Ferdinand Porsche Nazi Party and allegedly the SS. He was a recipient of the German National Prize for Art and Science, the SS-Ehrenring and the War Merit Cross, and was called the "Great German Engineer" by Nazi officials. Porsche was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1996 and won the Car Engineer of the Century award in 1999. Ferdinand Porsche was born to ethnic German parents in Liberec (), northern Bohemia, part of the Austrian Empire at that time, and today part of the Czech Republic. Ferdinand was his parents' third child. His father, Anton Porsche, was a master
503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion brought back to Germany. In September 1944, the refitted 503rd took part in the Battle of Debrecen. In early-November, the battalion provided a mobile reserve for the 6th Army (Wehrmacht), re-designated as Army Group Hermann Balck. By mid-December, the German forces had been pushed back to Budapest. The unit took part in several failed attempts to relieve Budapest, codenamed Operation Konrad. 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion The 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion (; abbreviated: "s.Pz.Abt. 503") was a Nazi German heavy Panzer "Abteilung" (independent battalion-sized unit) equipped with Tiger I and Panzer III tanks. In 1944, it was re-equipped with the new