How Bad Was The Tiger?

Germany's Tiger heavy tank from WWII is the center of a lot of contentious discussion within the tank / armored fighting vehicle community. Some people are under the impression that it was practically invincible on the battlefield, others are convinced that it was totally unreliable and never got anything done. We're gonna be examining the Tiger's history and performance to get a real understanding of what the Tiger was like.

Check the channel "About" section for the link to the creator of my profile picture.

Sources:
Tiger - Thomas Anderson
Tiger 1 Heavy Tank 1942-45 - Tom Jentz, Peter Sarson
Tiger Tanks at War - Michael Green, James D. Brown
Panther, Germany’s quest for combat dominance - Michael Green, Gladys Green
Tiger Tank Commanders - Patrick Agte
Germany's Tiger Tanks D.W. to Tiger I - Thomas L. Jentz, Hilary L. Doyle
German Tank Maintenance in World War II - Department of the Army (1954)

Songs used (in order from first to last):
Subnautica - Into the Unknown
Halo 3: ODST - Rain (Deference for Darkness)

Sound mods:
Epic Thunder (Pre-release)
Armored Warfare Crew Voices

Reddit: /u/spookston
Discord: See my Patreon page.

#warthunder​​​​​​​​​​​​ #tanks​​​​​​​​​​​​ #tankhistory

[Spookston]

I've been asked about this a few times, so I'll clarify.

The concept of a breakthrough tank existed long before the invasion of France, I meant that the Tiger as we know it did not take shape until afterwards, wherein the requirements of the program shifted drastically. My writing style can be very blunt so sometimes fine details like that don't get through.

[jerrymartin]

Imagine building a tank prototype so complex that even ww2 germany tells you to chill lmao

[CetoFreakingKaiba]

I was reading a book about the Tiger I and, if I remember correctly, it was supposed to be one tiger for every bunch of panzer in an assault, doing the heavy lifting, breaking the enemy line and so on. After the assault had succeeded, the remaining tanks could carry one with the rest of the battle, while the tiger could stay behind and be maintained and repaired. On that regard you can understand that it was a pretty ok concept for the purpose it was supposed to be used.

[Gre-unit]

" *But* with tanks it evolves into toxicity".
Ah yes, because as we all know, sports disagreements are always cordial.

[Predator]

What if you wanted to repair yourself

But the Furher said “Less Tanks, Higher Quality”

[ohara]

"The heater pumping carbon monoxide into the turret"
It did what?!

[michaelsalazar]

Military History Visualized has a video on the effectiveness of the Tiger 1 as well. Worth watching I think. But the biggest faults (aside from the other myriad of issues) ultimately of the Tiger, in my own opinion, was that it was used improperly most of the time. Both a good or bad tool will fail if you use it what it wasn't meant for.

[thundercho]

In the book "Tigers in the Mud" by Otto Carius, there is a section where he and his fellow tankers wrote up a list of mechanical problems of the Tiger I, and how they proposed each should be fixed. Its not only mechanical and technical situations that help or hinder a tank's performance, but the crew training and tactics they use can also make a big difference as well.

[flanker]

It's nice to hear some Subnautica music in the background and like always, thanks for a well made video

[Real_Claudy_Focan]

Simple : "Tiger is as good as its crew"
Summed like this by Sir Fletcher (also a known "moustache man")

[whitneyward]

I HEARD THAT SUBNAUTICA MUSIC, brought back some nice memories

[gaijin]

better question before even watching the video: 'How bad are the players?'

[datpieceofbread]

From the reports I've had translated to me from old friends that are no longer with us, Porsche's 2 tanks actually out preformed Henschel's two in most areas except speed and production cost. The torque the Porsche machines put out meant it could climb hills faster but due to the poor copper quality and some teething issues that still had to be worked out, meant they had to let the tanks idle after climbing steeper gradians. However the ability to easily access and remove parts like the transmission, motors, and suspension I think is a very underappretiated aspect, even for the time of the trials. As for why the Henschel tank won has two sides from what my research has shown. Side one was that the main leaders of the German Board of Armor that were in favor of Porsche's design had suffered "Fatal automotive accidents" before final judgements. And second was the amount of copper used for the electrics, while making life easy on a well trained driver and spoiling trainees on how easy it was to shift and drive a tiger, was expensive, and very scarce on top of the aforementioned bad production quality. Not that the choice either way would've mattered that much at all, I do appreciate the fact you didn't mention the "Tiger(P) fire starting breakdown" which I've found no mention of in the reports of the trials. Other than that, I'd say a fair and fine video.

[youraveragescotsman]

Oh this one will generate a hell of a reaction.

Very brave, Spookston.

[Mark-esbn]

“Most tiger players wanna be like wittman, well they end up like him, but without the kills and the wife…”

[nnoah]

Yeah, Chieftain kinda covers about the same. It would've been a good heavy breakthrough tank, if maintenance-intensive, when it rolled out. The issue is the war went from offensive to defensive, and the Tiger wasn't updated to meet that. Because of this, even though its crews did the best with what they had, the Tiger suffered.

Hitler, being Hitler, did not help either.

[Masonthebaconhair]

"Especially the mind of a certin mustache man" I lost it on that quote

[johannes__-eqyx]

If the tiger didn't die from engine failure it was a pretty good tank tbh

[mr.abrams]

I mostly remember the tiger for having a really bad transmission

[giaopx]

I remember the first time I played the tiger. I fucking hate it and regret so much. After some time, i learn to play heavy tank. Now i love the tiger soooo much.