World War II Database

1.  Bill says:
24 Nov 2011 01:40:06 PM

THE MOST POWERFUL TANK IN THE WORLD:

The King Tiger's front armor was 100mm thick
side armor were 88mm thick and top armor was 40mm thick. The tracks alone were 2ft.8in wide and weighted 2.5 tons! the Tiger II was
over-engineered had mechanical problems the transmission suffered from leaking seals and gaskets. Introduced in 1944, it was the most powerful tank in the world.

A BRIDGE TOO FAR:

It was heavy about 70 tons most bridges couldn't support its weight, and to ship it by rail, the tank needed another set of tracks, the outer road wheels had to be removed just to fit on the flat cars.
All this took hours in labor just to move the TigerII from one area to another.

IT WAS A GAS GUZZLER:

The Mayback V-12 engine used 500 liters or
132 gallons per 100km/62 miles, on good terrain the tank could get 2 gallons per mile
total fuel was 850 liters or 225 gallons of fuel with a 110km range.
About 485 were built Howerer, by this time
the Panzer veterans of the old days were few in number, they were replaced by crews with
less training the few old hands, still alive were few in number. The few experienced
instructors left, were pulled from the training schools to fill the ranks, and man the tanks.

TO KILL A KING TIGER:

Larger numbers of Allied tanks could kill a tiger, using flanking maneuvers to attack from the sides and the rear. The Tiger could
knock out 4 or 5 or even 8 and 10 Allied tanks before it was knocked out in battle, the Allies could replace losses, the loss of one TigerII couldn't be replaced.
The British had a armor-piercing round, that theoretically could knock out the tiger.

UP CLOSE AND PERSONEL

The US M26 Pershing mounted the 90mm gun, and could take on the Tiger II, but they were few in mumber arriving in January 1945.
In February 1945 a M26 Pershing knocked out
two King Tiger tanks and one Mk IV tank at a range of 1000 meters that would be 1,094 yards.

ARMAMENT:

1X88mm main gun w/80 rounds
1x7.92mm hull machine gun
1x7.92mm coaxial machine gun
1x7.92mm machine gun mounted in commanders hatch. 5800 rounds for all machine guns.
I'm sure crews carried as much ammo as they could, the machine guns eat up a lot of lead

SURVIVORS:

About 500 were built the few that survived , are now in Museums in Europe and the USA.

2. Anonymous says:
17 Feb 2012 03:33:32 AM

Whatever Bill wrote, neglect it. You are better off reading it on wikipedia. Just to show some examples of Bills lack of knowledge:
The Königstiger was NOT the most powerful tank in the world, the Russian IS was with its 122 mm gun. Its frontal armor was 150 mm on the glacis plate, and 185mm on the turret front (Henschel turret). The sides were 80 mm, on the hull and turret. It mounted the 88 kwk 43 L71 cannon.

With this information you can compare with other sites, and tell that the information you've just read are correct, and that of Bill's - are not.

3. bill but not the uninformed one says:
25 Jun 2012 05:19:53 PM

totally agree with you but on the point about js2 outgunning the king ha the kings L71 gun was a far better anti tank gun able to penetrate the js2 armour ,where as the js2 122mm was very slow loading not of very high velocity not very acurate and depended on weight of shot and the vehicle was even slower than the tiger, numbers not quality

4. Bill says:
26 Dec 2012 01:24:50 AM

The King Tiger was a tough tank to knock out. Most were destroyed by their own crews after they ran out of fuel or broke down to prevent their capture. US troops captured a few intact by hitting it with white phosphorous shells. The tanks ventilators pulled the fumes inside which forced the crews to bail out fearing it would catch fire inside. The us troops then painted stars on them and used them for a few days until the trannys conked out. The Panther tanks also had weak trannys. Many WW2 photos show intact Panthers that were abandoned due to bad transmissions.

5. Bill says:
26 Dec 2012 06:01:26 PM

The tank in the photo appears to have been abandoned prior to being shot up. Look at the gouges in the armour. Allied tankers would routinely put a few shells in stationary German tanks "to see if anyone was home" since the wily Germans would often disguise tanks as being knocked out then shoot up approaching Allied tanks. There are three small gouges in close proximity 10 o'clock of the MG. The Allied tank shooting was doing that while stationary at a distance. Seeing no response they came closer and fired a fourth which hit in front of the driver at the same angle as the previous three. Still no response so they approach nearly head on and fire a fifth that hits 4 o'clock of the MG. Now they're at point blank range and send a sixth shell thru the turrent to rattle around a bit.

6.  Bill says:
1 Sep 2014 10:55:42 AM

BY GOD, I STAND CORRECTED! OOPS!

Can't win'em all as I've said before I'm no expert
or historian and most of my comments are listed as general information.By God I forgot to mention the most powerful tank in the world wasn't the Tiger but if your thinking about German tanks I guess the Tiger's the one.

Gee what else did I forget? I'd like to hear more comments and it gives you a good feeling to know some one else has more information. This is what I like to read here at ww2db keep adding more info to my comments.

With my lack of knowledge, I'm going to put my head in the oven...So until next time.

7. Scott says:
23 Dec 2015 06:50:40 AM

I actually beg to differ with anonymous, the Tiger II was the best tank on the field, both in armor and gun. Higher caliber doesn't mean as much if it is inaccurate and lower velocity (the IS2 actually had a better cannon with the naval variant cannon that was 100mm). However, given the numbers produced (like 6x more IS2 than the Tiger II) and the war being a war of attrition, the IS was a solid tank platform that doesn't get as much credit as it is due.