D.A.K. INITIAL PRODUCTION TIGER

The Tiger was powered by a Maybach HL210 engine, a V12 motor rated at 650hp, and ran on standard fuel. Like most other German tanks, the engine was at the rear, driving an eight-speed transmission and drive sprockets in front. This new tank had lateral torsion bar suspension with overlapping road wheels and a hull roughly resembled the Pz. IV in that it did not extend over the tracks. By November of 1942, Henschel, after numerous design modifications, produced nearly 40 tanks. In August 1942, the first Tiger I tanks to be issued for combat were assigned to Heavy Panzer Battalion 502, first Company, on the Leningrad front. Additional Tigers were dispatched to Tunisia in November 1942 with 501st Battalion. When met on the battlefield for the first time, their legend was born.

DAK co-founder Craig Pierce enters the R/C tank community with his first kit, a 1/16 Tamiya Tiger 1. His enthusiasm for the North African campaign has manifested in a desire to depict one of the initial production Tigers that fought in Tunisia. But first, a little about the Tiger.

In May 1941, the German War Department issued a requirement for a 36 ton machine with a very specific purpose. This new heavy tank was to have frontal armor 100mm thick, and a gun capable of defeating 100mm armor at 1,500 meters. This new tank was coined the Tiger. Henschel und Sohn Krupp, and Porsche all sumitted proposals to meet the new specifications, but by the summer of 1942 test showed that only Henschel could meet all of the performance specifications, and were therefore awarded the production contract.