Otto Carius: biography, Wehrmacht tanker, books, memoirs, date and cause of death

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

The article will focus on the military legend of the Third Reich - Otto Carius. This World War II ace tanker knocked out a record number of tanks, received five wounds, and was awarded many military distinctions. In our country, his book “Tanks in the Mud” is still popular today - Carius Otto's memoirs about that war, about the fighting vehicles of the Reich and the Soviet Union, about the valor of ordinary soldiers and the bitterness of defeat. War has always been and will be a tragedy for ordinary soldiers and civilians. Only for politicians, it remains a game and a topic for rewriting history. We will try to move away from politics and assessment, and look at those events and the role of Otto Carius in them from the position of an outside observer.

Tank Master

The name of the German tanker Carius Otto was widely used by the propaganda of the Third Reich. Together with the sergeant major of the PanzerwaffeKurt Knispel and SS-Haupsturmführer Michael Wittmann, he became a legend in tank battles. It is believed that Otto Carius knocked out about 200 tanks and self-propelled guns during his military career, although he himself said in his numerous interviews that he did not count the knocked out vehicles.

The German command highly appreciated this tank ace, awarding him with many awards. Among them:

• Two Iron Crosses - 2nd class (1942) and 1st class (1943).
• Three badges "For wounding" - black (1941), silver (1943) and gold (1944).
• Medal "For the Winter Campaign 1941/1942" (1942).
• Two badges for a tank attack in silver (both in 1944).
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (1944).

And the highest award of the Third Reich "Oak Leaves" in June 1944 was personally presented to the tanker Otto Carius by Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler.

Germany Above All

Otto Carius was born on May 27, 1922 in the small town of Zweibrücken in the southwestern part of Germany. He was 11 years old when the Nazis came to power. Barely reaching adulthood, he volunteers to join the army. And his choice was obvious, because his father and older brother were already Wehrmacht officers, and Nazi propaganda demanded that the army be replenished with soldiers.

It was 1940, Otto was twice rejected by the commission, but he was persistent. He ended up in the 104th reserve infantry battalion, where he was trained as a tanker. After training, Otto Carius was enlisted as a loader on a captured Panzer 38 (t) tank in the 21sttank regiment of the 20th division of the Wehrmacht. He began his war on June 22, 1941, when his regiment crossed the border of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. But already on July 8, 1941, he was out of action with the first wound - the tank of Otto Carius smashed a Soviet artillery shell.

Becoming a tank ace

In August 1941, with the rank of non-commissioned officer, Otto arrived in the 25th reserve tank battalion of the Wehrmacht, where he was trained and received the right to drive a tank. He returned to his regiment in the winter of 1942 and was immediately given command of a tank platoon. And in the fall, with the rank of lieutenant, he commands the 1st company of the 21st tank regiment of the Army Group Center. On the tank "Skoda" Panzer 38 (t) he takes part in the battles near Orel, Kozelsk, Sukhinichi.

At this stage, the performance of the tanker is zero. This is due both to the outdated model of the tank and the fact that Otto's division was in secondary military positions where there were no tank battles.

First "Tiger"

January 1943 - Otto Carius leaves his division and is sent to the 500th reserve tank battalion to learn how to operate the new heavy tanks Pz. Kpfw. VI "Tiger". These machines weighing 60 tons had powerful armor, an 88-mm cannon and two machine guns. The tank had a capacity of 700 horsepower, reached speeds of up to 45 km / h on the road and up to 20 km / h off-road, and was controlled very easily.

The first battle "Tiger" Otto Carius took in July 1943 near Leningrad as part of the 502nd SS heavy tank battalion. Right from that momentthe manner of conducting a tank battle of this ace is manifested - do not climb on the rampage, attack from an ambush and suddenly. His motto is "Shoot first, and if you can't, at least attack first." And it was then that his score of wrecked enemy vehicles began to grow.

"Tiger" No. 217 Carius is fighting near Leningrad, Narva, Dvinsk. He has more than 75 destroyed Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns to his credit.

Tankman gaining experience

In his book Tigers in the Mud, Otto Carius details his first experience of attacking the Tiger. In the summer of 1943, an offensive operation of the Wehrmacht was underway near Leningrad. Soviet troops near Nevel break through the defenses and cut off the troops of the Army Groups "Center" and "North" from each other. Tanks "Tiger" were used by the command as a "fire brigade", which was transferred to the places of breakthroughs. It is in this gap that a platoon of tanks of Lieutenant Otto Carius is sent as part of the 502nd SS Panzer Battalion.

Here Carius organizes the first ambush, which includes 12 T-34 tanks. According to confirmed data, only two "thirty-fours" could survive. In the battles near Nevel, in which the lieutenant takes part until the end of 1943, he increases the number of wrecked enemy vehicles.

Tigers in action

In January 1944, Otto Carius again takes part in the battles near Leningrad. Here the tanks act together with the infantry and cover the German withdrawal to Narva. The tanker described one of the episodes of those battles in his memoirs.

It was March 17, 1944of the year. Two "Tigers" - one commanded by Otto Carius, and the other by Sergeant Major Kerscher - destroyed 14 T-34 tanks and 5 anti-tank artillery installations. But German technology also suffered significant losses from Soviet artillery. In addition, heavy "Tigers" got stuck in swampy areas. In his memoirs, Karius noted that if the Soviet tanks had acted harmoniously, then the outcome of this battle would not have been on their side.

During 5 days of those battles, Otto's company destroyed 38 Soviet tanks, 4 self-propelled guns and 17 anti-tank guns. It was for these battles that Carius received the Oak Leaves from the hands of Heinrich Himmler himself. Together with him, another tank ace, Johannes Belter, received the award, on whose account there were 139 destroyed enemy tanks. But both were no longer so sure of the victory of German weapons.

During their career, the crew of "Tiger" No. 217 disabled from 150 to 200 tanks and self-propelled guns, many anti-tank guns and, according to some reports, one aircraft.

End of military career

In July 1944, Otto receives another serious wound and is sent for treatment. By the fall of 1944, Otto Carius, who had already received five wounds, was on the Western Front.

In the winter of 1945, he becomes the commander of the Yagdir self-propelled gun of the 502nd tank battalion, and then commands the Yagdir platoon. His vehicles are fighting with the allied forces. During the defense of Dortmund in the Ruhr Sack, Carius' company destroyed about 15 American tanks.

And already on April 15, 1945, he and his brigade near the Ruhr got intoencirclement and, by order of the command, surrendered to American troops. He did not stay long in the prisoner of war camp near Saarbrücken, and then in 1946 he was released. According to some reports, he left the camp fraudulently, according to others, he was released, because he did not take part in punitive operations.

Simple apothecary

As it turned out, the tanker always dreamed of being a pharmacist. After the war, he works as an apothecary's assistant and studies. In 1952 Otto graduated as a pharmacist and in 1956 opened his own pharmacy in Herschweiler-Pettersheim. In memory of the combat vehicle in which he fought, the pharmacy is named "Tiger".

Neighbors spoke of him as a cordial and decent person, ready to help both with advice and deed. It was here that Otto Carius wrote his memoirs about military life and tank battles. Until the age of 90, this most productive tanker of the Second World War ran a pharmacy and led a quiet lifestyle.

Otto Carius died at the age of 93 on January 24, 2015 and is buried in the cemetery of Herschweiler-Pettersheim (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany).

In a fight it's better to deal with 30 Americans than with 5 Russians

This is a quote from Otto Carius' Tanks in the Mud: Memoirs of a German Tanker, published in 1960. Being an eyewitness of those grandiose events, in the book Otto describes the real life of a soldier, the nuances of propaganda, the conversations of soldiers and tank duels. Most of the book, which still arouses the interest of historians and amateurs, tells about"invincible" technique of Nazi Germany and "rusty buckets" of the Soviet Union.

A German tanker and a professional in his field, the most successful scorer of the Wehrmacht in the book makes it possible to look at the terrible events of that war through the eyes of the enemy. The reader finds himself in an atmosphere of cruelty and bloodshed. And let old rivals become allies today, but the point of view of an eyewitness of events is always interesting.

About combat vehicles and propaganda

Otto Carius in his memoirs notes the dead-end development of tank building in those years, which followed the path of making vehicles heavier. Worse than the Soviet St. The main advantage of the tank is mobility, maneuverability and firepower. And it was these qualities, according to Otto, that the Soviet T-34 tank combined.

In his memoirs, the author indicates that there was no Nazi propaganda inside the units. The soldier rallied the morale, not the Fuhrer. Someone fought for Hitler, someone for the country, someone for the glory. Through the entire book of Otto Carius, the leitmotif is traced the idea of soldier's honor and valor, as well as respect for the enemy.

About Soviet cars and Ivanov's valor

An eyewitness to the appearance of our T-34 tank on the battlefields compared it to a “ramming strike”, and the appearance of “thirty-fours” at the beginning of the war, according to the author, would have led to the defeat of Germany in the winter of 1941. He believed that these light and maneuverable Soviet tanks terrified the Germans until the end of the war. With great respect, the author also describes the tank "Joseph Stalin". These heavy tanks commanded respect from the enemy with their armor and 122mm cannon.

In the book "Tigers in the Mud" Otto Carius cites many episodes of the heroic behavior of the Russian military, whom the Germans called Ivans. Despite the fact that the book was published in 1960, the author repeatedly emphasizes that the soldiers of both sides were doing nothing more than doing their duty. And they did it bravely and honorably.

Summing up

Today, however, as always, there are many imaginary authors and researchers who rewrite history to suit the current political situation. That is why eyewitness accounts become a more valuable source of information.

And the fact that Otto Carius' book "Tigers in the Mud" continues to be in the top of historical literature indicates the desire of the modern reader to consider the situation from different points of view. A productive Reich tanker, a soldier who does his duty, cannot but command respect. Even though he fought on the side of our enemy.

After all, respect for the enemy is not only a guarantee of respect for oneself, but also part of the military code of honor.