Best/favorite WW2 heavy tank

[Stitch]

I see.... You just got a vacation...You didn't get banned.

LOL!

Hey, Soren, I'm with you on this one; the Ausf. E was nice, the Ausf. B was even better! Many authorities considerer the KwK 43 to be the best tank gun of the War.

P.S. For those of you who care (not many, I know), I've just started work on a Tamiya 1/25th scale Tiger I Ausf. E; I'll keep you posted.

 

[Doughboy]

LOL!


I'm sorry....I meant to say you were only banned for 2 weeks.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I was too biased I was told, so the mystery is now solved.

That was only the tip of the iceberg and you know it. So move on and post in a decent matter, or the next vacation will be permanent...

 

[Soren]

Then my innocent starbucks joke indeed was the primary reason for the ban ? I see.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

There you go again. Didn't I say move on? Do you want to push this further? It will be permanent next time, that I promise...

 

[puckett]

the big German tigers are # 1.

 

[parsifal]

As a piece of military engineering, the tiger was a marvel. as a practical piece of military hardware it was an unmitigated disaster. The problem was its relative cost, short range, and at times mechanical unreliability. Tiger II losses during the ardennes is revealing. The battalion that attacked through Stavelot against the American positions there crossed the border with 45 Tigers on strength. After three days, the unit was down to 20 effectives, and by the end of the campaign the crews walked out of belgium with not a tank in their possession. Most had simiply ran out of fuel, but many had also broken down and were forced to be either abandoned, or destroyed by their own crews. During Kursk, only about 3 out of the 100 or so tiger Is committed were destroyed during the main battles, yet by the end of the month, not a one of that 100 tanks remained in german hands. The Germans found themselves overwhelmed by the flood of Soviet tanks, and the Soviets had numbers on their side because their tanks were built to a budget, as were the Allied Shermans. The Allies could afford huge losses, and keep on fighting with undiminshed power, whereas each tiger lost represented a near irreplaceable loss for the germans and a significant loss of capability.

Where the tiger excelled were in the long retreats the germans were forced to undertake in the last half of the war. A single tiger took up an enormous allocation of resources to bring down and could hold up an advance for many hours or days. As a nuisance weapon, able to pick off individual tanks at distance, the tiger was a supreme weapon system. as a war winning, game changing weapon, not a chance. Too expensive, too immobile too unreliable, but above all, too few in number

 

[parsifal]

As a piece of military engineering, the tiger was a marvel. as a practical piece of military hardware it was an unmitigated disaster. The problem was its relative cost, short range, and at times mechanical unreliability. Tiger II losses during the ardennes is revealing. The battalion that attacked through Stavelot against the American positions there crossed the border with 45 Tigers on strength. After three days, the unit was down to 20 effectives, and by the end of the campaign the crews walked out of belgium with not a tank in their possession. Most had simiply ran out of fuel, but many had also broken down and were forced to be either abandoned, or destroyed by their own crews. During Kursk, only about 3 out of the 100 or so tiger Is committed were destroyed during the main battles, yet by the end of the month, not a one of that 100 tanks remained in german hands. The Germans found themselves overwhelmed by the flood of Soviet tanks, and the Soviets had numbers on their side because their tanks were built to a budget, as were the Allied Shermans. The Allies could afford huge losses, and keep on fighting with undiminshed power, whereas each tiger lost represented a near irreplaceable loss for the germans and a significant loss of capability.

Where the tiger excelled were in the long retreats the germans were forced to undertake in the last half of the war. A single tiger took up an enormous allocation of resources to bring down and could hold up an advance for many hours or days. As a nuisance weapon, able to pick off individual tanks at distance, the tiger was a supreme weapon system. as a war winning, game changing weapon, not a chance. Too expensive, too immobile too unreliable, but above all, too few in number

 

[MildExplosion]

The Tigers, while they looked spectacular on paper, were difficult to maintain IRL, and had several major technical flaws.

My vote goes to the Char B1, in 1940 the Germans did not have a single tank capable of frontally penetrating it, and had to rely on larger antitank guns and air support.