"King Tigers at Bulge, combat accounts?" Topic

Can anyone point to actual descriptions of combat between King Tigers vs Americans at Bulge? I found lots of general accounts saying where the Tigers traveled or where they were abandoned but I rarely find any accounts of actual tank duels between King Tigers and Shermans or King Tigers vs. tank destroyers or King Tigers vs. American infantry. I do skirmish tabletop gaming so these are the types of accounts I need. Thanks in advance

Ace destroyer y tube channel on varies tank's during The Bulge.

YouTube link

The snag is surely that everything was a Tiger or King Tiger if you were at the wrong end of it. Lots of MkIVs and Stugs, which were easily confused at a distance, poor visibility, a new design unfamiliar to many etc. I think this is well recognised as a challenge in interpretation and vehicle recognition.

The absence of tank duels sums up the problem: they were a wargamer's tank, not a general's.

IIRC, Peiper left his in the rear because they were big and slow, so they would slow him down.

The Germans left them in the rear because they were slow and mechanically unreliable; they would have slowed down his advance. And many were destroyed by their crews when the Germans retreated.

The only account I can recall reading about was a US crew "knocking a KT out" when they fired white phosphorus at it and the crew bailed out thinking they were on fire.

If you really want fodder for skirmish games I would suggest "Alamo in the Ardennes ".

IIRC, several were stalled/halted in a little town or village along the way. Can't recall if that was due to fuel, but I think so.

One backed into a building and part of that fell on it (I think this one might have been abandoned). There were several others in the area, and if I remember correctly, one or more were engaged by advancing US armor in the town, so you could have 1 – 2 be engaged by some advancing Shermans and/or American tank destroyers of your choosing.

Sorry, can't recall the town name, but it shouldn't be too difficult to find.

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YouTube link

The book, "Sledgehammers: Strengths and Weaknesses of Tier Tank Battalions in World War II, provides a great assessment of Tigers in the war. For example, overall in the war 45 percent of Tigers were lost to enemy action, but 41 percent had to be destroyed by their crews. Another 14 percent were lost to unknow causes. The real problem for the Tigers was mechanical unreliability which meant that full strength battalions (which were very rare) were often down to single digits within a day or two, with most never making it to the battlefield.

In fact, Piper's 501st Heavy Battalion (King Tigers), besides being in the rear, barely made it to the fight. Only six of their tanks saw action around La Gleize and they suffered from a lack of fuel, ammunition, and parts. The second heavy battalion, the 506th (King Tigers), part of the 5th Panzer Army, did marginally better.

Overall, the author estimates that between both of the King battalions they only destroyed approximately 20 Shermans; but they lost 25 Tigers. Also keep in mind that the Germans could recover their tanks if they were attacking, but when they began to retreat, they had to destroy their own tanks (leaving aside the German's lack of recovery vehicles).

The issues were the very restricted terrain, the ability of very few bridges in the region that could support their tanks (and the allies destroyed bridges critical to the Germans), their very slow speed, mechanical breakdowns, and a lack of fuel, ammunition, and parts.

Obviously I would never want to face a King Tiger face-to-face with a Sherman, but they were easy to cut off from their supply routes.

But if you're playing a skirmish game, anything goes.

Several from the 506th saw action around St Vith. Something like McDonald's "Battle of the Bulge" covers it OK. Most of the German tanks which actually engaged in combat were Panthers and Pz IVs. As noted above, the Tigers barely got into action as they were so cumbersome in the restricted terrain.

Vol.3 of 'Duel in the Mist' lists the fate of every Tiger II in KG Peiper where that is known. As mentioned above, a great many simply broke down. Looking for pure tank v tank actions there are only a couple listed.

The only major KT engagement I'm aware of was a battle where 10 KTs ambushed a task force made up of a company of Shermans, accompanied by a company of armored infantry and a (towed) TD PLT, IIRC. Took place near Mannheim or Munich (could be wrong on both counts).

Thanks all! In closing, I often wonder what would have happened at Bulge if they had used Tiger Is instead of Tiger IIs. Would not have changed the outcome in the end but Tiger Is could certainly have moved (slightly) faster.

Or maybe realized that such large, slow vehicles weren't appropriate for offensive operations on a restricted road network, and sent them all east to shoot at the Russians?

I think Pz Ko Hummel in the 506th still had a few Tigers 1s left over from Arnhem.

A the end of the day, it was just a couple of battalions of heavy tanks (and I suppose the battalion of JagdTigers which never saw action at all) which is a drop in the ocean in an offensive involving three entire Armies.