Death of a Tiger

Caption reads:

"Turret of a German Mark 6 Tank. Soldier
shows width of turret. Tunisia, North Africa."

Date: 26 April 1943

III-SC 181260, Credit NARA.


Dave

 

I wonder what got it? Do you know who and what knocked it out?

 

tiger best tank .king tiger

 

The Tiger in question was knocked out by Allied artillery. There's plenty of other pictures of it, I'll try to dig some out.

 

I have seen a picture of a tiger, where a British Typoon fired rickets at it, and it completely flipped the turret of the tiger off and upside down next to the tank.

 

A famous Tiger graveyard in Tunisia. Here there is another view after the turret has been dragged clear of the hull

Axis WWII Discussion Group: Re:Beja Revisited

It would appear they were all blown up and left behind by the Germans

 

I've always wondered why Tigers were ever deployed to the Africa campaign...With production numbers so low, wouldn't it have made much more sense to send every available tiger over to the eastern front in 1943?

Send the panzer 4's to africa...they would have taken care of the allied tanks there just as well with less problems and less supply.

 

Wow, looks like it was blown in half. Our tanks couldn't do that..... Artillery, did you say?

 

Wow...this really looks like the word of air power???

 

The Germans only built about 80 Tigers in 1942, (next from WWIIvehicles); and in August 1942, the first 4 production vehicles equipped one platoon of the 1 Company/502nd schwere Panzerabteilung and were sent to Russia at the request of Hitler.(8, p.128) This was against the advice of the Wehrmacht who wanted to build up the strength of them and use them in the summer offensives in 1943.

On August 29, they joined Army Group North south of Lake Ladoga.(8) During the 1st week of September, 1 Tiger (the other 3 were temporarily out of commission) went on an uneventful security patrol. The first action was around Leningrad on September 23, 1942. The attack took place on flat road through a swampy area where the Russian gunners were able to stop them by shooting at their tracks (8,& 9).

The 503rd Heavy Tank Battalion was sent to the southern part of the Eastern Front in December 1942.(8) It was sent to help with the counter attacked that was to break the ring around Stalingrad.(8)

Africa

Encountered by British near Pont du Fahs, Tunisia in February 1943 in Tiger Unit 501. The 2 Tigers that were sent into this battle, accompanied by 9 PzKpfw IIIs & IVs, were knocked out by British 6 pounder guns, of the 72nd Anti-tank Regiment, RA8, at a range of 500 yards against the flanks of the Tigers.

It was found that extensive reconnaissance was needed to determine if the terrain was going to be suitable for the heavy Tigers.(8) Often the Tigers were placed in the rear of a wedge of Panzer IIIs and IVs.(8) The Panzer IIIs and IVs were to secure the flanks from anti-tank guns and the Tigers to give the main fire support.

Sources:
1.The Encyclopedia of Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles - The Comprehensive Guide to Over 900 Armored Fighting Vehicles From 1915 to the Present Day, General Editor: Christopher F. Foss, 2002
2.Panzer Truppen The Complete Guide to the Creation and Combat Employment of Germany's Tank Force 1933-1942, Thomas L. Jentz, 1996
3.Panzer Truppen The Complete Guide to the Creation and Combat Employment of Germany's Tank Force 1943-1945, Thomas L. Jentz, 1996
4.Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two, Peter Chamberlain and Hilary Doyle, 1999
5.Tanks of the World, 1915-1945, Peter Chamberlain, Chris Ellis, 1972
6.The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II, Chris Bishop, 1998
7.Jane's World War II Tanks and Fighting Vehicles The Complete Guide, Leland Ness, 2002
8.German Tanks of World War II, Dr. S. Hart & Dr. R. Hart, 1998
9.Tanks of World War II, Duncan Crow, 1979
10.Battle Winning Tanks, Aircraft & Warships of World War II, David Miller, 2000
11.Tank Data, Aberdeen Proving Grounds Series, 1968?
12.New Vanguard 88 mm KwK 36/36/37/41 and PaK 43 1936-45, John Norris, 2002
See:

Germany's Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf E, Tiger, SdKfz 181 - World War II Vehicles, Tanks, and Airplanes

Most assuredly the Tiger I first went to the Eastern Front. The M4 (Sherman) was designed to be the match of the PzKmw IV since that medium was a known value, and until the "G" version appeared, was its match in most areas and its better in others. It was never designed as a "tank on tank" unit at anyrate, nor was it designed to combat the heavies.

 

Wow! Thanks for digging up all the information!

 

tigers were deadly tanks but they were not reliable do to not having any field testing mostly the main problem with this german made piece of junk was that the steering kept breaking down under the vehicles wieght I don,t understand why the germans would waste there resources on the tiger 1 tank when they could put the material used in the manufacture of the tiger 1 and put it to good use making more panzer 4 tanks instead of making these large untested tanks and then later on the germans wasted more resources on making the tiger 2 or king tiger tank now remember quanity sometimes kills quality most of the tanks made by the gemans were just worthless pieces of crap like the stug a turretless low profile tank it,s a good tank but the fact you have to turn in order to aim to the right or the left and it,s obvious that this tiger 1 tank was either knocked out by allied artillery because when it first appeared there was literally nothing that the allies had that could stop it except for field artillery most artillery pieces being heavy calibers artillery and the tiger 1 at first the tiger was the hunter and then when artillery started to be used against it the hunter became the hunted.

 

By the time significant numbers of tigers were coming into service (1943), the situation in North Africa was desperate for the German forces. The British had just received a very large reinforcement in the form of several divisions of US troops (Operation Torch) and it was clear to everybody but Hitler, that the days of the Afrika Korps were numbered.

Having initially not wanted to involve German troops in North Africa to save his bumbling ally Mussolini ("Not one man and not one pfennig will i send to Africa" he famously told Rommel in 1940), Hitler now was trying everything not to lose it.

The British were wreaking havoc on German and Italian shipping in the Mediteranean from their air base at Malta (which Hitler had decided not to invade in favor of attacking and occupying Crete). So because of shortages of everything from fuel to water, the shipments of Tigers that made it to North Africa were basically Hitler's last vain hope to save the entire campaign. The German forces surrendered on May 13, 1943, losing 240,000 German and Italian prisoners of war and all their aircraft, vehicles, tanks and equipment.

 

I have to say that most heavy or medium tanks you see destroyed and with their turrets flipped off have been destroyed by their own crews with demolition charges so that they don't fall into enemy hands.