Tiger I



"Tiger I? Well, it seems that the Wehrmacht just invented it for sure, back when World War II was still around, and now it's about to get better, if you think."

--Su Ji-Hoon, The Return of Nazism

A Tiger I is a German heavy tank of World War II deployed from 1942 in Africa and Europe, usually in independent heavy tank battalions. Its final designation was ''Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E often shortened to Tiger''. The Tiger I gave the Wehrmacht its first armored fighting vehicle that mounted the 8.8 cm KwK 36 gun (not to be confused with the 8.8 cm Flak 36). 1,347 were built between August 1942 and August 1944. After August 1944, production of the Tiger I was phased out in favor of the Tiger II.

While the Tiger I has been called an outstanding design for its time, it was over-engineered, using expensive materials and labor-intensive production methods. The Tiger was prone to certain types of track failures and breakdowns, and was limited in range by its high fuel consumption. It was expensive to maintain, but generally mechanically reliable. It was difficult to transport, and vulnerable to immobilization when mud, ice and snow froze between its overlapping and interleaved Schachtellaufwerk-pattern road wheels, often jamming them solid. This was a problem on the Eastern Front in the muddy rasputitsa season and during extreme periods of cold.

In When the Cold Breeze Blows Away, it is used by the Nazi Union during World War III, and during the war, the Tiger I and the Tiger II are being produced together as well.