SOUTH OF LENINGRAD, January 12, 1943: Throughout the winter of42-43,
the Soviets launched repeated attacks to relieve the siege of Leningrad. The
hardpressed Germans rebuffed one attack after another, but in so doing, their
lines became progressively thinner. Finally, the Germans had to develop a trip
wire defense of light local forces, backed by a fire brigade mobile force, which
was quickly dispatched to the inevitable breakthrough sector. Such a fire brigade
was 1st Company, Tiger Battalion 502, with ace tanker Cpt. Hans Bolter, who
was called upon to halt a major Russian armored incursion by a full battalion of
the 122nd Tank Brigade.

AFTERMATH:	The Tigers and their MkIV escort arrived just in time to bolster the
feeble infantry positions. Though heavily outnumbered, the combination of Tiger
superiority and Bolters superb gunnery carried the day, and the backbone of the
Russian 122nd Tank Brigade was shattered.
