Tiger II (King Tiger) Main battle tank (MBT)

The Tiger II was an extremely powerful tank combining heavy armour (virtually impenetrable front armour) and a lethal 88mm gun, but it was slow to build and very difficult to maintain.

As the Germans started to concentrate on building only two tank types by autumn 1944, the Panther became the main production model as two could be built for every Tiger II. By March 1945 production was only 25 a month. The Tiger II was the heaviest tank in active service during World War II and a fore runner of the modern MBT, weighing in at nearly 71 tonnes (69.7tons) with a top speed of 37.8Km/h(23.5mph) it saw action on the Eastern Front in May 1944 and on the Western Front in August 1944.

How to cite this article: Dugdale-Pointon, TDP. (9 August 2000), Tiger II (King Tiger) Main battle tank (MBT), http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_tiger2.html

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