653rd Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion The 653rd Heavy " Panzerjäger " Battalion ( Schwere Panzerjäger - Abteilung 653 . ) was a tank destroyer unit of the Wehrmacht active during World War II . It was equipped with " Ferdinand " and later " Jagdtiger " tank destroyers . Elements of the battalion served on the Eastern , Western , and Italian fronts between 1943 and 1945 . Soviet Union and Italy . The battalion was formed on 31 March 1943 , by the redesignation of the 197th " Sturmgeschütz " Battalion . The 197th was an assault gun battalion which had been formed in 1940 , later seeing service during the Invasion of Yugoslavia and on the Eastern Front . The 653rd was initially equipped with " Ferdinand " tank destroyers ; the " Ferdinand " was a heavy tank destroyer built on chassis originally intended for the VK4501 variant of the Tiger I , mounting a powerful 88 mm gun . It was assigned to the XXXXI Panzer Corps , and fought at the Battle of Kursk in August , and around Nikopol during the Battle of the Dnieper . After heavy losses in Ukraine , the battalion was withdrawn to Vienna to refit . The 1st Company received 11 new " Elefants " - the new name for the redesigned version of the " Ferdinand " - and was sent south to Italy where it fought at the Battle of Anzio in February 1944 . The 2nd and 3rd companies were equipped with 30 new vehicles in April and sent to the Eastern Front , where they were attached to the XXIV Panzer Corps . By August , the 2nd and 3rd were reduced to twelve vehicles between them ; these were withdrawn to refit in Kraków , where they were combined into the 2nd Company . It remained on the Eastern Front , as part of 17th Army , and was redesignated the 614th Heavy " Panzerjäger " Company . It would see out the rest of the war fighting the Soviet Army , with two " Elefants " surviving until the Battle of Berlin in May 1945 . Western Front . The 3rd Company , meanwhile , returned west to rejoin the 1st Company , which had withdrawn to Vienna with only four operational " Elefants " . In October , both were re - equipped with " Jagdtiger " heavy tank destroyers . The " Jagdtiger " was the heaviest armoured 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 . It was only produced in very small numbers - around 80 were built - and would only be issued to two units ; the 653rd and the 512th Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion . Once reequipped , the battalion was again split up , with the 1st Company assigned to the 15th Army on the northern flank of the Ardennes Offensive , and the 3rd assigned to the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen to the south , where it would fight in Operation Nordwind in January . By February , the two companies had reunited at Landau in the Palatinate ; at the end of the month , they were reinforced to a strength of 41 " Jagdtigers " . In April it fell back to Austria , where it was to receive new vehicles from the Nibelungenwerk factory , and ended the war under the command of Army Group Ostmark near Linz .