The Tiger (Der Tiger)

The Tank

SOVIET UNION. DNIEPER FRONT LINE. FALL 1943

EIGHT MONTHS AFTER STALINGRAD, THE WEHRMACHT IS IN RETREAT EVERYWHERE.

Go! Come on, move!

Keep going!

Position!

Take up your position behind the bridge!

Follow me. Faster!

Retreat!

Retreat! Withdraw!

Retreat!

Oh, no.

Move. Come on!

Come on, come on!

Everyone in the tank!

Second unit, cross the bridge.

Go now! Go!

Keep going!

Commander!

Our troops have retreated.

Lieutenant,

should we also retreat?

Lieutenant?

- -

Keilig, are they coming?

Copy. Copy.

What the hell?

Come in. Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

T-34! They are there.

600, target set!

Ready and loaded.

Give us the command, Lieutenant.

Philip!

Philip!

Fire!

Hit, target destroyed!

Loaded.

- Approaching soldiers! - MG, fire!

To the right, another panzer!

- Target set! - Fire.

Target on fire.

- Target destroyed! - Loaded!

MG, fire. Stay on target!

We've destroyed the two in front and the only exit is blocked.

- Let's get out now. - Fire!

- Philip, it's time to get out. - Loaded!

- You have to listen! - Fire!

Loaded!

There are still many more.

They're blowing out the bridge at midnight.

That's in five minutes.

Enough time to do it.

Fire!

Move forward!

Our time's running out.

Still four and a half minutes.

- Four and a half! - The bridge is 600 meters long!

Anti-tank gun! 12 o'clock!

- I'm reloaded. - Fire!

I'll take over.

- -

Loaded!

We are alone and our time's nearly up, Philip.

Give the bloody order!

Give the bloody order, Philip!

Achtung, withdraw.

Hummel, back over the bridge.

Jawohl, Commander!

Faster, faster, faster, faster, faster!

Come on! We have four minutes left. Four minutes to get off!

Hummel, give it some gas!

This isn't fast enough.

They are not following anymore.

They are no longer shooting.

They're waiting for us to blow the bridge.

We can make it.

Ilyushins.

They can't change what will happen.

- Commander! - Fire!

- Fire! - It's coming in!

- It's coming through the hatches! - We're on fire!

It's burning! I'm on fire!

Drive, Helmut! Faster! Faster!

The fire's everywhere!

- Drive, Helmut! Faster! - There's fire everywhere!

- Go! - Keep going, Helmut! Put your foot down!

Just keep going!

I think we'll make it, Philip!

We'll make it!

We are alone and our time's nearly up, Philip.

Give the bloody order!

Ilyushins!

- It's burning! I'm burning! - Fire! There's fire everywhere!

- - Fire!

How long till we're there?

SECRET

HQ XXIV. GUNNER, 21. SEPT. 1943

"Operation Labyrinth."

"Individual order without support."

"Von Hardenburg."

Paul?

I've got my glasses.

Boys, that's it!

Turn on the gas.

Give it to me.

Lieutenant.

Welcome back.

Thank you, Christian.

Men!

Lieutenant.

Lieutenant.

Chief.

So what's happened to our Tiger?

Just a little battered and bruised.

But you'll soon be ready.

Good.

And you?

Us also, a couple of scratches, a few burns.

Nothing serious.

A new mission?

It is, yeah.

And we mobilize this afternoon,

orders from Colonel Richter.

- What about our leave? - Canceled.

Going today?

Today.

Where?

To the eastern front, on the end of Psel.

- To the Iwans? - In between.

No-man's-land.

On this mission,

we have to determine the whereabouts of Colonel von Hardenburg

and escort him back.

Von Hardenburg? I heard that he died.

That's what I heard.

But no doubt others think we've fallen.

- Which unit will accompany us? - We go alone.

The order's for only us to get him.

He's believed to be in one of our bunkers east of Novyi Yar.

Shit.

It's top secret.

Why send us to rescue him?

Orders are orders.

If we were supposed to know, they would have told us so.

But is a single Tiger capable of that?

I would say they think if any unit can make this rescue,

that unit's ours.

Get the Tiger ready to move out.

Let's go, men.

Off we go again.

Wolf to Fox Den,

we are heading to the labyrinth for 48 hours.

Wolf signing off, over.

Helmut! Lighter!

The greatest tank ever built.

However, for the driver, it's impossible to see fucking shit.

And you arse-lickers get to just gaze at the sunshine.

When they designed it, they must have known

how fucking ugly all tank drivers are.

Von Hardenburg, he was with the Sixth in Stalingrad

before everybody else was withdrawn.

It's a miracle he survived the last battles.

One of his hands didn't survive as he chopped it off.

I heard the whole story.

He was buried under the rubble of the tractor factory.

His hand was trapped.

And after five days

with his own knife, somehow cut it off.

To free himself.

I said so.

Helmut, I still have this lighter of yours.

But now it's mine.

If he survived that, he must be a Russian spy now.

That's the reason why they want him back.

Apparently, they said he was able to crawl out of the rubble

and a young woman took pity on him, took him in.

And a few weeks later, disguised as a farmer,

he crossed again to our side.

And they sent his ass back to the front again, but with one hand.

An unfortunate bastard.

And now they're forcing our asses over there to the rescue.

I think more and more that he's a Russian spy.

Staff officers, all one-handed wreckers there.

What makes him so important for this?

Just 'cause he's got a "von," is it?

According to the mission order, he's been working on a secret plan of withdrawal.

It contains all our positions, radio frequencies and weapon stocks.

If it were to fall into the hands of the Russians,

all doors to the Reich are wide open.

Our mission has the code name…

"Operation Labyrinth."

And they didn't presumably try to reach him by radio?

He hasn't answered since the bridge over the Dnieper was blown up.

In Stalingrad…