12. A Scary but Overrated Weapon
The Tiger I combined heavy armor with a powerful 88mm gun that could wreck its foes from prodigious distances. That gave the Tigers an extensive safe standoff distance within which they were practically invulnerable. They exerted a powerful psychological hold on their enemies’ imagination: few if any Allied tankers relished the prospect of coming across Tigers. On the other hand, contra the myth of their invincibility, Tigers were heavy, slow, guzzled fuel at prodigious rates, had a limited range, and were difficult to transport.
Tiger tanks were also notorious for their mechanical unreliability and their tendency to breakdown. For example, they often became immobilized when their overlapping wheels got jammed with snow and mud. Snow and mud were a common condition in the Eastern Front, where the Germans were engaged in a life and death fight with the Soviets. Tigers were also expensive to produce and difficult to manufacture. Only 1300 were built throughout the entire war – a number lower than the typical monthly production figures of Soviet T-34 or American Sherman tanks.
