Unváry, Krisztián Predators

History of the schwere Panzer Regiment "Bäke"

By the end of 1943, the Soviet Army on the Eastern Front of World War II had managed to regain control of half of the territory it had lost up to that point, following Stalingrad, the Don Operations, Kursk and the second recapture of Kharkov, and the southern section of the long Eastern Front ran through the middle of Ukraine, roughly along the Dnieper River. The next major Soviet offensive in the south began in late December 1943. During these operations, the Germans deployed a special heavy tank formation consisting solely of Tiger and Panther tanks. This happened in January 1944, when two tank battalions were temporarily assigned as a regimental unit to the staff of the German 11th Panzer Regiment in the Vinnytsia area. Under the command of Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Dr Franz Bäke, this heavy tank regiment attacked Soviet forces (mainly tank and mechanised troops) in two operations. These battles are considered some of the fiercest in the history of the Eastern Front. The heavy tank regiment Bäke existed for just over a month and took part in only two operations in January and February 1944, but in just 24 days of combat it destroyed more than 500 Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns. This made it a legend overnight. To date, there is no work that deals exclusively with this unit and summarises all available information about the daily combat operations of this extraordinary tank formation. With this book, the author had only one goal in mind: to use archive documents from Soviet and German units and relevant secondary literature to clarify whether the outstanding combat achievements attributed to the heavy tank regiment Bäke, which have earned the unit an indelible place in the chronicle of tank warfare in the Second World War, can actually be proven. With its uniquely detailed presentation of the subject, this book offers a fascinating insight into the deeper tactical subtleties of the fighting on the Eastern Front during this phase of the war.