"Porsche's Tiger: A Victim of Dirty Competition " Topic

"The German heavy tank program began in 1937, but work dragged on. Changes were being introduced into the design of tanks that hadn't even been built yet. Because of this, Porsche K.G. began working on a new Typ 100 heavy tank, known also as the VK 30.01(P), in December of 1939. Work on this project let to the creation of another tank, the VK 45.01(P), or Pz.Kpfw. Tiger (P), the main subject of today's article. This vehicle, often called the Porsche Tiger, was accepted for service and could have become the main German heavy tank of the war, had the situation developed a little differently….."
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Amicalement
Armand

An interesting article, various parts of which are directly at odds with the development of the Porsche Tiger as described in "OKH Toy Factory" by Michael Winninger.

That piece left out some important facts.

That German "higher-ups" were, in fact, tipped off to the likely possibility that the Russians had superior tanks. ReichMarschall Goring gave a group of Russian Generals an inspection tour of the latest German equipment, including the most advanced tanks.

The Russians did'nt believe the pz4 was the latest and most advanced German tank, and they were so adament about it that Herr Goring concluded that the Russians must have superior tanks(which they did), going so far as to tell Hitler about it.

Goring did'nt want war with Russia, and he was quite vocal about it. Hitler thought Goring was using the inspection tour as yet another excuse not to invade the Soviet Union. So he disregarded what the Russians said, and the planning for the invasion of the USSR went ahead.

Glad you enjoyed it my friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

The comments after note one of the big problems with the Porsche Tiger – it used a lot of copper which was in relatively short supply.

Reliable or not, the electric drive had a real strategic problem there.

Reliable or not, the electric drive had a real strategic problem…

Here we are talking about big and shiny, and you want to bring logistics into the conversation? What are you, some kind of professional?

I mean … you'll have to turn in your Wehraboo-Fanboy membership card if you get caught talking like that!

But more seriously, good observation, goragrad. An interesting angle on the issue.

The Russians did'nt believe the pz4 was the latest and most advanced German tank, and they were so adament about it that Herr Goring concluded that the Russians must have superior tanks(which they did), going so far as to tell Hitler about it.

I kind of wonder about that whole story.

I mean the Germans kind of ran a whole propaganda campaign around their Neubaufahrzeug, and even shipped the two prototypes to Norway during the 1940 campaign (mostly for the propaganda value IIUI, as they were not very useful tanks).

Germany's pre-war "heavy tank".

Photographed fairly extensively in Norway.

Should it have been any wonder to the Germans that the Soviets may have believed they had something more than a Pz IV?

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

The biggest problem was the poor reliability of the PorscheTiggers. I mean, sure, they're hybrid drive, but the problem is that the engines had to speed up and slow down to vary power to the track motors. That greatly reduces your fuel economy (it's far better to have an engine run at steady speed with a huge battery pack to buffer the load).

And I still have a couple PorscheTiggers in 15mm, in addition to Elefunks.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand