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The Tiger from Poznan (Hardback)

Military > Memoirs Military > Tanks WWII > Battles & Campaigns > Russia & the Eastern Front WWII > Poland in WWII

By Richard Siegert
Imprint: Pen & Sword Military
Pages: 152
Illustrations: 50 black and white illustrations & maps
ISBN: 9781526779175
Published: 11th August 2021

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Video review by Dr Alexander Clarke

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In the Second World War, Poznan was a key river crossing and railway junction on the Polish-German border. When the alarm was given indicating the Red Army's approach in January 1945, the city's 80-100,000 German civilians were speedily evacuated, leaving a garrison of some 15,000 men, mostly poorly-armed infantry, to face the rigours of a siege conducted by a massively superior and ruthless enemy anxious to acquire this transport centre, which was vital for the advance on Berlin.

This is the account of Eastern Front veteran Richard Siegert, the gunner and later commander of the defenders' sole Tiger tank. Since the death of the driver in a futile attempt to escape from a PoW camp in Russia just after the end of the war, Siegert is the only survivor of that crew able to pass its record on to posterity. His account details how the crew fought gallantly against impossible odds, even when the Tiger was immobilised and could only act as a stationary anti-tank gun post or pillbox during the last heroic days' fighting for the citadel.

"...a glimpse of the life of a tank gunner on the Eastern Front during the war's final months."

WWII History Reviews June 2022

The Tiger from Poznan is a thin book but an important book in that it tells the story of a young man put into an impossible position as a German gunner in a Tiger tank. With the odds very much against him, the story tells us about how he or his tank and tank team were forced to hold an important and strategic position all by themselves. In a way, this might be a small book but it packs a punch like a Tiger tank, it is written like a diary in that we learn almost a daily occurrence of how they had to put up with lack of supplies, the poor weather, lack of support etc etc. The number of maps, diagrams, drawings etc that accompany the book work well with the book and are an important part of the book which adds a lot of credit to the book. If anything it takes the book from a run of the mill retelling to a higher value read. A good quick read, but one everyone who is interested in the Tiger tank would enjoy.

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UK Historian

An inherently fascinating and impressively informative account from a German perspective, Richard Siegert's "The Tiger from Poznan" will be of immense interest for World War II military history buffs and an important, appreciated, and valued addition to community, college, and university library World War II Military History & Biography collections.

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Midwest Book Review

This is no run-of-the-mill memoir; it is a book that provides real insight into what it was like to serve as gunner in a single tank during an urban siege. Furthermore, the author pulls no punches in his descriptions of life in captivity and the tricks and devices that were used to survive in a seemingly hopeless situation. Recommended.

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Phil Curme

This work is a valuable and very interesting addition to the canon of World War Two history from the only survivor of that Tiger crew able to pass its record to posterity. It will appeal equally to the general reader interested in WW2 as well as the more specialist reader of WW2 histories and those interested in the Tiger Tank.

Martin Willoughby, Chairman of the Wessex Branch of the Western Front Association

Click here to watch

Video review by Dr Alexander Clarke

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

An inspirational book about the hardships encountered during the last days of the war against Russia by Germany. It was truly educational to learn about the events that occurred and how the author survived.

NetGalley, Ron Baumer

About Richard Siegert

Richard Siegert was born in 1922, in the small German town of Auscha (Kreis Leitmeritz). In 1941, he joined the Wehrmacht and trained as an infantryman and armoured vehicle driver in the 108th Panzer Grenadier Battalion. During Operation Barbarossa he fought on the frontlines in the Vitebsk region (now Belarus) and was injured on Christmas Eve 1943 after his vehicle was hit by a shell from a T-34 tank.
Following the German retreat, he found himself in Poznań and incorporated into the Festung’s (fortress) garrison, where he became the gunner of the only Tiger-type tank left fighting in the city. After the surrender, he spent 4 ½ years in Soviet captivity and later wrote down his memoires as a keepsake for his family. They were first published in 1986 under the title Posenkämpfer.
Richard Siegert died in February 2012.

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