#18
Post
by IainM » 17 Sep 2008, 06:05
Some of the previous postings seem to believe the tanks of Kampfgruppe Fehrmann must have been numbered consecutively, and have queried the number of tanks involved (6 Tigers = 5 Panthers = 11 tanks, yet photos show Tiger F13 etc.). However Gruppe Fehrmann would have followed normal German numbering practice for their Tigers, which is what has led to the confusion in some quarters.
Panzer Divisions, including Tiger units were organised into Regiments, Batallions, Companies & Platoons.
For our purposes all we need to look at is the Company structure, with a pair of Tigers for the company HQ platoon and then four Tigers per 'combat' platoon. Normally the three-digit turret marking would indicate the tank's company, platoon, and position within the platoon - thus 123 would indicate the third tank within the second platoon of the first company, while 211 would indicate the first tank (ie the platoon leader's tank) of the first platoon of the second company and so on. Under this system the numbers 101 and 102 would indicate the two tanks belonging to the Company HQ.
As Fehrmann was operating as a Kampfgruppe his initial replaced the first (Company) digit of the turret numbers, giving his unit the following numbers: F01 & F02 - Kampfgruppe HQ, with F01 being Fehrmann's Tiger as Kampfgruppe Commander, and F11, F12, F13 & F14 making up his 'combat' platoon of Tigers.
IF the Panthers were marked up as belonging to the Kampfgruppe after being attached they would have formed the second platoon with the numbers F21-F25, however as far as I am aware, no record exists to indicate that the Panthers were so marked - there may well not have been time to do so - and most accounts agree that the highest turret number noted was either F13 or F14 - which is what you would expect if the Panthers were not marked up in the same manner.
