Tiger Heat: German Panzers on the Eastern Front

A major part of being a tanker was that of tank maintenance and having enough fuel and ammunition. Sometimes this would mean scavenging fuel and ammunition from disabled tanks or even enemy vehicles if they used the same fuel. Fuel became a much scarcer resource as the war in Russia went into its final year. Maintenance was of great importance if a tank was to be given its best chance of survival. The heavier the tank the more strain it put on its mechanicals. Tanks have a track system that consists of the actual tracks, road wheels and a suspension system. On a heavy tank like the Tiger, parts wear out quickly especially if the correct maintenance is not carried out. Road wheels suffer blows with tree stumps, boulders and battlefield wreckage and can easily be damaged. The individual track elements are held together with long pins that need constant attention and can easily fail. These need to be looked at almost continuously to the point that they are routinely checked whenever the tank comes to a stop when not in combat, whatever the weather. If these pins fail, the tank will throw a track and the tank becomes immobilized. The track links themselves each weighed about ten kilos. They wear quickly especially when off road and the tracks must be tightened and adjusted so the track does not break become tangled on the drive wheel sprocket. The pins that hold these links together are thick steel rods and weigh about 1-2Kg each. These heavy and very strong pins eventually bend under the massive strain of propelling the very heavy Tiger forward. Even more so on difficult terrain. The link pins on all the Tigers were looking distorted and loose.

Spot tightening of road wheels and pins aids their longevity. Friction causes the most issues, as cause’s parts to wear much quicker. This means greasing wheel hubs and suspension parts. After a river crossing or operating in very wet conditions this becomes even more essential as the grease can become washed out leading to hubs overheating and seizing. A Russian T-34 tank can use 1Kg of grease for every 60 miles it covers on a dry surface. Engines, gearboxes and transmission all lose a small amount of oil when in use and again need to be topped up. Gaskets especially those made of rubber become brittle in the intense cold of Russia. When these fail, oil losses can be massive and seize an engine or transmission. A weekly engine and transmission check for wear was undertaken by checking the engine compartment for metal shavings, which could indicate excessive wear. Batteries needed to be checked and topped up if necessary.

Turret systems including hydraulic reservoirs, optics and radios needed to be checked as well and the main gun needed to be bore-sighted again after any significant move or firing. If the optical telescope and main gun went out of alignment either through battle damage or extreme terrain this could put the main gun out of alignment causing it to lose accuracy and making the gunner’s job of hitting a target very difficult.

Good maintenance helped prevent breakdowns and field repairs. Some such as replacing a broken torsion bar were difficult to perform in the field. With the need to remove road wheels and judicious use of a sledgehammer to remove the broken torsion bar. If not replaced and continued to be driven on the weight would have to be taken by the other torsion bars, which would quickly fail as well. In the field, this sort of job could take four to six hours. Often tanks were pushed to operate even when not fully operational just to play the numbers game.

For a tank battalion, efficient recovery and fuelling faculties in the field were essential.