Uncommon ways to destroy a tank 1941

[Jeff Leach]

Here are two actions that describe uncommon ways to destroyed tanks. Both are from the action around the Skulyany Bridgehead (northwest of Jassy) Moldavia between the 24th and 27th June 1941. Descriptions of actions that give any feel for combat on the Eastern Front are fairly rare in the source material but you do see them now and then in both the German and Soviet material.

To choose one among many was the action of Rifleman Haiss, who ran up to a Soviet tank and with great presence of mind manage to climb up on it. Unfortunately, his belt buckel got got caught on something while climbing up on the tank. As a result he lost his belt and most of his Equipment. Another Soviet tank following the first, fired on Haiss wherein Haiss used the turret of the first tank as cover. Haiss no longer had a weapon or hand grenade to use but he opened one of the toolboxes on the tank and his eyes fell on a can of grease. Taking the grease in both hands he covered the vision slits of the tank, thereby blinding it, after which the tank started to move in an erratic fashion. Haiss then jumped off the tank into a bush and shortly after it was destroyed by an antitank rifle.

This is part of 'The Skuleni Bridgehead' (Lt. Viesel, Staff 198 Div) Anlage #72 [T315 R1568 Fr0234-237]

Sergeant Nikolai Parchomenko Semenovitsch
Born 1918, Ukrainian
22nd Tank Regiment, 11th Tank Division (В/Ч 7904)

'The prisoner said that he was not wounded by German fire but by a Russian hand grenade. After the tank, which the prisoner was driving, had taken fire from German guns, its commander bailed out. He also threw in a hand grenade to destroy the tank and kill its crew. The lieutenant most likely threw the hand grenade because he mistrusted the crew. The prisoner assume the lieutenant wanted to desert and didn’t know what the other crew members would do.'

It is possible that the lieutenant panicked, bailed out of the tank and threw in the hand grenade before the rest of the crew had bailed out. Seargeant Nikolai belief that the lieutenant planned to desert and decided to kill any witnesses to the fact, is also beleivable.

'The gear shifter on the T-26 is very poorly build so it suffers many breakdowns.'

Prisoner Report A.O.K. 11 [T312 R371?]