The FReeper Foxhole's TreadHead Tuesday - PanzerKampfwagen VIB - King Tiger - Mar. 16th, 2004

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[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

...................................................................................... ...........................................

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PanzerKampfwagen VIB
King Tiger

The Tiger II was also known as "Tiger Ausf. B" or "Königstiger" (King Tiger) and was the last major tank design to see service during the war. The original Tiger design was finalised before the Russian T-34 was encountered so it lacked the excellent ballistic shape which was a feature of the Panther. The Tiger II went into production late in 1943 and was first engaged in action on the Russian front in August 1944 and was later encountered by the Allies in France in August of that year. It was born of a demand from the Waffenamt (Army Weapons Office) in August 1942 for a redesigned Tiger tank incorporating thicker armor, sloped plates to deflect shots as on the Panther and T-34, and armed with the 88mm L/71 gun, which should be capable of dealing with any new tank development that the Russians could possibly produce.


Tiger II with Porsche turret

Both Porsche and Henschel were asked to submit designs to these specifications. The Porsche design (VK 4502P) had alternative layouts with the turret either well forward or at the back of the hull. It was to mount the longer L/71 KwK 43 gun as in the Elefant tank destroyer. At first the Porsche model was considered for production and the construction of turrets by Wegmann of Kassel for this vehicle began, but due to the shortage of copper required for the parts in the electrical transmission this tank project was cancelled. The Waffenamt also rejected the electric drive as unreliable and too sophisticated for service conditions.


Adding camouflage colours

The second design from Henschel (VK 4503H) was powered conventionally like their Tiger I and was accepted. The project was put in hand as a top priority effort and the first prototype was delivered in November 1943. By that time the Panther II had been designed, and under the new rationalisation policy it was decided that as many parts of the Panther II as possible had to be incorporated to standardise design features between the two vehicles. Production of the Tiger Ausf. "B" began in December 1943 on the Henschel production line, parallel to that which was building the Tiger Ausf. E. The first production models began to reach the Army late in February 1944.


Tiger II of the "Feldherrnhalle" Panzergrenadier Division (1945)

Henschel remained the sole builders of the Tiger II during its whole production life. By September 1944 Tiger Ausf. E production ceased completely in favour of the new vehicle. Production was scheduled to reach a rate of approximately 145 per month, but disruption by enemy bombing and shortage of materials reduced the best ever monthly output to 84 in August 1944. By the end of the war 487 Tiger IIs had been produced. The first 50 Tiger IIs to be completed were fitted with the spare turrets originally intended for the Porsche Tiger. This turret had a curved front mantlet and a bulged commander's cupola on the left side. The remaining vehicles had a Henschel-designed turret, having thicker armour and eliminating the re-entrant angle under the mantlet.


The protective effect of the sloped lines

The Tiger II was derived from the Tiger Ausf. E and both tanks had many features in common. At the same time it bore a much closer resemblance to the late model Panther. Common fittings included cupolas, engines, engine covers and road wheels. Compared with the other vehicles the Tiger II had thicker armor and was dimensionally larger. It incorporated various features which experience had shown were desirable; notably the front glacis plate, which was now sloped as on the Panther and T-34 tanks instead of squarely vertical as on the original Tiger. The armor protection, particularly that carried on the front of the vehicle, was the thickest to be employed on a tank that was due for large scale production. The front plate was 150mm set at a 40o angle, the turret face 180mm thick, and the side and tail plates, including the turret wall, were 80mm thick. Frontal attack of this tank, by any weapon available to the Allies, was out of question.


After completing the camouflage, the crew fit the armored mudguards.

The extremely wide tracks gave the Tiger II good cross-country performance despite its excessive weight. The Tiger II incorporated all the good points of the Panther tank and armed with a new main armament, the 88mm KwK 43 L/71 which was almost 21ft long. This gun represented the largest calibre length to be employed operationally by the Germans in a tank mounting during the war. There was a small, conical Saukopf (pig's head) mantlet, and a well-sloped turret and sloped morticed armor plates making up the hull. The tanks were often covered with Zimmerit to prevent the attachments of magnetic mines.


A battalion of Tiger IIs drawn up for inspection in Paderborn-Sennelager, autumn 1944

Internally the vehicle followed the usual German layout with front sprocket drive and crew positions as for the Panther. The big turret had several interesting features; it lacked the usual basket and was built out very wide over an immense 73inch diameter turret ring. To assist in loading the big ammunition rounds carried, 22 rounds were mounted in the rear turret bulge, thus giving the loader a minimum handling movement. Power traverse was as for the Panther and Tiger.


Tiger of sPzAbt. 'Fernherrnhalle' in Budapest, spring 1945

Suspension was by torsion bars and it followed the same type of arrangement as in the Tiger Ausf. E. However, the wheels were overlapped rather than interleaved as on the Tiger. This change was adapted to simplify the maintenance problems which had been inherent with interleaved road wheels. Similarly, the tendency for the wheels to freeze solid with packed snow was obviated to some extent. Steel-tyred resiliently sprung wheels (which featured a layer of rubber between two steel tyres) were standard on the Tiger II as on the late models Tiger Ausf. E and Panthers.


The early-style turret.............The Serien-Turm (series turret).

[Professional Engineer]

1930 USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) floated out to become a national shrine

[Professional Engineer]

Those were Tiger I's Joe but then again all airplanes look alike such as the Piper Cub and B 36 to me.

You sure know how to hurt a guy.

[Valin]

Redneck Love Poem

Collards is green,
My dog's name is Blue
And I'm so lucky
To have a sweet thang like you.

Yore hair is like cornsilk
A-flapping in the breeze.
Softer than Blue's
And without all them fleas.

You move like the bass,
Which excite me in May.
You ain't got no scales
But I luv you anyway.

Yo're as satisfy'n as okry
Jist a-fry'n in the pan.
Yo're as fragrant as "snuff"
Right out of the can.

You have some'a yore teeth,
For which I am proud;
I hold my head high
When we're in a crowd.

On special occasions,
When you shave under yore arms,
Well, I'm in hawg heaven,
And awed by yore charms.

Still them fellers at work,
They all want to know,
What I did to deserve
Such a purdy, young doe.

Like a good roll of duct tape
Yo're there fer yore man,
To patch up life's troubles
And fix what you can.

Yo're as cute as a junebug
A-buzzin' overhead.
You ain't mean like those far ants
I found in my bed.

Cut from the best cloth
Like a plaid flannel shirt,
You spark up my life
More than a fresh load of dirt.

When you hold me real tight
Like a padded gunrack,
My life is complete;
Ain't nuttin' I lack.

Yore complexion, it's perfection,
Like the best vinyl sidin'.
Despite all the years,
Yore age, it keeps hidin'.

Me 'n' you's like a Moon Pie
With a RC cold drank,
We go together
Like a skunk goes with stank.

Some men, they buy chocolate
For Valentine's Day;
They git it at Wal-Mart,
It's romantic that way.

Some men git roses
On that special day
From the cooler at Kroger.
That's impressive," I say.

Some men buy fine diamonds
From a flea market booth.
"Diamonds are forever,"
They explain, suave and couth.

But for this man, honey,
These won't do.
Cause yore too special,
You sweet thang you.

I got you a gift,
Without taste nor odor,
More useful than diamonds......
IT'S A NEW TROLL'N MOTOR!!

[Valin]

Everyting you ever wanted to know about the Super Frigates

SUPER FRIGATES - AMERICA'S HIGH TECH WEAPONS OF THE 1790's
Steve McQuillan
The year is 1812 and the United States is at war. Like the war of our recent past, the subject of conversation around the world was American military technology. The focus of attention at that time, however, was on America's forty-four gun "super" frigates. During the first eight months of 1812 these American 44 gun frigates had, in battles fought on the high seas with frigates of the English navy, overcome those English frigates in each of the three ship to ship actions fought between them. To understand the scope of this accomplishment and why it caught even the attention of the Emperor Bonaparte, a brief understanding of naval power in 1812 is required.
The British navy in 1812 was made up of 191 ships of the line, 245 frigates of 50 guns or more and numerous other smaller warships giving it over 860 ships altogether. (Another 56 ships were in the process of construction including three 120 gun ships of the line). The English navy time and again during the preceding twenty years had humbled the navies of France, Spain, Denmark, Turkey, Algeria, Russia and Holland. In the twenty years preceding 1812 the ships of his majesty's navy had fought in over 200 single ship to ship engagements and lost in but five. The last time an English ship had lost a ship to ship action had been seven years earlier when in 1805 the French Milan had bested the HMS Cleopatra. One consequence of this seemingly unending line of victories was that by 1812 over 170 ships on the English roll were ships captured during combat. (This total included 96 French, 39 Danish and 18 Spanish ships) English naval victories had come to be expected by captains and sailors of not only of the Brtish navy but those of the ships which they fought. That attitude was rudely shaken in 1812 when the HMS Guerre (38) was destroyed by the USS Constitution (44), the HMS Macedon (49) captured by the USS United States (44) and the HMS Java (44) taken by the USS Constitution.
The navy of the United States in 1812 consisted of some 50 ships. A congressional committee in early 1812 had determined that a fleet of 12 ships of the line and 20 frigates would be large enough to protect the U.S. because of how thinly spread the English fleet was stretched blockading France. Ships of the line were reserved for the major military and economic powers, however, and something Congress decided the United States could not afford. *see note1
The largest ships in the U.S. fleet in 1812 were the 44 gun frigates, the Constitution, United States and President. Launched between 1798 and 1800 these three ships were built principally to protect U.S. commerce from the Barbary pirates. Because of the threat presented by the Barbary states, the United States' Congress voted in 1794 to build four 44 gun and two 38 gun frigates. (That number was decided on the fact that the Portuguese had adequately blockaded the Barbary states with three ships of the line).....

http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Alley/5443/supfrig.htm

[Professional Engineer]

OLD IRONSIDES
By Oliver Wendell Holmes
September 16, 1830

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon's roar;
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more.

Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor's tread,
Or know the conquered knee;
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!

Oh, better that her shattered bulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!

USS Constitution homepage

[Professional Engineer]

OOooo, thanks!

I was able to visit Old Ironsides in 1999. Pretty cool to see many of the main guns aboard her where captured English pieces. Heh heh heh.

[Valin]

Something I ran across a couple of years ago. Good site not big but quality stuff.

[SAMWolf]

LOL! Tankist!!

[SAMWolf]

They were modified T-34's, they did a pretty good job but not much they could do with the drive sprocket and road wheels.

[SAMWolf]

I can't imagine seeing one of these coming and only having a bazooka or rifle grenades.

[SAMWolf]

Morning PE.

Oberssturmbannfuhrer Jochim Peiper, commander of the armoured spearhead of 1st SS Panzer Division, in conference with some of the officers of other units under his command. Aside from men and tanks of his own division, these included King tigers of the 501st heavy tank battalion and paratroops of 1st battalion, 9th Fallschrimjager regiment

[SAMWolf]

I finally picked up a copy on eBay about 2 years ago. Another good one is "April Morning" with Tommy Lee Jones about Lexington and Concord.

[SAMWolf]

LOL!

Like a good roll of duct tape
Yo're there fer yore man,
To patch up life's troubles
And fix what you can.

What more can a man ask for?

[SAMWolf]

50 ships vs 860 ships. Just about even odds for our Navy. :-)

[Soaring Feather]

OLD IRONSIDES
By Oliver Wendell Holmes

Thank You, PE, for posting this classic poem.

[Professional Engineer]

I just learned our FReeper buddy Steve(smaagee) is vacationing at the same place in Iraq as another FReeper. They haven't connected yet, but I and some FReepers have sent him some suggestions on how to connect via FR. Cool!

[U S Army EOD]

A interesting footnote of history, is that the French Navy did not win another naval battle until they sunk, the Greenpeace vessel, "Rainbow Warrior" in Wellington, New Zealand. But they had to be typically sneaky and French to win that one.

[Professional Engineer]

You're welcome Ms. Feather. I have it in my FR profile as well. I love wooden boats/ships about as much as planes with round engines.

[SAMWolf]

Cool!. Goota love those all expenses, govenment paid vacations. ;-)

[WhiskeyPapa]

One of the few live plays I've seen. Saw it at the Schubert Theater in Chicago. I really enjoyed it and have a copy of the Movie.

Concur. Lots of fun.

Hey -- What if George Washington had a King Tiger?

Walt