War Stories

Otto Carius
Otto Carius (May 27th, 1922 - January 24th, 2015) was a German tank ace within the German Army who fought during World War II and was credited with destroying more than 150 tanks. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves were awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

Early in the war, the slightly built Carius was rejected twice for military service for being underweight. However, he was eventually enlisted and initially served in the infantry, before volunteering for the Panzer branch of the army.

In 1943, Carius transferred to the 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion (schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502). He was severely wounded on July 24th, 1944, while reconnoitering a village on a motorcycle. Until that day, he was unofficially running the 2nd Company of the 502nd. He officially became the commander of 2nd Company; on the same day, he was shot through the leg and arm, received four bullets in the back and one through the neck. He subsequently became the commander of a Jagdtiger company of the 512th Heavy Antitank Battalion (schwere Panzerj?gerabteilung) at the beginning of 1945. On March 8th, 1945, 2nd Company was directed to the front line near Siegburg, where it took part in the defense of the River Rhine and eventually surrendered to the United States Army on 15 April 1945.

Historical Account: "Lunge of the Tigers" - On July 22nd, 1944, Obersturmbanfuhrer Otto Carius, along with his company of eight Tiger tanks, advanced towards the Russian village of Malinava to stymie a Soviet advance. After ordering his column to halt on the outskirts of town, Carius, together with Obersturmbanfuhrer Kerscher, decided to reconnoiter the small hamlet with the help of a commandeered Kubelwagen. They quickly discovered that the village was already in Russian hands so they turned tail before they were spotted by the enemy.

Upon returning to his company, Carius explained the situation to his men. Realizing he had little time to lose, Carius decided to attack the village before additional Russian armor could link up with the occupying force. He elected to storm the village with only two Tigers instead of the entire company since only one unimproved road led into town and he felt that the column could be exposed to enemy fire if the entire company advanced. While the rest of his company was held in reserve, Carius and Kerscher's Tigers sped towards the village of Malinava, itching for a fight.

Two T-34/85 tanks occupying Malinava saw the Tigers and immediately took aim against Carius' Tiger (No. 217). Fortunately for Carius, Kerscher's Tiger (No. 213), which trailed Carius by some 150-meters, fired quickly, knocking out both Russian targets before they had a chance to shoot.

As he entered the village, Carius soon came face-to-face with the latest Russian behemoth to enter the fray: the huge JS-I heavy tank, which was armed with the long-barreled 122mm gun. Confused at first, because the tank's silhouette resembled a King Tiger tank, Carius eventually ordered his gunner to fire, claiming yet another victim in the cauldron of battle.

Together with Kerscher's tank, the two Tigers would eventually knock out a further 14 Russian tanks before calling it a day, breaking the back of the Russian onslaught without loss to his own troop.

Between 1667 and 1707, Vauban upgraded the fortifications of around 300 cities, including Antibes (Fort Carre), Arras, Auxonne, Barraux, Bayonne, Belfort, Bergues, Citadel of Besancon, Bitche, Blaye, Briancon, Bouillon, Calais, Cambrai, Colmars-les-Alpes, Collioure, Douai, Entrevaux, Givet, Gravelines, Hendaye, Huningue, Joux, Kehl, Landau, Le Palais (Belle-ele), La Rochelle, Le Quesnoy, Lille, Lusignan, Le Perthus (Fort de Bellegarde), Luxembourg, Maastricht, Maubeuge, Metz, Mont-Dauphin, Mont-Louis, Montmedy, Namur, Neuf-Brisach, Perpignan, Plouezoc'h (French) (Chateau du Taureau) (French), Rocroi, Saarlouis, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, Saint-Omer, Sedan, Toul, Valenciennes, Verdun, Villefranche-de-Conflent (town and Fort Liberia), and Ypres.

Vauban was born in Saint-Leger-de-Foucheret (renamed Saint-Leger-Vauban in his honor in 1867), in Burgundy France, into a family of minor nobility. At the age of ten he was left an orphan in very poor circumstances, and his boyhood and youth were spent amongst the peasantry of his native place. A fortunate event brought him under the care of the Carmelite prior of Semur, who undertook his education, and the grounding in mathematics, science and geometry which he thus received was of the highest value in his subsequent career.

At the age of seventeen Vauban joined the regiment of Conde in the war of the Fronde. His gallant conduct won him within a year the offer of a commission, which he declined on account of poverty. Conde then employed him to assist in the fortification of Clermont-en-Argonne. Soon afterwards he was taken prisoner by the royal troops; but though a rebel he was well-treated, and the kindness of Cardinal Mazarin converted the young engineer into a devoted servant of the king.

He was employed in the siege of Sainte-Menehould (which he had helped to storm as a Frondeur) and won a lieutenancy in the regiment of Burgundy, and at Stenay he was twice wounded. Soon afterwards he besieged and took his own first fortress, Clermont; and in May 1655 he received his commission as an ingenieur du roi, having served his apprenticeship under the Chevalier de Clerville, one of the foremost engineers of the time. Between that year and the peace of 1659 he had taken part in or directed ten sieges with distinction, had been several times wounded, and was rewarded by the king with the free gift of a company in the famous Picardy regiment. About this time he married a cousin, Jeanne d'Aulnay.

After the peace, Vauban was put in charge of the construction of several important defenses, amongst other places at Dunkirk, where his work continued until the year before his death. On the renewal of war in 1662 he conducted, under the eyes of the king, the sieges of Douai, Tournai and Lille. During the siege of Lille he so distinguished himself that he received a lieutenancy in the guard (ranking as a colonelcy).

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle confirmed France's possession of new fortresses, which Vauban now improved or rebuilt. Hitherto the characteristic features of his methods of fortification had not been developed, and the systems of preceding engineers were faithfully followed. Colbert and Louvois were profoundly interested in the work, and it was at the request of the latter that the engineer drew up in 1669 his Memoire pour servir a l'instruction dans la conduite des sieges (this, with a memorandum on the defense of fortresses by another hand, was published at Leiden in 1740).

On the renewal of war Vauban again conducted the most important sieges, (Rheinberg and Nijmegen 1672, Maastricht and Trier 1673, Besancon 1674). In the latter year he also supervised the only defense in which he ever took part, that of Oudenaarde. This was followed by the reduction of Dinant, Huy and Limbourg. At this time he wrote for the commandants of Verdun and Le Quesnoy, valuable Instructions pour la defense. In 1675 Vauban bought the Chateau de Bazoches. In 1676 he was made Mar?chal de camp. He took Conde, Bouchain and other places in that year, Valenciennes and Cambrai in 1677, Ghent and Ypres in 1678.

It was at this time that Vauban synthesized the methods of attacking strong places, on which his claim to renown as an engineer rests far more than on his systems of fortification. The introduction of a systematic approach by parallel series of trenches (said to have been suggested by the practice of the Turks at Candia in 1668) dates from the siege of Maastricht, and in principle remained until the 20th century the standard method of attacking a fortress. The Peace of Nijmegen gave more territory to France, and more fortresses had to be adapted.

Vauban was named Commissaire-general des fortifications on the death of Clerville, and wrote in 1679 a memorandum on the places of the new frontier, from which it appears that from Dunkirk to Dinant France possessed fifteen fortresses and forts, with thirteen more in second line. Most of these had been rebuilt by Vauban, and further acquisitions, notably Strasbourg (1681), involved him in unceasing work, some of which, such as the Barrage Vauban, can still be seen today. At Saarlouis for the first time appeared Vauban's "first system" of fortification, which remained the accepted standard until comparatively recent times. He never hesitated to retain what was of advantage in the methods of his predecessors, which he had hitherto followed, and it was in practice rather than in theory that he surpassed them.

In 1682, his "second system", which introduced modifications of the first designed to prolong the resistance of the fortress, began to appear; and about the same time he wrote a practical manual entitled Le Directeur-General des fortifications (Hague, 1683-85). Having now attained the rank of Lieutenant General, he took the field once more, and captured Kortrijk in 1683, and Luxembourg in the following year. The unexpected strength of certain towers designed by the Spanish engineer Louvigni (fl. 1673) at Luxemburg suggested the tower-bastions which are the peculiar feature of Vauban's second system which was put into execution at Belfort in the same.

He directed the building of 37 new fortresses, and fortified military harbours, including Ambleteuse, Brest, Dunkerque, Freiburg im Breisgau, Lille (Citadel of Lille), Rochefort, Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Fort Socoa), Saint-Martin-de-Re, Toulon, Wimereux, Le Portel, and Cezembre.