Otto Carius

Otto Carius
Otto Carius
Born	27 May 1922 (1922-05-27) (age 89) Zweibrücken, Weimar Germany
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Heer
Years of service	1940 – 1945
Rank	Oberleutnant of the Reserves
Unit	21st Panzer Regiment Schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502 Schwere Panzerjägerabteilung 512
Battles/wars	World War II Operation Barbarossa Battle of Narva
Awards	Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub
Other work	Pharmacist

Lieutenant Otto Carius (born May 27, 1922 in Zweibrücken, Rheinland-Pfalz in Southwest Germany) was a German Heer tank commander during World War II and is credited with destroying more than 150 tanks.^[1] He is also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

World War II

Carius had been drafted twice before, but sent home as "Not fit for service at present underweight!". But in May 1940, Carius was finally drafted into the 104th Infantry Replacement Battalion. Following training, he volunteered for the Panzer Corps. Carius learned the fundamentals of tank warfare at Putlos in Holstein as a member of the 7th Panzer Replacement Battalion.

His unit was integrated into the newly formed 21st Panzer Regiment and June 1941, was sent to East Prussia. He experienced his first battle as a gunner in a Panzer 38(t) during Operation Barbarossa in late June 1941. It was during this operation that Carius suffered wounds from a round that struck his tank.

In 1943, Carius transferred to the schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502 (502 heavy tank battalion). This unit fought at the Leningrad front and then in the area of Narva, Estonia (Battle of Narva). Carius was severely wounded on July 24, 1944 while reconnoitering a village on a motorcycle ahead of his tanks. Until that day, he was unofficially running the 2nd company of 502nd, however, he officially became the commander of 2nd company on the same day he was shot through the leg, arm, 4 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 Panzerjägerabteilung) in the West at the beginning of 1945. On 8 March 1945, without finishing its training, 2nd company was directed to the front-line near Siegburg. It then took part in the defense of the River Rhine and eventually surrendered to the US Army on 15 April 1945.

Post war

After the war he started a pharmacy shop called Tiger Apotheke in Herschweiler-Pettersheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, named after the Tiger tank, and still works there to this day. He also wrote a book about his own experience in the war, titled Tigers in the Mud.

Awards and achievements

• Wound Badge in black (8 July 1941)^[2]
• Eastern Front Medal (20 August 1941)^[3]
• Iron Cross 2nd Class (15 September 1942)^[4]
• Iron Cross 1st Class (23 November 1943)^[5]
• Wound Badge in Silver (15 December 1943)^[6]
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
  • Knight's Cross on 4 May 1944 as Leutnant of the Reserves and Zugführer in the 2./schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502^[7][8]
  • 535th Oak Leaves on 27 July 1944 as Leutnant of the Reserves and leader of the2./schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502^[7]
• Panzer Badge in Silver
  • 2nd Grade (15 July 1944)^[9]
  • 3rd Grade (1 September 1944)^[10]
• Wound Badge in Gold (11 September 1944)^[9]

Total victories (kills):

• 150+ tanks,^[1] majority on the Eastern Front.

Popular culture

Famed director and manga artist Hayao Miyazaki wrote a watercolour manga based on Otto's Tigers In The Mud called "Otto Carius: Doromamire no tora (Tigers Covered With Mud)". It was serialized in Model Graphix magazine and ran from December 1998 to May 1999. Originally this manga was planned to consist of three episodes but being unable to complete the story in three episodes it was expanded to six episodes.^[11]

Otto has also been immortalized in a Tamiya model kit of him and his crew with a late version Tiger I tank and Jagdtiger Mid.

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b} Ashley Hart, p. 41
2. ^ Carius 2003, Document 7
3. ^ Carius 2003, Document 8
4. ^ Carius 2003, Document 9
5. ^ Carius 2003, Document 10
6. ^ Carius 2003, Document 11
7. ^ ^{a b} Scherzer 2007, p. 257.
8. ^ Carius 2003, Document 12
9. ^ ^{a b} Carius 2003, Document 27
10. ^ Carius 2003, Document 26
11. ^ Nausicaa.net entry for Otto Carius: Doromamire no tora

References

• Alman, Karl (2008). Panzer vor - Die dramtische Geschichte der deutschen Panzerwaffe und ihre tapferen Soldaten. Würzburg, Germany: Flechsig Verlag. ISBN 978-3-88189-638-2.
• Carius, Otto (2003). Tigers in the Mud - The Combat Career of German Panzer Commander Otto Carius. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-2911-6.
• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000), Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945, Wölfersheim-Berstadt, Germany: Podzun-Pallas, ISBN 3-7909-0284-5 .
• Hart, Stephen A (2007). Sherman Firefly vs Tiger: Normandy 1944. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84603-150-8. 
• Kleine, Egon & Kühn, Volkmar (1999). Tiger - Die Geschichte einer legendären Waffe 1942-45. Stuttgart, Germany: Motorbuchbuch Verlag. ISBN 3-87943-414-X.
• Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives. Jena, Germany: Scherzers Miltaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.

External links

• Otto Carius in the German National Library catalogue (German)
• Names, scores and pictures of the top Tiger Aces at the Tiger I Information Center
• http://www.achtungpanzer.com/gen4.htm
• http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TA25109
• Tiger Apotheke - pharmacy shop run by Otto Carius

Persondata
Name	Carius, Otto
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	27 May 1922
Place of birth	Zweibrücken
Date of death
Place of death