75 years after its birth, the Nazi German Tiger tank still makes the world's military spend a lot of time researching and learning about it.
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| The Tiger tank, also known as the Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E, was one of the main battle tanks of German armored units during World War II. For the Germans, the Tiger was considered the key to helping them defeat Allied armored units on all fronts, and it more or less fulfilled this ambition. Photo source: German War Machine. |
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| Few people know that since the late 1930s, the German Army had been quietly developing heavy battle tanks in preparation for a possible future war. And the appearance of the Tiger was an inevitable result, although a bit late, when German units had begun to lose their inherent strength as in the early 1940s. Photo source: World War II Wiki. |
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| The initial basic platform of the Tiger was the VK 30.01 (H) and VK 36.01 (H) heavy tank prototypes developed by Germany in 1938, but they were not completed and only operated as test vehicles. It was not until 1941, under increasing pressure from the battlefield, that the German army really focused on completing the development program of its first heavy tank. Photo source: Wikipedia. |
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| Based on the VK 30.01 (H) or VK 36.01 (H), the Germans launched the first Tiger prototype, the VK 45.01, in July 1941. It had all the characteristics of a heavy tank based on German military doctrine with superior firepower combined with a solid armor system. Photo source: Pinterest. |
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| By early 1942, Germany had introduced the first complete Tiger prototype with a new turret system equipped with an 88mm KwK 36 L/56 gun, which was also the most powerful German tank at that time. The weight of the Tiger was now estimated to be over 40 tons and this number would increase further in its subsequent variants. Photo source: Pinterest. |
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| The Tiger officially entered history on April 20, 1942, when the prototype Pz.Kpfw. VI (the original designation of the Tiger I) was presented to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler on his 53rd birthday. Hitler was immediately fascinated by the Tiger's design and ordered it to be mass produced in 1942. Photo source: Pinterest. |
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| The production of the first complete Tigers began in August 1942 with the Pz.Kpfw. VI variant and in October of the same year with the Tiger I. From here the history of a legendary tank officially began, contributing to making tanks an indispensable weapon in any war. Photo source: Pinterest. |
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| Designed with the VK 4501H Ausf.E variant of Tiger I in 1943, the weight of this tank has reached more than 60 tons, longer than 6.3m, wider than 3.5m and up to 3m high. Covering its body is a protective armor system from 25-120mm thick depending on the position, capable of protecting the combat crew of 5 people sitting inside. Photo source: Pinterest. |
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| The Tiger I's main weapon was still the 88mm KwK 36 L/56 gun, which was equipped with 92 rounds of various types of tank ammunition, including armor-piercing ammunition. The Tiger's weapon system also had two 7.92mm MG 34 machine guns and more than 4,500 rounds of ammunition. Photo source: Pinterest. |
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| The heart of this 60-ton machine is a Maybach HL230 P45 V-12 engine with a capacity of 690 horsepower and is considered highly reliable. Due to the weight limit, the Tiger I's combat range is only about 190km on normal terrain with a maximum speed of 45km/h. Photo source: Business Insider. |
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| The German Army adopted the first Tiger I in September 1942, just a month after it entered production, and it was deployed in a platoon of four. The Tiger I first saw combat on the Eastern Front in Leningrad, where the Germans were locked in a bitter standoff with the Soviet Union, and needed a groundbreaking symbol like the Tiger I to boost morale. Photo source: Pinterest. |
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| However, the Tiger's first combat experience was not very smooth, as it had to operate in dense swampy, snowy and mountainous terrain in Russia. The Tiger could hardly show its strength in the first battles due to too many technical problems and maneuverability on the battlefield. This only gradually improved after 1942 with the next Tiger variants. Photo source: Pinterest. |
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| The Tiger's name comes not only from its design but also from the ACE combat crews of the German armored forces during World War II. Together with the Tiger, these combat crews were a nightmare on the battlefield for the Allies throughout the period from 1943 until the end of the war. Photo source: Histomil.com. |
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| Towards the end of the war, the Tiger heavy tank became increasingly outclassed in the race with the Allied armored forces, as the Soviet Union and the United States continued to improve their tanks. As a result, the Tiger quickly became obsolete after only 3 years of being put into service. Photo source: Old War Movies. |
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| The fate of the Tiger also ended like the fate of Nazi Germany, when it and many other advanced weapons of Hitler could not help Germany win the meaningless war they created. But in some aspects, the Tiger still showed itself as a bold dot in the history of world tank technology development in the 20th century. Photo source: The Armored Patrol. |
According to Kienthuc
