Hello.
Here we are again...
...at The Tank Museum Bovington...
...to get close to what was...
…the largest operational armoured vehicle…
…of World War II, the Jagdtiger…
...or Hunting Tiger in English
...is a very large vehicle...
…weighing in at over 75 tonnes.
Compared with just under 70 tonnes...
...for the standard King Tiger.
It stands nearly 3 metres high…
…and is over 10 metres long.
But it had to be big...
…to mount this enormous gun…
...the 128mm PaK80 L/55.
The story of the Jagdtiger...
...starts in February 1943...
...when it was decided to build...
...a heavy tank destroyer...
...or assault gun...
...on the new Tiger II chassis...
...which was being developed by Henschel.
Later that year...
...a full scale mock up...
...was presented to Hitler...
...and agreed with various changes.
However, this did not stop...
...Ferdinand Porsche from presenting...
...an alternative chassis...
...in January 1944.
Once again there was a competition...
...between Henschel...
...and Porsche designs...
...just as there had been...
...for the Tiger 1.
Just as before...
...production of major parts...
...was started...
...before the design was finalised...
...and this resulted...
...in two different chassis...
...one Henschel and one Porsche.
The first 11 Jagdtigers...
...were built on the Porsche chassis...
...this example is the only survivor...
...before the Henschel chassis...
...was adopted for series production...
...bringing the total production run...
...to 85 vehicles.
Bovington’s Jagtiger was actually...
...the second one built...
...and was captured...
...at the end of the war...
...at Germany’s tank proving ground...
...at Sennelager...
...where it had been used in testing.
It’s quite easy to distinguish...
...the Porsche chassis...
...from the Henschels.
The Henschel variant had...
...the overlapping...
...double roadwheel arrangement...
...found on both...
...the Tiger 1 and Tiger II.
The Porsche chassis had...
...his length-wise torsion bar...
...suspension system and fewer...
...slightly smaller...
...single roadwheels...
...that made maintenance easier.
The Jagdtiger still used...
...the same engine...
...as the standard Tigers...
...the Maybach HL230...
...which was already overstrained.
Not surprisingly, it was even...
...more unreliable propelling...
...the much heavier tank destroyer.
In warfare...
...when you meet a new threat...
...you need to develop...
...a bigger threat counter it.
And the Jagdtiger’s gun...
...was prompted by the arrival...
...on the Eastern front...
...of the Soviet Union’s new IS...
...or Josef Stalin tanks...
...which had frontal armour...
...up to 120mm...
...and carried a terrifying 122mm gun.
Knocking out these tanks called...
...for a major piece of ordnance...
...and Krupp’s new gun offered...
...superior tank-killing capability...
...at extreme ranges: over 2,000 metres.
It fired two-piece ammunition...
...with the charge separate...
...from the projectile itself...
...since common fixed case rounds...
...would have been...
...impossibly long and heavy.
This meant that...
...not one but two loaders...
...were necessary...
...raising the crew to 6.
With a full charge, and firing...
...the standard 26.4 Kg. PzGr. 39...
... it had a muzzle velocity...
...of 880 metres per second...
...and could penetrate 167mm...
...of sloped armour at 1,000 metres...
...and 117mm even at 2,000 metres.
But when it came to taking punishment...
...as well as giving dishing it out...
...the Jagdtiger had few worries.
The front had armour...
...of between 100mm and 250mm...
...and even the side armour 80mm thick.
Even with its 122mm gun...
...the IS-2 would have to get...
...closer than 1000 metres...
...to stand a chance of doing damage...
...to the Jagdtiger’s front.
Access to the vehicle was pretty good...
...on top there was...
...a commander’s hatch...
...and a loader’s hatch.
The driver and radio operator...
...had their own hatches...
...just like the (regular) tanks...
...and a large, two piece door...
...in the rear of the superstructure...
...allowed further movement...
...and also removal of the gun...
...for maintenance or repair.
Now the interior is not complete...
...but it gives us the great idea...
...of the organisation and the layout.
Across to the left...
...we have the gunner’s position...
...and across to the right...
...we have the commander’s position.
You can also quite clearly see...
...the stowage racks...
...running down the side.
Of course there were also two loaders...
...positioned left and right...
...to the main armament.
They had to have easy access...
...to the ammunition.
The reason being of course...
......the ammunition is by no means...
...light-weight.
The final two crew members...
...the driver and the radio operator...
...were situated up the front...
...as in a normal tank.
Coming as it did...
...right at the end of the war...
...the Jagdtiger...
...was never going to make...
...a strategic difference.
Only 85 were built...
...and even fewer saw service.
By the finish, most Jagdtigers...
...had been put out of action...
...by mechanical breakdown...
...rather than enemy fire.
As just one example...
...the only unit ever to have...
...a full complement of Jagdtigers...
...Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion 653...
...reported 42 serviceable Jagdtigers...
...on the 23rd of January 1945.
A week later...
...one had been knocked out...
...and 19 others had broken down...
...and were under repair.
But where they did manage to engage...
...enemy forces from an ambush position...
...they could do tremendous damage.
In one engagement, three Jagdtigers...
...destroyed 25 US tanks...
...and tank destroyers...
...without a single return round...
...penetrating their armour.
So at the end of the day...
...it was once again a case...
...of ‘too little; too late’...
...although for the Jagdtiger...
...it should probably be...
...‘too much; too late’.