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Description
The 653rd Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion was a unit of the tank-destroyer service branch in the Wehrmacht and served on the Eastern, Western, and Italian fronts between 1943 and 1945. It was one of the two battalions equipped with the massive Jagdtiger tank destroyers which it received in September 1944. The Jagdtiger was the heaviest armoured fighting vehicle produced during the war, mounting a 12.8 cm Pak 44 main gun on a 72-tonne chassis. However, it was not living up to its potential due to being severely underpowered, having been equipped with a Maybach HL230 engine originally designed for the 57-tonne Tiger I and which had already been found significantly inadequate even for that vehicle. The battalion would fight in Operation Nordwind in January 1945. In may 1945, as one of the last German army units to do so, it surrendered to the allies in Austria.

Description
The 653rd Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion was a unit of the tank-destroyer service branch in the Wehrmacht and served on the Eastern, Western, and Italian fronts between 1943 and 1945. It was one of the two battalions equipped with the massive Jagdtiger tank destroyers which it received in September 1944. The Jagdtiger was the heaviest armoured fighting vehicle produced during the war, mounting a 12.8 cm Pak 44 main gun on a 72-tonne chassis. However, it was not living up to its potential due to being severely underpowered, having been equipped with a Maybach HL230 engine originally designed for the 57-tonne Tiger I and which had already been found significantly inadequate even for that vehicle. The battalion would fight in Operation Nordwind in January 1945. In may 1945, as one of the last German army units to do so, it surrendered to the allies in Austria.