Combat effectiveness of Borgward BIV equipped units?

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How effective were they? I have noticed that they were highly equipped and some units even had Tiger tanks.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110805164 ... fz-301.htm#

are there reference material or websites that have detailed unit histories and battle reports of these FL units?

[Jan-Hendrik]

Markus Jaugitz, Funklenkpanzer

Jan-Hendrik

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I've been looking at this book but don't know of its contents. Like the other JJF books it has an enormous amount of images. Approx how much text are war diary/AAR/unit history not related to technical descriptions of the equipment? Thanks to you or anyone else

[Jan-Hendrik]

It includes (german edition) 290 pages of text....evolution of the technology & equipment, genesis and history of all units.

Jan-Hendrik

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thanks, I'll get it then

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Looking around, it appears that the most famously covered action of the Borgward BIV were the FKL companies that were used in Operation Citadel, especially with XXXXI PzK- numerous texts have info on this.

So in the Northern Front, it took 4 x Borgward BIV warheads to detonate a lane large enough for armor to pass one layer of defense.

The use of Borgward BIV and goliath is fairly underrated and it is new to me- for the longest time I had thought that the lack of mine-rollers was a major weakness of German armored forces. Over 1,200 Borgward units were manufactured and many FKL units were set up, the majority of them with Stug controller units and BIVs & sent to the Eastern Front.

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How detailed are the accounts of BIV units in this book?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0992274915/?c ... _lig_dp_it

[charles.sumpter]

Cult icon Objective Ponyri! The Defeat of XXXXI. Panzerkorps at Ponyri Train Station excellent book. Regarding performance of BIV units the book provides official after action reports, fotos, especially detailed area fotos, to the point of identifying actual BIV craters!

[Cult Icon]

Cult icon Objective Ponyri! The Defeat of XXXXI. Panzerkorps at Ponyri Train Station excellent book. Regarding performance of BIV units the book provides official after action reports, fotos, especially detailed area fotos, to the point of identifying actual BIV craters!

Nice to hear. how big were the craters from the 990 pound warheads?

I looked at the unit histories of 653 and 654 and there are some after-action reports- particularly interesting was the one discussing the effects of the FKL companies attached to the two Ferdinand battalions and the 505 Tiger battalion. The FKL attached to the Tiger battalion was considered the best-performing. Of note is how dangerous it was to for the Borgward drivers- several of them were hit and the vehicle exploded. Their primary mission was to clear lanes for the tanks, however, they were also deployed against infantry and AT strongpoints.

[BartekPL]

Panzer-Abteilung (Fkl) 302 took part in the Warsaw uprising during which it suffered total losses as below:

1) Borgwards IV - 72,

2) StuGs 40 - 1 (probably captured by Polish 1st "Tadeusz Kościuszko" Infantry Division or Soviet units during fights for Praga district),

Losses of Sturmpanzer-Kompanie z.b.V. 218, which supported Panzer-Abteilung (Fkl) 302 during the fights remain unknown, not too much is known about Sturmpanzer-Kompanie z.b.V. 218 itself. I might only suspect that unit suffered as total losses maximally one or two Sturmpanzers IV.

Some Borgwards even remained in Warsaw after the fights as picture below shows (it was taken some time after Polish 1st Army liberated left banks of the Warsaw).

Warszawa.JPG (114.62 KiB) Viewed 3191 times

Probably the most well known unit's action took place on 13th August 1944 on Jan Kiliński's street, when some Polish resistance fighters seized (they weren't allowed or ordered to do so, as other Poles suspected that it might be a trap and the vehicle had to be examined on an another day) "a captured German tank", which eventually has been blown up (it remains unclear how, it is possible that Poles caused the explosion of the explosives by mistake). Officially over 300 civilians and resistance fighters died, few hundred has been wounded.

[Michael Kenny]

fkl. 316 seems to have had a hard time in Normandy.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6pNWF5oH5s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huidSaT19XE

These devices could move fairly swiftly although its armor (at the level of a halftrack) was weak. Seems almost Kamikaze-ish to be driving this vehicle with a 990 pound warhead facing the enemy!

[Michael Kenny]

fkl 316 in Normandy appear briefy in Wochenschau 725 of 26 July 1944.

https://youtu.be/meE0qoFH5DE?t=169
It would appear that fkl 316 was very roughly handled on 19/6/44 and ceased to exist as a cohesive unit because of the loss of most of the Stugs.

[BartekPL]

In case of Panzer-Abteilung (Fkl) 302 - in early October 1944, after Warsaw uprising, the unit reported losing during fights (since 13.08.1944) 19 KIA, 44 WIA, 13 StuGs knocked out, 110 successful detonations with the use of Borgwards took place (72 Borgwards and 1 StuG 40 as total losses, mentioned above, should be noted as well).

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Thanks for the information. So it seems like there weren't too many 990 pound warheads available at Warsaw- the report of 301 at Kursk uses the term "expended" for Borgward units that released their bombs.

72 total losses is very high- the armor of the borgward seems to have been a major weakness that lowered its effectiveness.

The history of the 508 Tiger battalion/Panzertruppen II, Jentz also a bit on the Borgward- During the Anzio counterattack these units were bogged down in the terrain, the same with the tanks.