Tiger 221 of s PzAbt 504 knocked out in Cecina Italy on July 1st 1944

If you want to help keep the caffeine flowing The tank was knocked out by a shot to the side at less 30 yards from a 752nd Tank Battalion Sherman crewed by platoon leader Lieutenant Edwin W. Cox on July 1st 1944 Cox’s Sherman had just passed Via Manzoni on its left. Just moments before Tiger 221 rounded the curve onto Via Montanara, the crew of Sherman 11 spotted a German infantry soldier in a ditch alongside the road. Unknown to the American tankers, the German scout was acting as a “spotter“ for Tiger 221. As the infantry scout stood up to motion the Tiger on, he was immediately hit by machine gun fire, clasping his stomach as he fell. As the German spotter fell, the Sherman tank crew saw the main gun barrel of Tiger 221 emerge from behind a two-story house on the left side of Via Montanara near the curve in the road. At that moment, Tiger 221 rounded the curve onto Via Montanara and came face to face with the Lieutenant Cox’s Sherman, at a distance of 75 to 100 yards. Both tanks fired simultaneously. The Tiger’s 88mm shell struck the ground close to the left side of Cox’s Sherman. The concussion of the Tiger’s shot lifted the left side of the Sherman off the ground, but no damage was inflicted. At the same instant, the Sherman fired a 75mm armor piercing (AP) round, hitting the lower front hull of the Tiger. Crew members of the Sherman recalled seeing the shell merely bounce off the Tiger’s hull. The only damage inflicted upon Tiger 221 by this hit was a chip in the Zimmerit coating, which is clearly visible in after-action photographs. The two tanks momentarily lost sight of each other in the dust that had been raised by the firing and movement of the tanks. Tiger 221’s crew was further handicapped by the loss of their infantry spotter. Lieutenant Cox ordered his driver, Sergeant Raymond Holt, to back Sherman 11 into the dust, and then turn left through a small garden and position the tank tightly against the wall of a two-story home midway between Via Manzoni and Via Marrucci. In this position, the front of the Sherman was facing Via Trieste, and the rear was facing Via Montanara, where the Tiger remained. Lieutenant Cox then traversed the turret to the rear of his tank, with the main gun at the 5 o’clock position. Lieutenant Cox positioned his tank in that fashion to allow for a more rapid escape in the event that the Tiger approached from their rear and could not be successfully disabled. He had taken a calculated risk that the Tiger 221 would continue along its original path, and cross in front of their traversed main gun. Sherman 11 maintained this position for several minutes, while the German armor (or perhaps U.S. artillery) shelled the surrounding buildings. When the shelling stopped, Tiger 221 slowly lumbered down Via Montanara, unaware of the position of Cox’s Sherman. In recent interviews, Tiger 221’s crew members say that they believed the Sherman was in some brush to their 11 o’clock position. The time was 2045 hours. Tiger 221 slowly rumbled down Via Montanara, crossing the position of Sherman 11, which was hidden behind the building. With its crew unaware of Sherman 11’s position, the Tiger moved perpendicular to the Sherman’s rear and directly in front of its traversed main gun. As Tiger 221 slowly crossed before them, Lieutenant Cox calmly told his gunner “Hold on, hold on…“ until the Tiger was squarely in front of them. Employing a tactic that exploited the Tiger’s thinly armored sides, Lieutenant Cox then gave the order to unleash an armor piercing (AP) round through the Tiger’s right rear sponson, into the fuel tank. The 75mm AP round penetrated Tiger 221’s hull and immediately ignited the fuel tank. Eyewitnesses from both the 133rd Infantry and the Sherman crew say that Tiger 221’s engine compartment burst into flames when it was hit. Just a few seconds later, Sherman 11 fired another round into the Tiger’s right track for good measure, severing it. After its crew escaped, Tiger 221 exploded when the spreading fire ignited its full load of ammunition. The after-action photographs show that the internal explosion was violent enough to buckle the hull roof above the radio operator’s position. With Tiger 221 disabled and burning, the remaining Tiger tank and StuG III withdrew. The counterattack rapidly collapsed with the defeat of Tiger 221, and this remarkable tank versus tank action effectively marked the end of the battle for Cecina. Some light mopping-up operations continued the following day on 2 July. Company A of the 752nd lost eleven of its fifteen tanks in Cecina. Despite the heavy loss of tanks, only six enlisted men and one officer were wounded, and two enlisted men captured. No 752nd tankers were lost in the heavy fighting in Cecina.