Tiger Heat: German Panzers on the Eastern Front

Another new feature was the Maybach-Olvar hydraulically controlled semi-automatic pre-selector gearbox. The extreme weight of the tank also required a new steering system. The clutch-and-brake system, typical for lighter vehicles, was retained only for emergencies. Normally, steering depended on a double differential, Henschel’s development of the British Merritt-Brown system. The vehicle had an eight-speed gearbox, and the steering offered two fixed radii of turns on each gear, thus the Tiger had sixteen different radii of turn. In first gear, at a speed of a few km/h, the minimal turning radius was 11ft 3. In neutral gear, the tracks could be turned in opposite directions, so the Tiger I pivoted in place. There was a steering wheel instead of a tiller or levers and the steering system was easy to use and ahead of its time.

Production of the Tiger I began in August 1942, and by August 1944 when production ceased 1,355 had been produced. Production started at a rate of 25 per month and peaked in April 1944 at 104 per month. Deployed Tiger I’s peaked at 671 on July 1, 1944. When the improved Tiger II began production in January 1944, the Tiger I was soon phased out. However, each tank cost over 250,000 marks to manufacture.

The Tiger first saw action in August/September 1942 in the Leningrad campaign. However, the terrain was swampy forestland – not very suited to the Tiger. However, on January 12, 1943, four Tiger’s, with eight Panzer MKIII’s, faced 24 Russian T-34’s near Leningrad. The ground was frozen solid which greatly aided manoeuvrability. Twelve T-34’s was destroyed and the other twelve retreated. Given the correct terrain to fight on, the Tiger easily proved its fighting worth.

The Tiger was the main tank spearhead for the Germans at Kursk. Here it did not do well. Many tanks had left their factories before rigorous mechanical checks had been undertaken. Thus, many suffered major mechanical malfunctions during the battle. In the famous tank battle at Kursk of July 12, the Tiger could hit a T-34 from 1500 metres but when the two got to close-quarter fighting, the T-34 proved to be superior. The T-34 was faster and more manoeuvrable than the Tiger.

It was in the retreat from Russia that the Tiger proved its defensive qualities that were to hinder both the Russians on the Eastern Front and the Allies on the Western Front. On October 18, 1943, one Tiger led by Sepp Rannel destroyed 18 Russian tanks. Michael Wittman, another Tiger commander, had destroyed 119 tanks, including great success in Normandy after D-Day. In Normandy, Wittman’s Tigers destroyed 25 British tanks, 14 half-tracks, 14 Bren-gun carriers in a short and bloody battle around the village of Villers Bocage. However, Wittman lost 6 Tigers which were very difficult to replace – as were his experienced crew.

Within Normandy, the Tigers had great success with a very high kill ratio. On July 11, 1944, thirteen British Sherman tanks were lost out of twenty with two more captured with no Tiger losses. The Tigers did well enough to survive the onslaught at the Falaise Gap and in August, just two Tigers held up the advance of the 53rd British Infantry division.

The Tiger II followed the Tiger I that the Germans called the King Tiger. The King Tiger first saw action on the Western Front on August 1944. The Tiger II was a formidable weapon. It also used a vast amount of fuel, which the Germans were finding very difficult to produce due to Allied bombing of fuel plants. The Allies also bombed the factories that made the Tigers. This meant that only one hundred Tigers were available for the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes during the winter of 1944-45. Many of those ended up being abandoned as they ran out of fuel.

CHAPTER FOUR – Battlefront

December 1942