Tiger

Germany began to work developing heavy tanks in 1936. in that time the new heavy tank was supposed to weight 30tons with 50mm armor. The battle field experience during the Polish and French Campaignes showed that 50mm armor wasn't thick enough for a heavy tank. From 1936 to 1941 both Henschel and Porsche produced designs and prototypes of various medium and heavy tanks. None of them entered production but they provided both companies with valuable information about working on the Tiger heavy tank. On May 26th 1941, Hitler ordered both Henschel and Porsche to prepare designs for a heavy tank. the new 45ton tank was to be armed with 88mm KwK L/56 gun designed by Krupp and to be protected by 100mm of armor. The tank was also heavy enough to allow the installation of anti shell armor. Porsche's design was progressing faster than Henschel's , becasue Porsche was working on an indipendent Heavy Tank project since the Autumn of 1940. Both Companies prepared prototypes which they arrived to the station near Rastenburg on 19th April 1941. On the next day the were both shown to Adolf Hitler on his Birthdayin Wolf's Lair in East Prussia. After that they were send to the tank school in Berka for further tests. Tough Porsche's design was better on the paper the tests showed that it was a great failure and finally in July the army adopted the Henschel's design because it was more reliable and needed less materials and had many common parts with other tank which simplified the production and maintenance.

Porsche's Prototype

It soon appeared that Henschel would not be able to produce the turret so the Porsche's turret was mounted on Henschel's Plattform. The final design led to production of a tank which weighted 55 tons with 100mm of armor protection. the first Tigers saw action on August 29th 1942 in south east of Leningrad. The unsuccessful engagement ended by the new Tiger being captured by soviet troops which was later send to Moscow for further inspections.

Marschal Klim Voroshilov inspects the captured Tiger on desplay in Moscow

This unsuccessful event was of a command fault because Tigers were used on swampy grounds. The Tiger soon proved its worth to the battlefield and became the most celebrated tank in history. Tigers were issued to Special Heavy Tank Battalions ( Schwere Panzer Abteilungen ) both to the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS Panzer Divisions.the first Companies created had 9 tanks  which was increased to 14 by mid 1943 . in late 1943 companies with 45 Tigers were established. tigers were staffed by experienced crew , this combined with its massive fire power and armor protection made it a deadly  tank destroyer which was greatly feared by the enemy. Total 1355 of them were produced and in 1944 ,84 of them were converted to command vehicles fitted by additional radio equippment. The Tiger  was widely considered as the best and most powerful tank ever produced and it deserved much of the praise.