A Deep Dive into the Tiger I, by the Chieftain

The best tank of World War Two or a piece of junk? Using the original held at the U.S. Army Armor & Cavalry Collection, Chieftain and Rob Cogan take you on a literal deep dive into the iconic Tiger I.

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Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Marek Kamiński
Community Management: Ian Sowden
Written by: Chieftain and Rob Cogan
Research by: Chieftain
Map animations by: Daniel Weiss
Map research by: Sietse Kenter
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Artwork and color grading by: Mikołaj Uchman
Sound design by: Marek Kamiński
Colorizations by:
Mikołaj Uchman
Ruffneck88

Image sources:
Leander9999 on Wikimedia Commons
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe

Soundtracks from Epidemic Sound:
Progressive Progress - Howard Harper-Barnes
Rememberance - Fabien Tell
Other Sides of Glory - Fabien Tell
On the Edge of Change - Brightarm Orchestra
Underlying Truth - Howard Harper-Barnes
Astray - Alec Slayne
London - Howard Harper-Barnes
Endlessness - Flouw
Weapon of Choice - Fabien Tell
Let Go of Fear - Howard Harper-Barnes
The Inspector 4 - Johannes Bornlöf
Underlying Truth - Howard Harper-Barnes
Camping Gone Wrong STEMS INSTRUMENTS - Stationary Sign

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

[Valdagast]

"If you want to see an intact Tiger or King Tiger, they're still out there."

This made me think of hordes of Tiger tanks, roaming the wilds looking for ammunition and fuel.

[ericsommers]

Me to the Chieftain: "Don't hit me with them negative waves so early in the morning."

[FLORATOSOTHON]

A very interesting presentation of the Tiger 1. The turret traverse speed, explains why tank ace Michael Wittmann preferred to rotate the entire tank rather than the turret. He was using his Tiger like the tank destroyers he was previously experienced with.

[theonlymadmac]

I hab a patient, an old guy 15 years ago, former German tank commander. He thought, the Tiger was a good tank „ because I survived the war in it“. He also changed my understanding of the effectiveness of WW II airpower against tanks. „How did you protect yourselves against enemy airplanes?“ „ we closed the hatches“. And:“ why should they try to kill our tanks, difficult, dangerous, when they could blow up our fuel supply“

[MadMonk_]

I must admit I do like the “cutaway” views of the tank. Apart from allowing a great insight into the various thickness of the various Armoured plates. Equally, if they hadn’t cutaway the collection, they would have gone to the scrap yard decades ago.
Once again thank you for sharing

[ForgottenHonor]

"Always with the negative waves, Moriarty!" 🤣🤣🤣 Kelly's Heroes FTW!

[stevebarrett]

An interesting talk. I was reading an article in the inet 'tank encyclopedia' which suggested that in addition to replacing the wide tracks for rail transport, it was also necessary to remove the outer road wheels. This talk got me thinking about the Soviet 'beast slayer', SU-152 and I found The Chieftain's talk on the ISU-152. It was interesting to learn of the 'log' on the Soviet vehicle. I'm glad you folks at World War Two chose to partner with The Chieftain.

[joshuasill]

On of the interesting things I've read about Germany's production is that much of the forced labor that built these machines sabotaged them every chance they could. It wasn't something very blatant or easily noticeable. They did things like stuff rags and cigarette butts into oil and coolant lines. Put gears in transmissions and drives in backwards or wrong. Put flywheels together backwards. Leave off piston rings. Crimp or bend or not connect oil and coolant lines. Put in parts rejected from QC. Not fully torque down bolts or nuts. All these little things would allow the tank to pass all the initial tests and procedures, but once it hit the field it would break down faster.

[ldmitruk]

in this example of a Tiger I the cut away sides make it easier to deal with "Oh bugger! The tank is on fire."

[saoirseewing]

I always remember the 5 Tigers which drove off one morning. Two broke down, another two towed them back home, and the fifth found a Guards Tank Army assembly area and single-handedly disrupted their entire day. Is the Tiger the tank which experience 80% non-combat losses driving to work that morning? Or the tank which mauled a Guards Tank Army all by itself? Yes. But I'd be a lot higher on it if it could successfully engage in mobile warfare.

[andypaine]

When I was a kid (1974-6) my dad was stationed in Aberdeen Proving Ground and our neighborhood was literally across the street from the Tank Museum (you can image how many times I was kicked off of playing on the tanks!). Like your Tiger, they also had a Panzer 3 (maybe early 4) that had its hull opened up so you could see inside on display.

[ihavetowaitdaystochangem]

Today I learned that there’s more too WW2 and History in General instead of just naming German Tanks

[markfryer]

This was a very thoughtful and informative video. All I can say with my knowledge of fixing things is "Thank God I didn't have to service the damn thing!"
Mark from Melbourne Australia

[rotwang]

The unsung heroes of the Tiger story are the maintenance crews, they performed real miracles to get damaged tanks from the field and get them working again.

[kampfgruppepeiper]

This was a really cool surprise video! Thank you everyone at Time Ghost Army, Chieftain, & everyone at Fort Benning.

[Ulrich.Bierwisch]

31:21 I cant imaging a better viewing angle to make another final point. That is as badass as it can be and nobody will ever dare to dispute this.

Thank you for the detailed view of the tank and it’s strong and weak points. As a tank crewman in M48 and M60 tanks, I can see how the designers had conflicting views on the final product. The tank originally was designed to support the infantry. Second roll was anti tank sniper.

They were not hard to work on if you had one knowledge person to run the show .

[tokencivilian]

As a late pre-teen / early teen, I learned about the torsion bar suspension from a model of a Tiger that had functional tracks / suspension.

[canigetanoorah]

Many interesting points made in the video, there has been a shift more recently in downplaying the effectiveness of the Tiger 1. I've been reading the book Tiger Battallion 507 which is made up of diary entries and combat reports from veterans of the unit and they certainly had some incredible successes on the eastern front, in 3 days of fighting around Karnievo in Poland 3rd company had destroyed 170 enemy tanks with no losses.
They do report a lot of breakdowns however the repair company was very effective in getting vehicles repaired and back in action. Fielded in the right terrain with experienced crews and good supply and maintenance the Tiger was certainly an effective vehicle

[troidva]

Despite all the stories American soldiers told about battling hordes of Tiger Tanks, GIs only confronted them in battalion-sized numbers twice in the war: Feb. 14-21 1943 during the fights leading up to the debacle at Kasserine Pass; and December 1944 in during the Battle of the Bulge. All other encounters were against company-sized units or smaller in Italy or France. During the Normandy battles, it was the Brits and not the Americans who fought the Tiger units. Allied soldiers often mistook up armored Panzer IVs for Tigers.