Quote:
Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Tigers and Panthers were mechanical nightmares that required hours of PMS every week and wouldn't be working unless someone was taking care of them full-time.
AFAIK, the last known use of the Tiger II in combat was in the 1968 6-Day War, where their mechanically poor condition led the Syrians to simply park them in ditches and revetments to help defend the border. Most were bombed into oblivion.
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Afraid not: Urban myth that. The Syrians did have some old German Equipment, but that equipment was a handful of old STuG's and PzKw IV's, which was all in pretty sad shape. The Tiger II's are for all intents accounted for, in that we know how many was made, and we know where they all went and eventually died. The Tiger II should have been monster: but by the time it entered production, the quality of its construction has gone downhill: the armour wasn't treated correctly as they didn't have the time, material shortages meant short cuts in the manufacture of final drives, and the like, and then you have the fact that is was woefully underpowered.
The idea that the Panther was a maintenance is a bit overstated. Like all AFV's of the period, including US and Soviet ones, were all intensive compared to today. The Panther's bad rep comes from the initial batch that was sent forward for Kursk. The A's and the earlier G's (Before shortages got hold) was actually, provided the crews took basic precautions, quite reliable. And for German Panzers, overpowered - it has the same power to weight ratio of the M1. And it could have been better: In 43 they come up with a new fuel injector that would have gave the engine 900 horsepower and improved fuel consumption instead of the 750. But they decided that 750 was enough - a 900 horsepower Panther would have been faster than the M18 Tank Destroyer - known as the fastest thing on tracks in Europe. The mistake was they didn't think it through: the engine in the panther was the same as the one in both versions of the Tiger. Now those, those could have used an extra 150 horse. Of course, they did finally figured out that mistake, but by that time, it was too late as the new engines was scheduled for late 45.
Back on point on the Tiger II. There was a lot of work done looking into that tank at the end of the war. Even the Swede's grabbed one to play with. It was pointed out, once we also got hold of the plans, that had the Tiger II been built to proper standards - no shortcuts - the only downside was the engine. It was all that it was said to be: a monster. Up until the late 60's, early 70's, it was the view of the US armour community that the Tiger II was a threat even to the M60, both because its armour was thick and well shaped enough to handle then current AP rounds, but also because of just how good the 8,8KwK/L71 was firing AP.