Hunting trails "tiger". Tiger tank Reliability of a tiger tank
“We will be winners thanks to our “Tiger”
Adolf Hitler before the Battle of Kursk.
Big and slow, crews cursed tank "Tiger" for unreliability. But when he went into battle, the armor and cannon of the Tiger made him almost invulnerable.
The tank's high complexity, unreliability and low strength meant that it lost its edge over vast areas. Although in situations where strength is important in combat, he was almost invulnerable and could fire at very long distances; in July 1944, a tank from the 506th heavy tank battalion hit a Soviet T-34 tank at a range of about 4 km.
Individual tank commanders had huge personal accounts of destroyed tanks: Michael Wittmann (SS) was the most successful tank ace of the war, he and his crew destroyed over 100 enemy tanks on the Eastern Front. He followed on the heels of such masters as Lieutenant Otto Carius.
Tiger Armor
The huge advantages of the "Tiger" consisted of good protection for the crew and the excellent striking power of its gun. The thick, flat-slab armor lacked the good ballistic shape found in other designs of the time, such as the Panther or the Soviet T-34 tank. But with armor thickness increased from 63 to 102 mm on the hull and from 82 to 100 mm on the Ausf H turret (brought to 110 mm on the Ausf E), the Tiger hardly needed it.
Cannon Tiger eight-eight
The main armament of the tank was the 88 mm KwK-36 L156 cannon, converted from an anti-tank version of the excellent "eighty-eighth" anti-aircraft gun. It was the most powerful anti-tank gun ever used in any army, capable of hitting 112 mm armor from a distance of 1400 m. The Tiger carried 92 rounds to the main gun, stowed in the hull bunker, turret racks and wherever else could be reach out with your hand.
Muzzle brake: The Tifa KwK L/56 cannon was equipped with a muzzle brake that reduced the recoil force when firing an anti-tank projectile flying at a speed of 1000 m/s.
For self-defense against infantry, two 7.92-mm M-634 machine guns were installed on the tank: one coaxial with the main gun, and the other mounted in the front hull plate.
Tank tracks
For the Tiger, tracks 72.5 cm wide were needed to distribute the load on the soil. Its width exceeded the standard railway gauge, so the outer road wheels were replaced and narrower 52 cm tracks were installed to transport the tank.
Ride comfort was good - the intermediate road wheels helped distribute considerable weight evenly,
torsion bar suspension made the ride soft even on uneven surfaces. However, if the inner track roller was damaged by a mine explosion, the repair of the tank in field conditions became a serious problem. In the East, the mud freezing between the rollers could completely immobilize the tank overnight.
The "Tiger" weighed about 60 tons, but its wide tracks gave it the ability to move in the dirtiest and most snowy places that could be found in Russia.
Disadvantages of the Tiger tank
Despite its excellent power, the Tiger had several drawbacks. The turret traverse mechanism was too slow, which meant that the fast-moving (and bold) enemy tank crew could maneuver on close range in front of or behind the tank. The slowness and limited mobility of the "Tiger" meant that in a maneuverable battle, he obviously did not have an advantage.
The Tigers were complex machines. in need of experienced crews and maintenance personnel capable of working in the field. As a result, often bogged down in a swamp or out of order "Tigers" were destroyed: the large weight of the tank made it impossible to load it onto standard evacuation vehicles.
Production and modification of the Tiger tank
The production of "Tigers" has never been high. Initially, 12 cars were assembled every month, but from November 1942, their production was increased to 25 units per month.
The tank underwent various modifications during its two years of production, early models had smoke grenade launchers and pistol embrasures on the sides of the turret, which were removed on later models.
Tanks destined for Africa and Russia were equipped with air dust filters. Ultimately, 1355 Tiger tanks were assembled. The last operational Tigers were used to defend the center of Berlin in April 1945.
In total, there were several variants of the Tiger tank: about 80 tanks were assembled as command vehicles ("Befehlswagen"), with an additional radio transmitter that allowed commanders to improve control of their vehicles. Some refurbished variants were improved unnecessarily - the standard Wehrmacht recovery vehicle SdKfz 9, an 18-ton half-track towing vehicle.
Specifications of the Tiger tank
Crew: five people
Weight: 55,000 kg
Dimensions: Length (including weapons) 8.24 m; hull length 6.2 m; width 3.73 m; height 2.86 m; the width of combat tracks is 71.5 cm; transport tracks width 51.5 cm
Armor protection: frontal armor 100 mm thick on the turret and hull; on the sides of the tower - 80-mm armor; on the side walls of the hull - 60-80 mm armor: upper and lower armor - 25 mm.
Power point: One 12-cylinder Maybach HL 230 45 petrol engine, 522 kW (700 hp)
Specifications : maximum speed on the road 45 km/h; normal maximum speed 38 km/h; maximum cross-country speed 18 km/h; the maximum range on the road was 195 km, but in combat conditions it rarely exceeded 100 km; fording depth - 1.2 m; maximum steepness of rise - 60%; the height of the overcome vertical obstacles is 0.79 m, the trench is 1.8 m.
Main armament: One 88 mm KwK-36/56 cannon with 92 rounds. Type of shells: armor-piercing shells, armor-piercing shells with tungsten cores, HEAT shells. Muzzle velocity: 600 m / s (high-explosive projectile); 773 m / s (armor-piercing projectile); 930 m / s (armor-piercing projectile with a tungsten core).
Effective firing range: 3,000 m for an armor-piercing projectile and 5,000 m for a high-explosive projectile. Penetration: 171 mm armor at close range and 110 mm armor at 2000 m using a tungsten core armor-piercing projectile.
Additional armament: One 7.92 mm MG-34 machine gun. coaxial with the gun, and one MG-34 machine gun mounted movably in the frontal hull plate.
In 1937, the Wehrmacht needed a breakthrough tank that would have 50 mm armor and be one and a half times heavier than a tank Pz Kpfw IV. The design was entrusted to the Henschel engineering company in Kassel.
E. Aders, head of the department of new developments, who was later recognized as the “father of tigers” (Tigerfater), took up the order from the arms department. His first car was the DW1 (breakthrough machine, Durchbruchswagen), made in a single copy. DW2 appeared in 1938. Having the same undercarriage as the DW1 (five rollers with individual torsion bar suspension), the car reached speeds of up to 35 km/h. E. Aders in September began work on a revised task (the mass was specified at 30 tons). At the same time, Daimler-Benz, MAN and F. Porsche Design Bureau were involved in the project.
The designations of the experimental machines of that time were standardized and the ordered machine was assigned the identifier VK3001. In the cipher, the first two digits are the design mass, the last are the sample number.
Tank Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger" of the 101st SS heavy tank battalion during training battles. France, spring 1944
The German high command inspects at the training ground, after completing the next tests, one of the first copies of the Tiger tank (PzKpfw VI Ausf. H). 1942
The newest German heavy tanks "Tiger" (PzKpfw VI "Tiger I") were delivered for combat testing at the Mga railway station near Leningrad, but the vehicles immediately needed repairs
E. Aders took the DW2 as a basis. The Henschel company produced four prototypes that differed slightly - two machines in March 1941 and the same number in October. What were these machines? With a combat weight of 32 tons, a 300-horsepower engine provided speeds up to 25 km / h. Chassis - seven (pair and single) rollers, placed in a checkerboard pattern, and three supporting rollers. The armament of the tank is a short-barreled 75-mm cannon and two machine guns. The frontal part of the hull and turret were made of 50 mm armor plates, the sides - of 30 mm. The crew of the tank is five people.
While VK3001 (H) was being finalized, a campaign against the USSR began. After the very first battles, it became clear that Henschel's prototypes would not survive the battle with KB and T-34. As for Porsche, he only tried himself in the design of tanks. Apparently, this predetermined the further failures of Porsche in the field of tank building. Two copies of this machine VK3001 (P) were made in the winter of 40-41. The tank did not exceed the specified mass and, thanks to a pair of air-cooled engines, developed a speed of up to 60 km / h. Porsche offered an electric transmission and a longitudinal torsion bar suspension with six rollers on board. However, the German industry was unable to master this complex structure within a short period of time, and it was not possible to realize the original plan.
In May 1941, the Henschel company took up another experimental VK3601 equipped with a cannon, the projectile of which would penetrate 100 mm thick armor from a distance of 1.5 thousand meters. By the way, when this tank was made, the thickness of the armor plates was also 100 millimeters. A car weighing 40 tons developed a speed of up to 40 km / h. The undercarriage consisted of eight large-diameter rollers (it was later used on the Tigers).
The Ministry of Armaments and Ammunition in July 1941 issued an order for VK4501 to F. Porsche Design Bureau and Henschel. It was proposed that the vehicle would be designed for an 88-mm anti-aircraft gun of the 1936 model, which was processed into a tank. The gun was created in the 20s by the efforts of two concerns - the German Krupp and the Swedish Bofors. Having the main purpose of combating air targets, this system nevertheless became famous as a powerful anti-tank weapon. The Germans in this role tested the system back in Spain. It was especially actively used in 40-42 years on the battlefields of World War II against tanks with anti-shell armor - Soviet KB and T-34, British and American Shermans, Grants and Matildas. An armor-piercing projectile fired from it hit these tanks even at distances of 2 - 2.5 thousand meters.
Semi-automatic, with a vertical wedge bolt, the gun was supplemented with an electric trigger and a muzzle brake. After modernization, it became known as 8.8cm KwK36 - 8.8cm gun of the 36th model.
Both tanks VK4501 (H and R) were supposed to be made by April 20, 1942 - Hitler's birthday. I mean, there wasn't enough time. Both designers took the best from previous experimental machines. The choice after comparative tests was stopped on Aders' car, although Hitler supported F. Porsche.
VK4501 (P), which had the design designation "Porsche 101", weighing 57 tons, reached speeds of up to 35 km / h. The crew of the car is five people. The Krupp turret and armament were the same as those of the enemy tank. The thickness of the frontal armor plate of the turret and hull is 100 millimeters, the sides are 80 millimeters.
The air-cooled system of a pair of petrol ten-cylinder engines made the Porsche design the best car for African desert conditions. In July 1942, the Nibelung plant in Austrian Linz even produced five vehicles and about 90 hulls, which received the designation "Tiger (P)" or Pz Kpfw VIP. Both of them have found application: the first ones were used as training vehicles, excellent tank destroyers came out of semi-finished products.
Since August 1942, the Henschel company has organized mass production of tanks designed by Aders. Later, similar assembly lines were opened by Wegmann. "Tigers" were produced until August 44th year. In 1942, 84 tanks were built, in 1943 - 647 vehicles, in 1944 - 623. In April of 1944, the maximum monthly production was registered - 104 tanks.
The crew of the German tank Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger" demonstrates the ability of its vehicle to overcome anti-tank barriers
German tankers at rest and the tank PzKpfw VI "Tiger"
German heavy tank PzKpfw VI "Tiger" No. 232 of the 101st SS heavy tank battalion. Tank commander - Unterscharführer Kurt Klieber from the company of Michael Wittmann
Initially, the vehicles were officially called Pz Kpfw VI Ausf H "Tiger I". Since February 1944, after the Tiger II was adopted, the name was changed to simply Tiger I or Pz Kpfw VI Ausf E. This machine is not another modification of the Six. There was only one modification. Although, of course, changes were made to the design during production.
The combat weight of serial vehicles exceeded the target by more than 10 tons. From the moment the tank appeared and for a year and a half, it was the strongest vehicle in the world in almost all respects. First of all, he had a powerful armor. Aders gave the hull a box-shaped rectangular section due to a slight slope of the frontal and vertical installation of side armor plates. This configuration speeds up and simplifies technological process. In addition, the armor plates were fixed by welding and connected with spikes. This made it possible to achieve significant mechanical strength. One sheet was used to make the bottom. Armor - rolled chromium-nickel-molybdenum, homogeneous.
The interior of the "Tiger" was divided into four compartments. The driver was located on the left in front in his own compartment, and the radio operator was on the right. A multi-speed shaftless type gearbox had eight forward and four reverse gears mounted between them. A multi-plate main clutch operating in oil and a brake were placed in the gearbox housing. A differential turning mechanism with a double power supply provided turning on the spot and two fixed turning radii in each gear. The steering wheel was used to control the tank through a hydraulic semi-automatic servo drive. When the steering wheel failed, two hand levers with disc brake drives were used.
The width of the viewing slot, through which the driver observed the environment, was regulated by a thick armored flap moving vertically. In case of poor visibility, the driver was more guided by the course indicator (gyro-semi-compass) located on the right, and not visually. The hatches cut over the heads of the radio operator and the driver were covered with lids equipped with periscope observation devices. During firing from the MG34 frontal machine gun, the radio operator used his periscope for aiming.
A horseshoe-shaped turret, curved from an 80-mm armor plate with vertical walls, was assigned to the fighting compartment, as well as the middle part of the hull, which engine compartment separated by an armored partition. to the right of the gun is the workplace of the loader, to the left - the gunner. Both had narrow viewing slots with glass blocks in front of them. The turret was turned hydraulically by the gunner by pressing the pedal with his foot. The tank commander duplicated the horizontal guidance.
The commander was intended for a cylindrical turret mounted on the roof of the tower at the rear left with a hatch and five viewing slots. Since July 43, it has been replaced by a unified (same as on the Panther) spherical turret with seven periscope observation devices around the perimeter and a circular contour for moving and attaching anti-aircraft machine gun. Three throwing devices designed to fire smoke grenades were installed on the front wall of the tower.
An 88mm cannon (L/56) and a coaxial 7.92mm machine gun mounted to its right were mounted in an armored mantlet (110mm thick). The ammunition rack was placed below the turret shoulder strap - under the turret floor and along the walls of the fighting compartment near the driver. Semi-automatic guns and a unitary cartridge ensured a combat rate of fire of 8 rounds per minute.
German heavy tank Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger" with tactical number "211" from the 503rd tank battalion, in the Belgorod region. german offensive"Citadel"
German tanks Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger" of the 506th heavy tank battalion in the spring of 1944 in western Ukraine
German tank Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger" of the 502nd heavy tank battalion in the Nevel region, Pskov region. January 1944
"Tiger" became the first German serial tank having a new chassis, invented by G. Knipkamp. One side had eight triple road wheels arranged in a checkerboard pattern on a torsion bar suspension with hydraulic shock absorbers on the front and rear blocks. By the way, the Germans have already used such a chassis design on light vehicles - armored personnel carriers and artillery half-track tractors. The suspension evenly distributed the weight of the machine along the caterpillar, slightly loading each roller, and also made it possible to save rubber on tires. Since January 44, rollers without a bandage with internal shock absorption have been used (the same as on the Panther).
In the engine compartment, a 12-cylinder Maybach HL210P45 carburetor engine with liquid cooling with an HP 650 power was installed. In May 1943, in connection with the transition to the unification of tank production, it was replaced by a more powerful and already tested on the Panthers HL230P30.
A progressive transmission with hydraulic servo drives and a torsion bar suspension made the Tiger an easy-to-handle tank with a smooth ride. The driver did not expend significant physical effort and did not overwork while driving the tank. It was easy to master the controls. High qualifications were not required from the driver, and if he died, any member of the crew could replace him.
495 early "Tigers" were equipped with equipment for underwater driving, which made it possible to overcome water obstacles up to 4 meters deep along the bottom. In addition, the first production vehicles were armed with the S-melee weapon (Schrapnell). It served to defeat the soldiers who tried to take the damaged tank "for boarding". Five grenade launchers placed along the edges of the tank hull fired shrapnel grenades up 1.5-2 meters. Exploding, they covered everything around with steel balls 360 degrees.
In addition to linear ones, 84 command tanks were manufactured. In order to install a second radio station, the gun ammunition was reduced to 66 shots and the coaxial machine gun was removed.
Tigers of the 2nd SS division "Das Reich" on the march in the forest near Kirovograd
German paratroopers ride on the armor of the Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger" of the SS division "Das Reich". End of 1943
Camouflaged German heavy tank Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger" of the 102nd SS heavy tank battalion advances to the front line near the Orne River. Behind, obviously, additional fuel tanks are installed.
For the first time, the "Tigers" entered the battle on the Eastern Front in the fall of 1942 near Leningrad in the area of the Mga station. In the future, they took part in battles on all fronts.
Technical characteristics of the heavy tank Pz Kpfw VI Ausf H:
Year of release - 1942;
Combat weight - 57000 kg;
Crew - 5 people;
Main dimensions
Body length - 6200 mm;
Length with gun forward - 8450 mm;
Width - 3700 mm;
Height - 2860 mm;
Security:
The thickness of the armor plates of the frontal part of the hull (the angle of inclination to the vertical) is 100 mm (24 degrees);
The thickness of the armor plates of the sides of the hull (the angle of inclination to the vertical) is 80 mm (0 degrees);
The thickness of the armor plates of the frontal part of the tower (the angle of inclination to the vertical) is 110 mm (8 degrees);
The thickness of the armored roof and bottom of the hull - 26 and 28;
Armament:
Gun brand - KwK36;
Caliber - 88 mm;
Barrel length - 56 kpb;
Ammunition - 92 shots;
The number of machine guns - 2;
Machine gun caliber - 7.92 mm;
Machine gun ammunition - 4800 rounds;
Mobility:
Engine type and brand - Maybach HL230P45
Engine power - 700 liters. With.;
The maximum speed on the highway is 38 km / h;
Fuel supply - 570 l;
Power reserve on the highway - 140 km;
The average ground pressure is 1.04 kg/cm2.
German tank "Tiger" fells a tree for a spectacular shot. Poland. Summer 1944
German soldiers under cover of the Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger" from the 502nd battalion of heavy tanks near Narva. In the background, to the left, another of the same tank, and further, to the right, another "Tiger"
The commander of the German heavy tank "Tiger" looks through binoculars
View from the German tank Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger" during the battle. A burning T-34 is visible ahead. USSR, 1944
Destroyed and burnt heavy tank Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf. E "Tiger" "medium" production series from the 3rd Panzer Regiment of the 3rd SS Panzer Division "Dead Head". Number of the Soviet trophy team "308a". Lake Balaton area
Heavy German tank Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf. H "Tiger" from the 502nd heavy tank battalion of the Wehrmacht, shot down near Leningrad. Most likely, this "Tiger" was shot down in the winter of 1943.
Destroyed heavy tank Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf. H "Tiger" from the 509th heavy tank battalion of the Wehrmacht. The tactical number of the tank is 331. The tank is painted with brown blurry spots according to the standard dark yellow "Dunkel-Gelb". In the background is a Soviet regimental gun mod. 1927 horse-drawn. November 1943, Kyiv region
G.K. Zhukov, N.N. Voronov and K.E. Voroshilov inspecting the first captured "Tiger" at the exhibition of captured weapons in the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Culture in Moscow in the summer of 1943 - Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger" of the 502nd battalion of heavy tanks of the Wehrmacht (tank tactical number - "100"), captured by Soviet troops near Leningrad in the fall of 1942. Attention is drawn to the unusual fastening of the equipment box on the side of the turret, which was never seen afterwards.
Exhibition of captured German armored vehicles in Kyiv. Soviet soldiers inspect captured German heavy tanks PzKpfw VI "Tiger" with numbers S54 and S51 of the 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler". Winter 1945
War invalid at the exhibition of captured German military equipment in Moscow. In the center is the Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger" of the 502nd battalion of heavy tanks of the Wehrmacht (tank tactical number - "100"), captured by Soviet troops near Leningrad
Undoubtedly, the German heavy tank "Tiger" is the most famous German tank of the Second World War. With its indestructible armor and powerful weapons, it posed a serious threat to the Allied armored formations. In a tank duel, the Tiger tank mostly emerged victorious.
The history of the creation of the tank "Tiger"
Despite the fact that already in 1933-1934. the Germans sometimes presented their Neubaufahrzeuge (Nbfz) ("newly built vehicles") as PzKpfw VI, it was nothing more than a successful propaganda trick. In fact, work on the creation of a new heavy tank began only in 1937. It was then that the Kassel company "Henschel and son AG "received an order from the Armaments Directorate ground forces for the development of a heavy 30-33-ton tank, which received the designation DW1 (Durchbruc-hswagen) "breakthrough tank". From the Office of Arms, the order was taken up by the head of the department of new developments, Erwin Aders. Since, according to the customer's plan, the main task of the new tank was to be infantry support in close combat, it was decided to equip the tank with a 75-mm KwK 37 cannon, exactly the same as the PzKpfw IV was equipped with. As soon as Henschel and Son AG presented the chassis to the customer, tests began, but already in 1938 the company unexpectedly received an order to curtail all work on the prototype and begin developing a super-heavy 65-ton tank.
Soon, two prototypes of the VK 6501 were created, but as soon as they began to be tested, a new directive arrived - to return to the previous version (DW1). In 1940, Henschel & Son AG presented an improved version of the new tank, designated DW2. The tank weighed 32 tons, was designed for five crew members, was equipped with a torsion bar suspension of five pairs of road wheels and was armed with a 75-mm KwK 37 L / 24 howitzer and two MG-34 machine guns. In 1941, tests began. At this time, three more companies - Porsche, Daimler-Benz AG and MAN - are connected to the process of birth of a new "breakthrough tank".
At the testing stage, the prototype received the standard designation VK 3001 (H). The hull shape of the tank resembled the PzKpfw IV, but the undercarriage was a design innovation and consisted of 7 pairs of rubber-coated road wheels with three support wheels on each side. In total, Henschel & Son AG built 4 VK 3001(H) prototypes - two in March
1941 and two more in October of that year. The serial production stage was about to begin, but the appearance of the Soviet T-34 tank on the stage of the theater of operations forced the Germans to take a time out. The VK 3001(H) project was sent to the trash, although subsequently two of the four chassis produced served to create artillery self-propelled guns Pz Sfl V with 128 mm KwK 36 L/61 gun.
A large order failed, the designers had to sit down again for the drawings. Soon, manufacturers presented new designs for a heavy tank to the commission. The project of Ferdinand Porsche (* Ferdinand Porsche is the chief designer of the Porsche design bureau, which worked closely with the Nibelungenwerke company. - Note ed.) (VK 3001 (P), also known as the Leopard tank with electric transmission and longitudinal torsion bar suspension of 6 rollers on board seemed to the commission too unconventional and difficult to manufacture, therefore it was unanimously rejected. and Daimler-Benz AG, the commission found their projects obsolete.
As in the case of the Panther, the Fuhrer from the very beginning claimed the role of the godfather of the future tank. Just at the time when the commission from the Wehrmacht's Arms Department was considering the projects submitted by the manufacturers, including the upgraded versions of the VK 3601 (H) and VK 3601 (P) tanks, Hitler formulated his personal wishes regarding the design of the future tank. As conceived by the Fuhrer, the "breakthrough tank" was supposed to combine all the advantages of an ideal combat vehicle - to have powerful weapons, strong armor and high maneuverability, and its maximum speed should be at least 40 km / h.
In March 1942, *Henschel and son AG" presented a prototype that took into account all the wishes of the Fuhrer. The new project, VK 4501(H), was designed for the tank version of the 88 mm FlaK 36 anti-aircraft gun. Hitler was delighted with this idea, since by that time the FlaK 36 had already established itself not only as an excellent anti-aircraft gun, but also as a powerful anti-tank gun. tool."
Nevertheless, the Army Armaments Office was very skeptical of the idea of the Henschel and Son AG, fearing that the design would be overweight, and continued to insist on equipping the tank with a lighter gun. As a result, the developers found themselves in a dead end, the way out of which was the creation of two completely different types of towers. The Krupp firm created a prototype turret for an 88 mm gun, while Rheinmetall-Borsig developed a lightweight version for the 75 mm KwK 42 L/70 gun with a barrel length of 70 calibers. Looking ahead, we note that this tower has remained at the project stage.
In May 1941, an official government order for a new tank was received, and the deadlines were the most stringent - by Hitler's next birthday, the combat vehicle must be submitted for testing. Under such time pressure, Henschel & Son AG makes the smart decision to use all the best features of the VK 3001(H) and VK 3601(H) in the new project. In an effort to anticipate the wishes of the Fuhrer, the developers create two prototypes at once - "H 1", with an 88-mm gun, and "H2" with a 75-mm gun. In the Porsche Design Bureau, which received an illogical order, they also acted approximately the same way - they brought to perfection the main characteristics of the previously rejected VK 3001 (P) project. This is how the VK4501 (P), or "Tiger" (P) was born. The new tank had a combat weight of 57 tons, a crew of 5, and a speed of 35 km/h. The armament and turrets of the Krupp company were an 88 mm FluK 36 semi-automatic anti-aircraft gun equipped with a two-chamber muzzle brake and an electric trigger similar to the competitor's machine. . After modernization, she received the designation 8 cm KwK 36 L / 56 (with a barrel length of 56 calibers). - Approx. ed.
The thickness of the frontal armor of the turret and hull was 100 mm, side armor - 80 mm. On April 20, 1942, the rivals met at the tests, which took place at the training ground near Rastenburg. As you know, Ferdinand Porsche was a personal friend of the Fuhrer, so one can imagine his disappointment and annoyance when, during the tests, the superiority of the Henschel and Son AG model was clearly shown! Even more offensive was the fact that, without doubting his victory, Porsche had already rushed to place an order for 90 VK 3001 (P) at the Nibelungenwerke plant.
The location of the crew, ammunition, engine in the heavy tank "Tiger 1"
Nevertheless, the VK4501 (H1) project was chosen for mass production. From the end of July-beginning of August 1942 to May 1943, 285 new tanks designed by E. Aders rolled off the assembly lines of Henschel & Son AG. Thus began the production of the legendary PzKpfw VI Tiger Ausf H1 (SdKfz 181), which later became be called "Tiger" PzKpfw VI Ausf E or "Tiger 1". The Porsche project, to its great disappointment, was not put into mass production, but its 90 chassis, already produced by the Austrian Nibelungenwerke plant, were subsequently sent to the company " Alkett, where they served to create new combat vehicles.
A fully armored cabin was installed on the VK 4501 (P) chassis, located in the aft. An 88-mm long-barreled gun PaK 4 3/21/71 was mounted in the wheelhouse. Two 10-cylinder Porsche carburetor engines were replaced by two Maybach-MI9 HL 120 TRMs with a total power of 600 hp. With. As a result, a new heavy tank destroyer 8.8 cm Jagdpanzer Tiger (P) SdKfz 184 was born, named after its creator Ferdinand (“Ferdinand”). Somewhat later, this “simple” name was replaced by the sonorous Elefant (“Elephant” is an elephant). The 65-ton "Elephant" with 200 mm frontal armor and a formidable 88 mm gun was a truly terrible weapon. For the first time, the Elefant SdKfz 184 self-propelled guns were used in 1943 in the battle of Kursk, where they immediately proved to be very dangerous opponents, especially at long distances."
90 Elefant SdKfz 184 tank destroyers as part of the 653rd and 654th tank destroyer divisions took part in the Battle of Kursk. The losses of these vehicles in the battles near Ponyri in July 1943 amounted to 39 units. From July to November of the same year, both divisions destroyed 556 Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns. -Approx. ed.
But back to the Tigers. The first mention of new German tanks appeared in the report of the British Scientific and Technical Intelligence Service in February 1941. The document reported on the creation by the Germans of a new 45-ton tank with a maximum armor thickness of 75 mm, two long-barreled 20-mm guns and 4 machine guns. The new tank was also reported to be 36 feet long, 10 feet wide and 6 feet high.
In addition, the car is capable of a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour and is designed for 18 crew members (however, the speaker carefully noted that this figure may well be somewhat overestimated and modestly suggested reducing it to 13) - You don’t even know what this report is about more - the fruits of the inflamed imagination of the author, extra evidence of the effectiveness of Nazi propaganda or frightening reminiscences about German iron monsters during the First World War!
Luckily, things soon fell into place. On December 11, 1942, the first photographs of the new tanks appeared in the German press. These were photographs of the Tigers of the 501st heavy battalion briskly marching through the streets of Tunisia.
Production of tanks "Tiger 1"
"Tiger 1" was in production for two years (from August 1942 to August 1944). During this period, 1354 were issued combat vehicles this version. All this time, Henschel & Son AG remained the exclusive manufacturer of the Tigers, although a number of other firms and enterprises were allowed to produce components for the new tank. From a detailed report on the activities of Henschel & Son AG, it follows that During the entire indicated period, manufacturers only twice managed to reach three-digit monthly production rates of tanks.The record was set in April 1944, when 104 Tigers rolled off the assembly lines.
The process of production of heavy tanks "Tiger" at the plant "Henschel and son AG"
Due to their huge mass, the Tigers turned out to be quite difficult to manufacture machines, especially since the serial copy turned out to be as much as 11 tons heavier than the prototype. Large dimensions, reinforced armor and a powerful long-barreled gun of increased caliber were among the undoubted advantages of the new tank, but the medal also had a downside. The production of each "Tiger" took 300,000 man-hours and cost the treasury 800,000 Reichsmarks (26,600 US dollars or 6,600 British pounds). The production of one Tiger required as much time as the creation of two Panthers or three Messerschmitt-109 bombers.
German heavy tank T-VI "Tiger" (Tiger) (SdKfz 181)
In order for the tank to withstand the recoil of the huge 88 mm long-barreled KwK 36 gun, it was necessary to create a body of armor plates of the largest possible size.
Armor scheme of the heavy tank "Tiger"
Armor scheme of the heavy tank "Tiger"
The Tiger tanks received very powerful armor protection up to 100 mm. They used rolled chromium-nickel-molybdenum homogeneous armor steel. The hull had a rectangular box-type section due to the vertical installation of side plates and a slight slope of the frontal armor plates. The bottom of the "Tiger" tank was a monolithic armor plate measuring 4.88 x 1.83 m; the sides and rear of the tower were also made from a single armor plate. The armor plates were connected to each other on spikes, after which their joints were welded with special double seams, which made it possible to achieve high mechanical strength.
The Tiger was the first German tank with a staggered undercarriage. Initially, the track rollers had rubberized bandages, on the latest "Tigers" they were replaced by non-rubberized rollers with internal shock absorption. This type of undercarriage made it possible to save rubber on bandages and significantly extended the life of the rink itself, although it was accompanied by increased roar during movement.
Suspension and chassis of the tank "Tiger"
The structure of the suspension of the heavy tank "Tiger"
Suspension diagram of the German tank "Tiger"
Drive wheels - front location. The road wheels had an individual torsion bar suspension with hydraulic shock absorbers on the first and last blocks. The staggered arrangement of the rollers made it possible to evenly distribute the huge weight of the tank and ensured the smooth running of the vehicle. However, during the operation, significant shortcomings of the new chassis were also revealed. In particular, in winter, snow and mud easily accumulated between the skating rinks, which, when frozen, could completely block the running gear of the Tigers. This was especially true for the operation of the tank in Russia. While collecting material for this book, I looked through numerous reports from the Eastern Front, in which tank crews complained that in winter the Russians deliberately postponed their attacks until the morning, waiting until the tracks of the Tigers were frozen solid.
German tankers change "travel" or transport tracks to combat ones after the delivery of the "Tiger" tanks to the front
Tank "Tiger" "shod" in marching caterpillars, their width is clearly visible (520 mm)
And this is already a "combat" caterpillar. It is wider, and there are enlarged soil-scooping blades on it.
Tank "Tiger" shod in combat tracks on the railway platform.
By the way, two types of caterpillars were used on the "Tigers". Wide tracks with 725 mm tracks were called combat tracks and were used during the battle. Since this width did not allow the tank to be transported on standard railway platforms, during transportation, the Tiger tank had to be "changed shoes" into other transport, narrower (520 mm) tracks. When using narrow tracks, the pressure of the tank on the ground increased from 1.03 to 1, 45 kg/cm5.
The layout of the German heavy tank T-VI "Tiger" (Tiger) (SdKfz 181)
The Tigers were initially powered by a 12-cylinder Maybach 210 R45 carburetor engine, which was replaced by a more powerful Maybach 230 R45 engine in May 1943 due to the transition to the unification of tank production. "Designed for off-road operation, as well as in adverse climatic conditions in particularly dusty areas (North Africa), Feifcl air filters were installed. Air filters were installed at the rear of the tower and connected to the engine using a casing. The so-called "Tropical Tiger" (Tiger Tr) performed well in North Africa, but after the capitulation in Tunisia, the production of air filters of the Feifel system was suspended and never resumed.
Engine "Maybach" 230 R45 mounted on tanks "Tiger"
Engine "Maybach" 210 R45 mounted on tanks "Tiger"
In the initial period of production, "Tigers" were also produced with special equipment for underwater driving (OPVT) - snorkel pipes. allowing you to dive to a depth of about 3.9 m and move under water. The "floating" "Tigers" turned out to be too laborious to manufacture and difficult to operate, so only 495 of the first tanks managed to equip the snorkel system, after which an order was made to simplify production as much as possible. From that moment, the "Tigers" became "land". The maximum depth of the water barrier that the "Tigers" could wade through was 120 cm.
Tank "Tiger" with a snorkel mounted on the commander's cupola
Since the huge weight of the "Tigers" significantly complicated the braking problem, Henschel & Son AG developed a hydraulic brake control system. The Tiger gearbox Maybach-Olvar 401216 GA, shaftless with a synchronizer, in many ways resembled the Merritt-Brown gearbox used in the British infantry tank"Churchill". Planetary turning mechanisms with double power supply, located in the same block with the gearbox, provided two turning radii in each gear and made it possible to turn the tank on the spot.
During the period when he was considered the most powerful tank in the world. During the first 2 years of production (from August 1942 to August 1944) 1354 "Tigers" were produced, with minor changes to the basic design. In May 1943, the "Tiger" received a more powerful engine and an improved commander's turret, and the latest modifications acquired a running gear made of steel rollers with internal shock absorption. Since the "Tigers" were used in almost all theaters of operations, based on the conditions of the area of application, appropriate changes were made to the basic design. For example, the "Tigers" operating in North Africa. equipped with a reifel air filter system. a on the Eastern Front (in Russia), wider tracks were used.
The Maybach-Olvar multi-speed gearbox had eight forward and four reverse speeds. All these innovations greatly facilitated the control of the tank and made the "Tiger" quite maneuverable, despite its huge weight. It was controlled by a tank steering wheel through a semi-automatic hydraulic servo. In case of its failure, two hand levers with a drive to disc brakes were activated.
Production modifications of tanks "Tiger"
Officially, there were no differences between the Tiger I tanks, but this did not mean that the Ausf H Tigers were completely identical to the Ausf E tanks. Roughly speaking, certain distinguishing features accumulated from model to model already in the production process. Based on this, four periods in the history of the Tigers I can be distinguished: the pre-production stage (or prototype stage), early, middle and late stages. The "Tigers" of each stage had some distinctive features that distinguished them from earlier ones. as well as later models. Let's take a look at these differences in turn.
An early version of the Tiger tank
An early version of the Tiger tank
The prototype tanks were distinguished by a rectangular hole for a smoke outlet, the presence of special hatches on both sides of the turret for firing small arms and the absence of loopholes for firing from a smoke grenade launcher.
Early production Tigers had rectangular tool and spares boxes behind the turret, and three smoke grenade launchers on the roof. During this period, the "Tigers" acquire two headlights and removable gear rims of the drive wheels, covered in front with special mudguards.
At the height of production, the hatch for small arms was replaced by a large hatch, which, if necessary, could serve as an emergency entry-exit. Three 90-mm Nbk 39 smoke mortars were placed on the turret. Tanks destined for use in Africa were equipped with Feifel-type air filters. The "Tigers" sent to the Eastern Front had 5 mortars installed on the hull for firing anti-personnel shrapnel S-mines. The tanks of all three first stages of production had rubber-coated road wheels.
The latest "Tigers" received a new suspension with steel road wheels, with internal shock absorption, turrets with periscopes of the "Panther" type. From July 1943, the commander's cylindrical cupola with five viewing slots was replaced by a spherical commander's cupola unified with the PzKpfw V "Panther" tank, with 7 periscope observation devices and a Fliegerbeschussgerdt anti-aircraft turret.
The most simplified design of the tank implied the absence of air filters, smoke grenade launchers and mortars for launching anti-personnel mines. Two headlights were replaced by one located between the driver's viewing device and the machine gun. Early production tanks were equipped with a TZF 9c binocular telescopic sight, and vehicles at the final stage of production received improved TZF 9c monocular sights.
General description of the tank "Tiger"
In October 1943, the first "Tiger" shot down by the British in North Africa was brought to Great Britain for study. The result of the series of tests carried out was a most detailed report, which I want to quote in part below.
General remarks. The PzKpfw VI tank entered service with the enemy army in the autumn or winter of 1942. In January 1943, it appeared in North Africa, then on Sicily and the Eastern Front. The combat vehicle, which received the official designation PzKpfw VI (H) (SdKfz 182 "), is also known as the Tiger. The project of this tank belongs to the Henschel and Son AG company.
The "Tiger" can be called without exaggeration the most powerful tank in the world (Wishing to read the full text of the report, as well as get comprehensive information about the attitude of the allies towards the Poram, I recommend that you refer to the wonderful book: "Tiger The Brtish View", published in 1986. HMSC, edited by David Fletcher. librarian of the Tank Museum.). Its combat weight exceeds 56 tons. The tank is armed with an 88 mm howitzer, and the maximum thickness of its armor (frontal vertical plate) is 102 mm. Another undoubted advantage of the "Tiger" is its ability to dive into the water to a great depth (almost 3.9 m). At the same time, the gigantic size of the new tank has its disadvantages, which include difficulties in transportation and some limitation of the radius of use associated with huge fuel consumption (according to the enemy, the consumption is 7.77 liters per 1 km when driving on the highway).
The workmanship is excellent, the design project is implemented quite freely, which allows the Tiger 1 to be widely used spare parts of existing tanks with their minimal alteration. It is impossible not to note the very ingenious way of joining armored plates, which is absolutely indispensable in the case of using such powerful armor. Of course, there are several minor shortcomings that can be noted here. In particular, a number of assemblies and components appear to be unnecessarily complicated and, as a result, too labor-intensive and expensive to manufacture.
The differential steering gearbox is broadly similar to the English Merritt-Brown, a significant improvement over the more primitive clutch-brake system found on previous German tanks. There is no doubt that the transition to a new type of transmission was due to a significantly increased weight of the machine. Speaking about the advantages of the Tiger gearbox, one cannot fail to note the original way of placing a large number of forward speeds (in this case there are 8 of them) in a relatively compact mechanism. Full automation of the process of switching speeds gives the chassis of the "Tiger" an undoubted advantage over all existing allied tanks.
Transmission and steering schemes are extremely complex and technically flawless, which, no doubt, results in high labor intensity and high cost of the production process. However, this high cost seems to be quite justified, since everyone who during the tests happened to drive the Tiger expressed unanimous admiration for the lightness and smoothness of this heavyweight.
As for the power plant, the Germans still remained true to their traditional approach and equipped the new tank with a 12-cylinder Maybach V-12 type 120 TRM carburetor engine, which was already used on the PzKpfw III and PzKpfw IV combat vehicles. Nevertheless, since this power plant is the latest achievement of German engineering, it deserves the most scrutiny. In general, it should be noted that this Maybach, like the previous ones, fully meets its purpose, being light, compact and easy to maintain, repair and operate.
Starting the engine of the tank "Tiger" inertial flywheel (aka crooked starter).
General characteristics of the tank "Tiger". Compared to all current combat vehicles, the Tiger is not only the most powerful, but also the most well-armed tank. The huge weight of the tank is explained precisely by the task of carrying a super-heavy 88-mm gun. Oddly enough, but a powerful weapon even somewhat hides the truly colossal size of the "Tiger". When the turret is rotated to the 12 o'clock position, the 88mm howitzer is carried forward a distance approximately equal to 1/4 of the total length of the tank, and the distance from the muzzle brake to the gun mantlet is even more than half this length.
When viewed from the front, the huge width of the tank and its tracks makes a truly awesome impression. However, it is worth going behind, as this impression is immediately lost. The unusual height of the stern plate with air filters located on it makes the silhouette of the tank sloppy and bulky. The use of heavy armor plates is caused by the need to use vertical side armor plates. Thanks to this, the case has a very simple outline and most of all resembles a huge box. This design allows you to place a heavy turret with a huge turret shoulder strap on the hull. In general, if you do not take into account the stern, the "Tiger" is distinguished by its simplicity and clarity of silhouette. The welded hull significantly distinguishes the design of the "Tiger" from previous German tanks, which used a bolted connection.
Tower of the tank "Tiger" of later releases.
The silhouette of the turret is simple, the vertical sides and the aft part are made of a single bent armor plate. The armored mask of the gun is steel, 110 mm thick, rectangular. The commander's turret is installed above the roof of the tower. In front of the roof of the hull are round hatches for the driver and gunner-radio operator. The tower is equipped with three hatches, one of which is located on the roof and has a rectangular shape (* gunner's hatch *), and the other two, round, are located respectively in the commander's cupola and the evacuation hatch is on the right side of the tower.
The location of the shells on the starboard side of the hull and turret of the tank "Tiger"
The location of ammunition at the bottom of the fighting compartment of the tank "Tiger"
Variants of the gun mantlet of the heavy tank "Tiger" depending on the modification
Section of the turret of the tank "Tiger" from the side of the commander and gunner
Massive cast steel tracks with a relatively small pitch are driven by front-mounted drive wheels. This principle as a whole can be called traditional for German tank building. Tension adjustment is carried out with the help of rear guide wheels raised above the ground. Torsion springs, their number has been significantly increased to ensure a smoother ride for a heavy machine. It cannot be said that this system was something new for they have repeatedly tested it on various tracked vehicles. In this case, its use was predetermined by the unprecedentedly large weight of the tank. Chassis "Tiger" consists of 24 rubberized road wheels. The layout as a whole is traditional for German practice, as, indeed, is the impeccable elegance of design and execution.
Inside the "Tiger" tank: view of the driver's seat
Inside the tank "Tiger": view of the place of the gunner-radio operator
Inside the Tiger tank: view of the loader
Inside the "Tiger" tank: view of the gunner's aiming devices.
Inside the tank "Tiger": view of the breech of the tank gun.
Inside the tank "Tiger": view of the place of the tank commander. He was essentially sitting above the gunner in the turret.
The power plant is located in the stern, the torque is transmitted to the drive wheels by means of a propeller shaft, passed under the floor of the tower. The steering is attached to the gearbox, and each track moves through a gearbox located on each drive wheel. The radiator and dual fan are located on both sides of the engine, in separate compartments, under which there are two fuel tanks.
The diving system bears the stamp of a well-thought-out design. All hatches of the embrasure and shoulder strap of the tank have rubber gaskets, the commander's cupola is equipped with a special pipe. Air for the crew and the engine will be supplied through a removable telescopic air intake tube installed above the engine compartment. During a dive, the cooling fans are disconnected and the radiator compartments are flooded.
The non-standard width of the tank creates big problems when it is transported by rail. To this end, in addition to combat, wide, caterpillars, "Tigers" are equipped with even narrow, transport, caterpillars, in which the machines have to be "changed shoes" before loading onto the platform, but before that, the outer disks of the road wheels must be removed.
Test drive of the tank "Tiger"
The general scheme of the device of the combat compartment and the driver's compartment is shown in the attached figure. The location and arrangement of the crew seats meets the usual German standards. There are three people in the tower. The gunner takes a position on the left, directly behind the gun, behind him is the commander's seat, and the loader sits on the other side of the gun, on the right, facing the stern. There are five viewing holes in the commander's cupola. In the department of management, the location is as follows: the driver-mechanic is located on the left, and the gunner-radio operator is on the right. Despite the unusually large dimensions of the turret, the breech of the 88 mm gun almost rests against its rear wall and divides the combat compartment into two parts.
A tank gun, roughly speaking, is an enlarged version of a conventional small-caliber tank gun. The gun is equipped with a semi-automatic shutter with an electric trigger, providing a high rate of fire. Spring compensators are mounted under the gun barrel in two cylinders to facilitate vertical aiming. Elevation and rotation of the gun are carried out using flywheels located to the right and left of the gunner. In addition, the tank commander also has an additional flywheel, which flies around the turn. The gunner, pressing the pedal with his foot, rotates the tower using a hydraulic drive. Firing from a 7.92-mm machine gun coaxial with a gun is carried out mechanically, with a foot pedal. The gunner is equipped with a binocular sight and a dial, the position of the tower is indicated on the Cahors.
Americans compare their M4 Sherman tank with the German Tiger heavy tank
On the vertical side and rear walls of the tower there are all kinds of boxes, baskets and brackets for storing various small things, such as gas masks, removable glass blocks, spare machine gun barrels, a rocket launcher, a headset from a radio station, etc. The tower's polik is rotating. In its central part rises the dome-shaped casing of the hydraulic drive, which is driven by the gearbox. In addition to it, three spare 20-liter cans of water and a fire extinguisher are located on the floor. The gunner's place is equipped on a welded tubular extension in front of the hydraulic drive. Behind, in the engine compartment, fuel valves and a compartment for an automatic fire extinguishing system are installed. Ammunition 88-mm guns placed below the shoulder strap of the tower, on both sides. Part of the shells is stored under the turret polycom, in the control compartment.
Video: heavy tank "Tiger"
The steering is equipped with a hydraulic drive for turning the tower, powered by a gearbox. If the engine is off, the hydraulic drive is useless, so you have to turn the tower manually using conventional levers and a disc brake. Since the disc brakes of the Argus type are also the brakes of the tank, they are equipped with a foot pedal. The driver's seat is equipped with a viewing slot, which is closed by an armored cover and a standard periscope observation device built into the escape hatch. Directly in front of the driver, to the left and right of the main axis of the tank, there are respectively a standard German course indicator (gyro-semi-compass) and a dashboard. A 7.92 mm machine gun in a ball mount is located in the front vertical plate of the tank. The sight is standard, binocular telescopic. The Fu 5 radio station is placed on the shelves, to the right of the gunner-radio operator.
Detailed examination of the heavy tank "Tiger" ()
The location of the crew members, their functions, what devices are located next to each member of the crew of the "Tiger" tank (how the shot was fired, how the turret turns, what devices control the movement of the tank, where the tank's ammunition / ammunition is located, what items need to be checked before forcing the river on "Tigre 1", where is the "recoil indicator")
A detailed examination of the units, motion controls and assemblies of the heavy tank "Tiger" (as well as: what checks does the tank go through before leaving, how to start (methods), what needs to be lubricated before leaving)
The armament of the tank "Tiger". After a general description, the authors of the report attach to a detailed analysis of the most important components and systems of the tank. Here is the description of the main gun of the "Tigr": "The 88-mm gun is installed in the turret on a turret chase with a diameter of 179 cm, which provides a circular fire in the horizontal plane. Full ammunition consists of 92 shells. The gun, which has the official designation KwK 36. is unlikely can be considered a tank modification of the anti-aircraft guns FlaK 18 and FlaK 36. In many ways, this gun can be identified as an improved version of the 75-mm long-barreled tank gun KwK Unlike the FlaK 36 with a percussion firing mechanism, the KwK 36 tank gun has an electric trigger, i.e. The ignition of the powder charge in an artillery shot was carried out not by a shock primer-igniter s/12, but by an electric igniter s/22.
The famous 88-mm gun KwK 36 mounted on tanks "Tiger"
Capabilities of the KwK36 gun in a tank duel (on the example of allied tanks)
With the FlaK anti-aircraft gun, the only thing that the gun has in common is the ammunition load and, perhaps, ballistic qualities. The presence of a muzzle brake, a long recoil (58 cm) and the huge weight of the tank itself (more than 56 tons) led to the need for a special, durable turret box, which significantly improves the fighting qualities of the Tiger compared to heavy British tanks.
In addition to the cannon, the Tiger is also armed with two 7.92 mm MG 34 machine guns. One of the machine guns is located in the turret and is paired with the gun, the second, course, is located in the frontal vertical plate of the hull. A very curious detail is the presence of a quadrant in combination with a simple direction indicator, which is a dial graduated like a clock from 1 to 12. Exactly the same system was already used on tanks of the PzKpfw IV type with a short-barreled 75-mm gun.
Video: starting the engine and moving the heavy tank "Tiger" at one of the tank fests
However, on the same "fours" (medium tank T-4) with a long-barreled gun, there was a more complex system for determining the direction, in which there was no quadrant, but the dial was graduated by hours and miles. In addition, in the new tank, the complete absence of any devices for protecting ammunition from shell fragments is surprising, in the presence of a well-thought-out dust protection. It seems that the Germans abandoned the devices for removing exhaust gases in favor of smoke absorbers located in the tower. This was apparently done after careful examination of captured British armored vehicles. To reduce gas pollution, a system for purging the barrel after a shot is also provided. The internal structure of the tower is much more practical and convenient than that of all current British machines, which serves another proof the consistently high level of German design thought and its technical implementation in the field of artillery production.
Video: German tank "Tiger"
Below are the main types of artillery rounds with armor-piercing shells that were included in the ammunition load of the 88-mm gun "Tiger". As already mentioned, the ammunition usually did not exceed 92 artillery rounds. Further in the report are detailed specifications armor penetration of the armor-piercing projectile Pzgr 38.
High-explosive fragmentation projectile .............. early. speed 820 m/s;
anti-tank HEAT projectile Pzgr39.........initial speed 600 m/s;
Armor-piercing projectile Pzgr40................beginning. speed 914 m/s;
Armor-piercing projectile with a sub-caliber armor-piercing core and a ballistic fairing Pzgr38 .... initial speed 810 m / s.
All artillery shots were stored in a horizontal position along the entire fighting compartment with capsules in different directions. All shots stored on the floor of the tower were installed vertically in the grooves of unarmored ammo racks. Vertical storage made the ammunition on the Tigers more vulnerable than on British tanks, where the shots were stored only in a horizontal position and in armored ammo racks.
Tactical and technical characteristics of the heavy German tank "Tiger 1" T-VI
TANK BASED MACHINES
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Data source: Magazine "Armored Collection" M. Bratinsky (1998. - No. 3)
Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf.B - Tiger II Konigstiger.
The heavy German tank Tiger 2, also known as the Royal Tiger, was supposed to be an invincible weapon of the Wehrmacht, easily destroying enemy vehicles. Its predecessor, the Tiger, was already a formidable enemy for Soviet and allied vehicles, unable to withstand the hit of an 88 mm projectile. The new tank was developed for several years, got an even more powerful gun and even thicker armor, but this was not enough. Tiger 2 could destroy any vehicle in a duel, but the opponents simply avoided such situations, negating all the advantages of a German heavy tank.
Creation
Possessing the usual Tiger, which easily cracked down on its rivals, German engineers already in 1942 began work on a new project, as there was information about new Soviet tanks with modern characteristics. In addition, Hitler wanted to install a long-barreled gun KwK 43 L / 71, which is characterized by increased dimensions to the chassis and turret due to its size.
As usual, Ferdinand Porsche, competing with Henschel, presented his prototype VK4502 (P) and, without waiting for victory in the competition, began production of towers. Due to the complex and expensive electric transmission, in January 1943, the project of another company, Henschel, was approved, but with requirements to finalize it. Only in October 1943, the VK 4503(H) was born, on which it was decided to put 50 Porsche turrets already made.
The King Tiger had exactly the same layout as all the other German tanks of the Second World War - that is, with a front-mounted transmission.
The machine was constantly modernized, the largest was the replacement of the turret (after the release of 50 tanks), the gun was improved (the bore was purged without the help of a compressor, due to the rollback energy). Installing a new sight and strengthening the reservation of the engine compartment. There were also inconsistencies with the armor (replacing molybdenum with tungsten did not have the best effect on projectile resistance). Toward the end of the war, constant simplifications were made to the design, for example, the absence of internal coloring of the latest issues.
It took about 14 days to make one King Tiger.
For the production of one tank, 119.7 tons of steel were required, 50 tons went into shavings. For example, the "Panther" needed 77.5 tons of metal
In front of the car was the control compartment, which housed the gearbox, levers and pedals of the tank, as well as control panels and a radio station. Here were the seats of the driver and gunner-radio operator.
View of the workplace of the driver mechanic and gunner-radio operator of the tank
In the center there was a fighting compartment, above which a tower with weapons was installed. The loader's seat was attached to the left of the gun, and the gunner's and tank commander's seat was attached to the right. Ammunition was located in the fighting compartment, and under the rotating floor there was a hydraulic drive for turning the turret and two fuel tanks.
In the stern was the engine compartment, which housed the engine, radiators with fans and fuel tanks.
The hull of the "Royal Tiger", identical in shape to the hull of the "Panther", was made of armor plates 150 - 250 mm thick, interconnected "in a spike" with subsequent welding. In front of the roof of the hull, viewing devices for the driver and gunner-radio operator, as well as manholes for their landing, were installed. For the convenience of dismantling the transmission units, the entire front part of the hull roof (in front of the turret) was made removable.
The stern part, with the help of armor plates, was divided into three compartments - the engine was located in the central one, radiators and fans of the cooling system were located in the right and left. When overcoming water barriers, the radiator compartments could be filled with water, and the central one was sealed, and water did not enter it. From above, the radiator compartments were closed with armored grilles for access and air ejection of their cooling system. Above the engine there was a hinged hatch with holes for air access to the air filters. At the bottom of the hull there were hatches for access to the suspension torsion bars, as well as various taps for draining water, fuel and oil. In front, in front of the driver's seat, there was an emergency hatch.
The tank was equipped with a welded turret with a clear ring diameter of 1850 mm, made of 40 - 180 mm armor plates, connected into a dovetail spike with subsequent welding. In the front sheet there were cutouts for installing a gun, as well as holes for a sight and a machine gun coaxial with a gun, and in the stern there was a hatch for dismantling the gun. In the roof of the tower there was a loader's hatch, a commander's cupola with a commander's hatch, holes for fans and a grenade launcher. As already mentioned, the first 50 " royal tigers"equipped with a" Porsche "turret, which differed from the "Henschel" one with a bent frontal plate, a protrusion on the left side for installing a commander's cupola and holes in the sides for ejection of spent cartridges.
The rotation of the tower was carried out by a hydraulic rotary mechanism driven by the tank engine, and the rotation speed depended on the number of revolutions. So, at 2000 rpm, the tower rotated 360 degrees in 19 seconds, and at 1000 rpm - in 77 seconds. A redundant manual drive was also provided, during which the gunner had to “turn” the flywheel about 700 times in order to make a full turn of the tower.
An 88 mm KwK 43 cannon with a barrel length of 71 calibers (with a muzzle brake - 6595 mm) was installed in the tank turret. The recoil devices were located above the barrel. The gun had a vertical pin bolt, and was equipped with a barrel purging system after firing with compressed air, for which a special air compressor was installed under the gunner's seat.
To aim the gun at the target on the machines of the first releases, a binocular telescopic sight TZF 9d / 1 was installed, which was later replaced by a monocular telescopic TZF 9d.
On the first 50 "royal tigers" the ammunition for the gun was 77 rounds, then it was increased to 84. 22 rounds were placed in the aft niche of the tower, and the rest - in the fighting compartment and the control compartment.
In addition to the cannon, the "Royal Tiger" had two more 7.92-mm MG-34 machine guns - one coaxial with a gun, and the second, course, was installed in the frontal hull plate. The course machine gun was equipped with a TZF 2 telescopic sight. In addition, there was a special mount on the commander's cupola, which made it possible to fire from a machine gun at enemy aircraft. Ammunition for machine guns was 4800 rounds.
The power plant of the "Royal Tiger" was completely borrowed from the "Panther" - a 12-cylinder Maybach HL 230Р30 carburetor engine with an HP 700 power was installed on the tank. - the same ones were on the "panthers". The engine was equipped with four Solex 52 carburetors, fuel was supplied by two diaphragm pumps.
The engine cooling system included four radiators (two on each side) with a capacity of 114 liters and Cyclone fans. To facilitate starting the engine in cold weather, there was a thermosiphon heater, which was heated with a blowtorch through a special hole in the lump sheet of the body.
The engine was started using a starter, and in case of its failure - manually or with a special device driven by a car.
"Tiger" Ausf. E. It consisted of a gearbox, a main clutch and a turning mechanism (all in a single unit), disc brakes and a driveline from the engine.
The Maybach OVLAR OG (B) 40 gearbox provided 8 forward gears and four reverse gears. To facilitate control, it was equipped with an automatic hydraulic servo. In addition, unlike the Tiger I gearbox, the new gearbox was equipped with a special water cooler for oil cooling.
The electrical equipment of the Royal Tiger was carried out according to a single-wire circuit and had a voltage of 12 V. The sources were a Bosch generator and two batteries with a capacity of 150 A / h.
The German tank Royal Tiger characteristics of the device, the undercarriage (on board) included nine dual road wheels with a diameter of 800 mm with internal shock absorption (five in the outer row and four in the inner row), a front drive wheel with 18 teeth on two removable gear rims, and a guide wheel with a diameter of 650 mm. The small-scale caterpillar consisted of 92 tracks 818 mm wide. For transportation by rail, the "Royal Tiger" was "changed shoes" on transport tracks with a width of 658 mm.
For external communication, all tanks were equipped with a Fu 5 radio station with a range of up to 6.5 km by telephone and up to 9.5 km in telegraph mode.
"Royal Tigers" were equipped with an automatic fire extinguishing system with a capacity of 3 liters, installed in the engine compartment. The system worked at a temperature of 120 degrees.
Development Options
In August 1942, a technical task was developed for a heavy tank, which was supposed to replace the Tiger tank in the future. The new machine was supposed to use an 88-mm cannon with a barrel length of 71 calibers, which was designed by Krupp in 1941. In the autumn of 1942, the Henschel firm and the design bureau of Ferdinand Porsche, who again entered into competition with Erwin Aders, began designing the tank.
Dr. Porsche did not offer anything fundamentally new. His tank VK 4502(P) - factory designation Tour 180/181 or Sonderfahrzeug III - was a somewhat redesigned tank VK 4501(P) in relation to the new terms of reference. From the latter they borrowed the chassis, power plant from two carburetor engines "Simmering-Graz-Pauker" with a power of 200 hp. each and an electric transmission.
Other project options proposed by the Porsche AG design bureau involved the use of other types of engines, including twin diesel engines with a capacity of 370 hp. each or one X-shaped 16-cylinder diesel engine with a capacity of 700 hp, and a hydromechanical transmission. Two variants of the layout of the VK 4502 (P) tank were also developed: with a front and rear turret. With the rear placement of the tower, the engine was located in the middle part of the hull, and the control compartment was in front.
The main disadvantages of the VK 4502 (P) project were the lack of knowledge and low reliability of the electric transmission, the high cost and low manufacturability of production. She had practically no chances to win in the competition with the E. Aders machine, nevertheless, in 1943, the Friedrich Krupp AG plant in Essen managed to produce 50 turrets for a Porsche-designed tank.
The layout of the tank VK 4502 (P2)
Operation and changes
The very first battles with the participation of the "Royal Tigers" revealed some shortcomings in the first 50 tanks, on which Porsche-designed turrets were installed, for example, the tendency of shells to ricochet down when they hit the bottom of the mask. Such ricochets threatened a hole in the relatively thin roof of the hull. By May 1944, the Krupp company had developed a new turret, which they began to install on tanks from the 51st vehicle. This turret had a straight 180 mm frontal plate, which eliminated the possibility of ricochet. The larger booked volume of the new turret made it possible to increase the ammunition load from 77 to 84 rounds.
Tank production
In addition to changing the turret, which became the largest upgrade, other, smaller changes were made to the design of the tank during mass production. The design of the gun was improved, the armor of the engine compartment was strengthened, new scope. At the end of November 1944, a new Kgs 73/800/152 caterpillar appeared on the Royal Tigers, and in March 1945, a compressorless blowing of the cannon bore was introduced. It was carried out by air from a special cylinder, where it was injected with the help of the recoil energy of the gun. By the same time, the MG-34 machine guns were replaced by the MG-42, and the ball mount of the course machine gun was replaced by the MP-40 submachine gun. As the end of the war approached, more and more simplifications were introduced into the design of the tank. On the machines of the latest releases, for example, there were even no interior paint. During the entire serial production, repeated, but unsuccessful attempts were made to improve the final drives and the tank engine.
At the beginning of 1945, 10 tanks with the Henschel turret were converted into command tanks. Having reduced the ammunition load to 63 shots and dismantled the coaxial machine gun, radio stations Fu5 and Fu7 (option Sd.Kfz. 267) or Fu5 and Fu8 (option Sd.Kf /. 268) were placed in the vacant place. The Wegmann company was engaged in the alteration. The first command tank "Panzerbefehlswagen Tiger II" left the factory shop on February 3, 1945.
At the end of 1944, the Krupp company began designing the Tiger II tank, armed with a 105-mm cannon with a barrel length of 68 calibers. The gun was placed in a standard "Henschel" tower. An armor-piercing projectile weighing 15.6 kg left its barrel with an initial speed of 990 m / s. This project was not implemented.
Combat use of the tank "Tiger II" (Royal Tiger)
The "Royal Tigers" entered service with heavy tank battalions (schwere Panzerabteilung - sPzAbt), in which the Tiger I tanks were replaced. No new units were created to equip these tanks either in the Wehrmacht or in the SS troops. The battalions were recalled from the front and in training centers at the training grounds in Ohrdurf and Paderborn, they received new materiel and underwent retraining. Training was facilitated by the use of a large number of standard units and assemblies on the King Tiger for other German tanks. In particular, the controls almost completely corresponded to those on a simple "Tiger".
Organizationally, by the spring of 1944, the German heavy tank battalion included three tank companies of three platoons each. The platoon consisted of four vehicles, the company - of 14 (two of them were commander's). Taking into account the three headquarters tanks, the battalion in the state was supposed to have 45 combat vehicles.
One of the first "royal tigers" received the 503rd battalion. On April 22, 1944, he was recalled from the front for reorganization. His 1st company was armed with 12 new tanks with a "Porsche-type" turret. The other two companies were left with the old Ausf.E. This mixed armament was not accidental, given that from January to April 1944, Henschel was able to produce only 20 Tiger tanks Ausf.B. During the same time, 378 Ausf.E. Tigers left the workshop. At the end of June, the battalion was sent from Ohrdurf to France - the battle in Normandy was in full swing. However, this unit did not reach Normandy in full force. Several "tigers" were destroyed by Allied aircraft during the march to the front line, while several vehicles had to be left in a warehouse in Pontoise near Paris due to technical malfunctions.
After arriving at the front, the 503rd battalion became operationally subordinate to the 22nd tank regiment of the 21st tank division of the Wehrmacht, which fought heavy battles with the British troops in the vicinity of Caen. His first combat operation was the elimination of the enemy's breakthrough near Colombel. In this battle, with the participation of the "Royal Tigers", 12 "Shermans" of the 148th Royal Tank Regiment were hit. The answer was not long in coming.
On July 18, 1944, the positions of the 503rd battalion were attacked by 2,100 Allied aircraft! In any case, this is the number indicated in foreign sources. However, the number of aircraft is clearly overestimated, apparently, someone in a combat report attributed an extra zero to the real figure. Nevertheless, aviation really became the most important for the Allies. effective tool fighting German tanks. Fortunately, they had absolute air supremacy. These days, if a bitter joke is to be believed German soldiers, they began to develop the so-called "German look", that is, a look directed at the sky in anticipation of the next attack by the English or American Jabo (Jagdbombenflugzeug - fighter-bomber) - "tempests", "typhoons" and "thunderbolts".
As for ground weapons, the first adequately armed American combat vehicle was the 90-mm M36 self-propelled gun, which appeared on the Western Front in September 1944. Somehow, the British Sherman Firefly and Challenger tanks, the Achilles and Archer self-propelled guns armed with 17-pounder guns could somehow fight the "tigers".
Here is what Charles Geysell, who fought as a lieutenant in the 628th American tank destroyer battalion, recalls about this: “Our unit was one of the few equipped with the new M36 tank destroyer with a 90-mm gun. Most of the other battalions were equipped with M10 tank destroyers armed with three-inch guns. When we received new vehicles, we were told that our 90 mm gun was superior to the German 88 mm. But in the very first battle of B Company of our battalion with the only King Tiger, we found that our armor-piercing shells could not to break through the turret armor of a German tank.Only by hitting the top of the turret did they disable it.In this short engagement, Company B suffered losses.
Until the end of the war, our battalion with great difficulty managed to knock out only one more "King Tiger".
The Allies also used other methods to deal with heavy German tanks. One of them was told by a participant in the Second World War, Lieutenant General of the US Army James Hollingsworth: “On November 16-19, 1944, there were battles on the Worm and Pep rivers. The 2nd Battalion of the 67th Tank Regiment found itself face to face with 22 "King Tigers". We used the technique of simultaneously firing all available weapons at one target. Firing with 105-, 155-, 203- and 240-mm guns, we forced the enemy to turn back. Three "royal tigers" were left burning on the battlefield. Our tank 75- and 76-mm guns could not penetrate the armor of German tanks. The 90-mm guns of tank destroyers from the 201st battalion were also powerless. Thank God, artillery rescued us. And what about the 503rd battalion? On August 12, his 3rd company received the "Royal Tigers", and in this form the battalion fought near the Orne River. When breaking out of the Falaise pocket, the Germans had to abandon almost all of their tanks. Some of them failed due to numerous breakdowns, mainly in the undercarriage, others, especially the "King Tigers", could not cross the river. The bridges were blown up, and there were no ferries of sufficient carrying capacity. Soon the personnel were recalled from the front to Paderborn, where on September 22, 1944, sPzAbt 503 received 45 brand new "Tiger II", and the battalion left for Budapest on October 12. But, as they say, a holy place is never empty. On the 20th of September, another battalion went to Holland near Arnhem , rearmed by that time with Tiger tanks Ausf.B - sPzAbt 506.
Captured by the Soviet troops "King Tiger"
The combat debut of the new tanks on the Eastern Front took place in August 1944, and this should be discussed in more detail. The point is that for post-war years in the domestic press, this episode was described repeatedly and gradually acquired numerous and far from always reliable details. Perhaps only the very fact of the battle that took place is indisputable, but otherwise there are discrepancies even in the main dates, not to mention the number of "royal tigers" that participated and were shot down.
The most common version looked like this: on the Sandomierz bridgehead, the Germans threw into battle a tank battalion of "royal tigers", up to 40 vehicles in total, and were defeated, losing half of their tanks; several vehicles were captured by our troops in good condition. At the same time, it was claimed that his designer, Ferdinand Porsche (in some publications, the designer's son), who arrogantly believed in the indestructibility of his car, died in the lead tank. The easiest way to deal with the "death of the Porsche." The German designer died in 1951, his son - in 1998. In addition, tanks with a “Henschel type” turret operated on the Sandomierz bridgehead, to which Porsche had nothing to do.
As for the rest, we will try to present the chronicle and course of events, based on the facts presented in various sources. So, it all started on July 14, 1944, when Ordurf arrived to reorganize the 501st heavy tank battalion. Having received new tanks, the battalion was sent to the front and on August 9, 1944, unloaded at a railway station near the Polish city of Kielce. During the march to the front line, many tanks failed for technical reasons, so that on the morning of August 11, only 18 combat-ready "royal tigers" remained in the battalion. Been on all day repair work and part of the faulty machines managed to be put into operation.
The situation on this sector of the Soviet-German front at that time was as follows: by August 4, 1944, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front had captured a bridgehead up to 45 km along the front and 25 km in depth on the left bank of the Vistula. The enemy made desperate attempts to push back our troops that had reached the Sandomierz region. First of all, the Germans launched a series of counterattacks on the flanks of the Soviet troops located on the right bank of the Vistula. With counter attacks from the north and south in the general direction of Baranow, the German troops sought to reach the crossing area, cut off our formations located beyond the Vistula from the rest of the forces and restore the defense along the left bank. After the failure of the counterattack, the enemy made attempts to liquidate directly our bridgehead on the left bank. The enemy delivered the first counterattack with the forces of two tank and motorized divisions on August 11 in the direction of Staszow and advanced 8 km in two days.
The bridgehead by this time was an uneven semicircle, resting at the ends against the Vistula. Approximately in the middle of this semicircle, covering the direction to Staszow, 53 Guards Tank Brigade from the 6 Guards Tank Corps defended. By the end of the day on August 12, the 53rd Guards Brigade left first the Szydlów railway station, and then the village of Oglendow. Here it makes sense to refer to the memoirs of the commander of the 53rd Guards GBR, Colonel V. Sarkhipov, who, not without inaccuracies and contradictions (the memoirs were written 30 years after the events described), reproduces the events of those days:
“On the night of August 13, no one slept in the brigade. In the dark, especially in summer, you can hear far and well. And the sounds that reached us said that in the morning there would be a heavy battle. Behind the front line of the enemy, in the direction of Oglendow, tank engines hummed continuously and in unison, ever approaching and growing. The terrain here was not just sandy, but with weak and quicksand sand. Suffice it to say that the attempts of the tankers to open a shelter for the vehicles were in vain - the walls of the trench sagged right there. In previous attacks, we have repeatedly observed how the German "panthers" skid in these sands, how their drivers are forced to expose the sides of the vehicles to us. In the battles for Shidlua and Oglendow, these truly snail-like Panther maneuvers, which were significantly inferior to the Thirty-Four in mobility, helped us inflict very sensitive losses on the enemy (only on August 11, the 53rd Guards Tank Brigade destroyed 8 enemy tanks - Approx. Aut.). It must be assumed that he would prefer a roundabout movement to a frontal attack on sandy, open fields. In front of our left flank (Korobov's battalion), the whole area is in full view. But on the right flank (Mazurin's battalion) there is a deep and wide hollow, along which a field road stretches from Oglendow to Staszow, crossing the front line. Behind the dell, where the rifle unit occupied the defense, the tanks would not pass - there was a swamp. So, it is necessary to tightly cover the exit from the hollow with fire.
We decided to put a few tanks in an ambush. There is an unofficial term: "flirting tank". His task is to force the enemy tanks to turn around so that they expose their sides to the fire attack of the main defense forces. We entrusted this role to a group of tanks from Mazurin's battalion. The group was headed by the deputy battalion commander, senior lieutenant P.T. Ivushkin.
Further, from the memoirs of V.S. Arkhipov, it follows that three tanks (two medium and one light) were ambushed, overlaying them with shocks of compressed rye and thus disguising them as haystacks. Closer to the hollow was the T-34-85 tank of junior lieutenant A.P. Oskin. The remaining tanks of the brigade were located to the right and left of the road behind a ridge of low sand dunes. However, after several weeks of continuous tank battles, there were very few left in the 53rd Guards Tank Brigade - apparently, no more than 15 vehicles. But since the brigade was in the direction of the main attack of the enemy, on the night of August 13, the commander of the 6th Guards Tank Corps, Major General V.V. Novikov, placed a lot of artillery at its disposal. The corps 185th howitzer and 1645th light artillery regiments and the 1893rd self-propelled artillery regiment SU-85 arrived. Then the 385th ISU-152 Army Regiment approached. Although all these units did not have regular strength, they nevertheless represented a formidable force. In addition, 71 Guards Tank Troops (11 IS-2 tanks and 1 IS-85) were deployed in the rear of the 53rd Guards Tank Brigade. Thus, the exit from the hollow was under the gunpoint of several dozen gun barrels of 76-152 mm caliber.
It also played into the hands of our tankers that the German air reconnaissance took the second line of defense of the 53rd Guards Tank Brigade (a battalion of submachine gunners and part of the artillery) for the first. As a result, the attack by enemy artillery and aircraft that preceded the attack did not hit the tank battalions. At 07:00 on August 13, the enemy, under cover of fog, went on the offensive with the forces of the 16th Panzer Division, with the participation of 11 (according to other sources 14) Tiger tanks Ausf.B of the 501st heavy tank battalion.
“The fog gradually dissipated,” recalls V.S. Arkhipov, “it was already stretching in shreds. Ivushkin reported: “The tanks have gone. But I see, I hear. They're going down the drain." Yes, I myself heard this low rumble, muffled by the slopes of the hollow. He approached very slowly, my nerves tensed, I felt drops of sweat rolling down my face. What is it like for them there, ahead?! But the mop were motionless.
Eyes were riveted to the exit from the hollow. A tank of monstrous size was climbing out of it. He crawled uphill in jerks, skidding in the sand.
Major Korobov also radioed from the left flank: “They are coming. The same, unidentified." (On the night of August 13, the reconnaissance of the brigade reported the appearance of tanks of an unknown type in Szydłow. - Approx. Aut.) I answer: “Do not rush. As agreed: to hit from four hundred meters. Meanwhile, a second similar hulk crawled out of the hollow, then a third appeared. They appeared at considerable intervals, Either this was their statutory distance, or the weak ground delayed them, but by the time a third emerged from the hollow, the first had already passed Ivushkin's ambush. "Beat?" - he asked. "Beat!" I see how the side of the shock moved slightly, where the tank of junior lieutenant Oskin stands. A sheaf rolled down, a cannon barrel became visible. He twitched, then another and another. Oskin fired. Black holes appeared in the right sides of the enemy tanks, clearly visible through binoculars. So the smoke appeared, and the flame flared up. The third tank turned around to face Oskin, but, having rolled on a shattered caterpillar, stood up and was finished off.
"Flirting tanks" played their role. German combat vehicles, leaving the hollow, turned towards the ambush, substituting their left sides for the guns of tankers and self-propelled guns. Direct fire hit three dozen barrels, howitzer divisions covered the hollow with mounted fire, and it disappeared all the way to Oglendow in clouds of smoke and sandy dust. To top it off, the German battle formations "ironed" our attack aircraft. The enemy's attack stalled. In the afternoon, the German 16th Panzer Division resumed attacks, but, apparently, the “King Tigers” no longer participated in them. In any case, among the 24 German tanks knocked out that day, which remained in front of the positions of the brigade, there were only three of them. Moreover, all three burned down, and, according to V.S. Arkhipov, they burned the crew of junior lieutenant A.P. Oskin, which, in addition to himself, included the driver A. Stetsenko, gun commander A. Merkhaydarov (shot something , strictly speaking, it was he), radio operator A. Grushin and loader A. Khalychev.
However, V.S. Arkhipov himself comments on this episode in the following way: “Who knocked out and how much is a difficult question, because the tankers of two battalions - Mazurin and Korobov, and two artillery and two self-propelled artillery regiments attached to us. Attack aircraft also worked excellently, and not only in our field of vision, but also beyond it.
It is unlikely that Oskin's "thirty-four", even if from an extremely short distance, when each shot is on target, in a matter of minutes, if not seconds, managed to knock out three German heavy tanks. After all, there were two more tanks in the ambush, which also fired. Finally, a flurry of fire from the main forces of the 53rd Guards Tank Brigade and reinforcement units fell on the lead German vehicles. Judging by the photographs of the “tigers” literally riddled with shells, shot down in this battle, the fire was fired from different directions and not just one tank. Apparently, it can be absolutely definitely asserted that the crew of A.P. Oskin knocked out the lead "King Tiger", which is also quite a lot.
For this battle, tank commander Alexander Petrovich Oskin was awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union, and the gun commander Abubakir Merkhaydarov - the Order of Lenin. Having come across a powerful anti-tank defense (and by noon on August 13 and the order of the 53rd Guards Tank Brigade, in addition to the already attached parts of the reinforcement, several batteries of the 1666th Iptap and a division of the 272nd Guards Mortar Regiment BM-13 were transferred), the Germans withdrew to their original positions . By evening, the 53rd Guards Tank Brigade took up defensive positions along the southern slope of height 247.9, 300 meters from the village of Oglenduv. Having replenished the 1st and 2nd battalions with tanks at the expense of the 3rd and 10 vehicles that arrived from repair, around midnight our brigade attacked Oglendow without artillery preparation. By dawn the village was cleared of the enemy. Among the trophies taken were German tanks of an unknown type. It was then that it turned out that the battle on the eve had to be fought with heavy tanks "Tigr-B" (by the way, in recent years and in a number of publications there have been claims that Oskin himself allegedly subsequently denied this fact at all, chilya that he only knocked out Pz.IV) .
Under this name, the German car appears in our documents of those years). We learned about this from the operating instructions found in abandoned tanks. In the morning, in the heat of battle, there was no time to sort things out. Therefore, in the first report, having counted the burning tanks, they reported "upstairs" about the destruction of three "panthers". Considering them resemblance with the "royal tigers", this was not surprising. The captured combat vehicles had turret numbers 102, 234 and 502. Tanks No. 102 and No. 502 turned out to be command tanks - they had additional radio stations. Tank No. 502, found in the courtyard of a house on the outskirts of the village, was technically sound and abandoned by the crew for a very prosaic reason: so as not to interfere with running. The tank was full of ammunition and a sufficient supply of fuel. Apparently, in the morning battle on August 13, this machine did not take part. When trying to start the engine, it wound up with a half turn.
At 0900, the 2nd Tank Battalion of the 53rd Guards Tank Brigade, in cooperation with the 2nd Company of the 71st Guards Heavy Tank Regiment and the 289th Rifle Regiment, resumed the offensive. The "royal tigers" who were located west of Oglenduv met them with fire. Then a platoon of IS-2 tanks of the Guards Senior Lieutenant Klimenkov moved forward and opened fire on the enemy. As a result of a short battle, one "King Tiger" was hit and the other was burned.
As the brigades of the 6th Guards Corps moved forward, they did not encounter organized resistance from the enemy. The battle broke up into separate skirmishes and sporadic counterattacks. On the outskirts of Shidlov, 7 Tiger-B tanks took part in one of these counterattacks. The IS-2 tank of the guard, senior lieutenant V.A. After several shots, one tank was set on fire, and the second was knocked out. Then Udalov led his car to another position along the forest road and opened fire again. Leaving another burning tank on the battlefield, the enemy turned back. Soon the attack of the "royal tigers" was repeated. This time they were heading for Lieutenant Belyakov's Guard Lieutenant Belyakov's IS-2, which was in ambush. From a distance of 1000 m, he managed to set fire to an enemy car with a third projectile. In one day on August 14, tankers of the 71st Guards Tank Troops knocked out and burned six "Royal Tigers".
In total, between Staszow and Szydłow, there were 12 lined, burned and serviceable, but abandoned by the crews of the “royal tigers”. Such a deplorable result for the Germans, no doubt, was the result of a competent organization of the battle on our part. For this battle, the commander of the 53rd Guards Tank Brigade, Colonel V.S. Arkhipov, was awarded the second Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
The captured tanks were delivered to Kubinka at the NIBTPoligon. Based on the test results, it was concluded that "the Tiger-B tank is a further modernization of the main German heavy tank T-V Panther with more powerful armor and weapons."
To assess the armor resistance, it was decided to bombard the hull and turret of tank No. 102. Units and assemblies from the captured vehicle were dismantled for further research, and the weapons were transferred to the GANIOP. Shelling tests were carried out in Kubinka in the autumn of 1944. Based on their results, the following conclusions were drawn:
1. The quality of the armor of the "Tiger-II" tank, in comparison with the quality of the armor of the "Tiger-I", "Panther" and SU "Ferdinand" tanks, has deteriorated sharply. Cracks and spalls form in the armor of the Tiger-II tank from the first single hits. From a group of shell hits (3 - 4 shells), large spalls and breaches are formed in the armor.
2. For all units of the hull and turret of the tank, the weakness of the welds is characteristic. Despite careful execution, the seams during shelling behave much worse than they did in similar designs of the Tiger-B, Panther and Ferdinand SU tanks.
3. In the armor of the frontal plates of the tank with a thickness of 100 to 190 mm, when 3-4 armor-piercing or high-explosive fragmentation shells of caliber 152, 122 and 100 mm hit them from a distance of 500 - 1000 m, cracks, spalls and destruction of welds are formed, resulting in a violation of the transmission and the failure of the tank.
4. Armor-piercing shells of the BS-3 (100 mm) and A-19 (122 mm) cannons penetrate through the edges or joints of the front plates of the Tiger-B tank hull from a distance of 500 - 600 m.
5. Armor-piercing shells of the BS-3 (100 mm) and A-19 (122 mm) cannons penetrate through the front plate of the Tiger-B tank turret from a distance of 1000-1500 mm.
6. Armor-piercing 85-mm shells of the D-5 and S-53 cannons do not penetrate the front plates of the tank hull and do not produce any structural damage from a distance of 300 m.
7. The side armor plates of the tank are characterized by a sharp uneven strength compared to the frontal plates and are the most vulnerable part armored corps and tank turrets.
8. The side plates of the hull and turret of the tank are penetrated by armor-piercing shells of 95-mm domestic and 76-mm American guns from a distance of 800 - 2000 m
9. The side plates of the hull and turret of the tank are not penetrated by armor-piercing shells of the 76-mm domestic cannon (ZIS-3 and F-34).
10. American 76-mm armor-piercing shells pierce the side plates of the Tiger-B tank from a distance 1.5-2 times greater than domestic 85-mm armor-piercing shells.
When examining the armor of the tank in the laboratories of TsNII-48, it was noted that “a noticeable gradual decrease in the amount of molybdenum (M) on the German T-VI and T-V tanks and its complete absence in the T-VIB. The reason for replacing one element (M) with another (V-vanadium) must obviously be sought in the depletion of existing reserves and the loss of bases that supplied Germany with molybdenum.
During armament testing, the 88-mm KwK 43 gun showed good results in terms of armor penetration and accuracy, almost the same as our 122-mm D-25. An 88-mm projectile pierced the turret of the Tiger-B tank right through from a distance of 400 m.
The deterioration of the quality of armor on German tanks and the decrease in the quality of welds were also noted by the Allies after they examined the captured “Royal Tigers”.
However, this heavy German tank remained a tough nut to crack. Here is what, in particular, Sergeant Clyde Brunson, a tank commander from the 2nd American Panzer Division, reported in his report about his booking: “King Tiger” disabled my tank from a distance of 150 m. The remaining five tanks opened fire on the German vehicle from a distance of 180 - 550 m. Although our tankers managed to get five or six hits, all the shells ricocheted off the tank's armor, and the "King Tiger" went back. If we had a tank like the King Tiger, we would have been home long ago.”
The American armor-piercing 75-mm projectile did not penetrate the frontal and far from always penetrated the side armor of the Royal Tiger. Sufficiently effective against side armor, the 76-mm projectile penetrated the frontal armor only from a distance of 50 m. However, as mentioned above, Soviet 85-mm armor-piercing shells coped with this even worse. Perhaps the only worthy opponent of the "Royal Tiger" was the Soviet heavy tank IS-2. Good results when shooting at German heavy tanks were achieved by soviet self-propelled guns with large-caliber guns: SU-100, ISU-122 and ISU-152.
By the end of 1944, according to German data, the Wehrmacht had lost 74 "Royal Tigers", while only 17 were repaired and returned to service. The last major battles in which the "royal tigers" participated were the offensives of German troops in the Ardennes and in the area of Lake Balaton. The German plan for the offensive in the Ardennes was designed to break through the weakly defended sector of the enemy front with a lightning strike, rush to Namur, capture Liege - the main center of communications of the 12th Allied Army Group - and then continue the attack on Antwerp and occupy it. If the Germans had succeeded, the front of the allied armies would have been cut into two parts. The Germans expected to destroy four armies: the 1st Canadian, 2nd British, 1st and 9th American.
To implement this bold, original, but adventurous plan, Field Marshal von Rundstedt was given the 5th and 6th SS Panzer Armies and the 7th Field Army - a total of about 250 thousand people and 1 thousand tanks. Preparations for the operation were carried out in an atmosphere of absolute secrecy, and it came as a complete surprise to the allies.
On December 16, 1944, the Germans struck with large forces between Monschau and Echternach. The very first attack brought down the allied front, and the German tanks rushed to the Meuse. However, despite the dense fog that prevented the Allies from using aircraft, on December 17 the battle entered a critical phase, since the extremely important road junction - the city of Bastogne - was firmly held by the American 101st Airborne Division. It was commanded by General McAuliffe.
Once surrounded and received an offer to surrender, he answered with only one word: "Eccentrics!". German motorized columns were forced to bypass Bastogne on narrow, icy mountain roads. The pace of advance slowed down. Nevertheless, by December 20, the 5th SS Panzer Army was already reaching the crossings over the Meuse. The commander of the British troops in Europe, Field Marshal Montgomery was so frightened that he decided to withdraw his divisions to Dunkirk. But on December 24 the weather cleared up - and this decided the fate of the German offensive. About 5 thousand aircraft of the Anglo-American Air Force brought down an avalanche of bombs and shells on battle formations, transport columns and supply bases of German troops. By January 1, the retreat of Rundstedt's armies was already massive. The Ardennes offensive failed.
Among many German tank units, the 506th heavy tank battalion took part in these battles. The "Royal Tigers" fought fire duels with the "Shermans" in the vicinity of Bastogne. "Tigers" of the 101st SS heavy tank battalion also fought there. It was difficult for 68-ton tanks to maneuver on narrow mountain roads, where, moreover, not a single bridge could withstand them. With the help of bazookas, the American paratroopers defending Bastogne knocked out quite a few German heavy tanks.
The terrain in the vicinity of Lake Balaton in Hungary, where the Germans made their last offensive attempt during the Second World War, was much better suited for the actions of large tank formations. His goal was to release the group surrounded in Budapest.
The German troops struck the first blow on the night of January 2, 1945. The lV SS Panzer Corps went on the offensive with the support of units of the 6th Field Army - 7 tank and 2 motorized divisions. This grouping quickly broke through the front of the 4th Guards Army and advanced 30 km deep into our defenses. There was a real threat of a breakthrough of German troops to Budapest. The Soviet command deployed 1305 guns and mortars and 210 tanks to this sector. All roads were blocked by batteries of heavy and anti-aircraft artillery, capable of penetrating the frontal armor of German tanks, and 57- and 76-mm cannons were dug in on the flanks of positions with the removal towards the enemy, designed to conduct sudden fire on the sides of tanks from short distances.
Thanks to a well-organized defense, the German offensive was stopped by the evening of January 5. In the protocols compiled after the battles by the captured team of the 4th Guards Army, 5 Tiger-B tanks (all from 503.sPzAbt), 2 Tiger tanks, 7 Panther tanks, 19 Pz.IV tanks , 6 Pz.lll tanks, 5 self-propelled guns and 19 armored personnel carriers and armored vehicles. In addition, some vehicles were so mangled that they were piles of scrap metal and it was impossible to determine the type of tank or self-propelled guns from them.
On the morning of January 18, the German group resumed the offensive, now in the direction of Szekesfehervar. On January 22, the city was abandoned by our troops. In order to force the Soviet command to remove part of their forces from the direction of the main attack, on January 25, the Germans launched a tank attack from the area of \u200b\u200bZamol to Miklos. At 0920, two groups of 12 Panther and 10 Tigr-B tanks from the 507th heavy tank battalion launched an attack on the positions of the 1172nd anti-tank regiment. The regimental commander decided to lure the German tanks into a fire bag, and he succeeded. Having lost 16 guns in 6 hours of continuous combat, the regiment destroyed 10 "panthers" and "royal tigers", as well as 3 medium tanks and 6 self-propelled guns.
The most effective in the fight against German heavy tanks were guns, including self-propelled guns, of large caliber. So, on March 10, during the reflection of the second stage of the German offensive, self-propelled guns of 209 Sabr. For example, the SU-100 battery under the command of Captain Vasiliev destroyed three Tiger-B tanks in one battle.
In total, 19 tanks of this type were destroyed in the battles near Lake Balaton in January - March 1945. On March 1, 226 Royal Tiger tanks remained in the ranks of the Wehrmacht and the SS troops.
A significant part of the combat vehicles of this type was concentrated in East Prussia. The heavy tank battalion "Groftdcutschland" from the division of the same name, the 511th (formerly 502nd) and 505th heavy tank battalions took part in the defense of Koenigsberg. The tanks were used in small groups and mainly for firing from a spot. As a fixed emplacement, the King Tiger proved to be the most effective. So, for example, on April 21, 1945, 12 Soviet tanks were hit by fire from one Tiger II and two Hetzer self-propelled guns.
According to German data, during the week of fighting since April 13, 511 sPzAbt recorded 102 Soviet combat vehicles on its combat account! True, it is traditionally not reported how many of them burned down, that is, they were irretrievably lost.
The remnants of 505.sPzAbt, given to the remnants of the 5th Panzer Division, ended their combat path in Pillau (now the city of Baltiysk, Kaliningrad Region of the Russian Federation). The 502nd (former 102nd) and 503rd (former 103rd) SS heavy tank battalions participated in the defense of Berlin. The last "King Tiger" was shot down in Berlin on May 2, 1945 in the area of the Spandau bridge.
Unfortunately, in the German statistics of the last month of the war, combined data were given for both types of "tigers", so it is not possible to indicate the exact number of "royal tigers" in a particular theater of operations. As of April 28, 1945, there were 149 "tigers" of both types on the Eastern Front (of which 118 were combat-ready), in Italy - 33 (22), in the West - 18 (10).
Currently, the “Royal Tigers” are on display at the Saumur Musee des Blindes in France, RAC Tank Museum Bovington (the only surviving copy with a Porsche tower) and the Royal Military College of Science Shrivenham in the UK, Munster Lager Kampftruppen Schule in Germany (transferred by the Americans in 1961 year), Ordnance Museum Aberdeen Proving Ground in the USA, Switzerlands Panzer Museum Thun in Switzerland and the Military Historical Museum of armored weapons and equipment in Kubinka near Moscow.
As an epilogue
The "King Tiger" had outstanding characteristics for its time: good armor with rational angles of inclination, a powerful gun (and in the future the gun should have become even more powerful), comfort for the crew (hull ventilation, barrel purging, filtration system, automatic fire extinguishing system, excellent optics, ease of operation) and much more.
Who knows, if the Third Reich had had enough resources for debugging and normal manufacturing (without savings due to a shortage of materials) of these machines, how much longer the war would have lasted?! It was not for nothing that the allies, even with these essentially raw machines, could only fight with the help of large-caliber artillery and aviation, because. on the battlefield, these monsters simply had nothing to oppose. The Soviet troops also had to take the Tigers by cunning, numbers and large caliber. And that says a lot...
As a result, the "Royal Tiger" can be safely recognized as one of the best (not mass-produced, like the T-34 or Sherman, not powerfully armed, like the rather rare IS or KV-2) tanks of the Second World War.
When compiling the article, materials from the resources were used:
http://ww2history.ru
http://wowar.ru
https://tanksdb.ru
http://toparmy.ru
Introduced in 1942 German tank T VI "Tiger"was the most powerful enemy on the battlefields until the end of the Second World War. Large and slow, and unreliable due to the complexity of the design. But when the PzKpfw VI "Tiger" tank entered the battle, the armor and gun made it a serious opponent. Powerful and well-armed war machines.
German tank tiger T VI
The combination of the most powerful armor and superior firepower meant that with right choice position and with an experienced crew, the Tiger was almost invulnerable.
The development of the concept of the Tiger tank dates back to 1937, when the terms of reference for a new heavy tank were issued by the German Ministry of Armaments to Daimler-Benz, Henschel, MAN and Porsche. At this stage, it was considered as a heavy tank capable of breaking through defenses such as the Maginot Line.
Destroyed German Tiger T VI tank
Work on the project was suspended when the T-III and T-IV tanks proved their superiority in Europe, but work resumed in May 1941 on a 45-ton tank armed with a modified 88 mm anti-aircraft gun. The appearance of our T34 and KV tanks on the battlefield convinced the Wehrmacht of the need for a heavy tank with armor of the maximum possible thickness. With the intervention of the Fuhrer, the design became more significant, heavier. Prototypes of the Pz Kpfw VI were ready for display in Rothenburg in East Prussia for the Fuhrer's birthday on April 20th. Firms "Henschel" and "Porsche" presented cars separately, later equipped with a complex diesel-electric drive. The Henschel design was found to be more practical and economical to manufacture, although 90 Porsche chassis were converted into tank destroyers. They are now known as "Elephants" or "Ferdinands".
Tiger tank in Africa Tunisia
The entire journey from design to production of the Tiger took less than three years. In 1942, the German tank tiger T VI T-6 began to enter the army. In total, 1354 tanks were produced - each tiger cost the German treasury about 1 million Reichsmarks, which is several times more expensive than our T-34/85 tank.
Michael Wittmann (SS) was the most successful tank ace of the war, he and his crew destroyed over 100 enemy tanks on the Eastern Front. Combat use German tiger tank T VI T-6 here
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German tank T VI captured near Leningrad
The main armament of the tank was an 88mm KwK-36 L/56 cannon, converted from an anti-tank version of the excellent "eighty-eighth" anti-aircraft gun. It was the most powerful anti-tank gun ever used by any army, capable of hitting 112mm armor from 1400m. was to reach out. The Tiger's 88mm cannon was superior in point-blank range and penetrating power to almost any other tank gun, with the exception of that of the Anglo-American Sherman hybrid tank, but very few were produced.
Range of destruction by tanks of each other scheme
German tiger tank T VI T-6 photo
pierced the frontal armor of the Cromwell tank from any distance of 2500 m.
The 75-mm cannon of the Cromwell tank did not penetrate the armor of the Tiger from any distance.
Cromwell tank speed jump
- Tiger "pierced the frontal armor of the Sherman M4A2 tank from a distance of 1800 m.
- Sherman with a short-barreled 76-mm cannon did not penetrate the armor of the Tiger from any distance.
- The tiger hit the M4A4 Sherman tank from a distance of 1800 m.
- The M4A4 with a 76mm cannon must approach 700m to penetrate the frontal armor of the German T VI tank.
- "Tiger T VI"pierced the frontal armor of the Sherman Firefly from a distance of 1800 m.
- The Sherman Firefly (M4, armed with a British 17-foot anti-tank gun, could penetrate the frontal armor of the Tiger from a distance of 1750 m.
- The tiger hit the Soviet T-34/85 tank from a distance of 1400 m.
- The T-34 tank with an 85-mm gun only had a chance to hit the Tiger from a distance of less than 500 m.
Well-coordinated work of the crew is the key to success.
Crew tasks. The tank commander led and found targets, the gunner determined the position of the targets; the loader chose the projectile according to the chosen target. The well-oiled work of the crew did German tiger tank T VI T-6 photo dominator on the battlefield.
Soviet tank crews inspecting a wrecked tigr TVI tank
SPECIFICATIONS PzKpfw VI Aust E "Tiger"
- Crew: five people Weight: 55,000 kg
- Dimensions: Length (including weapons) 8.24 m; hull length 6.2 m; width 3.73 m; height 2.86 m; the width of combat tracks is 71.5 cm; transport tracks width 51.5 cm
- Armor protection: frontal armor 100 mm thick on the turret and hull; on the sides of the tower - 80-mm armor; on the side walls of the hull - 60-80 mm armor; upper and lower armor - 25 mm
- Powerplant: 522 kW (700 hp) Maybach HL 230 45 petrol 12-cylinder engine
- Specifications:
- maximum road speed 45 km/h; normal maximum speed 38 km/h; maximum cross-country speed 18 km/h; the maximum range on the road was 195 km, but in combat conditions it rarely exceeded 100 km;
- fording depth - 1.2 m; maximum steepness of rise - 60%; height of overcome vertical obstacles - 0.79 m, trenches -1.8 m
The explosion blew off the turret of the Tiger T6 tank
Main armament:
- Cannon KwK-36/56 88 mm with 92 rounds
- Type of shells: armor-piercing shells, armor-piercing shells with tungsten cores, HEAT shells
- Muzzle velocity: 600 m / s (high-explosive projectile); 773 m / s (armor-piercing projectile); 930 m / s (armor-piercing projectile with a tungsten core)
Effective firing range: - 3000 m for armor-piercing projectile and 5000 m for high-explosive projectile
- Penetration:
- 171 mm armor at close range and 110 mm armor at a distance of 2000 m when using an armor-piercing projectile with a tungsten core
- Additional weapons:
- One 7.92 mm MG-34 caliber machine gun coaxial with the gun and one MG-34 machine gun movably mounted in the front hull plate.
Here =>> The combat use of the German tank tiger T VI T-6.
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