Konigstiger?

[Adamo]

What exactly is the 'Konigstiger'? Is this one of the Tiger tanks?

[Adrian]

Hello Adamo,

The Koenigstiger or King Tiger was one of the last tanks to be used by Germany in the closing stages of the war. If you look through this forum or do a search you will find pictures.
I can`t give you all the technical info etc, I`m no expert and I`m sure other more educated members will weigh in with more info.

Best regards,
Adrian.

[Greg]

Hello Adamo,

The Koenigstiger or King Tiger was one of the last tanks to be used by Germany in the closing stages of the war. If you look through this forum or do a search you will find pictures.
I can`t give you all the technical info etc, I`m no expert and I`m sure other more educated members will weigh in with more info.

Best regards,
Adrian.

Hi Adamo,

The Königstiger was also sometimes called the Royal Tiger by the Allies, but the more common name is the Tiger II (to differentiate it from the Tiger I). See the data page on the Achtung Panzer site http://www.achtungpanzer.com/pz5.htm

Regards,
Greg

[Manstein]

The Konigstiger is German for the King Tiger, which is a variant of the Tiger Line. The book Panzerkrieg claims its the Pz. VII but this is skeptical since other books claim it belongs to the Tiger line as a Tiger II.

The Tiger II differiantiates from the Tiger I in the sense that while the Tiger I had its armor in a box format, meaning not sloped, the Tiger II had it sloped.

Also, the dimensions of the Tiger II were much larger than those of the Tiger I. Meaning the gear to weight ratio of the tank was horrible (the Tiger I was horrible already, imagine the Tiger II). This means that while the tank goes at a speed of maybe some 25 to 30 mph the tear and wear of the ration would cause the tank to break down almost continously, a charactiristic which plagued German tanks all the way back from the Panzer I.

In general the Tiger II was slow as it was powerful and lucky for the Allies they wasted all the potential of the tank by sending it on the offensive in the Ardennes on December 16th 1944. Had the tanks been used on the defensive where the 88mm L/72 gun could have knocked out dozens of tanks before being lost itself, Germany could have held out longer.

[panzerboy39]

Koenigs Tiger or Tiger II

What exactly is the 'Konigstiger'? Is this one of the Tiger tanks?

The King Tiger was one of the most powerful AFV in WWII. Armed with the 88mm L/71 anti-tank gun it could defeat any tank on the battlefield, usually from 1000's of yards away! Its armour could withstand direct hits from the most powerful Soviet and Allied Cannons even from close range. It was without a doubt the most feared AFV of the war. The only tank to boast more firepower was its variant, the Jagdtiger (english: Hunting Tiger) which was a turretless tank destroyer with an even bigger cannon in the 128mm, the most powerful AT gun in the war, bar none. The king tigers only weakness was its ponderous weight and size which made it extremely slow, difficult to transport and manouver cross country. It is because of this reason that it was not considered an excellent attack tank. Defensively though it was the undisputed 'King' of the battlefield!

Panzers forward!

panzerboy39

[Stirling]

manstein the tiger II/kingtiger was a pz.VI the pz.VII was the maus superheavy tank
oh adamo the tiger II looks more similar to the panther than the tiger I if you havn't seen one before

[TMurray]

in terms of firepower, there was actually a more powerful vehicle, or at least it was proposed, the 'Geschutzwagen Tiger', although only one prototype chassis was completed, this was supposed to be a self propelled gun boasting a 17cm K72 (Sf) as main armament. Proposed use as a mobile artillery platform I guess

[panzerboy39]

Not more powerful just bigger caliber

in terms of firepower, there was actually a more powerful vehicle, or at least it was proposed, the 'Geschutzwagen Tiger', although only one prototype chassis was completed, this was supposed to be a self propelled gun boasting a 17cm K72 (Sf) as main armament. Proposed use as a mobile artillery platform I guess

Having a bigger caliber did'nt mean better armer penetration. Just look at the 128mm mounted on the jagdtiger. Because it was such a large caliber its shot tended to disintegrate before full penetration. This was due to the poorer quality of german AP shot at the end of the war. So the 170mm would certainly not have been 'more powerful' than the 88mmL/71, in the AT department at least.

Panzers forward

panzerboy39

[TMurray]

PB yep you are correct on the penetration of an AP round, as stated, this was a self propelled vehicle as such cant see it firing anything other than HE in an artillery role. With a caliber of 17cms firing HE, this would have been a damn nasty machine to run into. But alas, again like the King Tiger, wouldve probably just sunk into the ground under it's enormous weight (something like 120 tons)

[timekiller]

Königstiger

(sorry - I just tried if the correct spelling is possible!)