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It was Christmas 1976 when I bought a book for 1,460 yen at a bookshop in Aoyama, Tokyo. This 4 dollar book, Pzkpfw IV in action written by Bruce Culver, showed a lot of interesting pictures and I was more than delighted! Among the pictures was an Ausführung G with a marking of a knight with a shield. This photo was so impressive and it has never left my memory.
The unit was not identified in the book. Because of the style of the turret number, I later guessed that it may be related to 13.Panzer-Division. Both Panzer-Regimenter (3 and 4) of the 2.Panzer-Division had similar style, and Pz.Rgt.4 retained the style after it was incorporated to 13.Panzer-Division.
Much later after I got acquainted with Mr. Kitamura, I asked him: "I think the knight is related Pz.Rgt.4, what do you think?" His reply was quick and decisive: "No, impossible, because the photo was taken in Heeresgruppe Mitte". That Schmitz/Thies volume 3 identified it also as Pz.Rgt.4 (ok, somebody out there did a similar guess game as me) did not help. "The book is often incorrect.", said he. The good thing was that Kitamura-san did not have a definitive answer either. Thus started my quest for the knight!
Years passed on without fruits, but in early 2004, I bought a Panzer photo album on ebay. When the album arrived, I was taken aback! The original owner, Herr Deglerk, was trained in Panzerschießschle Putlos to show us a photo of Neubaufahrzeuge with a turret number. This brought up my blood pressure a lot, but after a few pages I froze to find the elegant knight with a shield.
Deglerk fought in 7.Kp of Panzer-Regiment.18 - please note that this Tauchpanzer still wears gun mantlet seal. The knight must have belonged to Panzer-Regiment 18!
In utter excitement I called Kitamura-san, and soon every piece of puzzle fit in its place. He had found the photos of Pz IV Gs with knights in a German archive. They were taken in Gshatsk (Gagarin today). In August, Panzer-Abteilung 18 (reduced in size due to loss) received 12 new Pz IV Gs there - these Pz IV G carried knight marking. They were painted in brown (not repainted as stated in Squadron/Signal book). The Abteilung was later thrown into savage Welikje-Luki battle in winter 1942/43 to lose many Panzers. Later in my archive I found another photo of the knight. In this photo the knight holds the shield in another color - color must have been different in each company.
Pz.Rgt./Abt.18 is a really interesting unit for unit marking lovers. The famous "skull on water" is seen in this example taken by a russian photographer). A Seeteufel (angler) is supposed to be the Truppenkennzeichen for Panzer-Abteilung B (from which II./Pz.Rgt.18 was created) and is also famous.
Kitamura-san wrote a detailed article regarding this marking in his serial article Panzerblatt (October 2004 issue of Armour Modelling magazine). The article is in Japanese, but photos are captioned in English (a very cool angler photo is also included).
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