Although the Tiger did have a number of faults in its design it would be an exaggeration
to say it was cursed by those aspects alone.
However, this does not mean that there are no variations to the vehicle which fit into
this series.
In today’s episode we will be looking at one of those early features which never saw
combat known as Vorpanzer.
The word Vorpanzer translates roughly to fore-armor or front armor and can be seen on several
different German tanks during the war.
These include both the Panzer III and Panzer IV which each received additional spaced armor
on the front.
I’ll be covering these in more detail in a future video on spaced armor but I bring
them up here to show that this was not a concept specific to today’s topic.
As for its introduction to the Tiger this can be traced to May of 1941.
The German Armor design office gave a contract to Henschel to redesign the VK 45.01(H) in
order to give it the ability to mount a turret with an 88mm cannon but also additional armor
to protect the drive sprockets and tracks as a sort of armored skirt.
This protective plate would be retractable allowing it to drop into place for combat
and then be stowed for transport or when moving off road.
As a plate of this size would be quite heavy to lift by hand it was fitted with hydraulics
to allow it to move easily up and down.
Also included in this added armor were solid plates above the tracks which look very similar
to the later fenders the final vehicle would receive.
However we can see clearly in the few photos of the prototype with the Vorpanzer system
that these were fixed plates which were part of the mid plate.
Although I could not seem to find information on the thickness of the added armor it seems
safe to assume the fixed portion would have been the same 60mms as the midplate.
This would have simplified the production of those plates and removed extra mounting
points or welding.
Estimating off of this the retractable portion appears to be roughly half this thickness
so my best guess is somewhere between 25 and 40mms thick on the edges.
These were then bolted to another plate in the center which may be slightly thicker but
it is very hard to tell from the photos.
If you happen to know of information about the thickness please let me know in the comments.
Although some early production Tigers do still bear some features related to the Vorpanzer
mounting only 2 hulls were ever fully equipped with it.
These were the first prototype Tiger and one of the armor test hulls which was used for
firing trials.The photos of the test hull give us a better view of how this armor was
mounted as well as the cutaway portion of the midplate which allowed the hydraulic arms
to fold and unfold the skirt.
Despite this concept seemingly offering superior protection to a traditionally armored tank
especially for the tracks it came with its own set of issues.
For one it added weight which is rarely a good thing for any vehicle.
It also would have added more complexity to the production process as these plates would
need to be manufactured and the mounting holes and hydraulics for the system would need to
be added.
When looking at the hull which was subjected to firing trials we can also see that the
vorpanzer is missing from the hull after it was shot at.
We can still see the hydraulic arms hanging so it seems likely that the plate was either
blown off while testing or was removed for some other reason.
However if it was able to be easily shot off this could have been seen as problematic since
this could potentially impede the Tiger’s movement.
Not to mention an additional armor plate does little to protect the front of the vehicle
if it can’t stand up to repeated impacts.
Regardless of the reason for the removal, the idea of Vorpanzer on the Tiger I was canned
in April of 1942 right as Tiger production was starting.
As I mentioned earlier some early Tigers do bear some hints of it although this seems
to just be limited to a flat edge shown here which was to act as a stop for the arm.
In later Tigers this was eliminated with it being a rounded edge instead.
With the Tiger being such a famous vehicle the Vorpanzer armor does seem to be a largely
overlooked piece of its history and something I only stumbled across recently while working
on a different video.
I wouldn’t go as far as to say this has been forgotten since most in-depth histories
of the vehicle mention it, but it certainly isn’t as well known as other aspects of
the tank.
So had you ever heard of this before my video, let me know in the comments, and if you have
anything to add please feel free to leave that there as well.
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