PzKpfw VI Ausf E - Tiger

I'm heading off to Dorset on Friday in preparation for Tiger Day at the Tank Museum. My Brother-in-Law Ray and I have Premium Tickets so as well as getting to see the museums Tiger strut it stuff in the arena we also have VIP access to the tank and the restoration team. Needless to say we are very excited about this event and in anticipation I decided to paint a Tiger IE from the 15mm Flames of War range.

A Lone Tiger IE stalks the battlefield

This particular model is the Tiger from the Wittmann box set (GBX16) although I have painted it as a stand alone vehicle just for fun. It doesn't fit into my current Army List but I may give this beast a little run round the games table on it's own just to see how it does against a dozen or so Sherman's.

Close-up of the commanders Coupala

The Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf E (Sd Kfz 181) known as the Tiger was feared by the Allies far in excess of its actual battlefield presence. Only 1,347 were built between 1942-45 with most of those destined for the eastern Front. Facing the Allied invasion forces in Normandy there were only three German schwere Panzer Abteilung equipped with Tiger I's.

Pz.Abt. 503 transferred to Normandy with 33 Tiger I's in early July 1944
Pz.Abt. 101 reached Normandy in early June 1944 with a maximum compliment of 45 Tiger I's
Pz.Abt. 102 was transferred to Normandy with 45 Tiger I, reaching action in early July.

In addition the Panzer Lehr Division had ten Tiger I's but its likely that a maximum of 8 were operational at the beginning of June 1944. So at most there were just 133 Tiger 's in Normandy in June-July 1944 and in all probability far fewer at any given time due to mechanical issues or combat attrition.

The Tiger rotates its turret towards another unfortunate target

The real reason for the Tigers formidable reputation (a reputation that made every German tank a Tiger in allied tankers eyes) was it's gun. The 8.8 cm Kampfwagenkanone 36 L/56 was amongst the most effective and feared tank guns of its time. It had a very high muzzle velocity (over 3000 ft/s when firing armour piercing rounds) which gave it a very flat trajectory which in turn made it very accurate.

The Tiger I was notoriously unreliable, although many of the early problems had been ironed out by the time of the Normandy campaign. Its real undoing however was its build quality and the price tag that went with it. In simple terms the Tiger used nearly double the manpower and material to build than the smaller more reliable Panzer IV. There is no doubt that the Tiger I was a formidable design but with only 1,347 built it would always be outnumbered by smaller cheaper tanks like the Sherman (58,000 built) or the T-34 (36,000 built).

Tiger IE passing the larger Konigstiger