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Anyone who has seriously looked into researching a build on a Tiger Tank has in all likelihood found a minefield of information that can often times become overwhelming, leaving you with the sense that there are no accurate models of a Tiger Tank kits, and that you can never hope to accurately depict one as it should be.
Assorted Tiger experts abound and there is a wealth of information out there, which should be a good thing, but they never really seem to agree on any one point, or at least that’s how it often seems. So for me the answer has been to just start with some good basic information, pick a kit that seems good and just do it in whatever way pleases me and me alone.
Which is where reference material such as this book come in, because there are many, many books on the Tiger Tanks out there and many of them cost large ammounts of your hard earned cash. So what you need is a good, reasonably priced book that covers the essential basics and leaves you with the option to go further and spend more if you want to really get down to figuring out what wires went where and what they did when they got there.
And this book provides exactly that. Whilst it retails in New Zealand for around $50, which is the cost of an average kit, it is cheap compared to some that I have seen that can border on $200.
The main body of the book is broken up into three sections :
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Chapter One : Background and Description
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Chapter Two : Firepower
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Chapter Three : Protection
Chapter one gives a brief overview of the German Armour in use at the outset of the war, their opposition and the reasons behind the decision to build the Tiger I. It then moves on to give a reasonably thorough description of the Tiger I and each of the crew positions, with the roles each memeber played in the operation of the tank. Following this comes a similar description of the Tiger II before it then goes on to discuss the engines, transmissions, steering, fuel tanks, suspension, and tracks of each tank with a very good analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each area of both the Tiger I and the Tiger II.
Chapter two moves on to discuss the heart of the tank, the guns, and begins with an outline of the evolution of the 8.8cm FlaK 18 and the role it played in the type of gun the Tiger I ended up with. A quite indepth look at the gun used on the Tiger I is then followed by a very informative section on the various types of ammunition used, including the storage of the rounds. This is all then repeated for the Tiger II, including the development of the new gun, before moving on to look at the various optics used. The chapter conludes with a look at fire control systems and back-up systems, turret turning rates, secondary armament and other gun variants of the Tiger such as the Sturmtiger and Jagdtiger.
Chapter three covers the armour protection used on the Tigers starting with the Tiger I. It explains how and why armour works and then discusses the various allied contermeasures against armour in general and then the Tiger I in particular. This includes handheld anti-tank measures, anti-tank guns and anti-tank tanks. It then moves on to discuss the evolution of the Tiger II armour, including the differences between the “Porsche” and “Henschell” turrets before conluding with a look at allied tank destroyers and a brief look at allied opinions of the Tiger II.
Throughout this book are a lot of very nice full colour photos of museum examples of the Tigers, together with some good wartime photos, a lot of full colour diagrams and line drawings. This includes some very good interior shots as well as some particularly useful colour diagrams of the different ammunition used. There is also a lot of use of personal anecdotes from a former user, as well as wartime allied action reports. The information contained here is very good, very informative and is presented in a very easy to read and absorb manner. I would highly recommend this to anyone venturing in to Tiger territory and not being too sure where to start.
Tiger Tanks At War Authored by Michael Green and James D. Brown Published 2008 by Zenith Press 270mm x 212mm 128 pages Price : approx $50 NZDClick thumbnails to enlarge images.
