11. Debunking the Tiger Myth
When Tiger tanks worked, they were terrifyingly good. Fortunately for Germany’s enemies, the Tigers often did not work, and there were too few of them to make a difference in the war’s ultimate outcome. On the Western Front, the Allies lacked tanks as powerful as the Tigers, but they could nonetheless take them out with up-gunned Sherman Fireflys – a British adaptation of the American Sherman tank, with a more powerful gun – and M10 tank destroyers. The Western Allies also had plenty of ground attack planes that could destroy Tigers from the air. On the Eastern Front, the Tigers’ superiority was increasingly challenged by T-34/85s, IS-2s, and IS-122s whose guns could destroy Tigers from various ranges.
In 1944, Tiger I production was discontinued in favor of the Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B, more commonly known as the Royal Tiger or Tiger II. 492 were manufactured by war’s end. The Tiger II weighed 77 tons and replaced its predecessor’s thick flat armor with thicker sloped armor that was significantly more difficult to penetrate. Royal Tigers were exceptionally well protected. From January to April 1945, they were credited with the destruction of over 500 tanks on the Eastern Front, at a cost of only 45 Tiger II. Most of the latter were destroyed by their own crews to prevent their capture after they broke down or ran out of fuel. Royal Tigers suffered most of their predecessors’ mechanical problems plus a few more, were even slower, and could plod along at no more than 12 miles per hour cross country.
