The Tiger I was a World War II German tank which was produced from late 1942 until 1945. Because of its thick armor of high quality steel and fire power from its main gun, it was deemed the best tank of the war. It took ten Sherman tanks to destroy a tiger. Shells fired from 75mm artillery guns simply bounced off of the side of the tank, and, in the hands of German tank aces such as Kurt "Panzer" Meyer, it was even more lethal, acquiring an aura of invincibility.

The Tiger I tank was designed by Ferdinand Porsche in 1942 to overcome the Soviet T-34 threat and manufactured by Henschel from 1942 to 1945 with 1,355 units built in that period of time. It weighed 57 tonnes, measured 27 ft 9 in length, 11 ft 8 in width, and 9 ft 10 in height and had a crew of 5. The Tiger Ausf.E frontal hull armor was 100mm thick and the frontal turret armor 110mm thick, as opposed to the 80 mm frontal hull and 50 mm frontal turret armor of the Panzer IV. On the sides and rear, the armor was 80mm thick. At the beginning the top and bottom armor was 25mm thick, but later, it was thickened to 40 mm. The armor used was high-quality interlocking steel plates, which were stepped and welded rather than riveted.

The Tiger tank was powered by a 12-cylinder, 641 hp, Maybach HL210 P45 engine, which could reach a maximum speed of 24 mph, and had an operational range of 120 miles. It had a Maybach-Olvar hydraulically-controlled gearbox. The Tiger I was armed with an 88 mm KwK gun, which had a flat trajectory and extremely accurate Zeiss Turmzielfernrohr TZF 9b sights and could hit a target at 2,000 m away, and two 7.92mm MG-34 machine guns. This 88mm gun used armor-piercing capped ballistic cap, armor-piercing composite rigid, and high explosive anti-tank amunition. The Soviet T-34 equipped with the 76.2 mm gun could not penetrate the Tiger frontally at any range, and could only achieve a side penetration at approximately 500 m firing the BR-350P APCR ammunition, but that rarely happened as the Tiger could knock out the T-34 tank at 1,000 m. This German tank saw action for the first time on September 23, 1942, in the Leningrad Campaign.

5 Responses to “Tiger I Tank”

1. King Tiger Tank | History Wars Weapons says:

   17 April, 2009 at 16:06

   [...] VI Ausf. B, which was produced between 1943 and 1945. The King Tiger had the thick armor of the Tiger I and the sloped armor of the Panther tank. Although it was slow, no other tank in the war could [...]
2. Elefant Tank (Panzerjäger Ferdinand) | History Wars Weapons says:

   18 April, 2009 at 19:52

   [...] was a World War II German tank hunter. Its construction was improvised, based on the Tiger I Chassis. The model number was [...]
3. Sturmtiger | History Wars Weapons says:

   23 April, 2009 at 17:36

   [...] was a World War II German assault gun, which was built on the Tiger I chassis. It was designed to provide heavy fire support for infantry units fighting in urban areas. [...]
4. Battle of the Bulge | History Wars Weapons says:

   9 December, 2009 at 20:55

   [...] by elite Waffen-SS units, such as the 1rst SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, equipped with Tiger I tanks, under the command of SS Colonel Joachim [...]
5. SS Heavy Panzer Battalion 101 | History Wars Weapons says:

   16 January, 2011 at 15:23

   [...] s.SS-Pz. Abt. 101. It was formed on July 19, 1943, from two new heavy tank companies. Composed of Tiger I and Tiger II tanks, the SS Heavy Panzer Battalion 101 was part of the 1st SS Panzer Division [...]