Название: Leopard's Guide: The Tiger I Tank Автор: Dr. Marcus Durden
Издательство: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Год: 2013
Страниц: 330
Язык: английский
Формат: epub, pdf (conv)
Размер: 15.2 MB
The Tiger I tank, also known as the Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. H, was Germany's penultimate heavy tank for most of World War II; and it shocked the Allied and Soviet armies when they first encountered it. The Tiger battled fast moving Shermans in the desert mountains of North Africa, hordes of T-34s on the Russian tundra, and stout British Churchill tanks in the hedgerows of Normandy; all the while dealing with chronic shortages of fuel and spareparts. However, the battlefield is not the only part of the story of the Tiger tank; for in a total war the factory floor is as important as the front-lines.
The Tiger had many flaws that ultimately made it a poor choice for this kind of warfare; as it's prohibitive cost represented not just wasted resources and man-hours; but also wasted opportunities to invest in better air cover or more economical land platforms such as the Panther or the Stug. This book aims to look at the big picture in regards to the Tiger tank; from the evolution of heavy tank doctrine in the blitzkrieg theory (as influenced by the Spanish Civil War) to the German assembly methods that were thankfully unprepared to churn out these armored behemoths. In addition time will also be spent on the Soviet T-34 tank as it is important to understand the primary opponent of the Tiger to know why the designers made the decisions that they did. Numerous photos throughout the book, from all sides, help fully illustrate the impact the Tiger had; and why it was inevitably defeated by the Allies.
This book sets out to document not just the Tiger I as a weapons platform, but the Tiger I as an expression of German tank doctrine and industrial base (as hobbled as it was by the dual anchors of Socialism and Hitler’s madness). Though the Tiger was impressive in many ways, it was not the right weapon for a total war; unlike the Sherman (or to a lesser extent, the T-34 though it had severe flaws of it’s own that the Soviets hid by simply accepting huge losses). While the individual Sherman may have been inferior to the Tiger; they could be made by the dozen for each Tiger which is what you need when fighting a total war across the world.
So with that goal in mind; this book will chart the development of German tank doctrine from World War I till the end of World War II. The doctrines of other nations; particularly the Soviets, will also be touched upon to illustrate the differences between the opponents as they influenced each other’s doctrinal growth during the course of the war.
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