It has become a running joke that German tanks were prone to mechanical failures.
This certainly has some truth to it with one prime example being the final drives on early
Panthers being exceptionally fragile. However one vehicle and its variants have become the primary
target of many of these jokes largely due to its rivalry with the famous Henschel Tiger.
Our focus today is on the lesser known German Heavy known as the Porsche Tiger or Tiger(P).
Often we have heard the story of this tank and its unreliable electric transmission which
caused it to easily catch fire. What if I told you that neither of those issues were actually
true? The tank certainly wasn't perfect but stay tuned to learn the real story behind
this heavy tank and how it failed for different reasons than you may have previously believed.
As I mentioned in the intro, tanks and other armored vehicles are often prone to
breakdowns as well as being fairly supply heavy to operate. Whether it be spare parts or fuel tanks,
and particularly heavy tanks, are hungry beasts. Similarly us measly humans need to fuel ourselves
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Living in the shadow of its cousin the Henschel Tiger, the Porsche Tiger is often dismissed as
little more than a failed rival of the more iconic design. This in many ways is true with
Porsche being contracted to create a 25 to 30 ton tank design several years after Henschel
had already been hard at work on vehicles like the Durchbruchswagen. However, the competition
between the two firms was hardly one sided and the Tiger we know today did not win by a landslide.
Although it would not be born for another several years, the Porsche Tiger’s conception
can be traced back to late 1939. At that time the requirements were a vehicle in the 25 to 30
ton weight class fitting a 7.5cm Kw.K. L/24 or a larger 10.5cm cannon if possible. From
the very start Porsche’s tank was to be different with him deciding a mechanical transmission would
not be enough for such a heavy beast and instead electric generators and hydraulic drives would be
necessary. This would result in the first ancestor to the Porsche Tiger, known as the Type 100,
with a sketch completed on the 9th of December 1939. This vehicle would be 8 meters long,
3 meters wide, with a height of 2.25 meters. Over the course of development this tank,
like many German vehicles, would be referred to by a variety of names. Most recognizable to the
casual viewer would probably be “VK 30.01(P)” with the 30 referring to its weight which
unsurprisingly was around 15 tons under the vehicle's actual weight. The tank would ride
atop Porsche's take on the torsion bar system which unlike other German designs used bogey
pairs mounted externally rather than internal ones like those found on the Panther or Tiger.
By early 1941 contracts were awarded for production of three test vehicles with
Krupp to provide hulls, Steyr to provide engines, and Siemens-Schueckert to provide
the electrical components. It was also around this point that the armament was increased to
the 8.8cm Kw.K L/56 making the Porsche design the first to utilize this armament. On a side-note,
it is often said that the invasion of the Soviet Union was what drove the Germans to move to the
more powerful 88mm to deal with T-34s and KVs. In reality the capabilities of that armament were
already clear and the need for more powerful cannons had been shown during the invasion
of France with vehicles like the Char B1 and Matildas. Even for the Tiger program itself
the “T-34 shock” did play a role in increasing the development and production speed of the
vehicles but these designs predated the invasion. Back to the VK 30.01 (P), it was powered by twin
V-10 gasoline engines. With this the tank had a total of 420 horsepower which would power the
electric generators. These in turn would provide power to the drive sprockets. Unfortunately
nothing regarding the testing for the Type 100 seems to have survived outside of some photos
showing it during testing with a simulated turret weight. The hull itself was built with soft steel
as by this point the orders for 30.01 armor plates were canceled in favor of armored hulls for the
new VK 45.01 (P). This new design designated as the Type 101 by Porsche was essentially the same
as the previous with only a few changes. The biggest alteration from the previous design
was the major increase in armor thickness with the front now boasting 100mms and the sides and
rear being 80mms thick. The engines were the second major change remaining as dual V-10
gasoline engines but now upgraded to output 310 horsepower a piece for a total of 620 horsepower.
These would still provide their power for electric generators but the drive sprocket was moved from
the front to the rear freeing up space in the drivers compartment. The turret would remain the
same as the previous design although alongside the development of the hull it would receive
improvements. Around this time it was also decided to use this same turret for Henschel’s VK 45.01 as
many of you likely already figured out. This would also mark the point when the name “Tiger '' would
begin to be attached to the vehicle with the previous design being referred to as “Leopard”.
1 month after the invasion of the Soviet Union on July 22nd 1941 Porsche would submit a contract to
Krupp for 100 VK 45.01(P) hulls and 100 turrets. Usually in articles or videos about the Porsche
Tiger this is the portion where the story of Porsche being so confident in his design that
he ordered these only to have his tank fail during trials. This certainly has some merit
as Hitler had only ordered 6 prototypes of the Porsche and Henschel designs. This
story overlooks the fact that in the same month Henschel would also receive a contract from the
German Armored Vehicle design office for 100 VK 45.01(H) hulls. Considering Hitler and Porsche
were close friends combined with the fact that Porsche had fairly quickly developed a vehicle
which Henschel had spent years working on it’s understandable why he and others may have had
more confidence in the Porsche design. That being said it’s clear from surviving documents that the
army was not as enthused by the Porsche vehicles compared to their Fuhrer. With
this additional context the extremely rushed nature of both Tigers seems to have led both
designs to be fast tracked into production before either had finished their first vehicle.
Earlier I mentioned that Porsche had his sights set on not just electrical generators to drive
the tanks but also hydraulics. This would be seen in the next alteration to the VK 45.01(P) with
Porsche informing Krupp that 50 of the 100 total hulls that had been ordered were to be configured
for this system. This design was designated Type 102 and externally differed very little
from its electric sibling. Interestingly these two similar yet distinctly different vehicles
are strikingly similar to the American heavy tank program being worked on during this period which
would become the M6 as we have discussed in a previous video. This idea for the Porsche Tiger
would turn out to be a fool's errand though with only one of these ever being tested in the hull.
Other short lived ideas for the vehicle included emergency hatches in the vehicles
sides which were removed due to the fact that they weakened the armor. There was
also a concept to mount a 105mm cannon into a larger turret but this would only see limited
development never leaving the drawing board. The first 4 hulls would be finished by December
1941, with a total of 64 hulls completed by July of 42. Despite the fairly large
number of hulls available the first complete tank would not be ready until April with only
10 completed by October 1942. These production issues were largely attributed to issues with
the engines. The first Type 101 engine had been finished quickly and was delivered in December
of 41 but equally as quickly showed a flaw in the design. Foaming was found within the engine
oil which caused bearings to fail. This issue was quickly resolved and the next engine proved
this as it ran without any foaming. Despite this the engine would continue to have issues
due to cooling and rapid wear, unsurprising for a new design, but still a major issue
for the production of the tank. A similarly concerning issue would be discovered during
testing of the armored hulls when a 7.5cm FK 16 field gun punched clean through the 100mm upper
plate. This flaw was more easily resolved with a decision to face harden future frontal plates.
A demonstration of the two Tigers for Hitler would finally take place on his birthday,
April 20th 1942, with both the Porsche and Henschel designs being delivered two days
prior. According to Henschel's chief designer Erwin Aders upon arrival at the rail depot near
Hitlers headquarters the Porsche design struggled to traverse under its own power and after the
Henschel team left with their tank the steam crane used to unload the tanks was restarted
and repositioned the tank. It’s not clear exactly what caused this issue in turning but when we
consider that the tracks were eventually widened from 500mms to 600mms it may be related to that.
Despite this reported failure during delivery it seems that when the vehicles were actually
shown to Hitler the Porsche stole the show. According to Dr Aders the majority of the
demonstration time was dedicated to the Krupp designed turret and Porsche tank with only a few
minutes for the Henschel design. Obviously this is coming from a fairly biased source
so may not be entirely accurate but considering the other factors we already discussed it seems
likely that the higher ups were leaning towards the Porsche design at that point.
Unfortunately for Porsche this early success would begin to crumble as the aforementioned engine
issues continued to cripple production. During testing in June an engine lasted only 50 hours
before insufficient cooling caused a breakdown. One thing that the tank did not have issues with,
despite it being a running joke nowadays, were the electric transmissions. These seem
to have functioned largely without issue with no spontaneous fires or breakdowns.
In fact it reportedly worked better than the mechanical transmission of their rivals Tiger.
This same system would be used on the later Maus super heavy tank and featured desirable
characteristics for a tank such as good torque. Both the Henschel and Porsche Tigers would be
accepted for service on August 15th, 1942 with the Porsche design receiving the designation
Panzerkampfwagen VI (P). Though still unfinished it was requested by Hitler that the initial batch
of Porsche Tigers would be sent to Rommel in North Africa as their air cooled engines in
his mind were better for that environment. As we know this would never actually come to pass,
but interestingly Tiger 131 which did reach North Africa bore a turret originally built
for a Porsche Tiger. Production of both vehicles would continue simultaneously for several months
until a pause was placed on the Porsche vehicles in October 1942. With Henschel
now having surpassed the production numbers of Porsche by nearly double, a decision needed to be
made. The continued production of two essentially identical vehicles was a drain on resources that
could not be afforded and so a final test was set for November 8th 1942. For the final time Tiger
(H) and Tiger (P) would face off in the arena with only one emerging as the victor. This time,
however, Porsche’s creation would not be looked upon as favorably. Both vehicles had faults and it
can be argued that mechanically the Henschel and Porsche designs were similarly flawed. Regardless
of this the decision was soon made on November 22nd to stop production of Porsche Tigers and
instead 90 of the total 100 hulls that had been ordered were to be instead used for what would
eventually become the Ferdinand. The turrets which had been ordered were to be converted to
hydraulic traverse and used for Henschel Tiger production. Though the story of the Ferdinand
deserves a video of its own this is not quite the end for Porsche’s heavy tank. A single example of
the Porsche Tiger would see combat on the eastern front alongside its tank destroyer
brethren. Being refitted with two Maybach engines instead of the Type 101 it also received an extra
100mm plate on its front and wider tracks like the Ferdinands or as they were now known the Elefants.
Configured as a command tank and slathered in a fresh coat of Zimmerit it would act as
the command vehicle for the 653rd Tank Destroyer battalion. It would also be accompanied by three
Bergepanzer VI built on the Porsche chassis. This would be a short lived service with the
tank being reported in the unit on July 18th 1944 and then only 4 days later on the 22nd it
was gone. Whether it was lost in combat or simply broke down and was abandoned is impossible to say.
The Porsche Tiger in its original configuration sadly has not survived to this day with only a
few Ferdinands surviving. You may also run into this vehicle, known as the Rammtiger,
which 3 hulls were reportedly set aside to be built on. I will likely cover these in the future
when I find more info but one common misconception I can clear up now is their intended use. These
were not to be used to ram enemy tanks rather they would be used as essentially armored demolition
vehicles to knock down buildings. One supposed photo of this vehicle has been circulated online
but to me it appears to be clever photoshop. Though the story of the Porsche Tiger is not one
of a perfect vehicle more capable than its rival it is far from the flawed failure so many make
it out to be. Had events changed even slightly there is a strong chance the Porsche design could
have been chosen over the Henschel. According to one book by Thomas Jentz and Hilary Doyle they
posit that had the Porsche design not experienced engine issues, the VK36.01 hull not been as easily
modified to accept the Krupp turret, or several other circumstances been altered the Tiger tank
we see in our history books would have been far different. Though as we see from later information
gathered from Armaments Minister Albert Speer it most likely would also not have been the Porsche
Tiger in the configurations we discussed today. The electrical propulsion seems to have worked
well even surpassing the mechanical transmission of the Tiger (H) but with that came a higher cost
with it requiring copper. Speer states that much of the reason behind the rejection of electrical
propulsion was due to already high demands for copper for U-Boats and other programs. This is
only one of several issues he had with the vehicle claiming it to be quote “unusable”. Realistically
the Tiger we know of today was almost certainly the correct choice out of the two vehicles and I
don’t want your takeaway from this video to be that the Porsche Tiger was an amazingly
flawless machine. I merely want to show that there was far more to this story than what you
have likely heard from other online sources. The reality of the Tiger program was that it
was an extremely rushed and massively flawed mess with both designs featuring mechanical
issues. It would also mark a shift in German tank design towards heavier and heavier vehicles which
would become one of many factors that led to Speer's view of the war as lost by mid 1943.
So what do you think of the story of Porsche’s tiger? Was it a good design ahead of its time
or simply another rushed German project doomed for failure. Let me know your thoughts in the
comments below. I want to give one last thanks to Factor for sponsoring this video and a reminder to
check them out using that link in the description for 50% off your first box. Thanks as always to
my youtube members as well for their support of my content which is greatly appreciated. If you
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