Interesting

[CINDERS]

I was reading one of my books called The Tiger Tank By Roger Ford and came across this pic of a Tiger with an interesting appearance. (I still think for all its woes it was a headache for ground troops & allied tankers)
It took a moment to sink in what I was looking at apart from the obvious thing as described in the text on the picture, can anyone spot what I did.

Information

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[jonnyc]

Other than the missing muzzle-brake?

[browningautorifle]

the missing muzzle-brake?

Also removed to make the tank shorter and allow shipping.

[Aragorn243]

Well I learned something new today. I've been studying tanks most of my life and never even heard of transport tracks before. I guess I need to throw out the 100 or so books on the subject I own as complete failures.

[bob q]

The tracks were a well known main problem with Tigers . They could not be moved without a complete track change and removal of the outer road wheels . they would not fit on train cars , or through many rail yards , tunnels or bridges . Also they could not drive far or fight on the transport tracks . In the 1944 battle through France the Shermans were fast enough they got to the railheads the Tiger redeployments were at before they could be detrained and retracked , and killed them on the train .

[CINDERS]

"No Muzzle brake" Yep its about the only pic I have come across with the muzzle brake not fitted with the tank in the field they may have been well behind the front having just come off a train but not having the brake fitted is rare and according to doctrine it was not recommended to fire more than 1 round from the cannon with it removed as so efficient was it that it soaked up 70% of the recoil with the twin buffers inside the turret doing the rest.
To wreck the guns if they could not save the Tiger crews simply drained the oil from the buffers and fired the gun thus destroying the recoil mechanism.


To qualify as a Tiger gunner was pretty hard to do as the text says;
"A trained gunner was expected to hit a stationary target at 1200m (1310yds) with his first round, bracketing was only necessary at greater distances to the maximum effective combat range of 2000m (2250yds). At that range he was expected to be on target by the 4th round. Against a moving target travelling at 20klph (12.5mph) across his front at a range of 800-1200m (875-1310yds), the gunner was expected to be able to score a hit within 3 rounds and within 30 seconds each.

Turret traverse speed maximum - six degrees/second
M4 Shermans - twenty four degrees/second a decisive factor for the Sherman.

I found this site for those interested in the M4.
http://afvdb.50megs.com/usa/m4sherman.html

That being said here from the same book is something I never knew;

In 1918 the German engineers started work on new tanks (the 20 odd they had built were laughable. my italics) the giant, 150 tonne (147-ton) K-wagon (Grosskampfwagen) with a crew of no less than 22 men, armed with 4 7.7cm guns and seven 7.92 machine guns, and powered by two 650hp aero engines, two prototypes of which were partially completed.

So there you go I have no idea of the thought process of the High Command having a behemoth of this size move around the WWI battlefield guess it shows the desperate thoughts when they realized the war was lost and perhaps where some 23 years later Hitler got the idea of the "Maus" tank.

[browningautorifle]

they may have been well behind the front having just come off a train

They are because he still has the narrow transport tracks on.

[CINDERS]

That was the biggest drawback transporting the Tiger by rail all my books pretty much say it was a PITA as not only the tracks being changed but the outside road wheels were removed as well I think from what I have read in my books a well oiled crew could do the job of reinstating the wider operational tracks/road wheels in about 90 minutes. which is an eternity with bombers and Typhoons flying there abouts.

In relation to the very slow traverse of the turret some crews the gunner & driver could work together to get onto target quicker by spragging the tracks slewing the hull in the desired direction whilst traversing the turret in the same direction when close all stop & hand traverse for the fine laying.
Probably one of the best gunners in the Tiger tank was Wittmanns Balthasar Woll earning the Knights Cross a rare thing, actually the pic I am looking at typing out this info is one of Wittmann & crew in front of their Tiger during the Russian campaign undated but perhaps 1943 there are 89 kill rings on the gun tube testament of Woll's accuracy, the T34 76/85 could kill a Tiger but they had to get under 400m to do it and then go for the weak spots.

[browningautorifle]

tracks being changed

I've done my share of track changes and have no interest in something that big. When offered the chance to break track on the MBT Leopard 1, I withdrew quickly...no thanks...

[bob q]

The Tiger was a late 1930's design . The high command turned it down due the transportation problems . It was later brought back to deal with the T-34's as the current German / Czech pre war tanks in service at the time could not . Just as those same German tanks could not deal with the early Shermans in north Africa .