HUGO PRIMOZIC: The Eastern Front of World War II has many lessons for the west of today, but they are seldom studied. The history of armored warfare has no comparable example of such total armored conquest of one major nation by another. The Panzer battles on the Eastern Front were a battering ram of Panzers, Tigers, Panthers, and assault guns which smashed at the Soviet armored machines that rose to the challenge with practiced precision. The Sturmgeschutz assault guns were immediately put into battle with the feverish energy human beings manifest when they are fighting in a life-and-death attempt to demolish the Bolshevik-Communist colossus regime. Before long, the Panzerwaffe was performing prodigies of highly-acclaimed Panzer Aces. On these Eastern Front battles the Panzers in Russia were strung out from the Artic ocean to the Black sea. Thus confronted an implacable enemy who hurled hordes of tanks into the land battles in a savage battle of attrition. On the Eastern Front the German Sturmgeschutz assault gun crews were armed warriors caught in a gigantic drama. Their stage extended from the 2,000 Russian mile front. The drama evoked stellar performances from many of these participants. The most famous and successful ace of the Sturmgeschutz assault gun is Oberwachtmeister Hugo Primozic, Commander of 2/zug. 2/batterie Sturmgeschutz Abteilung 667. The saga of Hugo Primozic started in earnest when he received one of the first Sturmgeschutz assault gun long barrel F model with the 75mm Sturmkanone 40 Pak L/ 48 gun. He was one of the most highly skilled assault gun commanders in the Sturmgeschutz, with thousands of hours to his credit as an assault gun StuG commander, manning a Sturmgeschutz was as natural to him as walking. Hugo Primozic the polished assault gun commander went on a mission of unparalleled achievement. On September 15, 1942 in Rzhev Russia, he literally decided a battle. He and his platoon threw themselves at a Russian tank brigade, knocked-out a series of T-34’s, jammed the turret of a previously impervious 52 ton KV II giant with a precision shot from 200meters, raked the enemy infantry with high-explosive shells, zig-zagged through the fire of Red tanks, survived two hits on his own vehicle, the struggle on the battlefield littered with bodies, blazing tanks, and screaming wounded was merciless. Hugo Primozic and his men emerged victorious. Afterwards even they could not see how and why. In the afternoon the assault gun of Hugo Primozic bearing the silver death’s head ended the day with 24 tank kills. Hugo Primozic had established something that is without comparison. In a blazing opening in the new long barrel Sturmgeschutz assault gun, Hugo Primozic added new laurels to the Sturmgeschutz tradition, a performance of singular greatness, a feat of individual brilliance, a magnificent victory. The history of the Panzer Aces in the assault gun has not been able to discover a better combat performance. From September to December 1942 he had destroyed 60 enemy tanks and was awarded the exceptional Knights Cross with Oak leaves. Sturmgeschutz Abteilung 667 had achieved outstanding success in its four months in action in the northern and central sectors of the Eastern Front. With just 21 assault guns, it destroyed 468 enemy tanks in that period with Hugo Primozic emerging as the top ace. Hugo Primozic was feared by the Soviets, and the Russians made several determined attempts to nail him at the time when he was cutting a swath through their armored formations. The Russians came close enough, but never succeeded. Hugo Primozic had the bearing, dignity, and courteous, correct character that had long been the hallmark of the professional German soldier, and which he was to win immortal fame on the Eastern Front, in a short uninterrupted series of armored triumphs. It was the climax of a fighting career that would shame the wildest fiction. An achievement unparalleled in turretless tank fighting that surely left his mark in the history of the Second World War.
