied naval gunfire that stopped them reaching and probably destroying the beach head.
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Defence of the Reichstag, Berlin, 1st May 1945 by David Pentland.
On the 30th April, Untersharfuhrer Georg Diers and his crew of tank 314, were ordered to take up a defensive position at the Reichstag buildings. This was one of only two remaining King Tigers belonging to Heavy SS Tank Battalion 503 in Berlin. By that evening they had knocked out about 30 T34s, and the following day led a successful counterattack against the Kroll Opera House directly opposite the Reichstag. Their efforts though, merely postponed the inevitable and by the end of the day the order was given to abandon the position and prepare to break out of Berlin.
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Tiger I of the 3rd SS Totenkopf Division, Poland 1944 by Randall Wilson.
The crew of a late model Tiger I of the 3rd SS Totenkopf Division, manage to take a short break from the fighting around Warsaw, during the German assault, having pushed the Soviet forces out of the city and across the Vistula River.
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Konigstiger Ausf B by Randall Wilson.
With assault troops on board, a king tiger from Schwere Panzer Abteilung 511 leads a Jagdpanther down a morning misty road May 1945.
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Holding the Line by Richard Taylor.
Skillfully led by their mercurial commander, SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Michael Wittmann, the Tiger Tanks of s.SS-Pz. Abt. 101 blaze through a shattered French village in the days following D-Day, June, 1944. Their destination - Normandy!
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Assault on Voronezh, Russia, 2nd - 7th July 1942 by David Pentland.
Sturmgeschutz IIIF of Stug Battalion Grossdeutschland, and supporting infantry from GD Regiment 1 battle against Soviet forces defending the strategically important city of Voronezh on the Don. Combined arms operations such as this proved the value of the assault gun, which took a terrible toll on enemy armour and men alike.
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Tigers in the Mist by David Pentland.
King Tigers of Kampfgruppe von Rosen, 3rd Company Heavy Tank Battalion 503, preparing to move out from the Tisza bridgehead to counter Soviet pressure on German forces attacking to the northwest at Debrecen during the first battles to defend the Hungarian capital of Budapest.
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Kerscher's Defence of Neuhauser Forest by David Pentland.
Oberfeldwebel Albert Kerscher, commander of 2nd company 511 Heavy Tank Battalion aided by a Panzer IV, two Hetzers, a Kingtiger and a Pak gun, successfully defended against concerted Soviet air and armoured attacks, his action buying valuable time for the evacuation of German wounded from Pilau and scoring his 100th victory in the process.
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Counter Attack at Villers Bocage by David Pentland.
A handful of Tigers from 2nd Kompanie SS Schwere Panzer Abteilung 101 halted the advance of the British 7th Armoured Division, The Desert Rats, outside the little Norman village of Villers Bocage. Prowling through the streets of the village, the solitary tank of Hauptsturmfuhrer Michael Wittmann knocked out most of the 4th County of London Yeomanry's regimental HQ Stuart and Cromwell tanks, before falling victim to a 6pdr anti-tank gun. Wittmann survived the battle but was killed a month later on August 8th 1944.
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Clash of Steel, Prokhorovka, Kursk, 12th July 1943 by David Pentland.
The battle for Prokhorovka marked the high water mark of the German southern drive for Kursk. At the apex of the thrust were the 14 tiger tanks of the 13 Heavy Tank Company, 1st SS Panzer Division Liebstandarte, led by Michael Wittman. Their advance was eventually thwarted, however, by the epic charge of the Soviet 29th Guards Tank Corps, as part of 5th Guards Tank Armys furious counter attack against the SS Tank Corps.
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Military Art and Artists 
Kujacinski, Norbert
