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Product Description
Product Description
As World War II entered its later stages and Germany was forced increasingly onto the defensive, the need for fast-moving mobile forces lessened and the Wehrmacht required better protected and more powerfully armed tanks. After debacles against the T-34, Hitler and the Panzerwaffe were determined not to be unprepared again. The result of this determination was the production of the heaviest and largest tank to see combat during World War II, the Tiger II or Konigstiger (Kingtiger). This title examines this formidable weapon, covering the problems and controversies surrounding its design and production as well as a detailed listing of every unit that was equipped with the Tiger II.
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Development of a heavy tank had already been initiated in 1937 by a contract awarded to the firm of Henschel und Sohn, Kassel. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Development of a heavy tank had already been initiated in 1937 by a contract awarded to the firm of Henschel und Sohn, Kassel. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Despite its small size, this book is one of the most valuable books about the Tiger II. It deals with many of the rumours and wrong information very clearly, and leaves the reader with a good impression about the vehicle.
The book contains information about the technical history of the Tiger II, as well as some information about the manoeuvrability and frontline survivability. The chapter about the operational history is perhaps a bit thin, but it is concise, and will serve most readers desires. Somewhat larger pictures would have been nice, but the information pressed into the 48 pages is still impressive.
With 8 beautiful colour plates (including 3-way drawings and one cut-away), lots of photos and scale drawings, this is also a book useful for modellers.
The book contains information about the technical history of the Tiger II, as well as some information about the manoeuvrability and frontline survivability. The chapter about the operational history is perhaps a bit thin, but it is concise, and will serve most readers desires. Somewhat larger pictures would have been nice, but the information pressed into the 48 pages is still impressive.
With 8 beautiful colour plates (including 3-way drawings and one cut-away), lots of photos and scale drawings, this is also a book useful for modellers.
Very much recommended to anyone interested in the Tiger II, as well as Panzer in general!
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Thomas L.Jentz & Hilary L. Doyle seem to be Ospreys A-team. Many Ospreys are apparently written by cutting and pasting from google or are merely abriged versions of larger works by the same author but not with these guys.
At the start of each of their books is an explanation of what sources they used, what they didn't and why and where they went.
With King Tiger they accessed reams of German technical documents, completely ignored the initial allied combat reports and assessments of the King Tiger post war and visited each of the 7 surviving King Tiger tanks in the western world to produce a concise and accurate history of the development of the tank. Much space is given to the initial development history, competing weapons considered in the prototypes, respective strengths and weaknesses of the Porsche v Henschel designs etc all in great detail with heavy emphasis on the technical side of things.
Its well illustrated with many photos I haven't seen before. The colour plates are useful for modellers, there are short but accurate and useful mini-historys of the units that used the tank (which agree with the more detailed info available in Tigers in Combat V1 & V2) and there is a very handy guide to the major modifications made to the tank as the design evolved. This was especially useful for me as I'm currently builing a 1:16 Scale Porsche King Tiger and some of the standard kit parts are from later versions of the tank.
Finally there is a remarkably sensible assessment of the King Tiger in combat challenging the myth that it was a dinosaur barely capable of movement and mechanically unreliable. The authors highlight that in early 1945 62% of PzIV's in action were servicable compared to 58% of King Tigers and 42% of Panthers. Equally the author points out that when driving to La Gleize in the Ardennes to visit the King Tiger in the market place there he frequently had to drive in low gear to negotiate the steep, winding and narrow roads. The fact that King Tigers made it there in winter proves that they were as manouverable as any other AFV.
I'm quite a demanding and hostile reviewer and freely admit that I look for errors. I found one: the colour plate of Tank 204 from the 501st SS heavy tank battalion in the Ardennes has its turret number drawn in blue with a yellow outline. Thats the colours of the 3rd company, not the 2nd. 204 should be in red with a white outline. Thats the only fault I could find in the entire book and coming from someone as picky as me thats a damn good compliment as to the quality of this book.
At the start of each of their books is an explanation of what sources they used, what they didn't and why and where they went.
With King Tiger they accessed reams of German technical documents, completely ignored the initial allied combat reports and assessments of the King Tiger post war and visited each of the 7 surviving King Tiger tanks in the western world to produce a concise and accurate history of the development of the tank. Much space is given to the initial development history, competing weapons considered in the prototypes, respective strengths and weaknesses of the Porsche v Henschel designs etc all in great detail with heavy emphasis on the technical side of things.
Its well illustrated with many photos I haven't seen before. The colour plates are useful for modellers, there are short but accurate and useful mini-historys of the units that used the tank (which agree with the more detailed info available in Tigers in Combat V1 & V2) and there is a very handy guide to the major modifications made to the tank as the design evolved. This was especially useful for me as I'm currently builing a 1:16 Scale Porsche King Tiger and some of the standard kit parts are from later versions of the tank.
Finally there is a remarkably sensible assessment of the King Tiger in combat challenging the myth that it was a dinosaur barely capable of movement and mechanically unreliable. The authors highlight that in early 1945 62% of PzIV's in action were servicable compared to 58% of King Tigers and 42% of Panthers. Equally the author points out that when driving to La Gleize in the Ardennes to visit the King Tiger in the market place there he frequently had to drive in low gear to negotiate the steep, winding and narrow roads. The fact that King Tigers made it there in winter proves that they were as manouverable as any other AFV.
I'm quite a demanding and hostile reviewer and freely admit that I look for errors. I found one: the colour plate of Tank 204 from the 501st SS heavy tank battalion in the Ardennes has its turret number drawn in blue with a yellow outline. Thats the colours of the 3rd company, not the 2nd. 204 should be in red with a white outline. Thats the only fault I could find in the entire book and coming from someone as picky as me thats a damn good compliment as to the quality of this book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Great book for modelers!
7 Dec 1998
Format:Paperback
This book is an invaluable source of information for plastic modelers building the German Tiger II.Color illustrations together with cutaway drawings provide accurate details of the interior layout of the tank.For future reference to the author, the addition of RAL numbers of paint colors as indexed to the colors in the illustrations in the book would be a possible improvement to be considered on this work.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A TII book friendly to your pocket
10 Aug 2000
Format:Paperback
This book is a small gem. Reference on this tank is as complete as can be packed in 48 pages. Not only development history is included, but also are packed gun tables, direct comparisons to opposite tanks, and unit history with order of battle. Unless you plan to buy Jentz and Hillary more complete books, this is a must for the modeller and historian!
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Mediocre as an overview, good on development
14 Mar 2005
Format:Paperback
When the casual reader buys a Vanguard book, it's for a general history -- some notes on development, some notes on deployment, some notes on upgrades and color schemes through the life of the vehicle, some notes on combat history, a short assessment of the vehicle's performance, and finally, if there's any space left over, a "where are they now" section for current service or where to find them in museums.
This book, which masquerades as an overview, is remarkably shallow on everything but development. In my opinion, that's a rather odd decision to make regarding a small folio-style overview with some color paintings in the middle of in-action vehicles. Most modelers will not be interested in knowing that on so-and-so a date, this experimental hull was modified in this-or-that way. The color plates are nice but there's little on the vehicle's usage to tie them into the text.
It doesn't help that the text is very dryly written.
Many of the other Osprey Vanguard books do a much better job at providing a good overview of the vehicles they cover, particularly the titles written by Zaloga. I'd pass on this one unless you are primarliy interested in the development of the vehicle.
This book, which masquerades as an overview, is remarkably shallow on everything but development. In my opinion, that's a rather odd decision to make regarding a small folio-style overview with some color paintings in the middle of in-action vehicles. Most modelers will not be interested in knowing that on so-and-so a date, this experimental hull was modified in this-or-that way. The color plates are nice but there's little on the vehicle's usage to tie them into the text.
It doesn't help that the text is very dryly written.
Many of the other Osprey Vanguard books do a much better job at providing a good overview of the vehicles they cover, particularly the titles written by Zaloga. I'd pass on this one unless you are primarliy interested in the development of the vehicle.
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