LEUTNANT FREIHERR VON ROSEN. Lt. Freiherr Von Rosen was one of the great first-to-last warriors in the German King Tiger heavy tank. In June 1944, just prior to the beginning of the allied invasion on the French Atlantic coast, the reorganized Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 received this new tank, which was the Konigstiger II B with the Porsche turret, which became the fist German heavy Panzer company to be equipped with this new tank. Leutnant Freiherr Von Rosen, Commander of Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 3/kompanie, in his fist encounter with the allied forces in July 11, 1944 in Colombelles, France, succeeded in destroying 12 Sherman tanks and captured 2 Sherman tanks intact, after their crews bailed out in panic. The joy over this success at Colombelles France 1944 was to continue, the Germans determined to beat the allies to the punch, in a 3-day battle, forty allied tanks were destroyed near Cagney and Frenouville France, on July 17 1944. The new King Tiger Tank was making its presence felt. On 22 September, 1944, Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 under the Command of Freiherr Von Rosen had received forty-five new King Tigers with Henschel turrets, these were the ones which were the subject of a weekly newsreel report which Lt. Von Rosen paraded in this film before his full company of King Tigers in one of the most incredible and powerful images of armor in display ever captured on footage. It was this same armored force that was sent to Hungary in Operation "Budapest" on 15 October 1944, that crushed the revolt by Admiral Horthy and the Hungarian government to negotiate a cease-fire with the Russians. At midday Von Rosen's King Tigers rolled in perfect order through Budapest, and drove up to the Danube Bridge and blocked all traffic, to ensure that no resistance was meet. Here again the powerful presence of the King Tiger was again being felt at maximum impact. German countermeasures against Admiral Horthy's seat of government were already underway led by Otto Skorzeny and the presence of Lt. Von Rosen's King Tigers, which brought this assignment in Budapest to a victorious end. On 21 October 1944, during the fighting in Hungary, Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 destroyed its 1,500 enemy tank. Lt. Von Rosen accounted for the magical 1,500th kill. The Red Army in its first attempt to take Budapest on November 7, 1944 failed. Here the Russians committed Joseph Stalin II heavy tanks, where they were picked-off one after another and were destroyed thanks to the King Tiger's greater rate of fire. Further Russian attacks were repulsed in the days that followed. Leutnant Freiherr Von Rosen's King Tiger company alone destroyed 25 Soviet tanks. On January 4, 1945, Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 was renamed Schwere Panzer Abteilung Feldherrnhalle. Lt Von Rosen continued to fight with distinction with the Division Feldherrnhalle in these last desperate battles in Hungary against superior Russian forces at the Command of his King Tiger tanks, in which he was awarded the German Cross in Gold. He was wounded in the final weeks of the war and sent to a military hospital and was not released until June 30, 1945. For which the war was already over. There is no doubt that the King Tiger attained legendary fame, and was superior to all other tanks in the world at that time. In a post-war interview, Freiherr Von Rosen was asked to say which was the most formidable opponent he experienced in the King Tiger tank, in the east, he said it was the JS II, in the west, he said no tank whatsoever, that it was the US Air Force!
