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i googled for a veteran story - don't know how true it is but here yo go:
That's a very peculiar story and I don't know yet whether to believe it.
He says "he had been in command of the 2 companies of Tigers that had fought at Kasserine pass"
Well, no Tigers at all went through the Kasserine Pass. They fought at Sidi bou Zid which was a nearby battle a few days earlier. And only one company was there; the other company had other duties many miles away. But that alone doesn't make the man wrong, just a little confused.
He also says that "Rommel seemed to be a nice enough fellow". The Tiger battalions were not under Rommel's command and Rommel was not responsible for taking care of them. They belonged to a different army in a different part of Tunisia. Again, this doesn't make the man wrong - he would have had a chance to meet Rommel at the Sidi bou Zid battle, when the Tigers assisted the Afrikakorps - but it's very strange for hom to speak as if Rommel were his commander.
Then he says they had "pistol ports on the back of the turret as well as the 'S-Mine' launchers". Now, this is very suspect. The Tigers of the 501 had no S-mine system and the crews would never have heard of it - and those were the Tigers near Kasserine which he claims to belong to.
The second battalion to arrive in Africa, the 504, had Tigers wired up for S-mines but the launcher devices are missing in every photo that we can see. There was probably a shortage.
And yet, this doesn't quite prove the man wrong. The 501 Tigers, allegedly his ones, eventually joined up with the 504 Tigers. It's possible that some of those Tigers had the full S-mine system. So he *could* have seen it.
It's dubious in places but I can't say that it's untrue.
David
Managing Editor
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