Schwere Panzer Abteilung 501
Formed in the summer of 1942, it was transported to Tunisia in December 1942. The battalion saw action at Hamra, Tebourba, and Kasserine in February 1943. It surrendered in May 1943 after defensive action in the Medjerda Valley. It reformed in France and then its full complement shipped to the Eastern Front in November 1943 where it fought in Vitebsk and Gorodok. It was destroyed during Operation Bagration in July 1944. Nevertheless, it was reformed with Tiger IIs, and was transported to the Eastern Front where it was redesignated 424 Battalion. It then undertook fierce defensive action and withdrew through Poland and saw fighting in the Ardennes and then Hungary. Equipped with Tiger IIs, in March 1945 it had a reported strength of thirty-two tanks of which eight were operational. On 19 March Heinrich Kling was appointed commander and the unit was known as Kampfgruppe Kling until the end of the war.
Schwere Panzer Abteilung 502
This heavy battalion was formed during the Summer 1942 and was the first unit to see action on the Eastern Front around Leningrad in August 1942. However, due to the unfavourable terrain several of its Tigers developed mechanical problems or became stuck in the mud, and a number were captured by Russian units due to lack of supporting armour and infantry. During Operation Bagration in summer 1944, the battalion retreated into the Kurland ‘cauldron’ and fought a defensive action around Memel and Königsberg. It was then transported west where it saw action in Normandy in July 1944. The battalion then rested and was refitted with Tiger IIs. On 5 January 1945 it was redesignated 511 and took part in the defence of the Oder Front. During the Battle of Berlin in April 1945 it was encircled in the Halbe Pocket, and in May it surrendered to Russian forces.
Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503
Formed in the spring of 1942, the battalion was transported to Russia in January 1943 where it spearheaded the German winter counter-offensive. In July 1943 it fought at Kursk, and then was compelled to withdraw to the Dnieper as part of III Panzer-Korps. In January 1944 it became part of a Panther battalion and formed what was known as ‘Heavy Panzer Regiment Bäke’. With Bäke the battalion saw extensive action in battles around Cherkassy. In April 1944 it was pulled out of the line and went west where it rested and was refitted with Tiger IIs. Two months later it saw intense fighting in Normandy where it suffered heavy losses to naval gun fire and fighter-bombers. The battalion was again pulled out of battle and fully refitted in September 1944, where it was despatched to Hungary. It was renamed Schwere Panzer Abteilung ‘Feldherrnhalle’ and attached to the Panzergrenadier Division of that name. The entire division fought fiercely in Operation Konrad, the failed attempt to relieve Budapest in January 1945, and was later destroyed during the last weeks of the war on the Eastern Front.
Schwere Panzer Abteilung 504
Created in January 1943, the bulk of this battalion was shipped to Tunisia where it saw extensive fighting around Maknassy and Medjerda. The remainder of the battalion was transported to Sicily, but withdrew to the Italian mainland after resisting the Allied Sicily landings. It then was withdrawn, rested and fitted in Holland where it was sent back to Italy to undertake defensive actions around Anzio as part of Hermann Göring Panzergrenadier Division. The battalion saw extensive fighting and was moved along the Gothic Line where it became heavily embroiled in defensive action. The 504 stayed in Italy until it surrendered in May 1945.
Schwere Panzer Abteilung 505
This battalion was created in January 1943, and sent to the Eastern Front where it was attached to the 9th Army in Army Group Centre. It first saw fighting during the Kursk offensive in July 1944, and led the main spearhead of the northern front of the Kursk Salient. It remained in the region as Army Group Centre stagnated. However, when the Red Army launched their Bagration offensive in June 1944, it was almost wiped out. Late that summer it was withdrawn, rested, and refitted with Tiger IIs. It was then sent back to the Eastern Front where it fought in defensive battles initially against the Narev bridgeheads in the Baltic states and in East Prussia supporting the 24th and 25th Panzer Divisions. The unit continued fighting until the end of the war.
Schwere Panzer Abteilung 506
This battalion was formed in July 1943, and saw heavy defensive battles along the Dnieper as part of Army Group South. It saw action at Lemburg, Tarna and Krivoi-Rog in the Ukraine until the summer of 1944. Due to heavy losses it was withdrawn from battle and sent to Germany in August 1944 where it rested, and was refitted with Tiger IIs. The battalion was called upon to assist German armoured units during enemy airborne operations in Holland in September 1944. Two months later it was assigned to I SS Panzer Korps where it saw heavy fighting in the Ardennes offensive in December 1944. It was then moved to fight in Hungary and then withdrawn for the defence of the ‘Homeland’ where it saw extensive defensive action in the Ruhr region. It finally surrendered to American units in the Ruhr pocket in April 1945.
Schwere Panzer Abteilung 507
This battalion was created in September 1943, where it was sent to Russia in the defence of Tarnpol, Vitebsk and the Narev River until January 1944. At this time the 507 was the only battalion that was overstrength: it had fifty-five Tigers. But after two weeks of the Russian winter offensive of mid-January 1945 only seven Tigers remained. On 6 February it was pulled out and ordered to Germany to refit with Tiger IIs. It served in Germany until February 1945, and then went to Czechoslovakia where it lost all its Tigers. It never returned.
Schwere Panzer Abteilung 508
Formed in August 1943 the battalion was shipped to Italy in January 1944. Here the unit spearheaded the German offensive against the Allied bridgehead at Anzio and became enmeshed at Nettuno where it suffered heavy losses as it withdrew through Italy. In early 1945 it gave its last fifteen Tigers to the 504th and was transported back to Germany to be refitted with Tiger IIs. It was then transported to the Western Front. The unit was disbanded in February 1945 following heavy losses.
Schwere Panzer Abteilung 509
This battalion was formed in September 1943, and saw action in Russia in the regions of Kirovograd, Zhitomir and Kiev. The unit was temporarily attached to the 2 SS Panzer Division ‘Das Reich’ in late 1943 and fought at Kamenetz-Podolsk. The following year it saw extensive defensive action in the Soviet counter-offensive in the southern sector of the front in 1944. Later that year it returned to Germany where it was rested and refitted with Tiger IIs. In January 1945 it was sent to Hungary as part of IV SS Panzer Korps. Following heavy fighting it withdrew and surrendered to American forces in Austria after losing all its tanks in action.
Schwere Panzer Abteilung 510
Created in June 1944, the battalion was sent to Russia to fight against the Red Army’s ‘Bagration’ summer offensive. In East Prussia, the battalion was divided into two sections, one supporting the 30th Infantry Division, the other supporting the 14th Panzer Division. Both sections saw heavy fighting in the Kurland Peninsula in early 1945. In March, two companies were withdrawn to Kassel in Germany, leaving behind thirteen Tigers fighting with the 14th. The battalion surrendered with its fifteen Tiger Is to the Red Army in Kurland. The 510 was the only Tiger battalion never to have been equipped with Tiger IIs; it remained fighting with late-variant Tiger Is.
Schwere Panzer Abteilung 512
This battalion was created for Jagdtiger Tank Destroyers.
Schwere Panzer Abteilung 301
Formed in the summer of 1944, this unit was equipped with Tiger Is and BIV remotecontrolled demolition robot armoured vehicles. It was dispatched to the Western Front in November 1944 and saw heavy fighting in the Ardennes Offensive, where it was destroyed.
Schwere Panzer Abteilung ‘Kummersdorf’
This battalion was formed in February 1945 purely for defensive action in the battle of Berlin. It saw heavy fighting with the ‘Müncheberg’ Panzer Division in April and but was soon destroyed.
101 SS Schwere Panzer Abteilung
Formed from the Leibstandarte’s Tiger company in the autumn of 1943 as the heavy battalion assigned to the newly formed I SS Panzer-Korps, this Waffen-SS battalion was transported to Normandy in June 1944 to undertake defensive action. The celebrated commander Michael Wittmann fought with the unit until he was killed in action near Caen. The battalion was later re-equipped with Tiger IIs, and saw fighting in the Ardennes and then Hungary. It was re-designated 501 in early 1945.
102 SS Schwere Panzer Abteilung
This battalion was formed to support II SS Panzer Korps. It was sent to fight in Normandy from June 1944. Later that year it was re-equipped with Tiger IIs. It was re-designated 502 in early 1945.
103 SS Schwere Panzer Abteilung
Formed in 1943 with Tiger Is, this battalion saw no action until it was re-equipped with Tiger IIs and then sent to Russia to undertake defensive action there.