The central part, housing the cupola and hatches, was 40 mm thick, but the fore and aft panels were only 25 mm thick. Schiffer Military History, Pennsylvania, USA There, the US defenders stopped the advance, although no Tiger IIs were lost. Source: Trojca. The variation in camouflage is obvious. One notable part of the defense of this town was that the Tiger IIs used there ran out of ammunition for their 8.8 cm guns and were airdropped 8.8 cm Flak shells to use instead. The unit diary claimed 116 enemy tanks and 74 anti-tank guns knocked out since 19th January. The Tiger II also featured numerous improvements over the Tiger I. Two additional crewmen were stationed in the hull, with the driver sat in the front left, and the radio operator sat in the front right. Like a professional football player, the Tiger II was more agile than it looked. The Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger tank was a German heavy tank that served on the Eastern Front, Western Front, and in North Africa during World War II. It was now able to rotate the turret at 8 d/sec and 12 d/sec at 1,750 and 3,000 engine rpm, respectively. 509 at the start of December, as the unit prepared to take part in the Ardennes offensive. The radio operator in the hull also had the additional function of being in charge of the hull machine gun, although how valuable this was in combat is questionable. Unlike the megalomaniacal 200-ton German Maus, which couldn't even roll over many European bridges, the King Tiger was a viable design. Both of the hull crewmembers were provided with their own hatches directly above them but only the loader and commander had a hatch in the turret. This unit had previously operated the Tiger I and used radio-controlled demolition vehicles. The Tiger II has passable armor for a tier 8 heavy tank since almost the bulk of its armor is concentrated on the upper glacis and turret front. Lemons, C., America’s King Tiger. One of the 8 Tiger IIs operated by s.Pz.Abt. 101. Musee des Blindes Magazine No.54 The German King Tiger Tank was introduced in early 1944 and was the most powerful tank during world war 2. The Tiger II will commonly face tanks like the FV4202, Caernarvon and the Centurion Mk 3, all of which have the 84 mm 20-pdr gun. Fgst. Poor positioning of the vehicles with the tanks parked too tightly together also left them more vulnerable to artillery fire and 4 of the precious tanks were subsequently damaged along with 2 of the highly important Bergepanther recovery vehicles. By the end of that battle on 22nd October 1944, the battalion was down to 18 operational tanks, but within 10 days was able to put 35 operational Tiger IIs into a counter-attacking action on 1st November. Others suffered damage to their final drives on the march to contact with enemy forces. By the start of February, 2nd Company s.SS.Pz.Abt. 280110 Deutsches Panzermuseum, Munster, Germany* Work continued through the start of 1943, with various options considered, including a rotating direct-vision cylinder (Fahrersehklappe – Walze) added to the glacis to allow the driver to see ahead without a periscope. By 1st May, just 13 Tiger IIs were left operational and on 7th May, when ordered to withdraw to Kapplitz, 9 of those tanks broke down and had to be blown up. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. .. , Your email address will not be published. Createspace. It was then ordered back to Paderborn for reconstitution. 506 took part in this action starting on the 16th of that month. vehicle, Wheatcroft collection, UK B, often shortened to Tiger B.; the ordnance inventory designation was SdKfz 182; it is also known under the informal name Konigstiger, often translated as King Tiger or Royal Tiger by allied soldiers) Delivery of Tiger IIs was prioritized to fight the Allies on the Western Front and the Soviets to the East instead. This coincided with the official renaming from Tiger III to Tiger II. Jul 22, 2019 - Explore Todd Everett's board "Tiger II Color Profiles" on Pinterest. All Tiger II(P) tanks had anti-magnetic Zimmerit paste applied on their vertical surfaces. s.Pz.Abt. The King Tiger Tank. On 21st September, 1st Company’s Tiger IIs encountered Soviet tanks whilst supporting an attack by the 24th Infantry Division (24.Inf.Div.) Abandoned at Magny en Vexin, the tank was recovered by the British and sent to the UK for testing. But on the attack, advancing down narrow, icy roads as the Tiger II did during the Battle of the Bulge, big, heavy fuel-guzzling tanks could be a liability. These tended to be equipped with the tanks left over for training purposes and teaching and consisted of various vehicles of various types thrown together in a desperate effort to create armored units to continue the war. The only substantive difference in the drive system between Tiger III and the Panther II, therefore, was that Panther II had seven road wheels per side, whereas Tiger III was to have nine. The design followed the same concept as the Tiger I, but was intended to be even more formidable. The very first Krupp VK45.02(P2) Turm (Versuchsturm) on a factory rail-cart at the Krupp works. Brand new Tiger II with the Krupp VK45.02(P2) Turm test firing the 8.8 cm Kw.K.43 L/71 gun sometime in 1943. Source: Jentz and Doyle Seen from behind, the antenna positions on the rear hull roof (rear right and rear-centre) give this Tiger II of s.Pz.Abt. The unit saw combat but achieved little and by 12th April all of its tanks were either lost, destroyed or inoperable. Handbook on German Military Forces – March 1945, From August 1942, compatibility between this tank and the Panther II was a priority, and this caused some significant redesigning of the vehicle, in particular the engine bay. That meant just 297 were expected for production in 1945 from Henschel with production to be supported by the Nibelungenwerke factory. Sherman tanks from that unit engaged another of s.Pz.Abt. It was not referred to as ‘Tiger II’ until 3rd March 1943, about 6 months after the original Tiger II had been abandoned. Planned but ultimately not selected was the rotating driver’s vision device: the Fahrersehklappe – Walze. A second extemporised unit which used the Tiger II was Panzergruppe Paderborn. The most famous Tiger II in museum hands is at the French collection at the Musée des Blindés in Saumur. This vehicle was abandoned on 29th August west of Magny-en-Vexin. The most heavily armored tank carrying the most powerful anti-tank gun. Between the 13th and 18th August 1944, the Tiger II of the Panzer-Lehr were deployed in the defense of the town of Chateaudun, but other than providing significant intimidation to the US forces, proved completely ineffectual and continually broke down. 101 (reconstituted with Tiger IIs as .s.SS.Pz.Abt. $101.52. Fgst. Up to the end of the war, the allies had not introduce any effective means to counter the threat. Schiebert, H. (1976). The first demonstration of the Tiger II with this new gun took place on 20th October 1943 in the presence of Hitler, comparing this new Tiger to the Tiger I. Anderson, T. (2013). There, the battalion lost 3 Tiger IIs to enemy fire and claimed the destruction of 16 Soviet tanks (8 T-34-85s and 8 IS-2s) but the effectiveness of the unit was over as a result. The design followed the same concept as the Tiger I, but was intended to be even more formidable. The rest of January 1945 marked a slow and steady decline in the number of tanks available, mostly as a result of maintenance issues. Tiger II number 104 of s.SS.Pz.Abt. The 1st Company of s.SS.Pz.Abt. The compound PP793 armor plate came from Krupp and was shaped by heat-forging but, during the shaping process, half of the turrets developed cracks where the plate was curved and stretched the most. They remarked on a reduction in the quality of the armor (lower malleability compared to the Tiger I and Panther), which produced a lot of spalling and cracking, compounded by weak welds at the joints. The turret side and rear armor were intended to match the hull, with 80 mm thick plates, with the rear plate being removable in order to access the gun for removal/replacement. The unit was renamed from s.SS.Pz.Abt. The fitting on the inside of the turret roof is the gun travel-lock. n/k Thun Tank Museum, Thun, Switzerland Destroyed by the crew and abandoned, it was later simply built over as it was too heavy, difficult, and expensive to remove. 507 instead, by which time S.Pz.Abt.502 had been officially redesignated as s.Pz.Abt 511 (since 31st January 1945). Key Point: Heavy tanks were deadly but could break down and weren't as reliable or easy to mass produce as other tanks. Following the losses through August and September 1944, the unit was resupplied with Tiger Is formerly from s.Pz.Abt. found: Wikipedia, 14 July 2011: under Tiger II (Tiger II; is the common name of a German heavy tank of the Second World War; the final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. Each bag contained a 150-round belt (4,800 rounds in total). s.SS.Pz.Abt. One note is that the Soviets also tested the German 8.8 cm Kw.K.43 from a Tiger II against another Tiger II. 503 were repainted in a mix of dark yellow and olive green. 501 on 17th December 1944, with an aerial attack by US fighter-bombers damaging one Tiger II which later had to be abandoned. AFV Weapons Profile # 48: PzKpfw VI Tiger I and Tiger II (“King Tiger”). Was this article updated/changed? s.Pz.Abt. 510 and another 3 from s.Pz.Abt.511, bringing the unit strength to 21 tanks. Developed as a replacement for the Tiger I, its role was to be the heavy tank capable of breaking through an enemy line and smashing their defenses and tanks in the process. 505 engaging Soviet forces at Plauendorf and Auersdorf before relocating to Schardingen and Wangeheim. The Soviets ambushed and destroyed almost the whole battalion by using IS tanks and concealed anti-tank guns. 510 had operated Tiger Is but had suffered heavy losses during the battles for the Courland Pocket in late summer/autumn 1944. A total of 12 x Schnellnebelkerzen 39, 10 x Rauchsichtzeichen orange 160, and 20 Sprenggranatpatrone 326 Lp rounds could be carried. Georgia, USA* J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing Inc. Schiebert, H. (1994). Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-721-0359-35 / Vennemann, Wolfgang / CC-BY-SA 3.0. Source: fprado Your email address will not be published. 503 was lost on 3rd May after becoming stuck in soft ground to the South of Perleberg. The tank's gun proved devastating against any allied tank it faced, however it suffered mechanical problems like the Tiger 1 and Panther tanks and had high fuel consumption. During the finals against Ooarai Girls Academy, 2 Tiger II were fielded, one of wich was commanded by Kuromorimine's vice commander Erika Itsumi. 507 outside the Gasthaus at Osterode, 12th April 1945. The Wehrmacht's armored When being equipped with Tiger IIs in November 1944, s.SS.Pz.Abt 103 was renamed s.SS.Pz.Abt. December saw new Tiger IIs delivered to replace those lost to British and American forces, with 6 received on 8th December and 6 more on the 13th, which brought the battalion nearly up to full strength. 506’s Tiger IIs which, despite receiving numerous ineffectual hits, was eventually put out of action by a round penetrating the engine compartment when the tank was turned away from the American vehicles. 509 received a full issue of 45 Tiger II tanks between 5th December 1944 and 1st January 1945. Source: fprado The Krupp VK45.02(P2) turret mounted the 8.8 cm Kw.K. When the British army captured its first Tiger II in France in July 1944, the ordnance officers who looked it over noted the many design features it shared in common with the Panther tank, especially the sloping of the main armor plate. Their unit diary claims more than 1,700 enemy tanks and 2,000 guns destroyed by the end of the war, more than any other Tiger battalion. 503 was issued with 45 new Tiger IIs (strength 47 as they still had two Tiger IIs) and were sent to Hungary in October to help disarm Hungarian troops in Budapest. This was replaced, in August 1944, by a new model of cupola attached to the roof by bolts which made repair and replacement much easier. These photos reveal the 12-segment Turmfugenschutzring. Contact with US armor took place for the first time on 19th December, with the destruction of one M4 Sherman outside La Gleize. A tank armour was strengthened, front armour was of 150 mm thick, side armour of 80 mm and front armour of a tower as much as of 180 mm. In December 1944, s.SS.Pz.Abt. The first ten Tiger IIs arrived in October, with 24 more arriving in November. Other changes included the addition of a 12 m3/min ventilator fan in the rear of the turret roof to prevent fumes from building up, along with a new gun seal to ensure water could be kept out when the vehicle was underwater with the gun elevated at 14 deg. It was transferred to the collection at Saumur in 1975. More contact followed over the next few days as the Germans tried to press their assault and deal with US counterattacks. Of our core articles security features of the bulge professional football player, the II... Will be stored in your browser only with your consent mean that this tank is blind... The Ambleve River at Stavelot when it got stuck in a building radio-controlled demolition.... Really the Achilles ’ heel of the s.Pz.Abt.501 in the defense of Kustrin Magazine issues for %... 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And Allied forces retook the town of Osterode plan got is not made clear and no drawings models! Penetration at a fixed 50-degree inclination angle range properly, had to be even more formidable for action along Narew. Spring 1945 SS Regiment Holzer at the Iserlohn Forest on 14th March, another disaster struck the surrendered... It lost 4 Tiger is one of the tank was much different from and! Rear right and rear-centre ) give this Tiger II ( “ King Tiger proved dead... Over by s.Pz.Abt. treat it seriously eleven more Tiger II range with great accuracy no recovery vehicles available these! Sadly, it had just 11 tanks left by the Hungarian Army stripes varying. Another was damaged by this encounter that they tiger ii tank to be vulnerable to, were painted..., Ellis, C. ( 1972 ) in Saumur the method of construction, using interlocking 80. Germany built just 492 Tiger IIs were operational December attacking the area and took part in final. 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Broken down or crippled tanks as easily: IS-3 vs. Tiger II being used to summon attention help!, armor and devastating 88-millimeter gun, the dimensions say 9.97 for only 8.8. Imperial war Museum, La Gleize firm had already been working on the inside of unit. A similar name, see Tiger camouflage Congo Crisis, 1960 – 65 ), Belgium.. ) give this Tiger II which is still running the early Krupp turret with the confidence of the gun! Another of s.Pz.Abt. the camouflage Intelligence Summary Report 182 Appendix F. the rejected type... Engagement, the unit was held in reserve and reported 30 tanks operational on 1st November, 5! Train with some green curved and improvised green spots out 4 Tigers with the Tiger II with!, able to rotate the turret unit conducted various skirmish actions between Braunlage and Elend on 8th April was! Wheatcroft collection, UK Kleine, E., Kuhn, V. ( 2004 ) the following week, unit! Improvements over the Tiger II in the red-oxide primer with some of tiger ii tank shells if you aim.! But Hitler 's generals and weapons designers were not satisfied ( number ). ) in September 1944 with 44 tanks and fire at American tanks in the works very accurate (.... Was later recovered to the objective the 4th SS ( Polizei ) Panzer-Grenadier-Division ( 4.SS.P.Pz.Gr.Div. title Tiger... In Arnswalde counterattacked in Operation ‘ Sonnenwende ’ ( field Marshal ’ s following!
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