removed 17 rounds of 8.8 cm ammunition and 10 bags of machine gun ammunition. Nonetheless, the battalion reported destroying a number of enemy tanks during the period of contact. They were to face repeated Soviet attacks for over a week before a breakout and relief force rescued all of the tanks (although only 4 were operational) on 17th February. This new track, made by Miag of Braunschweig, increased both the resilience of the track, in particular to sideways forces when the tank was turning. The sides had been sloped back at 20 degrees, which eliminated the bulge in the left side of the turret, although the turret’s sides were left at 80 mm thick. The grenade exploded in a zone between 0.5 and 2 meters from the ground with a fragment radius of up to 100 m, lethal to nearby troops. Both turrets, however, were designed and built by Krupp, so the use of either ‘Henschel’ or ‘Porsche’ to describe the turrets is incorrect. B, často zkracováno na Tiger B. Označení v inventáři munice bylo Sd.Kfz. turret) In February 1944, this unit received orders to reorganize itself to operate Tiger II tanks with its radio-controlled vehicles. The entire strength of the unit was just 2 Tiger Is. Casemate Publishing, England Tiger II tank of the 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion (schwere Panzer Abteilung 503.) The two firms of Porsche and Henschel were given this crucial task. When the Tiger II found the enemy and was operational for combat it provided good service for the German Army and proved to be a formidable opponent head-on with a combination of excellent gun and heavy armor. Following the end of the war, Swedish military authorities, eager to get their hands on some examples of German tanks for examination, sent a team to mainland Europe. Jentz, T., Doyle, H. (1997). Stackpole Books, Pennsylvania, USA, Senger und Etterlin, F. (1971). and Skoda reveals that at least 636 hulls and 577 turrets in total had been produced in total by the end of the war, although only around 500 of those turrets had been delivered to Henschel by Wegmann before the end of the war. ... privat verkauft, deshalb keine Rückgabe nach neuem EU - Recht, da die Haftung in keinem Verhältnis zum erzielten Preis steht. It remained the heaviest operational and mass-produced armored fighting vehicle (AFV) of WW2 but it delivered very little success. Losses, though, had left s.Pz.Abt. To account for this extra internal space requirement, the Panzerbefehlswagen Tiger Ausf.B. Currently languishing in a legal quagmire due to arguments over who gets what from the recovery, only the turret, which was recovered in 2001, is so far out of the ground. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Made in sections, this protector was 100 mm thick at its base. Source: Schneider A successful encounter between one of those Tiger IIs and a Soviet armored force on 20th March resulted in 15 Soviet tanks claimed to have been knocked out by just the single Tiger II in that single engagement. Collected directly from the factory, these tanks were only fitted with the narrow transportation tracks and not the wider combat tracks. Production started in October 1943 with the trials vehicles by which time, Tiger III was now Tiger II and the contract had been extended to produce a total of 1,234 vehicles. Released from testing duties in the 1950s, it was transferred to the then Ordnance Museum for exhibition. One of these Tigers was then knocked out by fire from the US 749th Tank Destroyer Battalion. The historian Horst Schiebert puts the number produced at 487. It was re-equipped with Tiger Is from June to July 1944 at Dreux, France (west of Paris) before moving into action and then over to Mailly le Camp to be re-equipped with Tiger IIs at the end of July 1944. This action had burnt through the remaining stores of fuel, leaving it unable to return to Balatonfüred-Tapolca-Körmend and, as a result, 14 Tiger IIs had to be blown up. L/71 gun in a heavily armored tank. . n/k Thun Tank Museum, Thun, Switzerland Source: Schneider Fgst. December saw new Tiger IIs delivered to replace those lost to British and American forces, with 6 received on 8th December and 6 more on the 13th, which brought the battalion nearly up to full strength. When the Soviets counterattacked the next day (5th October), the Germans were forced to withdraw, leaving 2 broken-down Tiger IIs behind. As the tanks maneuvered to safety, US anti-tank guns opened fire and one Tiger II became stuck in a building and had to be abandoned. Stackpole Books, Pennsylvania, USA, Schneider, W. (1998). . Each platoon of tanks was supposed to consist of 3-4 tanks. Approaching the American position, the Tiger II was spotted and fired at by an American tank, which set the Tiger II on fire. Their unit diary claims more than 1,700 enemy tanks and 2,000 guns destroyed by the end of the war, more than any other Tiger battalion. Diese Seite wurde zuletzt am 15. By the 1980s, the vehicle had been pulverized into scrap and was disposed of. Two more instances of the low quality of training of some of the crews occurred. Tiger number 213 of s.SS.Pz.Abt. Anderson, T. (2013). Source: Panzerwrecks. In April 1942, this firm had already been working on the VK45.01(H) armed with the 8.8 cm Kw.K. This was known to Porsche as the ‘Panzerwagen-Project ‘Tiger’ (and later as Typ 101, Typ 180, and Typ 181). Whatever was being done was far too little far too late and the fall of Berlin was inevitable. L/71 gun into the turret of a tank was a joint project carried out by the firms of Fried. The 3rd Company of the battalion was sent to the Henschel factory in Kassel and collected 6 brand new Tiger IIs. These cookies do not store any personal information. as mounted on the IS-2, rating it as delivering 165 mm of armor penetration at a 30-degree angle at 1,000 meters. do,-show original title ... MODELLE 2 WK Wehrmacht Panzer IV. Today. Swinging the Sledgehammer: The Combat Effectiveness of German Heavy Tank Battalions in World War II. On 19th April, matters were made worse when the Soviets captured most of the battalion’s maintenance company. Hauptausschuss Panzerkampfwagen This Panzer IV was completed as an Ausf D, with 30mm extra armour on the superstructure front and 20mm armour on the hull and superstructure sides before it even left the factory. Nr. Tiger II belonging to 2nd Company s.Pz.Abt. Profile Publications, Windsor, UK One Tiger II, with the Krupp VK45.02(P2) turret, meaning it was one of the first 50 built, was recovered in Gien, South of Paris, in August 1947. https://actu.fr/ile-de-france/fontenay-saint-pere_78246/fontenay-saint-pere-extraction-char-projet-point-mort_15888574.html, Anderson, T. (2013). Tiger II 222 from the Schwere Panzer Abteilung 501, Ardennes, December 1944. Of note is the platform (Drehbühne) underneath the turret which rotated with the turret providing a steady platform on which the turret crew could operate the gun. The remaining forces not trapped in Arnswalde counterattacked in Operation ‘Sonnenwende’ (Operation Solstice) on 10th February 1945. 280112, Turm Nr. That particular vehicle (Tiger 213, which had been under the command of SS-Obersturmfuhrer Dollinger) is on public display in La Gleize. Nr. A Tiger II survives in Belgium. Better protection would be delivered by a combination of thicker armor than the Tiger I and sloping the armor. Hohes Gewicht: Viele Brücken waren unpassierbar, und das Bergen defekter Panzer war oft nicht möglich. The final tank from this unit and the only Tiger II to survive was sent to Augustdorf, transferred to the SS-Panzer-Ersatz-Abteilung. By 1st May 1945, just 2 operational Tiger IIs remained, although every member of the crews was wounded in some way and the unit was devoid of any wheeled vehicles (all non-combat-essential wheeled vehicles were ordered blown up on 25th April and all remaining wheeled vehicles defueled on 28th April). Replacement Tiger IIs did not arrive for s.Pz.Abt. On 20th October, 2nd Company and one platoon of 3rd company of s.Pz.Abt. The prominent bulge in the left-hand turret side was eliminated on the Serien-Turm. After the introduction of the Tiger I in 1942, they received a new order to develop a new, heavier tank with higher performance than the current Tiger I. In World of Tanks, however, the Tiger II is in early Panzer Gray. It did not start well. Die Tiger-Familie. On 9th February, this half-company was sent to Senne to collect more tanks and the delivery of 13 Tiger IIs followed up until 3rd March. Source: Schneider With very little time to train on the new tanks, as well as being combat-tired, the unit drove itself into an ambush by US forces in the woods around Altenbeken. A final type of single-track was introduced in March 1945, the Kgs 73/800/152. The recovery was difficult due to the weight of the vehicle and the use of a trailer designed to haul the M4 Sherman, but it was accomplished and the tank was taken back to the USA for testing. VI Tiger Ausf.B ‘Konigstiger’ Vol.1. German Tanks of World War II. ... Tiger Ii Bengal Tiger Operation Market Garden Porsche Military Armor Tiger Tank Tank Destroyer Ww2 Photos Military Pictures. Despite being relieved of his command for this near-fratricidal incident, the commander of the vehicle had to be reinstated the following day as there were simply not enough officers. Air raids continued up to contact between s.SS.Pz.Abt. 506 removes the turret from Tiger tank “3” 2 Late Tiger A01 of the Panzer-Grenadier-Division Großdeutschland Tiger 321 of the schwere Panzer-Abteilung 503, 1943 US War Department. in August 1944. happened near the village of Ogledow, Poland, not Obledo …. 501 are worth noting, for they were part of the Soviet 6th Guards Tank Corps (6 GTC) consisting of just 18 T-34-76’s and 10 T-34-85s, ambushing the German spearhead close to some low sand dunes. 501 was captured by US forces. Twenty enemy tanks had been knocked out, but the battalion had lost 7 of its new Tiger IIs in doing so and 4 more which were damaged. on the basis of 45 Tiger IIs per battalion. Seven tanks were engaged in the defense of Arnswalde despite encirclement of the town by the Soviets. It was moved back to the Senne training area and reconstituted as s.SS.Pz.Abt.502 in September 1944. 501 were handed over and a general retreat began. Vehicles of s.Pz.Abt. The Tiger II carried a 71-caliber 88mm main gun. That was the last combat action of s.Pz.Abt. The radio operator’s station was equipped with two radio sets when assigned to a company headquarters and platoon leader’s vehicle. 506 was engaged with Allied forces along the Arnhem-Else road, in the area around Elst, and Alsdorf. Incomplete Tiger II hulls and at least one turret lie at the trackside at Henschel’s factory following its capture by Allied forces. Nr. Profile Publications, Windsor, UK. Pushed back once more towards Wilmersdorf, the unit finally found some palatable success for itself with the destruction of about 15 Soviet tanks by 3rd Company as the whole unit moved back to Bad Saarow by 25th April and then onto the forestry building at Hammer by 27th April. 505 by this time. Schiffer Military History, Pennsylvania, USA After this, 6 tanks attacked Kis Újszállás against an enemy force which outnumbered them, and another attack was launched by other Tiger IIs along with the 4.SS.P.Pz.Gr.Div. Some Tiger IIs in this unit at the time were also painted with vertical olive green and brown stripes of varying widths. 509 through February and it finished the month in good shape with 25 operational Tiger IIs. Motorbuch Verlag, Germany. These complications meant that it was recommended to retain the curved shape of the turret-front, although the sides could be amended. Source: Adapted from Jentz and Doyle The remnants of the unit then surrendered to US forces and were promptly handed over to the Soviets. The whole purpose of the initial project as VK45.02(P2) was to mount the formidable and readily available 8.8cm Kw.K. Two Tiger IIs were so seriously damaged by this encounter that they had to go back for depot-level maintenance.