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The Tiger self-propelled anti-tank gun is an anti-tank self-propelled gun equipped by Germany during World War II, which was in service from the late 1944 to the end of the war, and was used in the war on both the Eastern and Western Fronts.

Historically, with the success of the No. 3 assault gun as an anti-tank self-propelled gun, the military leadership of Nazi Germany decided to use the chassis of the existing armored combat vehicle as the chassis for the anti-tank self-propelled gun. The Tiger uses a fixed turret structure, which allows the Tiger to be equipped with a larger caliber gun than a rotatable turret structure with the same chassis, and the fixed turret structure also reduces the manufacturing cycle and cost, as there are fewer complex mechanics required to assemble a fixed turret.

At the beginning of 1942, the High Command of the Wehrmacht issued a request to equip self-propelled armored chassis with 128mm caliber guns. On May 18, 1942, Führer Adolf Hitler demanded that 128mm guns should be equipped with anti-tank combat rather than supporting infantry. Shooting tests showed that the 128mm caliber gun had a good shooting accuracy, while the relatively small caliber 88mm and 105mm caliber guns were also tested.

In 1943, the High Command decided to use a 128mm caliber gun to match the chassis of the Leopard or Tiger tank, but the results of the wooden model proved that the chassis of the Leopard tank did not fit. On October 20, 1943, another wooden model was assembled on the chassis of a King Tiger tank and was shown in front of East Prussia, the Führer. Subsequently, two prototypes were designed, one with eight load wheels for the Bolscher suspension (number 305001) and the other for the Henschel suspension (number 305002) with nine staggered load wheels. In February 1944, the product using the King Tiger chassis left the factory, and at first, it was named the Cheetah Type VI and later the Cheetah. The official Wehrmacht armament number of the Tiger Hunter anti-tank destroyer was Sd.Kfz.186.

Just as the Cheetah anti-tank destroyer is derived from the Leopard tank, the Hunting Tiger is designed from the tank. The Hunting Tiger had an elongated King Tiger chassis, to which was attached a square fixed turret. The effect of this configuration is that the Tiger is equipped with heavy protective armor and a 128mm PaK44L/55 gun capable of penetrating any tank of World War II.

The thickness of the frontal protective armor of the turret of the Tiger reached 250 mm, and the thickness of the frontal armor of the hull also reached 150 mm. The firing range of the main gun was only 10 degrees, which made it necessary for the Tiger to turn the hull to aim at the target.

Due to the exaggerated weight of the vehicle and the obvious lack of horsepower, the Tiger also had a number of mechanical and technical problems. When performing combat missions, hunting tigers often break anchor. According to known records, none of the Allied guns were able to penetrate the Hunting Tiger's frontal armor. In fact, the vast majority of Tiger Hunting are discarded due to mechanical failures and lack of fuel, and not due to attacks from the enemy.

On the other hand, the Tiger Hunter's 128mm PaK44L/55 gun was originally intended for the heaviest Rat tank in history. However, many people know that even after the end of the war, none of the rats will be able to be put into battle, and not even a physical tank will be able to be launched...

Germany in this era, if there is no Yan Guang, may continue to develop according to the original historical trajectory.

The defeat in World War I, the rise after the defeat, and the sweep across Europe in World War II, all the way to Moscow, then the Russians pushed back to Berlin, and finally ended in Hitler's suicide.

But it was precisely because of the appearance of Yan Guang that the history of Germany changed somewhat.

For example, Russia, Germany's greatest enemy, is not as strong as it was historically.

For example, due to the stimulation of the strict light, many new gadgets appeared earlier than the original history.

For example, Tiger Pose, for example, Tiger King, for example, Tiger Hunting...

The birth of the Tiger Style, the Tiger King and the Tiger Hunt was due to the stimulation caused by the new tanks equipped by China during the Sino-German exchange period, especially to Germany, especially Hitler. …,

Hitler was a stubborn man, which, combined with his own interest in tanks, made it impossible for him to tolerate any other country being stronger than Germany in tanks.

So during the period when Hitler was in power, new tanks were built.

Originally, for the Germans, in 42 years, it may have been the heaviest Tiger type, Tiger King or something, but due to the exposure of tanks such as ZT-40 and ZT-41 on the Asian battlefield, the Tiger King and Tiger Hunter, which were specially used to deal with them, also appeared.

Especially the tiger hunting...

Although the Tiger's 128mm gun has a magnification of only 55, it can still easily penetrate the ZT-41's frontal armor of up to 200 mm.

On the other hand, although the ZT-41 is equipped with a 105mm L/68 gun, it is not easy to penetrate the frontal armor of the Hunting Tiger up to 250mm in the case of tungsten core shells...

Fortunately, although the Germans made tanks such as Tiger Hunter and King Tiger, the time was still short after all, and the production did not increase. In addition, although after communicating with Chinese engineers, German engineers paid more attention to simplification than usual, making the production cost and man-hours of the tank much better than that of the same type of tank in history, but there were still big problems in terms of reliability.

In addition, they had to gallop from a distant battlefield, and many tanks and anti-tank vehicles had to stay in place due to breakdowns, so there were not many German tanks arriving on the battlefield, and a considerable number of them were only Leopard tanks...

As for why the Wehrmacht was not armed with self-propelled anti-tank guns like the Tiger?

After having a large air force and army, the Wehrmacht was more inclined to take the initiative to attack, so although the General Armament Department also developed several anti-tank assault vehicles with good performance, they were not taken by the army in the end.

The army still prefers tanks like the ZT-40 and ZT-41 to those anti-tank assault vehicles.

As for how to solve the opposing tanks? In the eyes of the army generals, as long as their tanks are always stronger than the opponent's, this is naturally not a problem.

And at the moment it is clear that China's technology in armor is significantly stronger than that of other countries in the world, and even tank powers such as Germany or Russia need to be subservient to China...

In this case, it is naturally not necessary to develop tank destroyers that are significantly stronger in defense than in attack.

There are also reasons for the emergence of tank destroyers.

During World War II, the development of tank armored vehicles advanced by leaps and bounds, and the weight of tanks increased rapidly from about 10 tons before World War II to 30 tons, and some heavy tanks also reached 40 tons, 50 tons or even more than 60 tons. The caliber of artillery has also been rapidly upgraded from the mainstream 37 mm before World War II to 75 mm, 76 mm, 85 mm, 88 mm, 122 mm, etc., and the protection and firepower of tanks have been greatly improved. In this way, a sharp question arises. To deal with the increasingly impenetrable armor of enemy tanks, more powerful artillery is needed, and the thickness of the armor of enemy tanks will also increase and become thicker, and the power of artillery will be more demanding

In this way, the full weight of the tank rises rapidly, almost exceeding the limit that the power system can bear, thus affecting the maneuverability of the tank. The armored forces of many countries are trying to solve such a difficult problem. In the face of an increasingly powerful opponent, how to make the armored vehicle overwhelm the opponent in firepower as soon as possible, without causing the armored vehicle to be overweight due to the increase in firepower.

In order to solve this dilemma, the designers of tank armored vehicles in various countries at that time racked their brains. Although some designers know that this is a technical bottleneck, they still try to break through the brute force, blindly increasing the armor thickness and artillery power, and as a result, they have designed a heavy tank like the "Tiger King" with superior firepower and protection but extremely weak mobility, and the extreme of this brute road is the crazy "rat" super heavy tank, how this 180-ton guy is sent to the front line is a headache ――――――but don't worry too much, because the front line will automatically move closer to it). …,

Practice has proved that before there is no major breakthrough in the technical level, it is by no means a good way to solve the problem. Other designers were more nimble, and their idea was to mount large-caliber guns on a movable chassis as much as possible (including reduced protection, turretless design, etc.) to take on the task of destroying the enemy's advanced tanks before their more powerful tanks were available. So a new tank was introduced, and that was the tank destroyer.

In World War II, most of the tank destroyers of various countries were modified from off-the-shelf tank chassis, and most of them were designed without turrets to install more powerful guns, which were specially designed to hunt enemy tanks. This kind of "surprise soldier" idea of taking the sword off the edge was once very popular. However, with the emergence and development of the main battle tank after the war, the mainstream of armored combat vehicle design has returned to the path of pursuing the balanced development of firepower, mobility and armor protection.

This is also the reason why Yan Guangming knew that tank destroyers were extremely brilliant during World War II, but after the generals of the army abandoned this equipment, they did not insist too much.

At this time, the Wehrmacht, heavy tanks have ZT-41 tanks, and there are also medium ZT-40 tanks with high mobility, coupled with strong air support, the current Wehrmacht is the attacking side, and the so-called tank destroyers are indeed not very needed...

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"Anyway, let's kill them first!!"

Seeing that the number of the other party seemed to be about the same as his own, although several of his own tanks were destroyed, Li Mo was taken aback. But after calming down for a while, Li Mo gave an order.

Although Li Mo's subordinates were also surprised by the appearance of the Tiger King and the Tiger Hunter, after hearing Li Mo's order, they did not hesitate to launch an attack against the Germans.

"Bang !!"

Although they don't know the performance of the opposite tank, looking at the appearance of the Tiger King and the Tiger Hunter, the tank soldiers in the tank also know that the opponent on the opposite side can never be a fish belly, so the first shot is a tungsten core bullet.

Unlike barren Germany, China is a big tungsten producer, although this name is somewhat unworthy of the name in later generations, but at least this era is still so, so the tank troops are equipped with a considerable number of tungsten core bullets, enough to make the German tank soldiers drool...

At this time, with the ZT-41's 105mm L/68 gun, even the thickest frontal armor of the King Tiger tank at a distance of 2000 meters can ensure breakdown in most cases...

In fact, not only the ZT-41, but even the ZT-40 can penetrate the frontal armor of the King Tiger most of the time, after all, the 85mm gun equipped with the ZT-40 also has a diameter of 71. Although the caliber of the 85mm gun is 3mm smaller than the 88mm gun equipped by the King Tiger, the power of the 85mm gun is stronger than that of the 88mm gun when paired with tungsten core bullets...

"Boom !!"

Soon after a King Tiger was punctured, it exploded.

On the other hand, the fastest Leopard and ZT-40 were the first to collide.

Seriously, the Leopard is probably the same class of tanks as the ZT-40, at least the weight of the two is about the same, plus the thickness of the armor. If there is anything else that the ZT-40 is stronger than the Leopard, it is probably that the ZT-40 uses an arrow-shaped turret, which is better than the Leopard in terms of protection.

On the other hand, in terms of maneuverability, the ZT-40 is also much stronger than the Leopard, and can even reach speeds of up to 55 kilometers per hour. At the same time, the 85mm gun equipped with the ZT-40 is also more powerful than the 75mm gun of the Leopard, and even stronger enough to penetrate the Tiger and the Tiger King at a distance of 2,000 meters.

But if it's a contest between two medium tanks, then there's nothing ......,

Because the thickness of the turret of the two is almost 120 mm, and whether it is the Leopard 75mm L/71 gun or the ZT-40 85mm L/71 gun, it is too easy to penetrate the opponent.

Therefore, the most important question for victory is which side fires first and which side hits first...

At the same time, the ZT-41 heavy tank under Li Mo's command also began to try to attack the Tiger Hunter, which had been hiding in the rear.

It's just that at a distance of more than 2,000 meters, even with tungsten core bullets, it is very difficult to penetrate the frontal armor of the Hunting Tiger.

As for targeting weaknesses or something? This is a battlefield, not a game, how can it be so accurate?

What's more, even in the game, whether it can hit is one thing, whether it can hit accurately is also a problem, not to mention that in the game, the general firefight distance is still three or five hundred meters, or even one or two hundred meters...

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After the exchange of fire between the two sides, the battle was very fierce, and both sides soon suffered considerable losses.

However, in the process of fighting, although the ZT-40 and ZT-41 under Li Mo were able to suppress the Leopard, Tiger and Tiger King on the opposite side, they were quite inexplicable to the tiger hunt. Because unless it is at a distance of 1000 meters, the ZT-41's 105mmL/68x diameter gun may be able to penetrate the Tiger Hunter, but the rest is not to be thought of...

On the contrary, the 128mm gun of the Tiger Hunt has the possibility of destroying the ZT-41 even at a distance of 2000 meters, not to mention a medium tank like the ZT-40.

"Strange, how could the Germans have such a strong thing ..."

Because of the relationship between the regiment commander, Li Mo's tank did not need to go to the front line, so he could have more time to observe the opponent.

And when he saw that as long as the hunting tiger on the opposite side could hit the opponent, he could more or less take away the opponent, Li Mo was quite surprised.

It was also at this time that Li Mo changed his view of the tank destroyer that he didn't care about very much.

On the other hand, the German commanders were also quite surprised.

After learning that the troops on the front line exchanged fire with the Chinese armored forces, the German commander who got the situation originally wanted to send some No. 3 and No. 4 or something, at most it was a Leopard or something, after all, these tanks were more mobile and reliable, and they could arrive on the battlefield in a relatively short time.

However, upon learning of this, Manstein sent out heavy tanks such as the Tiger King and the Tiger Hunter. Even for this reason, it is likely that the time for assistance will be delayed.

Because Manstein, who had been to China and knew about Chinese tank technology, knew very well that if Zhenpai No. 3 or No. 4 went, although the time would definitely be in time, the final fate of these tanks would definitely be worrying.

So in the end, Manstein sent the Tiger King and the Tiger Hunter, who represented the highest technology of German tanks.

And things are indeed as Manstein thought, if he really sent No. 3 and No. 4, even if there is a leopard, I am afraid that in the end they will only be greeted by a one-sided slaughter, but after sending the Tiger King and the Tiger Hunter, although the battle situation is somewhat stalemate, and the Tiger King may not be the opponent of ZT-41, but in the case of such a big thing as Tiger Hunting, it is not easy for Li Mo to win.

"We have to kill the tank destroyers on the other side..."

Thinking so, Li Mo grabbed the radio and said to the battalion commander of the second battalion of his subordinates.

"You go, take a few tanks, and destroy the tank destroyer on the opposite side for me!!"

"Understood."

Although he was well aware of the danger of the mission, but also understood that the existence of tiger hunting was an obstacle, the commander of the ZT-40 tank battalion, Gan Liang, replied directly after receiving the order. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to subscribe to the mobile network (.), reward, your support is my biggest motivation. )……，