Tanks!!

[Dr Pepper]

Originally Posted by mjm1963

Hope to god this ends up on another restored Tiger 1 (would have to be early because of the cupola)

I do too-but the chances aren't great and there seem very few-if any-under active restoration-the people at Bovington for example have had to reverse engineer some replacement parts on Tiger 131 to keep it in running order, as spares just don't seem to exist. No doubt there are still a few Tiger wrecks in various locations on the eastern front that are unknown or only known locally...swamps, rivers etc.....after all they only produced 1368 of them in total....compare that with 50,000 M4 Shermans and it's no great wonder there aren't many left in museums and memorials, let alone in working condition...

[mjm1963]

Originally Posted by Dr Pepper

I do too-but the chances aren't great and there seem very few-if any-under active restoration-the people at Bovington for example have had to reverse engineer some replacement parts on Tiger 131 to keep it in running order, as spares just don't seem to exist. No doubt there are still a few Tiger wrecks in various locations on the eastern front that are unknown or only known locally...swamps, rivers etc.....after all they only produced 1368 of them in total....compare that with 50,000 M4 Shermans and it's no great wonder there aren't many left in museums and memorials, let alone in working condition...

Sadly you are absolutely right. The engine for the Bovington Tiger, 131, originally came from the Bovington Jagdtiger (based on the Kingtiger)
Thank god, they have since found another engine for the Jagdtiger and, according to a pretty solid source, hope to start a full restoration in late 2017

[Mal Hombre]

I was reading yesterday that the idea that the Tiger was invincible was prevalent on the German side as well and the German authorities actively tried to dispel it.It might explain scenarios such as the "Tiger Duel" in the movie "Fury" where a Tiger commander might be over confident and get into a situation where a weaker but nimbler opponent could get behind Him and get in a killing shot.This would be especially true if the Tiger crew were Hitlerjugend,Basically indoctrinated teenagers.

[mjm1963]

Originally Posted by Mal Hombre

I was reading yesterday that the idea that the Tiger was invincible was prevalent on the German side as well and the German authorities actively tried to dispel it.It might explain scenarios such as the "Tiger Duel" in the movie "Fury" where a Tiger commander might be over confident and get into a situation where a weaker but nimbler opponent could get behind Him and get in a killing shot.This would be especially true if the Tiger crew were Hitlerjugend,Basically indoctrinated teenagers.

Interesting. Tiger Battalions were raised from experienced Panzer Crews. Tigers were mega-expensive to manufacture. Flip side on the coin. Tiger kill ratio was 10-1 on the Russian front and 7-1 on the Western Front, an amazing figure never achieved by any other singular tank type (not even the American Abrams)

Flip side of the coin again, the TOTAL number of Tiger I built was 1368 of every version built (including Sturmtigers and Bergetigers). At it's peak there were only 90 Tigers available MAX (Kursk 1943) at any one time

The point I'm trying to make is the Tiger I, in my opinion, was a good tank. Given to excellent tank crews, and they were, Tiger Battalions achieved amazing results.

But ultimately they were never going to beat 50,000 Shermans, Lees, M10s etc. Plus the countless Russian types

[brk549]

The lack of resources beat Germany as much as anything.If they had of decided to build Shermans they didn't have the materials to build 50,000 of them.They did manage to do a lot with a little though.

[Hertz]

German Tanks, Mega-Size Illustration

[winetippler]

I have to apologise in advance if this has already been covered in the thread.

But I would have to have the Centurion Tank in any Top 5.

In terms of operational service and the number of countries that brought them and used them in war, there can't be many other tanks out there that can match that. Maybe the Sherman and some Soviet Cold War era tanks?

I read somewhere that three prototypes where rushed to Europe in 1945 to see how it fared against Tigers and Tiger2s, but they arrived too late.

To my understanding they held their own throughout Korea, Vietnam, and Yom Kippur and are probally still in service somewhere. I know the Israelis modified them a lot.

Any thoughts VEFers?

[brk549]

Even though a video game and a probable insult to those that have actually had to fight tanks and I honor and respect those that have,Medal Of Honor Airborne will probably be as close to what it might be like as I think they can get it.Your fighting Tigers and it's tough the first play through and at the end you take down a Flak Tower which the tanks in the above picture brought a Flak Tower on tracks to my mind.That video game was why I started video gaming and now they all suck.

[Dr Pepper]

Originally Posted by winetippler

I have to apologise in advance if this has already been covered in the thread.

But I would have to have the Centurion Tank in any Top 5.

In terms of operational service and the number of countries that brought them and used them in war, there can't be many other tanks out there that can match that. Maybe the Sherman and some Soviet Cold War era tanks?

I read somewhere that three prototypes where rushed to Europe in 1945 to see how it fared against Tigers and Tiger2s, but they arrived too late.

To my understanding they held their own throughout Korea, Vietnam, and Yom Kippur and are probally still in service somewhere. I know the Israelis modified them a lot.

Any thoughts VEFers?

Yes I'd have to wholeheartedly agree-in terms of both longevity (still in use by south africa) upgrades and improvements and export sales the Cent would have to be one of the great postwar tanks-certainly there were still plenty of them in use by Israel during my time there in 1999-2000-though even then they were being phased out/relegated to the reserve equipment status. I encountered one sitting 'abandoned' on the side of the road whilst on patrol in the Golan one day-minus its tracks (and an MBT just sitting on its wheels looks a bit silly!)...a few days later the same vehicle appeared out in the middle of the IDF training area-no doubt to be used as a target.
[this chance observation-which was my job after all, as an UNMO, had some interesting intelligence implications for us, which I won't go into here...] It was 100% the same vehicle as the gun barrel and turret markings were identical. The absence of tracks suggests that all the usable bits had been cannibalised as spares-I didn't actually stop and check it over closely during the original patrol, merely took photos as I was passing. The Israelis also had several non MBT variants-engineer vehicles and APC variants.

I'd suggest though that the T-54/55 MBT series, M48/M60 MBT series and Leopard 1 MBT would be at least as comparable in terms of numbers, and employment by different countries-but the Cent would certainly win the operational longevity contest-they were used operationally in the Falklands war(BARV) and the Gulf War (AVRE)....

....though Brazil (IIRC) is still using the WW2 M3 Stuart/Honey light tank-but this has been significantly modernised....

[danton]

Two views of a Challenger tank outside the Discovery Museum Newcastle upon Tyne. The Vickers factory where the Challenger Mk. I (Oh dear ....) and the superb Mk. II (longest tank on tank [T72, Iraq] kill ever recorded) were built at Scotswood not far away. I presume the taffic cones are to stop anyone stealing it.

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