Panzer ace
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The following list contains the "panzer aces" of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during World War II.
Military historian Steven Zaloga notes the popular perception of a tank versus tank engagement as an armored joust, whereas the more valiant or better armed, would eventual emerge victorious.[1]
Historian Sönke Neitzel questions the achivements attributed to various tank aces. According to Neitzel, numbers of successes by highly decorated tank commanders should be approached with caution as it is rarely possible to determine reliably in the heat of the battle how many tanks were destroyed by whom.[2]
Zaloga uses the famous "panzer ace" Michael Wittmann to illustrate his point. He refers to Wittman as "the hero of all Nazi fanboys" and credits him with "about 135" tank kills. Zoluga points out that Wittmann achieved 120 of these in 1943, operating a Tiger I tank on the Eastern Front. Having advantages both in firepower and in armor, Tiger I was "nearly invulnerable in a frontal engagement" against any of the Soviet tanks of that time. Wittman thus could engage his opponents before their guns could reach his vehicle.[3] Neitzel described Wittmann as the "supposedly successful" (angeblich erfolgreichsten) tank commander of the World War II and attests to "hero worshiping" around Wittmann, which is rarely absent from any popular book about the Waffen-SS.[2]
References
Citations
- ^ Zaloga 2015, pp. 3.
- ^ a b Neitzel 2002, p. 413.
- ^ Zaloga 2015, pp. 3, 221.
Bibliography
- Neitzel, Sönke (2002). "Des Forschens noch wert? Anmerkungen zur Operationsgeschichte der Waffen-SS". Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift. 61: 403–429.
{{cite journal}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Smelser, Ronald; Davies, Edward J. (2008). The myth of the Eastern Front: The Nazi-Soviet War in American Popular Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83365-3.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Zaloga, Steven (2015). Armored Champion: The Top Tanks of World War II. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-1437-2.
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