During the fall of 1944 the German Army tried unsuccessfully to stem the tide of the Allied advance through France. During this time Schwere Panzer Abteilung 501 lost nearly all its tanks. Below is a brief account of the recovery of two of those King Tigers, and their subsequent captivity.

Tiger 121 of the first Kompanie SS Schw. Pz. Abt. 501 was commanded by an Oscharführer called Zahner*. On 9 September 1944 he and his crew were falling back from Guise and at a village called La Capelle, near St. Quentin the Tiger ran out of fuel. The crew disabled the 88mm gun as well as exploding some of the tanks ammunition in the engine compartment. The Tiger stood in the road, effectively blocking it. Later, some American engineers came across the tank and bulldozed it from the road. In doing so they overturned the Tiger, leaving it lying on its turret beside the road.

Tiger 104 was the mount of HQ squad leader, Oberscharführer Sepp Franzl, among his crew were gunner Unterscharführer Hess, the loader, Panzerschütze Graf von Helldorf, radio operator Rottenführer Schrader. The fifth crew member is not known. The loader Graf von Helldorf recalled that their normal driver had been sent to the Lazarett two days earlier. Therefore the driver here was a stranger to him.** Tiger 104 had broken off from an engagement with several Sherman tanks. During this combat the tanks off-side suspension had been damaged. The crews nervousness can be gauged by the fact they fired an everything in sight. During the afternoon the tank pulled off the D981 into a field near Aux Marais, South West of Beauvais*** and began to fire on a farm building, believing it to house an anti-tank gun. When the Tiger moved off again sharply the off-side final drive failed, the tank was immobile. Franzl ordered the crew out, unaware that their movements were being observed by a group of FFI. The resistance group opened fire. Somehow all the crew did escape and were able to get back to their Kompanie by nightfall.

Franzl's Tiger stood in the field for some time, the tide of war had swept past it. The autumn was wet, and soon the 70 ton behemoth had sunk into the field up to its deck plate.

Below: one of the series of well known photographs of 104 taken during the Autumn of 1944. Note a German helmet lies beneath the massive 88mm gun. Also she has lost some of her armoured Schürtzen. The hull MG34 has also disappeared!