During
World War II Germany's tank experts became household names and one of these was
Ernst Barkmann. In one engagement in 1944 he destroyed nine tanks.
In 1945 he knocked out four T-34s and brought the total score of the "Das Reich" division to 3
000 enemy tanks destroyed to date and his personal score to over 80 kills'
Who was Ernst Barkmann? What made him such a successful tank commander?
How did he manage to survive so many encounters when always heavily outnumbered?
How did he destroy nine Sherman tanks in one day? Hello I'm Colin Heaton former Soldier,
Marine Corps scout sniper. history professor, historian and book author
and we will answer these questions and other issues on this segment of Forgotten History.
Born on August 25th 1919 the son of a farmer Barkmann joined the Nazi Party on September
1st 1938 and served in the Reich Labor Service from November 1938 to March 1939.
Barkmann then joined the Waffen SS on April 1st 1939 and served
as a machine gunner in Poland where he was wounded receiving the Wound Badge in Black.
Assigned to the 2nd Waffen SS Division "Das Reich" participated as an infantryman in the Invasion i
of France and earned the Infantry Assault Badge. During Operation Barbarossa he was seriously
wounded again in Ukraine in July of 1941 receiving the Wound Badge in Silver and promoted a corporal.
After almost a year of recovery he was assigned to a training unit for Dutch Volunteers in Holland
in 1942 then he transferred to tanks. In late 1942 he returned to the Eastern Front and joined
the 2nd Company 1st Battalion 1st Panzer Regiment of "Das Reich" he was assigned as a
gunner on a Panzer III with the second SS Panzer Corps. Fighting at Kharkov and Kursk in 1943
his skill saw him promoted to sergeant and given command of his own Panzer IV. His crew was quite
successful and he received the Iron Cross second and first class as well as the Panzer Assault
Badge. Barkmann became a master of camouflaging his tanks using natural foliage or even canvas painted
and using tree branches to break up his Tank's outline. During the third Battle of Kharkov and the
battle at the Mius River Barkmann was transferred into the new Panzerkampfwagen V Panther. The
Panther V was designed as an answer to the Soviet T-34 medium tank and it was considered the best
medium tank developed by any country during the war. It mounted a high velocity 75 millimeter kwk
42 L/70 Cannon with a range of 9850 meters and a muzzle velocity of over 3000 feet per second.
At 100 meters the armor-piercing round could penetrate 112 millimetres of armor and at 500
meters you could penetrate 124 millimetres or almost 5 inches of armor. In contrast the M4
Sherman only had three inches of frontal armor so direct hits were a definite kill. It had 55 degrees
sloped frontal armor similar to the T-34 and wide tracks for cross-country movement and weighed in
at 44 tons. It had a top speed of between 29 and 34 miles per hour and a range of about 62 miles
cross country and 160 miles on roads. "Das Reich" was relocated to Bordeaux, France anticipating
a southern Invasion, then ordered North due to the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944. Along the way
Allied fighter bombers and partisan attacks were constant but in the first week of July Barkmann's
unit met with Allied forces in the Saint Lo area and in the Bocage region. His Panther company was
thrown against greater numbers of American-made M4 and M3 Stewart tanks used by American, Canadian and
British forces. On July 8th he destroyed his first Sherman, two more destroyed and a third damaged on
July 12th before relocating and destroying another three Shermans later that day. His Panther was hit
by an anti-tank around starting a fire which he and the crew extinguished but the tank went
in for repairs and he was promoted to lieutenant. On July 14th Barkmann was given orders to recover
four Panthers cut off behind enemy lines and he managed to reach them and destroyed three more
Shermans in the process. Later that same day he was sent to recover wounded German soldiers captured
by the American forces and succeeded. Upon his return his Panther had been repaired. On July
26th Barkmann's Panther had an engine problem and was sent to the field Workshop where it
was attacked by Allied fighter bombers and hit again in the engine compartment. On the morning
of July 27th his Panther was repaired but he was now cut off on the rest of the company and was
on his way to rejoin it. His legend was cemented this day when he entered the village of La Lorey.
German soldiers warned him of an enemy tank column approaching which may have been a Canadian unit.
Barkmann parked his tank under a group of oak trees well camouflaged at the shoulder of a crossroads
where the enemy was coming. Barkmann waited for the full column to come into view 400 meters away, 15
tanks and support trucks allowing them to start turning on the bend he fired. He destroyed the
first two Shermans as well as a fuel truck then he hit the last two tanks visible in the column
trapping the rest in the middle while his gunner fired into the others scoring hits. The Shermans
called in air support and a Hawker Typhoon fired rockets which resulted in two of Barkmann's
crew being wounded and his tank heavily damaged. Meanwhile Barkmann destroyed two more Shermans that
tried to go around the flaming wrecks. Then two more Shermans seeing the damaged Panther came in for
the kill. Barkmann's loader and gunner jumped into action and those two tanks were quickly destroyed.
Repairing their tank quickly Barkmann retreated his Panther to the nearby Village of Neufbourg.
He was pursued by the remaining Shermans but managed to destroy his last one for the day
for a total of nine tanks destroyed with four more tanks damaged and several trucks destroyed. Barkmann
was wounded again but managed to get his last tank back to German lines on July 28th, Barkmann
reached Coutances and rejoined his company. During the two-day period he had destroyed 15 Shermans
and a dozen other vehicles. On July 30th the Americans surrounded Granville as Barkmann was
towing a damage to Panther but was able to break out. In order to destroy their disabled Panther the
other crew decided to set it on fire and soon by mistake both Panthers caught fire. Both crews were
forced to make their way to the German lines seven kilometers away on foot. When Barkmann
reached arrange on August 5th he was welcomed and congratulated by his comrades who had heard of his
exploits. For his bravery and skill Ernst Barkmann was recommended for the Knight's Cross on August
27th and it was awarded on September 5th along with his Wound Badge in Gold. Barkmann later took
part in the Ardennes Offensive in December of 1944 where on December 25th he was again seriously
wounded when he drove into a group of American tanks of the 2nd Armored Division. Outnumbered
Barkmann managed to knock out a few Sherman tanks. One Sherman rammed a Barkmann's Panther
but caused little damage but both tanks became stuck together and Barkmann's engine stalled out.
After a few minutes Barkmann's mechanic managed to restart the engine and the Panther retreated with
a blocked turret. The Sherman that rammed him gave chase but even with the damage Barkmann's
driver pivoted the tank and knocked out the Sherman they had just escaped. His own Panther
was later scrapped. In March 1945 Barkmann was once again fighting with the Soviets in the
area of Stuhlweissenburg. At that time "Das Reich" was exhausted by non-stop fighting and lack of
replacement tanks. Barkmann's unit alone had only nine fully operational vehicles from which three
were soon lost to the new Joseph Stalin tanks. The remaining six Panthers were ordered to link
up with the remnants of the Panzer Regiment of the first SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler"
commanded by SS Standartenfuehrer (Colonel) Jochen Peiper. By April 1945 Barkmann saw action south of
Vienna during the fighting in Austria. There his Panther was hit by mistake when a German soldier
fired a panzerfaust anti-tank rocket at a T-34 which missed and hit his Panther. Barkmann and his
crew members are all wounded and as they tried to drive the damage tank away it was disabled
in a huge bomb crater so the crew destroyed and then abandoned the tank. Ernst Barkmann was able
to reach the British zone of occupation where he was taken into captivity. He was later released in 1946.
During the war Barkmann and his crew were credited with the destruction of at least 82 Soviet, British
and U.S tanks 136 miscellaneous armored fighting vehicles and 43 anti-tank guns. He returned to his
hometown of Kisdorf and became a fireman and became the fire chief and also served as the
town mayor from which he retired. Ernst Barkmann died on July 27 2009 at the age of 89. We hope ,
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