German platoon and company strengths Normandy.

[FreddBloggs]

Amateur, I would ask what it is like to have one foot in the grave already!

[grizzlymc]

It isn't in the grave; it was incinerated. If I had been richer, I'd have had it stuffed to put on the mantlepiece.

[FreddBloggs]

Not incinerated, cremated...

[grizzlymc]

You cremate people, puss filled rotten feet are incinerated.

[FreddBloggs]

And bear claws?

[grizzlymc]

The nurses probably took them as souvenirs.

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

I forgot to add that the unit lost one Tiger II to a 2-inch mortar belonging to the DCLI at Le Plessis-Grimoult, during the battle for Mont Pincon in early August.

Any more info on that? What was it - smoke round straight down the driver's hatch, or an HE blowing a track off? Or something even more freakish? Surprised some mention of it hasn't appeared somewhere on a Lardy site.

[grizzlymc]

I think I once saw a pic of a panther that had a 3"HE down the open hatch.

[RMD]

I forgot to add that the unit lost one Tiger II to a 2-inch mortar belonging to the DCLI at Le Plessis-Grimoult, during the battle for Mont Pincon in early August.

Any more info on that? What was it - smoke round straight down the driver's hatch, or an HE blowing a track off? Or something even more freakish? Surprised some mention of it hasn't appeared somewhere on a Lardy site.

It was bombing-up in the village square, next to an ammo truck. The mortar-bomb got the ammo truck and the explosion flashed over via the open reload hatch and ignited the tank's magazine. There's a famous photo of a couple of soldiers looking at the wreck, with its turret slightly askew (the turret was lifted off by the internal explosion and plonked back down).

A Tiger II was also knocked out in Oosterbeek (Arnhem) by a 3-inch mortar bomb or 75mm howitzer shell landing on the rear deck and rupturing a fuel line, thereby setting fire to the tank.

[RMD]

The Le Plessis-Grimoult King Tiger: