The Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Was Germany’s ‘Over-Engineered’ Tank

Boldride ^ | March 8, 2015 | Bill Wilson

[C19fan]

The Germans are a polarizing people, and so are their products. Sort of like when journalists review a BMW — people either love ‘em or hate ‘em. This is because Germany’s engineering prowess is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it enables Volkswagen, BMW, Porsche, etc., to lead the pack when it comes to performance. On the other hand, the Germans are notorious for letting their reach exceed their grasp. They rush new and innovative products to market without giving them a proper shake-down first.

Not only does this odd duality explain Germany’s mixed record in building fine automobiles, it also sheds light on designs going as far back as World War II. Case in point: the Panzerkampfwagen Tiger battle tanks the Fatherland built to counter Allied armor. They were either deadly killers, clunky death traps, or both, depending on who you ask.

[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

I do not think Stalin was planning on invading the Reich itself. Stalin had a healthy respect for Hitler’s massive war machine and had no desire to tangle with the Reich’s massive panzer divisions and formidable Luftwaffe. Also Stalin had wiped out many of his leading army officers in a massive purge just before the outbreak of WWII.

Stalin wanted to divide Europe up with Hitler. Stalin took the Baltic states, invaded Finland, took a slice of Romania (Bessarabia and Moldavia) and of course BOTH he and Hitler started WWII by invading Poland 1939, a fact conveniently ignored in most history textbooks. Hitler AND Stalin BOTH started WWII.

[catman67]

MP-44 as well!

[X Fretensis]

War between the two was inevitable. It was just a matter of when. The Reds needed to buy time to rebuild their army and the Germans wanted to make sure they didn’t get sucked into a second front prematurely, like in WWI. The fate of Poland was inconsequential to either of these two countries. The non aggression pact gave each what it wanted for the time being. It did not make them allies.

[catman67]

As I recall, Russia had a large number of divisions tied down in the east until after 1941 to guard against an invasion from japan, whose armies were in neighboring Manchuria. The two countries fought a couple of serious border clashes in 1940-14, with the Russians handing the Japanese their heads.

It wasn't until the Russians found out from their spy in Japan, Richard Sorge, that the Japanese had no intention of attacking Eastern Russia that these divisions could be freed to shift to Western Russia and provide the military weight to start pushing the Germans back.

[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

Yes. In retrospect it looks like the Japanese would have had more to gain if they attacked the USSR instead of the US in December 1941.

What the Axis forces were thinking-—first Japan, then Hitler’s perfectly insane decision to declare war on the US a few days after Pearl Harbor-—I have no clue.

Given the size and geography of the US, with its vast industrial capability and protected by two oceans, what were they thinking????????????????

[Hugin]

Very cool video. Looks like a well designed piece of equipment, whatever it is. I like the fold down dozer blade and built in amphibious capability. The perfect prepper bug out vehicle!

[NFHale]

RE Bug Out Vehicle:

I was thinking more like making it a Saturday Nite Cruiser - you know, throw a couple chrome sidepipes on it, some Crager SS rims (on the drive bogies), maybe a custom metallic flake flame paint job, and an old-time AAAH-OOOGA horn...

THAT’ll turn some heads, for sure, baby!!!!

Haha!

[TalBlack]

“At the start of Barbarossa the Germans were unaware ...”

Was it arrogance or InTel failure? I know the Germans were spying on us and England.

[archy]

An Allied tank firing point blank at Tiger would have it shells bounce right off of it.

Not with 76mm hypershot, or even better, the British 17-pounder main gun, refitted to some Shermans for D-Day and later festivities. As a 19-year-old tank gunner in Germany in the mid-1960s, I had the opportunity to chat with both former American WWII tank crewmen who dropped by their/our old outfit to see how things were going with the old bunch, at that time the oldest and most decorated independent tank battalion in the US Army. And too, I got to meet a good many former German tank crewdawgs, who happily shared wit us their thoughts on the best tactics for killing Soviet tanks attacking in wholesale numbers, with considerable concerns about very effective massed artillery support. They did not care for the American hypershot antitank rounds one bit. hypershot/HVAP

It would indeed have been better from the German point of view had the Tiger and Panther been produced with Diesel engines, with less likelihood of fuel fires, better range and speed among the probable gains. But the U-boat service had priority for Diesel fuel, and after the Romanian oil refinery output was curtailed by the Ploiești bombing raids of the US Eighth Air Force's Operation Tidal Wave, it was gasoline engines or nothing.

[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

The Germans also had synthetic fuel which increasingly became their primary source after the Soviets overran Romania and Hungary.

BTW-—I was referring to a typical Allied tank. The Germans did produce the best tanks of WWII but could not mass produce them in the numbers they needed to match Allied tank production. The Tiger was the most powerful tank of WWII, but the Panther probably the best tank used in WWII IMHO.

[archy]

And they were driving M24 Chaffees and calling them Shermans, while the Germans were using M47 (or 48s) and calling them Tigers...

But still... I saw it as a kid. It made quite the impression on me.

I was a young treadhead in training, in Armor AIT at Ft Knox, when it ran at the post theater, and we were treated to a showing of the movie as a training film.

And, fyi, they got the song right, as I would learn at Christmas of that year when I first partied with some German tankers. Though there's another verse that's not very politically correct, as well as the also not-korrekt sister song, Erika

[archy]

The Germans also had synthetic fuel which increasingly became their primary source after the Soviets overran Romania and Hungary.

Yep, via the Fischer-Tropsch coal-liquid fuel conversion process, which also desulphurizes the fuel.

I wonder why we don't hear more about it....

[archy]

Any large weapon like a tank has a potential fault which is field service. For all of their faults n armor and gun size the Sherman was dependable and very easy to service/repair in the field. The Tiger was the opposite and break downs took a long time to repair

Well, I'm just glad I wasn't a track mechanic on the M4A4 Sherman, which had the 30-cylinder A57 mogas engine built by Chrysler, essentially 5 radially mounted six-cylinder auto engines radially mounted around a common crankshaft. Born in the early days of the war, it was one answer to the shortage of circa-500hp engines, mostly [then] aircraft radials, but a mechanic's and manufacturing nightmare.

Most of the things went to the Brits and Russians, though I believe the Marines used some as well.

Remember the treadhead's motto: four hours of maintenance for every hour of operation....

[nascarnation]

Never seen one, but I can imagine the difficulty of servicing it.

[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

The libs would go apepoop. That’s why.

[archy]

The libs would go apepoop. That’s why.

All the better reason for doing so! Tweak their noses, then drop the platform out from under them....

[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

I agree wholeheartedly. But you know how they hate coal and all other fossil fuels.

[archy]

I agree wholeheartedly. But you know how they hate coal and all other fossil fuels.

Let me say this about that....

[AppyPappy]

“The biggest mistake IMO was shelving development of the 7.5 cm Pak 40 from ‘39 - ‘41.”

Germany was using jet engines in the 30’s but Hitler thought they wouldn’t work.

[central_va]

The above ground factories were for show. The Nazi's moved their production underground way before 1944. Sometimes though production remained above ground in "bombed" out factories that actually were functioning perfectly but looked kaput from the air.