The German Jagdtiger

I am trying to find out as much as I can about the Jagdtiger I have read a lote about it but did it only fight against the americans and british because I have not read or heard that it was used against the Russians.

 

I am trying to find out as much as I can about the Jagdtiger I have read a lote about it but did it only fight against the americans and british because I have not read or heard that it was used against the Russians.

The number of Jagdtigers produced (85) was adequate to equip two units, schwere Panzerjager Abteilung 653 and schwere Panzerjager Abteilung 512. sPzJagAbt 512 was formed in the Summer of 1944 and was composed of two companies (1st company was commanded by Albert Ernst and became Kampfgruppe Ernst, 2nd company by Otto Carius and was commanded by Major Scherf. Elements of sPzJagAbt 512 took part in the Operation "Fruhlingerswachen" in Hungary (part of VI SS Panzer Army), and then in the defence of the Fatherland on both Western and Eastern Front. sPzJagAbt 653 was formed in the Spring of 1945 and probably was not more than an understrenght company. It probably took part in Ardennes offensive and then was employed on the Western Front (Rhein and Karlsruhe area). It appears that 4 to 6 Jagdtigers were used by the schwere SS Panzer Abteilung (101) 501 in April/May of 1945.

 

Better detail on placement here.

http://www.wwiivehicles.com/germany/tank_hunters/jagdtiger.html

 

A white elephant if ever there was one, only thing that was more ludicrous was the "Maus"

 

Wot, no respect for superweapons?

 

Superweapons are normally built by Dictators who are trying to compensate for a lack of size in another area!!

 

Rubbish!

 

White elephant...maybe. Wastful of resources YES (qualified by the fact that only 80 odd were built..ie a lot of up front effort for bugger-all output).
But travel back in time to 1945 and tell an Allied tanker that the monster he is facing is a waste of resources! Not relevant!

Fact: As a defensive weapon, it was fine.

Let's look at the 3 components:

Firepower: 128mm pak44 was the most powerful anti-tank gun of the war...and then some! Yes, I know the Pak43 could penetrate slightly more armour but that is somewhat irrelevant given that opposing armour couldn't resist either the 88 or the 128. What the 128 brought to the party is MJ (mega-joules - kinetic energy). The 128 could bring over DOUBLE the kinetic energy of the 88 (pak43) to the party, so EVEN if penetration was not achieved (very unlikely), 8 to 10 MJ of KE would f**k up any target, I kid you not. This is serious post-war KE. Even now, tank gun designers only take 13MJ as contemporary KE levels. 88 pak 43 has about 4MJ KE, at close range.

Armour protection: Ha, ha. Again, go back in time and explain carefully to any Allied tanker the his APCR, or whatever, have just bounced off a waste of resources. As that 128mm traverses onto him I don't think he'll buy your economic argument! This had the best armour of any AFV of the war; front, side, rear or top, you name it.

Mobility: So now you say ah-ha, I gotcha! It couldn't barely move.
Wrong! Despite all the so-called-facts repeated over and over, the mobility was.....ok. Not good by a long shot but not terrible either. Damn good engineering actually, for 60 years ago. Consider this: The British armies MBT through the 60s to the 80s had about the same power to weight ratio! Yes, the good old Chieftain with it's crap Leyland multifuel engine which in theory gave about 700bhp for 55 tons of weight (the same stats for the Tiger 1 funnily enough), but in practise, run on red diesel (not high octane aviation fuel) and maintained by squaddies, probably produced 500bhp. This gave a power-to-weight ratio about the same as a Jagdtiger. Think about it. Yes, the chieftain was quite slow and unreliable but no-one spouts off that it couldn't hardly even move etc etc. Yet that is often regurgitated for the King Tiger and Jagdtiger. It's just myth perpetuated. (For the record, I've driven a chieftain and it was alright). Anway, look at this video YouTube - Bau eines Jagttigers , the only one I've ever seen of a Jagdtiger. Look at the section between 43 and 47 seconds. Does that look like a tank "barely able to move"? No it certainly does not!

What did let it down was NOT it's power to weight ratio, but it's transmission (final drive). Even given the best engineering of the day (and most of the problems were overcome), the final drive was over-taxed. You really, REALLY needed a very cool driver to not panic and break the damn thing. Nice and steady does it, with that much torque going through it, it is essential to be in the correct gear and to drive in a steady manor. (The engine may only have been 1500lbft ish,but with the reduction in the final drive in 1st gear this became nearly 350,000lbft of torque!!) Oh, by the way, I've got part of a sprocket off a King Tiger here, and if you're interested I can post a pic showing the wear on the back-side of the teeth!

 

Hi Von Poop!
I'm an old mate of Owen D, we were frequenting bovington as nippers! I was hoping to meet you at the Bovvy tank fest but couldn't make it.

I reckon the chicken story is rubbish, or at least meaningless, ok maybe the chickens survived, but did they talk any sense afterwards, answer me that. Maybe they ran about like headless.....

Fact is, human beings would not have enjoyed or survived the experience!

I once bought some (deactivated) tank ammo from a chappy who was or still is employed by the tank museum to restore all it's ammo for display use. Anyway, this guy handled the lot, not just read about it....believe me a 128mm AP round is awesome! And don't forget it had an explosive filler too (in the usual Pzgr round). The day Mr Ginger-beard Fletcher replaces one of those chickens and tries it himself and lives to tell the tale is the day I'll eat my hat.

Oh yes, I am such a tank nerd, God help me.

 

Wot, haven't you got a bed to go to either?
Oh alright then.... View attachment 3323
Didn't make Bovvy (t)/(w)ank fest..but seen some nice vids of the Tiger 1 on Youtube. But couldn't they get it running any better? Backfiring all the time an all!!! Sounded a tad rich to me...


Teeny trains.

BTW, that's one heavy paperweight. You can see it's the left-hand sprocket, the teeth are worn on the back. Bought off ebay from some geezer in poland. Believe it or not he had about 20 tons of bits of KT in his back garden! I will pull out the picture of the side plate that he sent me if I can find it. I think the P&P cost was too high, from memory!!!

 

Yes, bag of spanners thats it! Glad to here they got it going properly. Talking of soiling ones-self, have you heard this? YouTube - A restored kingtiger

Thanks for the points donation, not sure how I get to trade them for booze yet, but will work it out!

 

Eh? Waassat? Working KT coming to Blighty? I didn't the deep wading equipment would cope with the English Channel, but hey.

How much did they want for the 128 round, big money I bet?

I did buy a KT track-tensioner adjustment cover (the squarish plates on the rear hull, that the Shrivenham example was missing) from same polish chappy. That was in August 2004, and it still hasn't arrived. Methinks I've been had......

 

Excuse me mallusc but can you tell me what was the song in the video?
I know its not the original version here in the video ,but i need the original version.