The Tiger (Der Tiger)

THE TANK

SOVIET UNION, DNIEPER FRONT, AUTUMN 1943.

EIGHT MONTHS AFTER STALINGRAD, THE GERMAN ARMY IS IN RETREAT.

Withdraw!

Go! Go! Go! Move!

- Take up position behind the bridge. - Faster!

Hurry!

Retreat!

Fall back!

- Second unit, cross the bridge! - Move!

Commander, our troops have retreated.

Lieutenant. Should we retreat, too?

Lieutenant!

Keilig, any enemy radio?

There they are.

Soviet T-34s. I see them!

- 600. On target! - Ready for firing.

Give the order, Lieutenant.

Philip!

Philip.

- Fire. - Achtung!

Hit. Destroyed.

Loaded!

- Infantry between! - Machine Gun, fire!

To the right! More tanks.

- On target. - Fire!

Achtung!

Hit.

- Destroyed. - Loaded!

Fire MG! Keep on them!

We've destroyed the two in the front and blocked the way.

- Let's get out of here! - Fire!

Achtung!

Philip, did you hear me? We can avoid them.

- Fire! - Achtung!

- Loaded. - More keep coming.

- We're blowing up the bridge at midnight. - In five minutes.

We've still got time. Fire!

Achtung!

We need to move. Now!

- We've got four and a half minutes. - The bridge is 600 meters long.

Anti-tank gun, twelve o'clock!

- I have to reload. - Fire!

I've got it.

Achtung!

Loaded.

We're alone and out of time, Philip.

Give the order.

Give the order, Philip!

Retreat. Hummel, back across the bridge.

Yes, Commander.

Go, go, go!

Go, Hummel!

Go! Four minutes left. Four minutes!

Faster, Hummel.

We won't make it!

They're not following us anymore. And they've stopped firing.

- They must know we're going to blow it up. - We'll make it.

- Ilyushins! - They can't harm us.

- Commander... - Fire!

It's getting in. Fire's getting in!

I'm on fire! I'm on fire!

Move, Helmut, move!

Fire!

Go, Helmut! Keep going. Go!

Move, Helmut!

Hit it!

I think we're going to make it, Philip! We're going to make it!

We're alone and out of time, Philip.

Give the order.

Ilyushins!

I'm on fire! I'm on fire!

PERVITIN AMPHETAMINES

When do we get there?

CLASSIFIED

24TH TANK CORPS

ORDER FOR EXECUTION OF OPERATION LABYRINTH

LIEUTENANT GERKENS, 3RD COMPANY...

Unescorted...

BRING COL. VON HARDENBURG WITH CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS BACK TO HQ...

Paul?

Give me a hand.

Turn it on.

Pass it up.

Lieutenant.

Welcome back.

- Thanks, Christian. - Men!

Lieutenant.

Lieutenant.

Boss.

How's our Tiger?

Battered and bruised.

But ready for action.

Good.

And you?

Same. A few scrapes and burns. Nothing too serious.

New orders?

Unfortunately, yes.

Colonel Richter wants us to move out today.

- And what about our leave? - Cancelled.

Today?

Today.

Where to?

Back to the east. Over the Psel.

- To Ivan country? - In between.

Into no-man's land.

Our orders are to locate the whereabouts of Colonel von Hardenburg

and to bring him back.

Von Hardenburg? I thought he was dead.

I thought so too.

But many probably think we are too.

- Which unit will accompany us? - None.

The order is top secret.

He's presumably in one of our bunker complexes east of Novyi Yar.

Shit.

- Why us? - Orders are orders.

If we'd needed to know, they'd have told us.

But a single Tiger tank...

They must believe if someone can do it, we can.

Get the tank ready.

Let's go, men.

Let's go.

Wolf to Fox's Den, we're off to the labyrinth for 48 hours.

Wolf over and out.

Helmut.

Give me a light!

Greatest tank ever built

and the driver can't stick his head out or see anything.

And you assholes get the sun on your faces.

The builders knew what ugly bastards you drivers are!

Von Hardenburg?

But he stayed in Stalingrad with the Sixth after we were pulled out.

A miracle he survived the fighting.

I heard he cut off his own hand.

I heard that, too.

He was buried under the tractor factory rubble.

His hand was trapped.

After five days,

he had to cut it off with a knife.

To survive.

I told you.

Helmut, I still have your lighter.

But it's mine now.

If he survived, he must be a Russian spy.

That must be why they want him back.

Apparently he crawled out of the rubble

and a young lady took pity on him and hid him.

Later, he made his way back to our side disguised as a farmer.

And they sent his ass back to the front with just one hand?

I almost feel sorry for him.

Now they're sending our asses after him to bring him back.

Sounds even more like a Russian spy.

Field officers, all one-handed artists.

What makes him so important? The "von" in his name?

The mission order says he was working on a secret disengagement plan.

It contains all our positions, radio codes and weapons supplies.

If it falls into Russian hands, the gates to the Reich will be wide open.

Our mission has the code name Operation Labyrinth.

Didn't they try to reach him by radio?

He hasn't answered since we blew up the bridge.

In Stalingrad...

Those were his orders, right?

He was the commanding officer, yes.

What you got there, squirt?

No one-handed shenanigans in my tank!

I wasn't doing anything.

I clearly saw it.

Five kilometers to the front. Keep your eyes peeled after that.

- Weller, what's all that about? - Probably to confuse the Russians.

Looks like the plan's to retreat further.

I thought Adolf the Austrian didn't believe in retreat.

One of yours, Weller.

- Not the kind I know. - You on your Tyrolean pig farm.

First of all, it's not a pig farm. It's a vineyard.

And it's the Wachau.

The most beautiful place in the world.

- Wachau! - Keilig, anything on the radio?

All I'm getting is static.

Maybe that's better. Then Ivan can't listen in.

Hummel, we'll leave the road in 50 meters.

45 degrees to the left, away from the open field.

- I want to be in cover by nightfall. - Yes, Sir!

Drink up and put out the fire. You and I will take first watch, Michel.

Are there partisans around?

You never know.

Better keep our eyes and ears open.

Bodhana always said...

these woods are full of ghosts.

Who's Bodhana?

A peasant girl he met back in Tolokonnoye.

She sold us milk and eggs.

- And the clap too, right, squirt? - Helmut!

- I didn't sleep with her. - But you would've liked to.

Listen to Uncle Helmut, squirt.

A moment of fun, a lifetime of regret.

And she said these woods are full of ghosts?

Yes, that the souls of the dead roam those woods.

The Ukrainians believe that.

So do lots of people back home in Silesia.

Silesia's just one big pig farm.