But without a doubt, of all the WWII tanks, the one that carries the most fearsome reputation of all, in terms of ability to withstand punishment and dish it out, is Nazi Germany’s Tiger tank series.
The Second World War resulted in the production of some pretty legendary tanks, on the Allied and Axis sides alike. The U.S. had the famous M4 Sherman.
Great Britain had its Churchill tank series – including the Churchill VII “Crocodile” flamethrower tank – as well as the Crusader. Imperial Japan had less stellar tanks that pretty much stunk.
France actually had a top-notch tank in the Renault Char B1, but it languishes in comparative obscurity thanks to the rapid fall of France in 1940. And of course, the Soviets had the T-34/85.
But without a doubt, of all the WWII tanks, the one that carries the most fearsome reputation of all, in terms of ability to withstand punishment and dish it out, is Nazi Germany’s Tiger tank series. Perhaps this is not surprising, since we’re talking about a loathsome yet highly innovative regime that, among other things, also produced the world’s first operational jet fighter and rocket-powered fighter plane.
The question is, though, how much of the Tiger’s reputation is truly deserved, and how much of it is exaggeration built upon hoopla built upon exaggeration built urban legend? Let’s take a deeper look at the Tiger, the pluses and the minuses.
Tiger Tank Strengths (and the Tank Who Aces Put Them to Max Use)
For semantic clarification, when I talk about Tiger tanks, I’m talking about both the Tiger I (Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E) and the Tiger II aka King Tiger (Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B AKA Königstiger).
Without a doubt, the Tiger tanks were indeed deadly and super-tough fighting machines. When the Tiger first arrived on the scene in 1942, it struck terror into the hearts of its Allied adversaries. Its 120mm-thick frontal armor was damn near impervious to Allied tank guns; for example – as dramatized in movies such as 1970’s “Kelly’s Heroes” and 2014’s “Fury” – the 76mm main gun of a Sherman could only penetrate the Tiger’s armor from the rear, and many a Sherman would have to be sacrificed before one of the M4s could finally get that vital from-behind shot.