Developed
by Henschel before the war as a heavy armoured vehicle, it weights about 60 tons
which far exceeded the originally specified maximum weight of 40 tons. To fill
the gap, new orders were placed for a 'medium' armoured vehicle of no more than
40 tons which went on to become the PzKpZw V or or Panther. In the meantime, a
new requirement for a heavy tank to counter the new more powerful Russian tanks
resulted in the Tiger being designated PzKpZw VI or Tiger 1. The 1 was added to
the Tiger later because a second Tiger i.e. Tiger II or King Tiger was not originally
planned. An estimated total of 1,280 Tiger 1s were produced including a command
tank and an armoured recover vehicle version.
Porsche Tiger
Developed
alongside the Henschel Tiger as a competitor design. It was not adopted largely
due to its complexity and only 10 were ever produced in total from chasis already
available fitted with a similar turret to the Henschel Tiger. No action featuring
Porsche Tigers were ever recorded.
Elefant (Ferdinand)
After
the Henschel Tiger were chosen, Existing Porsche Tiger chasis were converted into
the 'Ferdinand' (after its builder) later referred to as the 'Elefant' heavy tank
destroyer. Only 90 were produced in total.
Bergetiger
Armoured
Recovery Vehicle version of Tiger 1.
Sturmtiger
(Storming Tiger)
Essentially
a converted Tiger 1 designed for supporting attacking infantry at short range.
It was fitted with a 38cm large caliber RW61 rocket launcher originally designed
for attacking submarines instead of the intended 21cm howitzer which was not available
in time. Only 18 were produced in total.
King Tiger (Tiger II)
Designed
to address the angular armour deficiency of the Tiger 1, Tiger II resembles a
larger version of the Panther tank after the two firms, MAN who produced the Panther
and Henschel who produced the Tiger 1, were asked to assimilate their two design
to streamline production. A Panther II was in design but none were ready in time
for service before the end of the war. The King Tiger weights about 70 tons. A
total of 50 King Tiger chasis were fitted with the turret designed for the Porsche
Tiger. These were known as King Tiger (Porsche Turret). Those with the Henschel
designed turret were known as King Tiger (Production Turret). An estimated 484
were produced in total. Command tank and an armoured recover vehicle version were
also produced.
Jagdtiger (Hunting Tiger)
These
were modified versions of the Tiger II tank without a turret but fitted with a
heavier gun with limited traverse to the hull of the vehicle itself. 70 in total
were produced based on a mixture of Porsche (8 road wheels) and Henschel (9 road
wheels) chasis. This was the heaviest and most powerful tank of the time.
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