World War II Database

Contributor: Alan Chanter

ww2dbaseIn early 1942, the German military began to consider the idea of employing a 128-millimeter gun on a self-propelled tank destroyer. Test firing of the gun demonstrated its suitability and in October 1943, a gun was installed on a Tiger II tank chassis and displayed to Adolf Hitler. Two designs were submitted. One had an eight-wheel Porsche suspension system while the other (completed in February 1944) used Henschel's torsion bars suspension with nine road wheels on each side.

ww2dbaseThe eventual version designated Jagdtiger (English: "Hunting Tiger"), next in line of succession to the self-propelled Elephant Heavy tank destroyer, would be the heaviest armoured fighting vehicle in German Army service during the war. The Jagdtiger utilised a modified Tiger II tank chassis on which a box-like superstructure replaced the Tiger II's turret. It was extremely heavily armoured-plated, with almost ten inches of armour at the front of the vehicle, and was armed with the huge 128-millimeter Pak 44 L/55 gun which had greater range and power than any Allied tank. However, when installed in the Jagdtiger's casement the gun had a somewhat reduced range, low rate of fire and only ten degrees of traverse. Only by moving the entire tank could it be fired outside this traverse. Additionally the armour piercing projectile and explosive charge needed to be loaded separately which added to the work of the crew.

ww2dbaseThere were many technical problems with the Jagdtiger. The heavy vehicle (weighing around 71 tonnes) was slow-moving and prone to break down when it was moved, the gun had to be permanently locked in place to avoid wearing out the brackets, which would have prevented accurate firing. A tactical problem for its crews was that in spite of the tanks immense weight the weak point of the design was its armour. From the front it was almost invulnerable, but the side armour was thinner and could be penetrated by enemy tank guns.

ww2dbaseOne hundred and fifty Jagdtiger tank destroyers were ordered and eighty-eight of them were built between July 1944 and March 1945. Eleven were manufactured with Porsche suspension and the remainder used the Henschel system. Two heavy anti-tank battalions were equipped with Jagdtiger from September 1944 onwards, but Allied domination in the air made it difficult for the heavy and cumbersome vehicles to move. The Jagdtiger commander Otto Carius stated that the technical problems and the inexperience of the crews meant that the full potential of the weapon was never realized. Twenty per cent of them were destroyed during the fighting.

ww2dbaseThe Jagdtigers were last used in action on 5 April 1945 and were relatively successful, destroying around twenty Allied tanks and over thirty other vehicles. The Jagdtiger may have been slow and ponderous but if the crews could ensure that the front of the vehicle always faced toward, to the enemy, it was unstoppable. But ultimately they were always too few in number and hampered by the immense weight, to have any decisive effect on the outcome of the war.

SPECIFICATIONS

SdKfz 186 Jagdtiger

Machinery	One Maybach HL230 P30 23,095cc V12 petrol engine, rated at 700bhp at 3,000rpm
Suspension	Porsche or Henschel longitudinal torsion bar
Armament	1x12.8mm Pak 44 L/55 gun (40 rounds) or 1x12.8mm Pak 80 gun (38 rounds), 1x7.9mm roof mounted machine gun
Armor	250mm casement, 150mm hull, 80mm sides, 80mm rear
Crew	6
Length	7.79 m
Width	3.73 m
Height	2.81 m
Weight	71.0 t
Speed	38 km/h
Range	110 km

Photographs