Tiger Tiger...?

True but nobody could touch the Brits when it came to battleship names. Planes too.

 

Like modern razor blades innit. The Cromwell should really have been called the Mach 3 ProTank Master XXX Limited Edition.

Maybe have a couple of dolly birds in every crew.

 

We had stuff like Gun Motor Carriage.

 

It definitely irked me to see all the Tiger merchandise at the museum when I'd rather have something with a Cromwell, Comet, or Churchill.

 

Fashion victims can also be artistic. Even the revisionist, Hubert Meyer, spoke of the trees being adorned with assorted shreds of camo smock and Grenadier parts after a 25 Pounder stonk.

 

Ken Tout - Tank!

Al Murray reading from Tank!, by Ken Tout. (16 mins)

or same audio, alternative site: We Have Ways of Making You Talk | Podbay

About knocking out some Tigers. And wondering too why some of the non-German vehicles and men aren't more widely appreciated / renowned etc.

 

There's a bit of a contrast here too: Guy Sajer - The Forgotten Soldier from We Have Ways of Making You Talk | Podbay

Al Murray reading from "The Forgotten Soldier", by Guy Sajer

With again some mentions of Tigers but from the German point of view. Though pointing out not every German had a Tiger or that having Tigers alone was a war winning tactic, i.e. when facing the numbers and logistics on the other (allied) side.

 

Just thinking that a lot of Tigers that were pushed off the road ended up on their sides. I don't really notice that with other tanks. I wonder if they did that so that allied tanks wouldn't be startled when they saw a Tiger on the side of the road and fire at it.

 

I presume a side-lift is easier than a straight push at that weight. If you can push one track into a ditch then it should be even easier to up-end.

 

And it was not unknown in both World Wars for tanks to accidentally ditch themselves in that way

 

It may have been that the allies had to push Tigers to the side of the road. Neither the British or Americans had 60 ton tanks or need recovery vehicles for an AFV of that size. Smaller vehicles could be dragged out of the roadway or even to a recovery park for salvage. The German panthers blocking the road at Lingevres were pushed through the hedge that lined the road. You can still see then gaps in the hedge.

 

My father (5 RHA) spoke of Tiger Royals or Royal Tigers at Normandy was there any such beast?

 

But weren't the first production models too late for Normandy?

 

One adverse handling design of the Tiger was that in the operating procedures, it was laid down that a Tiger should not act as a recovery vehicle for another Tiger.I would think that the technical reason was that that the towing Tiger engine,gearbox and transmission system would be over stressed. As regards engine reliability,Maybach in attempting to provide solutions to reliability, introduced mods which resulted in maintenance crews having to carry more spares instead of simplifying their engine design.

Having said that,illustrations in Normandy show emergency attempts of one Tiger attempting to draw a disabled Tiger on the withdrawal to the Seine.

 

As per Harry Ree post above, from "Die Tigerfiebel" (Page 44), loads of hefty vehicles recommended for towing/recovery.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

I think it's just the blocky and robust appearance. Everyone knows the battle value of the Panther wasn't much lower, but that seems to be recognised as an academic fact rather than viscerally; it looks gracile and relatively delicate in comparison, and has nowhere near the aura of uncritical worship of the Tiger.

There could scarcely have been a better, more economical, more efficient and more rational solution to the Tiger issue than the Firefly, and there were twice as many of those.

You have to conclude that the favouritism displayed by many to some particular tank types is not rational.