The Tiger has one advantage the 88mm gun. The heavy frontal armour can be maneouvered around, and the tanks poor mobility and maintenance are serious setbacks. The Germans already had the powerful 88mm gun in use as an AT gun. So rather than wasting time and money (of witch the germans had little) on the design. Build AT guns for AT screens and then use cheaper, less maintenance demanding Mark IV tanks for the counter attack.

But then again a fuel crisis and a mauled Luftwaffe brings us back to the inevitable. Make peace you fool !!

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'We march. The enemy is retreating in transport. We follow on foot.' Lt.Neil McCallum 5/7 Gordons 19th November 1942

The Russian Steppe is not exactly a mirror. It has folds, undulations, dips, recesses, slopes, etc. So the tactical horizon, that is the distance how far you can actually see up to the next visual obstacle, may be limited by any of the above, depending on location.

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Everly Brothers - What I Have To Do Is Dream
"Never wrestle with pigs, you both end up getting dirty and the pig likes it."

The Tiger maintenance crews were some un-sung heroes of WWII if you ask me. Having to use portable field gantrys to lift the turret off,just to do work on the transmission or drive train. Having to change the tracks from combat to transport every time Tigers needed to
be moved by rail.

But that is a good thing for the Defender. Plonk a Tiger behind a hill/in dip ect (exposing just the turret), when the T-34s come over the next hill, they explose themselves against the skyline, boom!

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However, finding yourself on the Steppes, as a defender, when your intention was conquest, is a very bad thing indeed.
Tactical advantages can never overcome strategic catastrophe... which perhaps is the essential essence of the Tiger story.

Cheers,
Adam.

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"Wars cannot be fought with dream stuff" - Sir Percy Hobart.

Ah yes-never thought of that. I'm more of a tactician than a strategist.
Well, I suppose you could plonk an IS-2 or whatever behind a hill and fire at the Tigers!

And if where arguing about the Russian Steppe having long sight distances/low sight distances, i might add that the Arid Desert of north Africa being perfect Tiger country. If there where a few more of them, that is.

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But then your tactical horizon will be much shorter and for that a decent AT gun (PaK40) will do, therefore a waste of a Tiger.

Preferably a gun on tracks, such as a Marder or similar to get out of there pronto when Ivan brings in the mortars.

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Everly Brothers - What I Have To Do Is Dream
"Never wrestle with pigs, you both end up getting dirty and the pig likes it."

The arid desert of africa is arid desert in some places only. Look at actual photos and tell me about the wadis, the tells, the ridges... Why was Halfaya Pass called Hellfire pass etc.

Do you guys by any chance belong to the Flat Earth society?

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Everly Brothers - What I Have To Do Is Dream
"Never wrestle with pigs, you both end up getting dirty and the pig likes it."

Alright Mr. Perfection.
In SOME places of the Arid North African Desert, it was perfect Tiger country, If there where more of them.
Regarding the Wadis, they weren't just bad Tiger county, the where bad everything county! Even a camel would sink...
Oh yes, I have seen the North African Desert, and in some places, there is not even a rock for miles around

I think it's time for me to leave this thread now, It's becoming a loosing battle.

PS. The earth is not round, It is really flat! I've been to the edge and seen it. Quite precarious if you ask me!

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Interesting thing about the Western desert fighting though. It was very much a testing ground for the wartime generation of armour, as it proved near impossible to surprise anyone in the wide open spaces where much of the fighting took place, (wadis or whatever, it seems it was still most often possible to see a daytime attack coming long before it was in range, and thus turn to face it) therefore 'first clash' was most often head on & it had an effect on armour design for the rest of the war. The Desert focus on frontal armour led to a fixation by Axis and to a lesser extent Allied designers that this was always the crucial area so side and rear could be compromised rather heavily whenever weight was an issue.
This skewed desert lesson seems to have continued to dominate with designers failing to accept that in most other theatres the first contact could and did come from any direction.

...
but that has comparatively little to do with Tigers, so I'll get my coat.

Cheers,
Adam.

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"Wars cannot be fought with dream stuff" - Sir Percy Hobart.

JagdPanthers and Ferdinands/Elephants would have been useful in The Desert, but not in the Bocage or Forests or whatever. Think Frontal Armour and a huge long-range punch where a good thing for the Desert, and not much chance of being outflanked. Same goes for the Tiger. Good for wide open spaces. Not so good for Urban or Bocage (Or any western European countryside in fact) style fighting.

Good things for tanks in Western Desert or whatever;
-Think Armour
-A large hitting, long range gun
Unfortunately no British or Allied tank had these Characteristics. However, the Tiger did. So did the Panther and, to a lesser extent, the Panzer IV Specials.

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I would imagine that the desert might perhaps be one of the worst places for tanks as sand getting into all of the cracks and joints might be more then a mere inconvenience?

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

But you don't need that thick of armor when you have a gun that could stand off and out-shoot your opponent. Think 88 flak gun. The Tiger had no range, so it could'nt exploit any gains it made w/o waiting for the fuel trucks to catch up.

FramerT

You don't even need an 88mm gun when the opposition has got puny 2pdr guns. Mark IV would lob their HE shells on the positions and stay out of range.

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'We march. The enemy is retreating in transport. We follow on foot.' Lt.Neil McCallum 5/7 Gordons 19th November 1942

is that right that the tiger wos weakest at the back end of the tank

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for thow . will be ours someday.we shall have it all
... und mear.......

I believe it is so

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"Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts." - Cicero

Just about every tank ever made was/is weakest in the rear. With the engine being in the rear, access to it and the radiator/fans/ventilation was needed.

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