# Real Female Panzer Teams??



## fluke (Feb 27, 2001)

This is amazing and never in mein wild dreams would I ever imagined it to be a fact....und here I was thinking how clever of my self having an optional und removable all Female crew on mein 1/16th RC Tiger 1 panzer.
Now I have a real Tank number and division markings to use. I'm always happie when I can model a subject from real historical means.

http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2011/01/ss-panzer-kommandeur-jun-1946.html


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## iamweasel (Aug 14, 2000)

I have more then several dozen WWII books and I had never even seen a mention of this. Amazing, thanks for the link.


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## Rondo (Jul 23, 2010)

While fun, this would appear to be fictional. The article has been cut and pasted onto several gaming sites. Who knows. A few more repetitions and it might become fact.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Yeah, uh, it's dated a year after the war ended...


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## iamweasel (Aug 14, 2000)

Hopefully that will teach me not to comment after a cursory glance. Probably not though.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

It is hard to say for certain... The Germans did use women for auxilliary combat roles like FlaK gun crews, search light operators, etc. There is some indication that more front line service occurred in the spring of 1945.

There is a well known photograph of a Nordland division halftrack knocked out in Berlin with a dead soldier laying next to it. There is an obscure second photo of the back of the vehicle and the corpse there is of a uniformed woman. The photo appeared in the English edition of Militaria Magazine #17. What her role was in the vehicle is unknown. Perhaps she was a comat nurse as has been suggested elsewhere. The particular vehicle has been identified as a command halftrack.

This is the common photo

http://www.ww2incolor.com/d/42495-5/waffensssverige3xv


The Russians used women in tank crews as the driver. I do not know of any female tank commanders in the Russian army although at least one vehicle had a husband-wife team. The Russians also made some use of female fighter pilots; namely the Night Witches, but there were others.


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## fluke (Feb 27, 2001)

That 1946 heading was there because it was the original information release. 
I just got an e-mail from the guy who posted it. I asked the same question.

I am also getting more information about this from a German WWII Panzer historian. He is looking into it but there was not a lot published on this as most men would have thought it not news worthy....for those years...that is understandable. Waiting for a replay as we speak. 

I can not find ONE thing more on her or Tank 069....but that does not mean it never happened. 

Will keep all posted.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

The above photo is also, I believe, photoshopped.


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## fluke (Feb 27, 2001)

After doing more research I'm pretty sure its not real.

Boy do I fell sheepish.

But there is still nothing wrong with having an all female Tank crew on my Panzer.


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## Rondo (Jul 23, 2010)

fluke said:


> But there is still nothing wrong with having an all female Tank crew on my Panzer.


Absolutely! :thumbsup:


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## Rotwang (May 25, 2011)

Panzer, Schmanzer, Check out Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS.
A friend of mine has the DVD, and it is pretty wild, and a little brutal. They used the sets from Hogan's Heroes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilsa,_She_Wolf_of_the_SS


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## DaneBramage (Jun 27, 2010)

Ilsa is awesome ;P


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

Female Panzer crews, can't imagine how that would have worked. I can't keep it straight of the women in my office of who's friends or foes on a day to day basis as it changes daily.  rr


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## Seaview (Feb 18, 2004)

I am certain that the pic is not photoshopped, and was taken in 1944 or '45. Very likely the film roll was developed in June, 1946, possibly when the camera's owner was released from detention.
It was a common practice for German soldiers to take pictures of their sweethearts (or whomever  ) dressed in their uniforms as gag photos, usually in a "morning after" situation. This girls' soldat was a Scharfuehrer (Sergeant) in an SS regiment, and the camoflagued over-tunic she is wearing was manufactured and distributed to SS troops beginning in the Spring of 1944, in the months immediatly prior to the Allied invasion of Normandy, and continued to be worn for the duration of the war.


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## fluke (Feb 27, 2001)

I am still not 100% sure that this deal is not completely fake.

You want funky? You got it!

At my local Fred Myer aka Croger super Store for some of you mid west and East.

There is this old old old...and I mean OLD dude who still wares his black SS Field cap with the panzer skull....he's been in the U.S. since 1955 but he speaks German very well and I have seen the inside of the cap....its old and the stamps make it official with the date and his name.

He was almost to be sent to active duty after being in the SS Youth program but then the War ended. 

He is certain that the SS did experiment with female crews like the Russians did taking advantage of limited available men and the fact that their size was better suited for Panzer interiors. 

The photo is indeed real....was she an actual crew person or team support personal ...who knows?

Just because there is nothing on the net does not mean it did not happen.
Rudolf suspects that not a lot of literature exists because it was a man dominated world back then and possibly a "who cares" type of attitude....especially when they lost the war to begin with. 

I'm not sure about that.....me myself...I figure if there were Female SS Panzer crews....one would think that there would be stuff all over the web and in books....probably even a film about such events and that one Female in particular ...her especially. 

Guten Tag mein Freunds!


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## Full Flaps! (Sep 26, 2010)

Why am I reminded of _Faster Pussy Cat, Kill! Kill!_? Anyway, about the photo of that supposed Panzer crew woman, she appears pretty battle ready to me, and wears that uniform like a natural, especially the hat. I agree that's it's quite possible these female Panzer crews existed, even if it is hardly documented. 

Especially during the final days of the war, Germany needed all the help she could get and every able hand available to fight. The Nazis employed teenagers and child soldiers, so there is no doubt in my mind that the women played an unexpected role in combat as well. 

Fluke, that's really something about your local neighborhood former Nazi Youth. He never get's flak for wearing his hat?


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## Rotwang (May 25, 2011)

Hey, isn't one of those kids the Pope?


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## fluke (Feb 27, 2001)

The old guy is quite a character indeed. He wares that hat all the time and is very proud of his past. Almost too proud ....but he is a German citizen but was never a 'Nazi' like many of the younger persons they loved their country not the cause, much like many of us here today....we are Patriots but do not always believe in 'why'.

So yes he does get flack but I have over heard him talk this out and by the time they are done is laughs and hand shakes. The old timers don't give him issues either in fact the older veterans love to discuss the past with him. 

The one thing that he does that is 'pushing it' a bit is the roman hand and arm extended....but he never says Hail hitler.....its "Sieg Heil" oh well.

I love to talk to him when I have the time....he's very funny and the stories are amazing. The way he talks about his experiences there is no way on earth that its fabricated.

I'm still waiting for a letter back from Military Museum in Hamburg about these Female Tankers. 

Cool pic!


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## iamweasel (Aug 14, 2000)

My uncle was a prisoner of war in Stalag IIB and while he had some seriously bad things to say when it came to the German soldiers there,and the Germans who oversaw the infamous march were way beyond cruel, he never did seem to hate the Germans as a whole but he did hate the Nazi's. Quite surprising considering the things he saw and lived through there.


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## SfanGoch (May 28, 2011)

djnick66 said:


> It is hard to say for certain... The Germans did use women for auxilliary combat roles like FlaK gun crews, search light operators, etc. There is some indication that more front line service occurred in the spring of 1945.
> 
> There is a well known photograph of a Nordland division halftrack knocked out in Berlin with a dead soldier laying next to it. There is an obscure second photo of the back of the vehicle and the corpse there is of a uniformed woman. The photo appeared in the English edition of Militaria Magazine #17. What her role was in the vehicle is unknown. Perhaps she was a comat nurse as has been suggested elsewhere. The particular vehicle has been identified as a command halftrack.
> 
> ...


These are the details about the photos:












> The driver, Ragnar 'Ragge' Johansson II, 3rd platoon, 3rd company, AA 11, 5.SS Nordland lies to the right of his Sd.Kfz. 250/3 after a failed breakout attempt on the night of May 1/2, 1945, Friedrichstrasse, Berlin. The halftrack is vehicle #9 in the company and the command vehicle of the company commander, SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans-Gösta Pehrsson.














> _The dead nurse in the back of the 250/3 in the second photo is a Swedish frontnurse who got killed in the breakout atempt alongside Ragge. She was a volunteer in the SS._


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## fluke (Feb 27, 2001)

Sad pics indeed. Many Wehrmacht, Naval and Luftwaffe were proud Germans but were not Nazi's. It was a hard time for most good Germans ....living in fear and never knowing who you could trust or talk to.


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## Rotwang (May 25, 2011)

Here's a short bio on Johansson.
http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=2761


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## iamweasel (Aug 14, 2000)

fluke said:


> living in fear and never knowing who you could trust or talk to.


And then the people had to suffer through decades of the same thing under the Soviets. Talk about from the frying pan into the fire.


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