Recently, I’ve purchased the Dragon 1/35 Sd.Kfz, 182 King Tiger Henschel turret battle of the Bulge sPzAbt 501… What a wonderful kit!.. Eight falschirmjäger figures… photo-etched engine grills, turned aluminium barrel… Wekll, the point is that a friend of mine told me that the number 223 is from a “famous” tank… is that true? (if yes, I’ll buil this tank)… I don’t know anything about the sPzAbt 501… well the point is: can anyone tell me why is so famous the sPzAbt 501?.. A friend of mine told me because only a few King Tigers destroyed a lot of Shermans… is that true?.. I want to know a little more about the history of this sPzAbt… Thanks in advance.
sSSPzAbt 501’s heydays belong to the period of Michael Whittman’s; Viller’s Bocage shootin’ fish in barrel escapade. SSSPzAbt. 501 did little during the Battle of the Bulge but burn up a lot of gas at the rear end of Kampfgruppe Peiper and ended up scuttling their vehicles one by one. A few minor skirmishes occurred along the way, most notably repulsing US assaults at Petit Spa and at La Gleize, where Kampfgruppe Peiper had to abandon it’s vehicles for lack of fuel and retreat on foot.
Oberscharfuhrer Kurt Sowa’s Tiger II, 222, which is featured in the box art, was photographed numerous times by German PK companies during the BotB, finally meeting it’s end just in front of the Ambleve bridge in Stavelot. Tiger #222 is also the same Tiger II we have all seen a million times over in the famous movie footage with all the Fallschirmjagers piled onboard at Kaiserbaracke.
A Tiger I, numbered 222 (also Sowa’s) or #223, are possible contenders for the Tiger Whittmann rode in Viller’s Bocage, but that’s a whole different can of worms.
There is a color plate of a Tiger II from the sSSPzAbt 501,(formerly belonging to sPzAbt 509), numbered 223, shown in Tigers in Combat II, but I don’t know who’s vehicle this is at the moment or what it’s claim to fame may be.
One of those Tiger II’s can still be found in La Glieze.
First of all, sPzAbt 501 ( schwere panzer abteilung 501 ) is an army unit that never saw any action in the Battle of the bulge.
The unit you are talking about is sSSPzAbt 501 ( schwere SS Panzer Abteilung 501 ) this used to be sSSPzAbt 101 but in the fall of 1944 a renumbering took place.
222 is indeed the tank of Kurt Sowa and it is very famous because there are so many pictures of it both before and after the battle of the bulge. I did a lot of research on it before I built a while back. It is a November 1944 production and has 4 fuel vent lines as opposed to the original 1 vent line, it has no jack and no mounting for it, it has no jack block but still a mounting for it. It COULD have been one of the tanks that used the red oxide primer instead of the normal red-brown camo color.
recommended reading would be:
Tigers in combat Vol 2 by Wolfgang Schneider.
VK45.02 to Tiger II by Thomas L. Jentz
Sd.Kfz 182 Pz.Kpfw VI Tiger ausf. B Königstiger Vol 1 and 2 by Waldemar trojca
Tiger at war by Waldemar trojca
Tigers at the front by Thomas L. Jentz
Tiger I&II combat tactics by Thomas L. Jentz
Tiger the history of a legendary weapon 1942-45 by Egon Klein and Volkmar Kühn.
Here is my rendition of 222.
Doh,…Did I forget the SS part? [D)]
sSSPzABt 501…That’s what I wanted to say. [oops]
I’ll go back and change that, if you don’t mind. [:I]
Thanks for the correction there TMN1.
That darn Belgian beer again…[#toast]