Fighting PowerThe combination of unparalleled protection and superior fire power meant that in the right circumstances and with experienced crews,it was almost unbeatable,and could have an effect on the battlefield out of all proportion to its numbers.The Tiger concept dated back to 1937 and a specification for a new heavy tank issued by the German Armaments Ministry to Daimler-Benz,Henschel,MAN and Porsche.At that stage it was envisaged as a heavy tank which could break through defenses like the French Maginot line.Work on the project was shelved when the PzKpfw III and IV proved satisfactory in Europe,but in May 1941 a new requirement was issued for a 45-tonne tank armed with a modified 8.8-cm Flak gun.

The Fuhrer Steps inHitler had been impressed by the heavy armour of the British Matilda I and French Char BI bis in 1940 and with the invasion of Russia imminent saw a need for a heavy tank,with the heaviest armour possible.The Fuhrer's intervention meant that the new design got much heavier.Prototypes of the PzKpfw VI were to be ready for demonstration at Rastenburg in East Prussia on the Fuhrer's birthday 20 April in a year's time.Henschel and Porsche each submitted a vehicle,the latter being powered by a complex diesel-electric drive.The Henschel design was judged more practical and economical to build,though the 90 Porsche chassis were converted into tank destroyers.They were known as Elefants or Ferdinands.The Tiger's operational career lasted less then three years.The first tanks to see action were deployed in small numbers with sPzAbt 502 on the Leningrad front in August 1942.It was an inauspicious beginning:several were lost as they advanced in single file over marshes, unable to maneuver when engaged from the flank by Soviet artillery.Later that year Tigers were shipped to the Afrika Korps going into action in Tunisia in December.It quickly became a bogeyman to British and American troops, the thick front armour making it almost invulnerable to Allied tank at ranges of two kilometers or more.As the tide turned against the Axis in North Africa 17 Tigers of sPzAbt 504 were retained in Sicily where they were attached to the Hermann Goering Panzer Division.They attacked the American beachhead when the Allies landed in July 1943 but were driven off by heavy naval gunfire from destroyers operating close inshore.Sixteen out of the 17 tanks were lost over the next few days, most being destroyed by their crews to prevent capture.

Action in ItalyTigers were heavily involved in the fighting in Italy, the reconstituted 504th losing three quarters of its tanks in the fighting after the battle of Monte Cassino in July 1944.The 508th Abteilung was sent to Italy at about the same time, tasked with destroying the Allied Bridgehead at Anzio.However they were unloaded nearly 200 km from the battle, and the approach march through twisty mountainous Italian terrain cost the unit nearly 30 Tigers due to mechanical failure.The survivors mounted an attack alongside PzKpfw V Panthers and the heavy Tiger-based assault guns known as Ferdinands, but were driven back by naval gunfire.The bulk of Germany's Tigers were deployed for the Eastern Front, but until 1944 there were rarely more then 150 tanks available and of those less then 50 per cent were serviceable at any one time.During the battle of Kursk 147 Tigers were assembled and by almost superhuman effort over 120 were actually ready to fight.They acquitted themselves well in battle only 18 been lost.Combat reports from the summer of 1943 indicated that Tiger units destroyed at least 20 enemy tanks, 15 anti-tank guns and four artillery pieces for every one of their own that was lost.

Lack of RangeThe big tank's complexity, unreliability and low endurance meant that it was at a disadvantage over the vast expanses of Russia.Even so in a situation which played to the type's strengths it was almost unbeatable.And it could fight at very long range:in July 1944 a tank commanded by the CO of sPzAbt 506 destroyed a Soviet T-34 at a range of nearly four kilometres.Individual Tiger commanders ran up huge scores : Michael Wittmann of the SS was the most successful ace of the war, he and his crew destroying more then 100 enemy tanks in the east alone.He was closely followed by Wehrmacht experts like Oberleutnant Otto Carius.The Tiger's great strength was in the protection it offered its crew and the immense striking power of its gun.The thick slab-sided armour lacked the good ballistic shape found on contemporary designs like the Panther and the Soviet T-34, but with a thickness which ranged from 63 to 102 mm on the hull and 82 to 100 mm on the turret of the Ausf H,(increased to 110 mm on the Ausf E) it hardly needed to.