ERNST BARKMANN: SS Oberscharfuhrer Ernst Barkmann of 4/SS Pz. Rgt. 2, 2nd SS Panzer Division “Das Reich” was one of Germany’s greatest Panzer Aces in the Normandy Campaign and the Battle of the Bulge. Barkmann’s powerful Panther tank was more than a match for any tank the allies could field in Normandy and the Ardennes in 1944. The superiority of this German tank design meant that a single skillfully concealed Panther tank at the hands of a capable commander who had cut his combat teeth could wreak dreadful damage to the allied forces in which he eventually became the leading Sherman killer in Normandy and later on in the Battle of the Bulge with 80 tank kill victories in stunning total. His greatest score was nine Sherman tanks in one day and fifteen Sherman tanks in just two days of fighting. Ernst Barkmann led his Panther tank through torrents of shot and shell that would have daunted all but the most fearless. Content to look Death and the Devil hard in the eye, with his Panther tank he had shaken the allies to its very core, and they sure did felt the tremors. Ernst Barkmann was possessed by an ideal which allowed neither for compromises nor for a division of the spoils. Ernst Barkmann bears the Knight’s Cross as of right, earned by his daring and unselfish gallantry. His other decorations include the rare Panzer Assault Badge for 25 and 50 engagements. Ernst Barkmann belongs to that unique corps of professionals fighting with consummate bravery, and driven by the constant compulsion to the defense of their homeland. In terms of real achievements he is unsurpassed among the tankers of World War II in the dreaded Panther tank that went on to become eventually the ultimate Panther Ace of the war, and wrote a memorable record on the Western Front at the command of his Panther tank in heroic defense in the face of the enemy. Ernst Barkmann’s real and deepest forte was the hunt, paired with cunning, the burning desire to out-think and out-fight his foe, for that reason, he liked the tank versus tank battle, his armored world was thus the duel, the unique dance of the experts, the fencing of masterly foil-handlers, whose deadly certain thrusts are as lightning quick as they are coldly calculated and trained before hand. His phenomenal scoring run was climaxed mainly against the primary allied tank, the US built 34 ton Sherman, known to the Germans as “Tommy Cooker” (because with one hit the thing would brew) The Sherman, with its notoriously weak 75mm gun and its thin armor and its very high silhouette, was to easy and fragile prey for the German Mark V Panther tank at the hands of a man of the caliber of Ernst Barkmann, for he was an archetype for his breed, tenacious, deadly and determined as a tanker, upright and decent as a soldier, chivalrous and sportsmanlike as an ace. A true Man of the West. The outlook of these German officers on such matters contrast vividly with the actions of the “Hollywood Germans” in hundreds of sadistic war films originally intended to inflame hatred of the Germans. With unsurpassed daring and dash, Ernst Barkmann accomplished feats unequaled by the tankers of any other nation, and he deserves to be recorded, he made an immortal mark as a Panther Ace. Ernst Barkmann’s tank kills against the allied forces in the west assure him of a historical niche with the outstanding Panzer Aces of the war. A superb Panther leader of unprecedented achievement. Ernst Barkmann was thus a man of exceptional equilibrium, an aspect of his character that served him well when he was the focus of the many Panzer Battles that would have shattered a lesser man. His blood was that of a hunter, his instincts was for the see-decide-attack factor. Ernst Barkmann was a chivalrous soldier, like the vast majority of German professionals, he was a passionate believer in fair play, the knightly tradition ruled his thinking, like many other professional German military men of his era, he always went into battle with soaring spirits in a thunderous steel tempest with sacrificial devotion, despite that they were overwhelmed by the blizzard of allied machines that were thrown against them. The German Panzer Aces never betrayed the traditions of manhood and it is as men that they wrote one of the most colorful and incredible chapters in the history of arms.
