Yankasippi
I know about the photo that this figure was sculpted after. It was the last consultation that Whitman ever had, the day he was killed. In the photo, it shows many tank commanders around Whittmann, none are dressed like Blasé. Whittmann asked Blasé if he was feeling alright and he said yes, but Whittmann could see he looked sick so he said, that he wanted him to go to the field hospital and get seen to. So Blasé did as ordered and left and was at the hospital when the battle developed. His tank was also knocked out in the fight, but we know he was not there. He did not get another tank until October when he got the Tiger B, number 332, which had been scheduled for a non SS heavy tank brigade, but because, as we know now, Hitler was planning Watch on the Rhine (The Bulge) and while he kept details secrete he ordered those who would be fighting under the SS to have all new equipment for an upcoming operation. The 332 was already painted for the non SS. brigade, and there is some debate as to whether the number 332 and tactical markings were already pained for that brigade, but because 332 shows up under Blase’s command in material collected by Wolffgang Schneider in Tigers In Combat, it is doubted that the first story of it being already painted with that number is true. When Battle Group Piper took his Panthers ahead of the heavy tanks, the 332 had a breakdown and was left on the side of the road near Petit Spa, and doing as was ordered for all heavy tanks at the time, if the tank broke down and could be retrieved and not in danger of being captured, the crew should remain with the tank. On the 24th of December, the 748 or maybe it was the 784th US tank brigade spotted the 332 at a distance and fired phosphorus at it. When the phosphorus hit close to the 332, crewmen were seen getting out of the tank and running away. The next day Ordinance recovery units found the 332 to be the most complete of the Tiger Bs that they had to date found, and marked it captured by Ordinance and began the process of removal which is a story unto itself, and taken to Spa where it sat for weeks until a German recovery trailer was found and used that to take it the rest of the way to Antwerp where it was sent by ship obviously, to the Aberdeen Proving Ground for evaluation. There, the port side turret armor and hull armor were cut away to that everyone could see how the crew were positioned. I saw it in the 90s at Fort Knox/Patton museum and it was the roomiest crew compartments Ive ever seen including today’s vehicles. Oh, The reason the 332 broke down was because the final drive broke and would only let the tank move in reverse. As for Blasé, Wolfgang told me in a 1994 letter that Blasé was never seen again, he never showed up at any of the SS reunions. But why would he? He enlisted in the Luftwaffe and became an officer but there were in '43 lots of Luftwaffe pilots and not enough planes to fly, so the SS needed officers because the war in the East had taken so many officers. They were given permission to draft officers from other services, and Blasé was one of those.
2 replies
