They say winter is the roughest time of the year for the elderly and lately those words seem to be ringing true. Yesterday, famed German tank ace, Otto Carius, passed away at the age of 92 from a brief but serious illness.

Carius was a German tank ace within the German Army who fought during World War II and was credited with destroying more than 150 tanks. He was a recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub). The Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves were awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

After the war he studied pharmacy at Heidelberg University. In 1956 he started his own pharmacy shop called Tiger Apotheke in Herschweiler-Pettersheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, named after the Tiger tank, which he managed till 2011. He also wrote a book about his own experience in the war, entitled Tigers in the Mud.