The due date for the new prototypes was set for 20th April 1942 (Adolf Hitler’s birthday). A new design was needed and an immediate weight increase to 45 tonnes and increase in calibre to 88mm was passed on to the two tank designers. The revolutionary T-34 with its sloping armour was immune to almost all German tanks and the KV-1 tank was impregnable to all weapons except the 88mm Flak gun. They were not prepared for the resistance they encountered from the Russian tanks. On June 22nd 1941 Germany launched ‘Operation Barbarossa’ the invasion of Russia. Both designers worked on developing earlier concepts with Henschel building two prototypes one with a 75mm gun the other with an 88mm. In May 1941 Henschel and Ferdinand Porsche were asked to submit designs for a 45 tonne heavy tank to be ready by June 1942. This was a design already in use on German half-tracks such as the SdKfz 7. Further vehicles were built using the Schachtellaufwerk concept of overlapping and interleaved main roadwheels. A prototype was built but never fully developed. Development of a heavy tank had started in 1937 when the German Army weapons agency (Waffenamt) had requested Henschel to develop a Durchbruchwagen (‘breakthrough vehicle’) in the 30-33 tonne range. In battle they were not only out gunned by allied tanks but had insufficient armour protection. The combination of heavy armour and the well proven 88mm KwK 36 gun made it a near invincible battlefield weapon in its day.įrom early tank conflicts in World War II the German Army had discovered that tanks such as the French Somua S35, Char B1 and the British Matilda II showed up the inadequacies of the German armour. It has earned legendary status as a formidable battle tank. Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger I Ausfühurung H1, ‘S04’,ġst SS Panzer Division “Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler”,įew weapons of war have generated such fear in the enemy as the Tiger tank.
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