Takom 1/16 Otto Carius Figure 1020

Takom 1/16 Otto Carius Figure 1020

The first tanks in the German army appeared at the end of World War I - these were the A7V machines. After the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the German armed forces were forbidden to develop armored weapons, but the German side did not honor these restrictions and secretly developed armored weapons. However, after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, this development became fully official, and in 1935 the 1st Armored Division was formed. In the period 1935-1939, further divisions were formed, and their main equipment was the Pz.Kpfw cars: I, II, III and IV. A single armored division at that time was composed of a tank brigade divided into two armored regiments, a motorized infantry brigade and support units, among others: reconnaissance, artillery, anti-aircraft and sappers. It consisted of about 300 tanks in full time. It is also worth adding that the German armored forces (German: Panzerwaffe) were trained and prepared to implement the doctrine of lightning war, and not - as in many armies of the time - to support infantry activities. Therefore, emphasis was put in training "pancerniaków" on the interchangeability of functions, independence in decision-making by officers and non-commissioned officers and the best technical mastery of the tanks owned. All this resulted in great successes of German armored weapons in Poland in 1939, but especially in Western Europe in 1940. Also in the course of the fighting in North Africa - especially in the period 1941-1942 - the German armored forces turned out to be a very difficult opponent. Before the invasion of the USSR, the number of German armored divisions almost doubled, but the number of tanks in these units decreased to about 150-200 vehicles. Also in the course of the fighting on the Eastern Front - especially in 1941-1942 - the German armored forces were superior in training and organization to their Soviet opponent. However, contact with such vehicles as the T-34 or KW-1 forced the introduction of the Pz.Kpfw V and VI tanks to the line in 1942 and 1943. Growing losses on the Eastern Front, as well as lost battles - at Stalingrad or Kursk - made the German Panzerwaffe weaken. Its structure included heavy tank battalions (with 3 tank companies), and in 1943, armored grenadier divisions were established. There was also an increasingly clear advantage of the Soviet side, and from 1944 - the need to simultaneously fight the Soviet troops in the east and the Allies in the west. It is also assumed that it was then (in the years 1944-1945) that the training of the German armored forces was weaker than in the previous period and did not constitute such a significant advantage on the German side than before. The last large-scale operations of the German Panzerwaffe were the offensives in the Ardennes (1944-1945) and in Hungary (1945).

Otto Carius was born in 1922 and died in 2015. He was a German officer of the armoured forces, who is considered one of the best "tankers" of the German army during the Second World War, who destroyed over 150 enemy vehicles. Otto Carius, shortly after graduating from high school, tried to join the army, but was rejected twice due to poor physical conditions. However, in 1940 he got into it, and after training as an infantry soldier, he volunteered to join the armoured forces, and his application was approved. Otto Carius began his combat trail with the battles in East Prussia and the Baltic States as part of Operation Barbarossa - starting in June 1941. Its first tank was the Czech Pz.Kpfw 38 (t). In 1941-1942 he fought on the Eastern Front, and in 1943 he was transferred to the 502nd Heavy Tank Battalion, where he already fought on the Tiger tank. After serious times and convalescence, at the beginning of 1945, he was transferred to the 512th Heavy Armoured Cannon Battalion, which had Jagdtiger vehicles in stock. In April 1945, together with his unit, he capitulated to American troops. It is assumed that in the period 1941-1945 he destroyed more than 150 armoured vehicles of the enemy, which makes him one of the most effective German "pancerniaków" from the Second World War.