Sitting on the assembly line at the Nibelungenwerk located near St. Valentin, Austria, is the fifty-fourth Jagdtiger, chassis 305054. Chalked on the side of the Jagdtiger is the date January 16, 1945. This could be the expected completion date and so this photograph could be dated to early January 1945 or November or December 1944 given the extent of the assembly.
No. 54 is mostly finished except that the torsion bar suspension has yet to be fully installed. The holes for the suspension were drilled into the lower hull on the completed chassis, prior to the fitting of other components such as the gun, engine, and drive train. The torsion bars (drehstäbe) have been fitted and attached to them are the suspension arms (schwingarme). Each torsion bar had a plastic seal where it entered the hull (schwingarmsiegel). The suspension consisted of two shock absorbers (schwingungsdaempher), one per side, connected to the forward and rearward suspension arms, the apparatus for the shock absorbers on the interior of the hull. The first and last torsion bars were built stronger than the others but all had the same ends to which the sheet steel roadwheels were affixed. Each roadwheel consisted of two discs with two rubber rings between them and each was placed on a hub on the suspension arm. It was doctrine that if a roadwheel was damaged and had to be replaced, the hub had to remain on the suspension arm. Work on No. 54 was finished sometime in January 1945, being completed along with nine other Jagdtigers; chassis 305052, 305053, 305055, 305056, 305057, 305058, 305059, 305060, and 305061. All ten of these Jagdtigers were earmarked for assignment to a new unit, schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung 512 (s.Pz.Jag.Abt.512; 512th. Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion). Documents show that all of the Jagdtigers were released for shipment on January 30, 1945.
s.Pz.Jag.Abt.512 began to build up starting late in January 1945 with the intent to field three companies of ten Jagdtigers with the headquarters having three Jagdtigers for a total strength of 33 machines. The bulk of the personnel for the unit came from the remains of schwere Panzer-Abteilung 424 while the staff was filled out with men from schwere Panzer-Abteilung 511. Replacement personnel were to come from Panzer-Ersatz-Abteilung 500 as needed. In command of s.Pz.Jag.Abt.512 was Hauptmann Walter Scherf with 1. Kompanie being commanded by Oberleutnant Albert Ernst and 2. Kompanie was commanded by one of the most successful German tank commanders of World War Two, Oberleutnant Otto Carius. Ernst cut his teeth as a panzerjäger officer while serving with s.Pz.Jag.Abt.519 which operated Nashorn and later Jagdpanther tank destroyers. Carius had been the commander of 2. Kompanie, schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502 that operated Tiger I tanks. Carius had been severely wounded on July 24, 1944 while serving with s.Pz.Abt.502 and after a very long convalescence, was transferred to s.Pz.Jag.Abt.512. As a side note, while he recovered from his injuries, what remained of his old unit was redesignated s.Pz.Abt.511 on January 5, 1945. The final company, 3. Kompanie, was commanded by Oberleutnant Schrader.
No. 54 was included in a shipment of five Jagdtigers (chassis 305050 through 305054) from Nibelungenwerk to Döllersheim on February 2, 1945. This was the location of Carius' unit where they would commence training with the Jagdtiger in addition to using the gunnery ranges located at the facility. Upon the arrival of the Jagdtigers, training began at once, to include range firing. However, this quickly came to a halt when, on February 16, 1945, s.Pz.Jag.Abt.512 was notified by the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH; High Command of the German Army) of severe manufacturing defects in the Henschel L801 steering unit housing. All Jagdtigers that had yet to be shipped out were to have the steering units replaced before being dispatched to units and all Jagdtigers that were already in the hands of troops had to be returned to Nibelungenwerk for the repairs to be done. It is here that Jagdtiger No. 54 appears to disappear from the combat record of s.Pz.Jag.Abt.512.
Mainly, this is because it is not known what tactical number was assigned to Jagdtiger No. 54. Upon the order to return the Jagdtigers to Nibelungenwerk, the chassis numbers for the vehicles were lined through on issue reports. It can be surmised that they did arrive back at Nibelungenwerk and reports from February discuss the timeframe to effect repairs. It would take approximately five days for factory workers to replace the steering units on all eleven vehicles originally earmarked for s.Pz.Jag.Abt.512, including No. 54. However, priority was given to those Jagdtigers already on the assembly line. Also, the factory had to set up another line to receive the returned Jagdtigers parallel to the main assembly line in order to effectively make the steering unit changes. From March 3, 1945 to March 26, 1945, s.Pz.Jag.Abt.512 received a total of 27 Jagdtigers, and we can hazard a guess that No. 54 was included in that number. Due to the mixture of chassis numbers because of the recall, it is not known on what date No. 54 shipped from Nibelungenwerk and to what company it was assigned. Initial shipments were given priority to 2. Kompanie followed by 1. Kompanie and then 3. Kompanie. It should be noted that in a listing of chassis numbers and assigned units given in Janusz Ledwoch's “Jagdpanther Jagdtiger” (Wydawnictwo Militaria No.207), he does not give a unit assignment to No. 54.
On April 15, 1945, 2. Kompanie destroyed its last six remaining Jagdtigers near Ergste, 1. Kompanie surrendered in Iserlohn on April 16, 1945 with three operational Jagdtigers, while 3. Kompanie ended the war with no Jagdtigers operational (two had been in transit to them but never arrived). The few documented Jagdtigers of s.Pz.Jag.Abt.512 include 305058 (tactical number X7) which was part of 1. Kompanie and commanded by Leutnant Sepp Tarlach. It was abandoned on April 1, 1945 in Obernephen. Another was 305068 and belonged to 3. Kompanie and was scuttled on April 2, 1945 in Paderborn. A third was 305004 and was captured at Sennelager, likely used as a training vehicle. 305057 (tactical number X5) belonged to Leutnant Kubelka of 1. Kompanie and was blown up on April 11, 1945 near Hagen. Finally, the last known chassis number was 305074 and the Jagdtiger suffered a broken track near Offensen. It belonged to 3. Kompanie and was blown up.
