Johann Huber Speech At DX'05 Friday Night Dinner

Part 2 (After Dinner)

To be or not to be - Page 2

© 2005 by Johann Huber

Again the same -- deflected. My third round hits the Stalin’s cupola but it is also deflected. The turret armor around the Stalin tank is very thick and extremely sloping. Not one of our rounds penetrated its armor plates. We discuss for a short time if it makes sense to keep firing at this tank over such a long distance and then cease fire immediately.

The Stalin tank commander was surely beheaded anyway and the tank is probably seriously damaged by our hits. We are not able to set the Stalin tank on fire because our rounds have no effect on the turret. It’s very understandable as the armor plates on the front of the turret are 8 inches thick.

We have already stopped this Russian tank attack at its beginning, immediately after the appearance of the first Stalin tank!

Via radio we report the current situation and our hits, but we also report it’s not possible to set the tank in fire.

The failed tank attack also had another success. The Russian infantry in front of us keeps quiet now and doesn't shoot at us any more. When we engaged the Stalin tank, the Russian infantry soldiers received the full blast of our cannon directly in their faces. Many Russian infantrymen's eardrums probably broke as our position is lower then the street in front of us. Our well-aimed rounds flew very closely over our enemies’ heads, not more than 2 ft. At least they stopped firing on us now.

I tell Lieutenant Meier: "If they are not firing on us at the moment, we should not give them the chance to start it again". I suggest using the carbine which we acquired some days ago. It’s stored outside behind our crew compartment on the engine cover plate. As a good sniper, I received this training during my years in the Hitlerjugend, I want to use it against the Russian infantry in front of us. Our company commander also thinks it’s a good idea and has nothing against the idea. Without loosing time I jump outside to grab the carbine while the enemy infantry is still dazed. Not even one of the Russian infantry soldiers dares firing back on us. I crawl on my belly to the rear of our Panzerjäger to grab the carbine.

Immediately I am back in the safety of the crew compartment. Lieutenant Meier moves on to my gunner’s seat and observes the battlefield through the scissor periscope. To rest the carbine, I put an empty cartridge bag with shells across the top of the crew compartment. Then I tell the loader to take the tracer rounds out of the machine gun belts. I use the tracer rounds so I can see the trajectory of the rounds better.

Now we try to keep the Russian’s heads down. Whenever Lieutenant Meier sees an Ivan firing on us, he gives me his exact position so I can aim. If he tries again, I shoot at him. However, it’s very difficult to estimate the distance as the sight of the carbine ends at 300 meters. No matter I fire on long distance. I can hardly see their faces over the brown field. The Russians immediately stop shooting, if I fire a little bit too short the tracer bullet richochets in front of the soldier. Such a ricochet really demoralizes them. Lieutenant Meier observes the precision of my shots with the scissor periscope and tells me each time when I hit.

Suddenly we make a very important observation of the Russian position. Continue...

Huber's Speech at DX'05 Friday Night Dinner

Part 1-1 | 1-2 | Part 2-1 | 2-2 | 2-3 | 2-4 | 2-5 | Rokossowski

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