Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. B (Sd.Kfz. 182)

Type: Heavy Tank
Nation: Germany
Period: World War 2
Location: December 44 Museum, La Gleize, Belgium

Heavyweights

The German Tiger II (also known as Tiger Ausf. B) was the heaviest mass-produced turreted tank of World War 2. Weighing over 69 metric tons, its operational combat weight was only surpassed by its derivative, the Jagdtiger tank destroyer. The first of only 489 completed Tiger IIs left the factories in January 1944. Its predecessor, the infamous Tiger, had merely been in production for about two years.

Never good enough

Hitler had personally demanded that the crown jewel of his armoured forces was to be equipped with a more powerful main gun, but any existing design was too large for its chassis. The much lighter Panther‘s 7.5 cm L/71 gun had proved to be just as powerful as the Tiger‘s 8.8 cm L/56, so for the new Tiger II a longer version of the „Eighty-Eight“ with a barrel length of 71 calibres was chosen.

Royalty

The Tiger II‘s design greatly benefitted from the experiences with the Panther‘s sloping armour, which offered greater protection at the same weight. In fact the two German tanks looked so much alike that when the Western Allies first encountered the new Tiger, soldiers would initially call it the „Pantiger“. However the most popular nickname was going to be „King Tiger“ or “Königstiger”.

Protection problems

The Tiger B‘s glacis plate was 150 mm thick and withstood most enemy guns at normal combat ranges. But at this late stage of the war the quality of German armour plate steel had noticably deteriorated, so in practice its effectiveness was somehow diminished. And of course no armour is completely impenetrable: The Sherman Firefly, M36 Jackson and the Soviet IS-2 and ISU-152 all posed a serious threat against the King Tiger.

Gas guzzler

As the Tiger B‘s 12-cylinder Maybach HL 230 petrol engine had practically been borrowed from the Tiger I (which was twelve tons lighter), mobility was the heavy tank‘s biggest drawback. Not only was its powertrain constantly overstrained, this engine also required vast amounts of fuels which the Germans simply no longer had at their disposal.

Nazis on the run

During the Battle of the Bulge this particular vehicle with the turret number 213 was a platoon command tank with the notorious SS-Kampfgruppe Peiper, who had just brutally massacred 77 American prisoners near the town of Malmedy. When tanks of the US 3rd Armored Division counterattacked the German troops at La Gleize, one of their shells blew off the Tiger‘s gun barrel. Like many other vehicles the disabled tank was left behind when the Germans were forced to withdraw on foot on Christmas Eve 1944.

An extraordinary purchase

In July 1945, when the remnants of the war were about to be cleaned up, a local lady bought the tank from the Americans for the fair price of one (!) bottle of Cognac. The vehicle was moved to the town square, later restored (including a Panther‘s muzzle brake) and today it resides next to the excellent December 44 Museum.