..rare copy of Hans Schäufler's "Das Buch vom Panzerregiment 35 - So lebten und so starben sie " which I found on abebooks.de.

Chock full of first-hand accounts of fighting in the Panther ...

coinciding happily with my acquisition of the current issue of Heimdal's 39-45 Magazine with a long first-hand account of the activities of I./SS.Pz.Rgt 2 around Kolomak (south-west of Kharkov) during September 1943. The article is 10-pages written by Panther driver Heinrich Warnick of I./SS-Pz.Rgt.2. He describes a Russian attack by more than 80 T-34s on the Regiment. As the Russian tanks closed to within 400m of where the Panthers were semi-dug in, just turrets and upper hulls exposed, Warnick at the controls of Panther '335' , was unable to fire up the engine following two days of heavy rain. Immobilised, '335' took several direct hits, including one which knocked out the loader. Under fire Warnick was forced to clamber from the driver's station to take over the loader's duties and in the course of the next 30 minutes proceeded to knock out 23 T-34's before the crew ran out of munitions and was forced to bail out in the midst of the attacking Russian infantry!