Soviet gunboat sunk by tank destroyer

An odd one, no doubt. I'd have to question this one, as some of you gents have... possible, but what are the odds? I can easily see one of these being taken out by German armor, but specifically a Ferdinand?

Either way- a very interesting tidbit!

Minor point of specifics- by this time, it would have been an Elefant, not a Ferdiand, most likely.

Ceraphix/Tomcat- as far as I know, 90 Ferdinands produced. Confirmed by Combat History of Sch. PzJgr Abt. 653.

 

Only 90 produced? That's something I didn't know. Nice story JCFalkenberg. if this really happened some E.K.S could have been earned for this

 

Yes, 90 produced. There are tousands as many more plastic models around than originals for a weapon that was numerically irrelevant other than it was photogenically interesting.

As I said above the Russians called any SPG a Ferdinand, so it could have been anything, a StuG, a Marder, JgdPz IV, etc., we'll never know.

 

True it could have been any Panzer you mentionned. Another thing: maybe the boat wasn't even moving (you can see a pole on the picture) . It could just have been on shore when it was attacked by surprise and sunk with a single shot. As you say, we"ll never know.

 

Well you know that some soldiers did suffer from the "Tiger" tank fascination. Any tanks was a "Tiger" LOL So maybe to the Soviets it was a "Ferdinand"

 

I wonder how far away it was and if it was able to sneak up on it? LOL

 

I wonder if Chuikov64th ever made it and found out anything more? LOL

 

This looks a myth to me, there were over 1000 tigers around compared to less than 20.000 total medium (II, IV and V) german tanks produced so a significant percentage and tigers sometimes had a huge tactical effect so mistaken identification makes sense.
There were only 90 Elephant/Ferdinand chassis produced (Serial numbers 150001 to 150090 or 150010 to 150100 according to sources), Pz Abteilung 653 and 654 had 3 companies of four vehicle platoons and a 2 vehicle HQ troop, 2/3 ferdinands and a Pz III formed the HQ company so 44/45 vehicles, I believe around half were lost during Kursk. Compared to thousands of just Stugs it's a drop in the ocean. Also the two batallions moved around a lot and for most of the war there was not a single elephant on the eastern front. It could be the soviets used "ferdinand" as a generic name for turretless AFV (like the allies called any german MG a spandau) but they had been fighting stugs long before meeting any elefants so even this makes little sense, on a tactical level it does matter if you are facing a Marder or an elephant so I can't believe confusion was encouraged.

As to ships sunk by land forces there is a claim by Rommel's 7th panzer's divisional artillery sinking a destroyer at St Valery during the french campaign (in my Italian translation of Rommel's biography by Desmond Young it's a battlecruiser!!!) but I could find no confirmation of the loss from the allied side, has anybody info on this? there is also at least one Italian destroyer sized ship sunk by german field artillery during the confused fighting that followed the September 43 armistice.

 

What can I do to you, TOS, they really used to call any type of German SPG a Ferdinand. It's puzzling but that's what it is...

 

My readings of original soviet sources is very limited (I don't read russian), wonder how it started. I believe the only suriving Ferdinand batallion was in the east at the time the incident is reported so it may real be a Ferdinand involved though any 75mm or bigger armed vehicle could have done it, 75mm ammo is bad for a boat even if armoured and if a round disables the engines it's a sitting duck for a gun system designed to engage much smaller targets like tanks. No big need for ambush tactics, the german guns could engage from over 2000m and at that distance a monitor is much more visible than a tank.