" United States Army in World War 2, War in the Pacific, Campaign in the Marianas." Center of Military History, United States Army, 1995. " Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015." 4th edition, McFarland & Company, 2017. The Allies also bombed the factories that made the Tigers and only 100 were available for the Ardennes Offensive (the Battle of the Bulge) in the winter of 1944- 45. It also used a vast amount of fuel which the Germans were finding very difficult to produce due to Allied bombing of fuel plants. Weighing in at 68 tons with a 690 bhp engine, the Tiger II was a formidable weapon. The King Tiger first saw action on the Western Front on August 1944. The Tiger II, which the Germans called the King Tiger, first saw action on the Eastern Front in May 1944. There were advanced versions of the Tiger. The Tigers did well enough to survive the onslaught at the Falaise Gap and in August just 2 Tigers held up the advance of the 53rd British Infantry division. On July 11th, 1944, thirteen British Shermans were lost of out 20 with two more captured with no Tiger losses. Within Normandy, the Tigers scored victories out of proportion to their numbers. However, Wittman lost 6 Tigers which were very difficult to replace – as were his experienced crew. In Normandy, Wittman’s Tigers destroyed 25 British tanks, 14 half-tracks, 14 Bren-gun carriers in a short and bloody battle around the village of Villers Bocage.
Michael Wittman, another Tiger commander, had kills of 119 tanks, including great success in Normandy after D-Day. On October 18th, 1943, one Tiger led by Sepp Rannel, destroyed 18 Russian tanks. It was in the retreat from Russia that the Tiger proved its defensive qualities that were to hinder both the Russians on the eastern Front and the Allies on the Western Front. In the famous tank battle at Kursk of July 12th, the Tiger could hit a T34 from 1500 metres but when the two got to close-quarter fighting, the T34 proved to be superior. As a result, many suffered major mechanical malfunctions during the battle. Many tanks had left their factories before rigorous mechanical checks. The Tiger was the main tank spearhead for the Germans at Kursk. Maintaining a decent fuel supply to Tiger columns was always a difficult process and one that could be very easily disrupted by resistance fighters. A journey of just 60 miles by a Tiger could eat up 150 gallons of fuel. The tank was also successful elsewhere – but again, behind the success, lay some major weaknesses.
French shells from a 75mm gun bounced off the hull – from a distance of just 50 metres. The Allies first met the Tiger at Tunisia. Given the correct terrain to fight on, the Tiger easily proved its fighting worth. 12 T34’s were destroyed and the other 12 retreated. The ground was frozen solid which greatly aided manoeuvrability. But on January 12th, 1943, four Tiger’s, with eight MKIII’s, faced 24 Russian T34’s near Leningrad. However, the terrain was swampy forest land – not very suited to the Tiger. The Tiger first saw action in August/September 1942 in the Leningrad campaign. Therefore, the Tiger went into battle with the faster but less well-armed MKIII’s or MKIV’s protecting their flanks. The Tiger was slower than a medium MKIII or MKIV and its turret movement was slower. The Kursk offensive saw the first large scale use of the so-called ‘tank wedge’. The Tiger was armed with an 88mm gun and two 7.92 MG-34 machine guns. However, each tank cost over 250,000 marks to manufacture. Some 1,350 were made with, at its peak, 104 being made in just one month in April 1944 – evidence, if it was needed, about the effectiveness of the manufacturing process. The Tiger was in production for two years, from August 1942 to August 1944.
Famous tank battles driver#
The hull of the first Tigers was divided into four sections two in the front for the driver and the bow gunner and radio operator, a central fighting compartment and a rear engine compartment.
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