The battalion. sPzAbt 505 was formed in February 1943 as an Army (Heer) heavy tank battalion equipped with the Tiger I. It first saw major action at Kursk in July 1943, attacking with Model's 9th Army in the northern sector of Operation Citadel, and fought through the defensive battles on the Eastern Front in 1943 and 1944. By September 1944 it had been re-equipped with the Tiger II, and it ended the war fighting in East Prussia.
The knight emblem. The 505 didn't start out with a knight. Its earlier emblem is recorded as a snorting bull on the front glacis plate. Around the winter of 1943/44 the battalion adopted the charging knight, painted on the turrets of its Tigers, with the turret numbers reportedly moved onto the gun barrel. The knight became one of the most recognisable unit markings of any German tank formation.
The battalion. sPzAbt 505 was formed in February 1943 as an Army (Heer) heavy tank battalion equipped with the Tiger I. It first saw major action at Kursk in July 1943, attacking with Model's 9th Army in the northern sector of Operation Citadel, and fought through the defensive battles on the Eastern Front in 1943 and 1944. By September 1944 it had been re-equipped with the Tiger II, and it ended the war fighting in East Prussia.
The knight emblem. The 505 didn't start out with a knight. Its earlier emblem is recorded as a snorting bull on the front glacis plate. Around the winter of 1943/44 the battalion adopted the charging knight, painted on the turrets of its Tigers, with the turret numbers reportedly moved onto the gun barrel. The knight became one of the most recognisable unit markings of any German tank formation.
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