Watch Massive 72 Ton Jagdtigers Surrender in Germany, 1945

by Joris Nieuwint - 

German surrender of a JagdTiger equipped company of the 512th Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion (512th sJgdPzAbt) at Iserlohn, Germany. The company was under the command of Knights Cross holder Hauptmann Albert Ernst and he chose to surrender the town and his unit to the Americans rather than see its destruction.
The battalion was formed at Döllersheim on 11 February 1945, it received its first Jagdtigers on 16 February and by 13 March, it had been brought up to a strength of 20 vehicles in two companies, with the 3rd Company made up of personnel transferred from the 511th Heavy Panzer Battalion.

The Jagdtiger was the heaviest armored fighting vehicle produced during the war, mounting a 128 mm main gun inside a 72-tonne chassis. However, it was severely underpowered, mounting an engine originally designed for the 57-tonne Tiger I, and which had already been found inadequate even for that vehicle.

A Jagdtiger

It was only produced in very small numbers – around 80 were built – and would only be issued to two units; the 512th and the 653rd Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion.
On 21 March, the battalion was committed to the Battle of Remagen. Illustrating the difficulties German forces faced in getting their armor to the front, it took ten days to bring the first five Jagdtigers of the 2nd company 512th Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion to the front due to communications breakdowns and the threat from fighter-bombers.
During April 1945, 512th saw a great deal of action, especially on 9 April, where the 1st company engaged an Allied column of Sherman tanks and trucks from hull-down positions. It managed to destroy 11 tanks and over 30 unarmored or lightly armored targets, with some of the enemy tanks having been knocked out from a distance of more than 2,4 miles.
The combat unit only lost one Jagdtiger in this battle as Allied ground attack P-47 fighters appeared. During the next couple of days, the 1st company destroyed a further five Sherman tanks. Meanwhile, the 2nd company still fought on, but with little result.
On 15 April 1945, the unit surrendered at Schillerplatz in Iserlohn without further fighting, of which we have the footage below.

In the video:

German soldiers pile their arms and ammunition on the ground in the Iserlohn town square, including Panzerfaust anti-tank weapons and Bordwaffen vehicle machine guns. The video switches to German Jagdtiger tank destroyers loaded with German soldiers, German armored trucks, and German personnel carriers which move slowly through Town Square to surrender to the troops of the U.S. Army 99th Infantry Division. Civilians watch as German soldiers pass, several of these civilians wave.