s.Pz.Abt. 503 King Tiger - Stab 1 (Nordewin von Diest-Körber) 1/16 R/C

[James Laver]

This 1/16 scale King Tiger is modelled on a ‘Stab 1’ Befehlswagen (Pz.Bef.Wg.) Tiger Ausf. B. Type Sd.Kfz. 267. At the time of the event described here, the tank belonged to the Heavy Tank Battalion Feldherrnhalle. Previously it was with s.Pz.Abt. 503.Its Commander Dr. Haupt. Nordewin von Diest-Körber reached Třeboň, Czechoslovakia 10th May 1945 and was engaged by Czech loyalists and Russian anti-tank crews. 'Stab 1’ or ‘Red One’ as it was known became bogged in a meadow adjoining the obstructed main road whilst attempting to skirt the attackers. The tank was abandoned in the hasty retreat westward through the Bohemian forest towards SE Germany and a planned surrender to the Americans. Whilst the Commander survived the war (he hitched a ride on another tank), ‘Red One’ was initially retrieved by the Russians but ended up in a Czech smelter at Kladno. Model finishing by Gary Farrow, Research: James Laver. December 2019. (Front drive hub cap missing as is the FUG 5 radio antenna). For R/C I'm using a Clark TK40s controller connected to an FrSky X8R Rx via S.BUS and a Jumper T16 Tx running OpenTX.

[Armortek]

Hi James - a friendly reminder that this forum is for posting Armortek models and related 1:6 scale accessories only.
In this instance we will let this post remain for it's historical context,but in general posts with other scales will be removed.
Kian

[James Laver]

Kian, apologies. I did buy a 1/6 scale King from you back in 2010 'ish so this was for historical purposes as you rightly identify. James

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

Very interesting story! I have taken an interest in the 503 myself. Fortunately, there is tons of information about them, but I did not know of this episode.

Your avatar depicts Kurt Knispel, the most successful gunner in armor history (yes, he did outgun the notorious Michael Wittman, because he lived longer). I have chosen his tank as prototype for my tiger 1 model. Ironically, Kurt was killed when there was only one week left before the surrender - about the time of your story. At that time, he was the commander of a tiger 2.

As it turns out, history itself is a very interesting sidetrack to our hobby!

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

Oh, I was going to mention that the "Feldherrnhalle" thing was a way of "promoting" the very successful 503 to the same status as the named SS battallions. At this time of the war, a defeat was in the soldier's mind and potentially being mistaken for an SS soldier would be a bad thing if captured. The 503 soldiers continued to refer to their unit as the 503 and did not wear any "Feldherrnhalle" insignia if they could avoid it.

Feldherrnhalle was the name of the beer hall in Munich, where Hitler made his first inspirational speeches in public, so had a very significant meaning to him.