The 509.Schwere-Panzer-Abteilung was formed in September 1943 on the Eastern Front, and issued 45 Tiger tanks. From late 1943 to the early spring of 1944, sPzAbt 509 was engaged near Kirovograd, Kirivoi-Rog, Kiev, and Pavlova, in southern Russia. Later reinforced and then in turn effectively denuded due to the Eastern Front's perpetual problems of re-supply, the 509 was re-deployed to Hungary and then Austria, where it surrendered to American forces in May 1945.