Tiger milk tea

German heavy tank of World War II that operated beginning in 1942 in Africa and in the Soviet Union, usually in independent heavy tank battalions. While the Tiger I has been called an outstanding design for its time, it has also been tiger milk tea overengineered, using expensive materials and labour-intensive production methods.

The tank was given its nickname “Tiger” by Ferdinand Porsche, and the Roman numeral was added after the Tiger II entered production. Today, only seven Tiger I tanks survive in museums and private collections worldwide. Only one prototype hull was ever built and it was never fitted with a turret. The overall weight would have been 36  tonnes. This section does not cite any sources.

Schachtellaufwerk track suspension system of torsion bar-sprung, overlapped and interleaved main road wheels for tank use. This concept was already common on German half-tracks such as the Sd. 80 mm on turret sides and 60 mm on the hull sides. 28 cannon in a Krupp turret that looked similar to an enlarged Panzer IV Ausf. The hull for one prototype was built, followed later by five more. On 26 May 1941, Henschel and Ferdinand Porsche were asked to submit designs for a 45-tonne heavy tank, to be ready by June 1942.

Porsche worked on an updated version of their VK 30. Leopard tank prototype while Henschel worked on an improved VK 36. On 22 June 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Germans were encountering large numbers of Soviet T-34 medium and KV-1 heavy tanks, that were surviving the German attack. Weight increase to 45 tonnes and an increase in gun calibre to 8.

The due date for the new prototypes was set for 20 April 1942, Adolf Hitler’s 53rd birthday. Unlike the Panther tank, the designs did not incorporate sloped armour. Porsche and Henschel submitted prototype designs, each making use of the Krupp-designed turret. They were demonstrated at Rastenburg in front of Hitler. The Tiger was still at the prototype stage when it was first hurried into service, and therefore changes both large and small were made throughout the production run. A redesigned turret with a lower cupola was the most significant change. The river-fording submersion capability and an external air-filtration system were dropped to cut costs.

The Tiger differed from earlier German tanks principally in its design philosophy. Its predecessors balanced mobility, armour and firepower and were sometimes outgunned by their opponents. While heavy, this tank was not slower than the best of its opponents. Although the general design and layout were broadly similar to the previous medium tank, the Panzer IV, the Tiger weighed more than twice as much. This was due to its substantially thicker armour, the larger main gun, greater volume of fuel and ammunition storage, larger engine, and a more solidly built transmission and suspension.

The Tiger I’s armour was up to 200 mm on the gun mantlet. 8 cm KwK 36 was chosen for the Tiger. The ammunition for the Tiger had electrically fired primers. The rear of the tank held an engine compartment flanked by two separate rear compartments each containing a fuel tank and radiator. The original engine utilized was a 21.

Regarding the overheating engines, the HL 210 engine caused no troubles during the recent time. All occurring breakdowns resulted from the low quality of driver training. In several cases engine failures have to be put down to the missing remote engine thermometer. Five engines have reached more than 3,000 km without essential failures. The Krupp-designed 11-tonne turret had a hydraulic motor whose pump was powered by mechanical drive from the engine. A full rotation took about a minute. Another new feature was the Maybach-Olvar hydraulically controlled semi-automatic pre-selector gearbox.

The extreme weight of the tank also required a new steering system. The clutch-and-brake system, typical for lighter vehicles, was retained only for emergencies. Powered turret traverse was provided by the variable speed Boehringer-Sturm L4 hydraulic motor, which was driven from the main engine by a secondary drive shaft. The suspension used sixteen torsion bars, with eight suspension arms per side. Tiger at the Henschel plant is loaded onto a special rail car. The outer road wheels have been removed and narrow tracks put in place to decrease vehicle width, allowing it to fit within the loading gauge of the German rail network.