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Henschel won the design contract, and all Tiger IIs were produced by the firm. Design A model depicting the curved front of the first version of the Krupp turret (erroneously called "Porsche turret") Porsche's unorthodox designs gathered little favour. Another proposal was to use hydraulic drives Dr. The Porsche suspension components were later used on a few of the later Jagdtiger tank destroyers. This method of propulsion had been used on the rejected Tiger (P) design, which had been rebuilt as Elefant, and in some US designs and was put into production in the French World War I era Saint-Chamond tank and post-World War I Char 2C. One Porsche version had a gasoline-electric drive (fundamentally identical to a Diesel-electric transmission, only using a gasoline-fueled engine as the prime mover), similar to a gasoline-electric hybrid but without a storage battery two separate drivetrains in parallel, one per side of the tank, each consisting of a hybrid drive train gasoline engine– electric generator–electric motor–drive sprocket.
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This had six road wheels per side mounted in paired bogies sprung with short longitudinal torsion bars that were integral to the wheel pair this saved internal space and facilitated repairs. The suspension was the same as on the Elefant tank destroyer. The Porsche hull designs included a rear-mounted turret and a mid-mounted engine.
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To simplify maintenance, however, the wheels were only overlapping without being interleaved-the full Schachtellaufwerk rubber-rimmed road-wheel system that had been in use on nearly all German half-tracks used the interleaved design, later inherited by the Tiger I and Panther. It had a rear-mounted engine and used nine steel-tired, eighty-centimetre-diameter overlapping road wheels per side with internal springing, mounted on transverse torsion bars, in a similar manner to the original Henschel-designed Tiger I. The Henschel version used a conventional hull design with sloped armour resembling the layout of the Panther tank. Supreme commander of the allied forces in Europe General Eisenhower walks by an overturned Tiger II destroyed in Falaise pocket August 1944 The main differences were in the hull, transmission, suspension and automotive features. Both prototype series used the same turret design from Krupp. Another design contract followed in 1939, and was given to Porsche. Development ĭevelopment of a heavy tank design had been initiated in 1937 the initial design contract was awarded to Henschel. It was first used in combat by 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion during the Allied invasion of Normandy on 11 July 1944 on the Eastern Front, the first unit to be outfitted with the Tiger II was the 501st Heavy Panzer Battalion, which by 1 September 1944 listed 25 Tiger IIs operational. The Tiger II was issued to heavy tank battalions of the Army and the Waffen-SS. The chassis was also the basis for the Jagdtiger turretless Jagdpanzer anti-tank vehicle. It was armed with the long barrelled (71 calibres) 8.8 cm KwK 43 anti-tank cannon. The tank weighed almost 70 tonnes, and was protected by 100 to 185 mm (3.9 to 7.3 in) of armour to the front. The Tiger II was the successor to the Tiger I, combining the latter's thick armour with the armour sloping used on the Panther medium tank. Contemporaneous Allied soldiers usually called it the King Tiger or Royal Tiger.
![ascii art tiger tank ascii art tiger tank](http://lh4.ggpht.com/-AttbdEgjboU/T5Px54vByLI/AAAAAAAAJ0g/XkYoMM9naw4/w700/tank_22.png)
It was also known informally as the Königstiger ( German for Bengal tiger and also, literally, "King Tiger"). The ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. The Tiger II was a German heavy tank of the Second World War.