6th PzD - OOB Question - Stalingrad

[Wien1938]

While it is true in the nominal sense, that 503.sPzAbt was not the first such battalion to be formed, it was the first such battalion reach a complete TOE.
So in the real sense that it was the first sPzAbt (in a completed sense) to be dispatched to the front. Also 2.Kom/502.sPzAbt was operating alongside 503.sPzAbt under Army Group Don and either on the 10th or 22nd of Feb was redesignated as 3.Kom/503.sPzAbt. My guess is that this was the point at which the sPzAbt stopped using the Pz.III alongside the Tiger.
So until just before Kursk, 503.sPzAbt was the only complete sPzAbt operating as a sPzAbt, rather than individual companies.
The first operational Tigers had been sent to the Leningrad front but not as even a complete company.
The source for the above is primarily http://www.alanhamby.com/unithist.shtml
I would say that this rescues Beevor as a credible authority. Also the Germans did throw newly formed units into battle and Manstein and Guderian both directed criticism at Hitler and the OKW/OKH for this policy as it lead to unnecessarily high losses amongst fresh units. In anycase, the battalion would have had a sharp learning experience!