Bachelor's Grove Paranormal Forums
Pictures => General Pictures (NON-PARANORMAL) => Topic started by: Graveyard Hound on Dec 10 2011 - 07:45PM
-
Came across pics of German Armor Division and Waffen S.S. Armor Division tanks form W.W.II. Thought b ymany to be the best, all around, open field, battle tank in the war.Some will argue that the Russian T-34 was better but the "shock" of hearing the words, "Tiger tank" was beyond measuring. I had a several relatives that fought in the war and came abck with tank commander's uniforms, betls, boots, sidearms and no, I never ask them how they got them.
-
Cool, I love old war pictures and I love tanks even more....Thanks for posting great pictures! :Y:
-
It would make a great vehicle for rush hour driving. Nobody is going to fender bend you or cut you off. Think what a great turn signal the gun turret would be. They'd have to be blind not to see which way you were going to turn. Then again if there was a slow poke driver in front of you... :97:
Slow poke driver ---> kn
-
I get the "Band of Brothers" newsletter. The recent issue had the Tiger Tank in it. Here is what they said.
Panzers: Panzer VI - The Tiger
The most powerful tank of World War II was introduced in the summer of 1942. Until Operation Barbarossa, Germany had not faced more powerful tanks than their PzKpfw IVs, but in 1941 the T-34 medium tank and the KV-1 heavy tank made it clear that the Soviets now had armored vehicles that were superior in quality and quantity.The Germans pushed up the developed new tanks at a feverish rate. Two companies simultaneously began designing the Tiger in 1940 - both Henschel and Porsche came up with their own prototypes - but the turret and main weapon design was awarded to another firm, Krupp of Essen. Hitler had ordered a heavy tank with an effective gun which could penetrate enemy tanks and heavier armor. The project was known as the "Tiger program." In July 1942, both Tiger prototypes were being tested at the firing grounds at Berka, Germany.
The Tiger H from Henschel & Son proved superior and was approved for mass production. Panzerkampfwagen VI Sd.Kfz 181, Tiger Ausf. E became the first tank to use an animal name as a propaganda tool. Production of the Tiger I started immediately after the test and the first one was delivered a month later. The construction of one unit cost 250,800 German marks - twice as much as the Panther and nearly three times more than the Sherman - so it is no wonder that only 1,347 Tiger I's were built. Weighing in at 63 tons, it measured 20 feet 8 inches and was even longer with its gun forward. Its width was 11 feet 8 inches and its height was 9 feet 10 inches. The armor of the tank reached an impressive 4.7 inches thick, providing excellent protection for the five crew members.
Since German tanks were incapable of defeating Russian tanks except at very close range, they had to select a more powerful main weapon. Their most effective gun was the 88mm antiaircraft gun, which was capable of taking out aircraft and tanks at considerable range. In fact, during that time, the 88mm was the only weapon the German army possessed that could effectively deal with Russian tanks.
The Tiger I was the first tank to mount an 88 in a fully traversable turret, and this gun could penetrate more than 4 inches of armor at a distance of over a mile. For comparison's sake, the T-34's armor was less than that at its thickest. Beside its 88 mm KwK 36 L/56, it had 2× 7.92 mm Maschinengewehr 34 machine guns. A 700 PS (V-12 petrol) HL230 P45 Maybach engine with a 12.3 PS/ton power/weight ratio provided an operational range of 68-121 miles and a speed of 24 mph. Despite the general excellence of its design, the Tiger suffered from mechanical and logistical problems for a tank of its size, not to mention its fuel consumption of 213 gallons per 100 miles on road, and 300 gallons off-road. Another problem was that it could not fit into the standard rail compartment because of its size. In order to overcome this, one narrower 26-inch transportation track and one wider 32 inch combat track were needed.
Despite these hindrances, the Tiger proved to be a superior tank, especially when it was properly supported and maintained. The Tiger first saw action against the Red Army southeast of Leningrad in the very month its production started. The Americans first met it in Tunisia in late 1943. The Tiger served in all fronts of the Western, Eastern, and African theatres. The tactics of this heavy tank demanded that it is best suited to open hard terrain where the Tiger was able to use its superior optics and highly accurate gun, which allowed the crew to engage and destroy Allied tanks up to more than a mile and beyond, even before their opponents' weapons were in range, without taking too much damage itself. This awesome combination of superior armor and the 88 mm gun meant that the Allies shunned away from engaging it in open combat. There was a psychological fear among the Allies, "Tigerphobia" and people back then believed that it took 5 Shermans to destroy a Tiger (the official kill/loss ratio of Tiger tanks against Allied tanks in the ETO between 1942 and 1945 was 5.74).
-
That would be epic! LOL