Germany’s Tanks against Soviet Tanks
On June 22 1941 Hitler invades the Soviet Union codenamed
“Operation Barbarossa”, 3 million German soldiers and 46 hundred tanks plunge
into the Soviet Union. The Soviets mobilizes 2.9 million men and 20 thousand
tanks. Despite their superior numbers, they were quickly overwhelmed by the German
panzer, but the German tankers are always having a problem taking down the
Soviet well-made T 34 and KV 1 tanks.
The T 34 is heavily armored with sloping sides to deflect
shells, armed with the 76.2mm gun it is the most powerful gun ever put on a
medium tank on its time. And the KV-1 is the first heavy tank in the Soviet
Union with vertical frontal armor it is nearly impenetrable to the German
Panzer III and Panzer IV’s short-barreled gun.
Hitler’s Answer
When Hitler knows this problem, Hitler immediately ordered a tank that can destroy the T 34 and KV-1; the prototype’s deadline will be on
Hitler’s next birthday April 20th, 1942. One solution is to mount the
34 pound German 88mm (8.8 cm KwK 36 L/56) gun because they knew that only the
88mm can destroy both T 34 and KV-1.
While the new tank was still on the drawing board they had to
strengthen the tanks that they only have, they had to replace the Panzer VI’s
short-barreled gun to a new and longer KwK 40 L/43 gun as well as the Panzer
IIIs, only in 1939 when the new tank prototype began.
Tank Prototypes
In 1941 the new tank prototype was introduced by Henschel
with his design of the VK 36.01 that has a good armament, good armor
protection, and an excellent top speed of 40km/h or 25mph, but the tank had to
be larger and on May 1941 an order was placed for a 45-ton tank called the VK
4501.
It was armed with the 88mm gun and it was larger than the previous prototype, Porsche also created his own design called the VK 4501 P (P
stands for Porsche). Because the deadline for the prototype is on Hitler’s next
birthday some elements of the tank were designed in a rush way like the engines
of the tank, Porsche’s tiger engine is new and it was powered by electric-powered engines that would move independently. On April 20 1942 both companies
introduced their own prototypes to Hitler and immediately tested on their tank
testing ground. Porsche’s Tiger suffered 6 fires from the engine because
they’re technologies were not as modern as today, Porsche’s Tiger didn’t
complete any test while Henschel’s Tiger is doing perfectly well and Henschel’s the design was selected for production named the PanzerKampfwagen Tiger Ausf E or Tiger
1.
Tank Design
Gun
The Tiger 1 is armed with the powerful 8.8cm KwK 36 that made
the Tiger 1 a formidable tank hunter, because they had to replace the Panzer
VI’s longer yet ineffective gun so they planned to mount the powerful 88mm that
was intended to be an anti-tank and aircraft gun. When the Tiger first entered
combat on August 1942 it brings terror to the British tankers, the gun was so accurate
and can reach a range of 2km and even destroy any tanks that the allies have in
ww2.
Armor
The armor was very thick the frontal armor was 100mm thick as
well as the frontal turret armor and the gun mantlet is up to 120mm thick; the
sides are not as heavily armored as the frontal one because if they had to
equip it with the same armor thickness the tank would be too heavy. The side
armor plates are up to 60mm thick and 80mm thick on the side armor
superstructure same as the turret sides and rear. The top and bottom armor were
only 25mm thick only in 1944 the turret roof was thickened to 40mm. The armor
plates were flat and didn’t even have a sloped side armor, the Tiger 1 maybe a
running box but it was balanced by thicker armor and even withstand a barrage
of anti-tank guns.
Engine
The early version of the Tiger 1 is powered by 21.35-litre (1303 cu.in.) 12- cylinder Maybach HL 210 P45 developing 485 kW (650 hp) at
3,000 rpm. The Tiger had a perfect engine but it was underpowered, the
engine was a design intended to power only 35 ton, not a 57 ton Tiger. That’s why
the Tiger 1 was breaking down on battlefields, the Tiger’s engine compartment
was separated into 2 compartments each carrying fuel tanks and radiator.
Suspension
The suspension used 16 torsion bars, with
8 suspension arms per side. To save space, the swing arms were leading on one
side and trailing on the other. There were 3 road wheels (One of them doubled,
closest to the track’s Centre) on each arm. In a so-called Schachtellaufwerk overlapping
an interleaved arrangement. the same from the German half-tracks. One
engineering problem is that the overlapping wheel suspension which became
kluged, this problem can immobilize the tank.
Crew Compartment
The Tiger has a crew of five (Commander,
Gunner, Radio operator, Driver, and Loader), the driver and radio operator
sates at the front of the hull. While the loader, gunner, and commander sates
at the turret (the gunner sets at the right side of the turret, and the loader
sets at the left side of the tank while the commander sets at the top of them
both). The situation of the Tiger 1 crew compartments was uncomfortable
because there was not enough space to take a deep breath as the hull was
surrounded by Armor Piercing and High Explosive shells, it was better to make
the Tiger’s armor very thick.
Late Version
The late version of the Tiger 1 was
slightly better, the cupola was replaced with the smaller one the road wheels
are replaced. The late version of the Tiger 1 only improved some of the
problems of the Tiger, but it helped the crew to control the tank even better.
Combat History
First Appearance
The Tiger 1 first saw action in Tunisia North Africa they’re
appearance shocking the British forces; they had never seen a tank like this
before. The Tiger’s frontal armor was up to 100mm thick that is almost
impenetrable to any allied guns, even at close ranges the weaker Sherman shells
bounced off the tank.
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