{"id":96562,"date":"2025-07-13T04:00:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T08:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=96562"},"modified":"2025-07-13T10:30:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T14:30:27","slug":"tiger-ii-what-was-the-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2025\/07\/13\/tiger-ii-what-was-the-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiger II: What was the point?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The folks at the Tank Museum at Bovington put together a video comparing the Tiger II to the earlier Tiger I and the typical allied tanks they faced on the battlefield. On the social media site formerly known as <em>Twitter<\/em>, historian Jonathan Ware posted a long thread about both the topics the Tank Museum&#8217;s video raised and where he feels they should have added more context:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ReassessHistory\/status\/1943985540443107484\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-13-at-18-08-52-Nicholas-Russon-@nrusson-_-X.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"598\" height=\"721\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-96563\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-13-at-18-08-52-Nicholas-Russon-@nrusson-_-X.png 598w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-13-at-18-08-52-Nicholas-Russon-@nrusson-_-X-480x579.png 480w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-13-at-18-08-52-Nicholas-Russon-@nrusson-_-X-531x640.png 531w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-13-at-18-08-52-Nicholas-Russon-@nrusson-_-X-124x150.png 124w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And here&#8217;s the Tank Museum&#8217;s video itself:<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B5kN6C7rONc?si=r2F7RwQ3lNLdUkdT\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>FEATURING FOOTAGE OF TIGER I AND TIGER II RUNNING TOGETHER AT TANKFEST 2025 &#8211; with thanks to Mus\u00e9e des Blind\u00e9s and World of Tanks.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s absurdly large, heavy, expensive, and difficult to build. So, you have to ask; what is the point of Tiger II when you already have the biggest, toughest and meanest beast on the block \u2013 Tiger I.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst the Tiger I has maintained a legendary status since its appearance on the battlefield, there were many aspects of this tank&#8217;s design that were pretty much dead ends. The turret couldn&#8217;t be resized to fit a more powerful gun. And adding extra weight in the form of armour would put a huge amount of strain on the internal mechanics. So, a new tank was needed to ensure the German&#8217;s could maintain their edge against Allied armour.<\/p>\n<p>Enter the Tiger II, otherwise known as the King Tiger. Heavily armed, the Tiger II could take on any Allied tanks that it faced, with its KwK 43 able to penetrate the frontal armour of a Sherman at 1,800m. Its thick sloped armour was incredibly dependable, and no Allied tank commander would willingly engage a Tiger II in a head-to-head fight. <\/p>\n<p>The Tiger II&#8217;s battlefield presence came at a significant cost. A single Tiger II could take up to 400,000 hours to build at a price of RM 321,500 \u2013 up to 100,000 more hours than a Tiger I, and over twice the cost of a Panther. A while the Allies were churning out tanks that were &#8220;good enough&#8221;, the Germans were committed to quality and ensuring their tanks would always have the edge against enemy armour. <\/p>\n<p>The Tiger II has often been described as a tactical success for its battlefield prowess, but a strategic failure for being so resource-hungry, expensive and relatively low in number. Given their cost, it forces us to question whether the German war machine should have dropped Tigers altogether in favour producing tanks that were cheaper and easier to build<\/p>\n<p>00:00 | Introduction<br \/>\n00:55 | <em>Durchbruchswagen<\/em><br \/>\n06:15 | Tiger I vs Tiger II<br \/>\n12:52 | The Numbers Game<br \/>\n17:34 | Was Tiger II a Success?<\/p>\n<p>This video features archive footage courtesy of British Path\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>In this film, Chris Copson breaks down the differences between two legendary tanks \u2013 the Tiger I and Tiger II. Whilst Tiger I was an impressive tank, certain areas of its design were an evolutionary dead-end. Its boxy turret couldn&#8217;t be enlarged to fit a bigger gun, and the hull couldn&#8217;t be up armoured without adding stress to the drive train. So, Tiger II ordered in 1943, including even thicker, sloped armour and a much more destructive gun. With mixed success on the battlefield, difficulties in maintaining its complex mechanics and reliance on dwindling supply lines, the Tiger II ended up being a tactic success, but a strategic failure. <\/p>\n<p>Want to learn more about the Tiger I and Tiger II? Here are some of the sources we used to make this film:<\/p>\n<p><em>Panzer Tracts No.23 \u2013 Panzer Production from 1933 to 1945<\/em> by Thomas Jentz and Hilary Doyle, 2011<br \/>\n<em>Germany&#8217;s Tiger Tanks, DW to Tiger I: Design, Production and Modifications<\/em> by Thomas Jentz and Hilary Doyle, 2000<br \/>\n<em>Germany&#8217;s Tiger Tanks, VK45.02 to Tiger II: Design, Production and Modifications<\/em> by Thomas Jentz and Hilary Doyle, 1997<br \/>\n<em>Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two<\/em>, Revised Edition by Peter Chamberlain and Hilary Doyle, 1993<br \/>\n<em>Tigerfibel<\/em>. English translation by The Tank Museum, 2022<br \/>\n<em>Panther and its Variants<\/em> by Walter Spielberger, 1978<br \/>\n<em>Armored Champion: The Top Tanks of World War II<\/em> by Steven Zaloga, 2015<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tankarchives.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.tankarchives.com<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.forum.axishistory.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.forum.axishistory.com<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.achtungpanzer.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.achtungpanzer.com<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.feldgrau.net\" target=\"_blank\">www.feldgrau.net<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The folks at the Tank Museum at Bovington put together a video comparing the Tiger II to the earlier Tiger I and the typical allied tanks they faced on the battlefield. On the social media site formerly known as Twitter, historian Jonathan Ware posted a long thread about both the topics the Tank Museum&#8217;s video [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1118,7,5,663,230],"tags":[991,140,859,1298],"class_list":["post-96562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-germany","category-history","category-military","category-weapons","category-ww2","tag-afvs","tag-design","tag-manufacturing","tag-museum"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-p7s","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96564,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96562\/revisions\/96564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}