@@albinskold8792 don't need to pen that plate, one hesh shell and the armor itself becomes the projectile not to mention a chance hit directly on the bow gun (thinner armor I could imagine)
@@albinskold8792 hesh was developed in the late 40's, if a hesh round was ever fired at a king tiger I don't know(they were developed for fortifications), there was also heat weapons that Infantry carried, could probably pen the front plate as well
Being from Belgium myself, I visited the beast as well. An interesting thing I heard from talking to a local; The barrel is a replica, as an unknown farmer used the real one as a support for the roof of his barn when the war was over. The tank was not destroyed, it was just abandoned by the crew as they ran out of fuel.
From Belgium to the farmer took the barrel for the main support of the farm y passed in a British TV show the big beer belly presentator buy ww2 stuff for old strong farmer for nothing (y don't know and respect the real price of the masterpiece of glory history of the battle of Ardenne thank for all soldiers for liberate and bleed and sharing the pain of the Belgian people in conditional respect
In my town 6x152mm 1898 French field guns captured by Germans was sent here to Norway to be part of Atlantic wall. (cant remember the exact caliber in mm) 2 of them are left (1 is restored), 2 got scrapped and 2 became (or the barrels) pistons for a giant press in the drydock place.
@@SituationNormalAint agree completely, those idiots can't tell the difference between admiring technology of the past and actually supporting fucking Nazis
I don't see how people can walk by a Tiger II H and not be dropping their jaw... I'd be going nuts enjoying just the sight of it before even looking at the smaller parts.
Amazing. A friend and I visited this tank when we were stationed in Germany back in the early 80's. It is still in the same condition today as it was back then. Clearly the people from the village take care of it. Thank you posting this.
For some reason it saddens me a bit seeing those comments scratched in the tank at 4:32. Not that they badly damage the tank or something but just the fact that some bored kids took the time to scratch some nonsense right in between two shell impacts probably not caring at all what this vehicle is, what it was used for and where those holes in the front come from. The idea of people thinking this is just a useless piece of metal without any meaning makes me feel...uncomfortable =/
***** Definitely. I was visiting an M5 Stuart that resides at a local park recently, and saw numerous comments all over the tank. It may not have even been in combat, but it's a piece of history, and I was deeply saddened to see useless and stupid comments on it.
PetrovichGaming - you are correct that two wrongs don't make a right, but warfare and vandalism are pretty much the same thing, just on different scales. And they are both equally hard problems to solve. The tank illustrates the same type of mental illness as the vandalism.
My father was a small boy at the time... the germans were in full retreat... one tiger tank and one king tiger tank stopped in front of my grandparents house... the crews got out of the tanks... my grandfather gave them civilian cloths and food... they quickly changed thier cloths so they cannot be identified... the crews took a couple of panzerfoust grenades and scuttled the tanks... the war finally came to an end.... my father had a bright idea to go inside the tiger one tank... he started to play with the foward machine gun... the machine gun went off ... the trigger was stuck and did not stop till it ran out of ammo... all the neighbors dropped to the ground... and when the machine gunn stopped.. they all looked up and saw my father getting out of the tiger tank.. they proceeded to take turns beating my father... soon the american engineers repaired the tanks and simply drove away .... the reason the tanks crews left thier tanks behind was alittle bit of fuel left and no shells left.. and no where to rearm... towards the end of the war my was father was recommended for Hitler youth... my grandfather worked in the German riechstag as an intelligence officer.... my uncle was on the Bismarck and survived.... spent the rest of the war in British prison camp...
Wow, your grandfather was probably a very sweet guy, he gave his fellow germans civilian clothes. Your grandfather is a great human for realizing that the germans werent bad, hitler was. Only a kind and generous person would do that. And also, is your father doing well after all those beatings? What did the german crews do after your grandfather gave them clothes? Did they stay in your grandfathers house until the war ended? Or did the crews just run away?
For those interested in armour and in particular Tigers, I highly recommend the book “Tigers In The Mud” by Otto Carius. Otto was a highly decorated / very successful tank commander. He fought in Tiger 1s on Eastern Front and Jagdtigers on Western Front. Amongst all interesting aspects he goes into detail about both vehicles shortcomings.
For those interested about the strength of the Armor. The first hit at the wedge had to fight against 217mm effective armor, which is an brutal amount for very most tanks of WW2 to go up against. The second hit, which was even a way smaller shell than the first, had to come up against 220-227mm of effective armor. The third hit was facing about 230-232mm of effective armor.
The tank was abandoned due to fuel & ammo shortage. The commander and his entire crew made it out of the pocket the next day, beeing transferred to Hungary in January 1945.
George Pert In the end of the war, german steel had poor quality and it was brittle. Impact of the shot could make bunch of shrapnels inside the tank without making its way trough and it was often the case in Tiger II
George Pert Look, im not saying it occured in this particular case but it could be. The only way to check it is to look inside or to read story of this tank and what happend to its crew.
+PolesAreEverywhere Not really true for most Kingtigers, they were produced with the best steel the Germans had, Panthers suffered more from it although still a small percentage. Tank who suffered the most of it during the war was the T-34. Who had incredible hard steel, what had more resistance against smaller calibers but 75mm and higher and it became a driving coffin.
ima tell you sum bud so belguim is split in 2 parts you have wallonia and flanders wallonia is beautiful and the best part of the country and flanders is a depressing hellhole and sadly i live in flanders ive also visited this place and wallonia features little mountains and cliffs and cute little stone houses so what im trying to say here is thath in this video it is probably showing one of the best parts of belguim so yea belguim litteraly sucks in every aspect exept the chocolate
That "bit of damage" on the front, just under the hull machine gun was a direct hit from a large caliber shell. Obviously didn't make it even halfway though.
+Paul Zink That wasn't lost on the ETO. In the New Year, in contrast to their pre-invasion indifference, they were vociferously calling for more firepower. Meanwhile, this machine was taken out of the fight when part of its gun barrel was knocked off. The other King Tiger present had its gun aiming apparatus disabled by the concussions of multiple shell hits. And in one of these two machines, a crewman had the misfortune to have had his head in the turret cupola when a shell hit it, and his eardrums were ruptured.
You are making a lot of assumptions, OP. How do you know that shell wasn’t a low velocity 75 or Russian 76? There are plenty of times where, especially late war tiger’s frontal armor would cave in when hit with big 152s or multiple 75/76s
MegaFloyd100 Step 1: Lay smoke and run the fuck away. Step 2: Bait the thing into movement. Step 3: Wait until it breaks down, gets stuck or runs out of gas during said moment. Step 4: Recover German tank without shot being fired, put in museum Step 5: PROFIT????
***** Pretty sure they ended up "litteraly" shooting the Tiger multiple times in the ass during that scene. And that was a Tiger I, not II. Tigers are only scary if they are well concealed and firing from ambush. Once they start moving, they're 90 year old men with elephant guns. Wait for him to trip and break his hip, then go up and take his gun away without having to fight him.
Good thing for Belgium that that road wasn't paved back when this beast was still running. Great video and thank you! I plan on going there this summer
Nice video- cheers. I'd just like to say to all the moaners who are criticising this video for one thing and another- It's not meant to be a full blown documentary, It wasn't directed by Steven Spielberg, It wasn't presented by Richard Holmes. It wasn't put together by a team of professional researchers. It was provided free of charge by two blokes, so you can watch it in the comfort of your own home- free of charge.. Please STFU and go and make your own if you're not happy with it- how's that?
The first time that I saw this tank and visited the Museum was in May of 2001. With me were 2 WW-II Veterans of the ETO and the Battle of the Bulge. Wally Swanson of the 101 and his son, daughter, in law and grandson. In addition was Wardlaw (Stumpy) Watson of the 87th Infantry Division. Then it came to my good friend S. Joe Chesnut (without a T after the S), and me. We visited Belgium, Holland, and ended up in Normandie for the D-Day celebrations where Wally and Stumpy along with so many WW-2 veterans were treated like movie stars, except they were not actors, but real players on the World Stage. I have been back many times since to Normandy and Belgium, and am amazed at that Royal King Tiger. What a magnificent machine. Thank God for the Allies that Germany only produced about 1300 Tiger 1's and about 800 Tiger 2's. Otherwise God only knows what could have been. The men who fought on both sides are heros in my view as I am a combat veteran, but no of WW-II but later. The WW-2 veterans have always been my special heros. Next week I will be going to Normandie for the 21st time for the annual D-Day ceremonies. I would not trade my trips and being with those great men and women when they come back for all the money on Earth. The experience is life changing and no one can really understand how folks like me feel unless they have gone themselves. Great video. Finally, I have been to La-Gleize enough times that I knew the men were lost when they past that restaurant and were heading out of town and still had not found the museum and the Tiger.
In 1973 my wife and I were living in Maastricht and used to go out for a ride in the Ardennes most weekends, we saw this tank but didn't have a camera with us or the faintest idea where we were so decided to come back the next weekend to photograph it. We came the next weekend and the next and the next.....it took us about six months before we found it again, we must have driven past it no end of times but it wasn't visible from the direction we came from so I can appreciate your search. Sorry if it was a bit of a boring tale but the video brought back happy memories of that area.
Interesting to see the way they had to cut through the armour in places to be able to weld those huge sections together. The big rectangular rough looking areas on parts of the hull are where they cut a section of plate out to allow access to the next hull plate, this was then filled with weld to give a good solid bond that wouldn't fracture under the force of an explosion.
RE: the blown off gun barrel in the photo..... The tank was one of Peipers and he abandoned them so perhaps the Germans spiked the gun to prevent it being used by the allies?
Indeed , in the night before the 600 Germans retreated in full silence they blew all tanks, also all halftracks and guns were made non working. In 1984 they found a buried canon part in a field , just beyond the long path where all the halftracks were set up, it belonged to a AT halftrack.
My God, it's terrifying to see parked up there 70 years later, image what it must of been like as an infantryman seeing one of those looming down on you.
Huge machine and a few of them coming over a field must of been damn scarey. The photo looks like the tank says 215 though not 213............. but the damage on the front does appear to be the same. Thanks for sharing.
Not only is it a king tiger, it's a Henchel tiger which is the late war variant used in 1944-45. You can tell because of the flat cheeks it has instead of rounded like the Porche variant. That is quite a magnificent beast, it's only weaknesses being aircraft and itself. I mean itself because of how much fuel it guzzled down and how complex the parts are when it had to be repaired.
What a nice place .... I feel something different when I see these beautiful places, my grandparents told some stories about suffering before fleeing from Italy to Brazil during World War II ..... One day I will visit all these places....Thanks for sharing
@@_aragornyesyes_7171 all tank ever produced until early modern era (WW1- Cold War) would likely had one or more issue from this list + Transmission + Suspension + Underpowered Engine + Fuel consumption + Engine temperature + Cramped interior + poor built quality + Hull cracks + poor welding + leaks + Fire + Thick smoke inside + fragile parts + Unreliable Gun / Gun breach there are no such thing as Reliable Tank.. There are only Simple and Complicated Tanks to Repairs German tanks due to its Underpowered Engine, so the transmission had a heavier job Churchill and Matilda engine and suspension is a Nightmare. if you dont believe me, there a channel ( about war thunder) that makes vids about tanks historical accuracy with proof where the information from ( mostly books). even until T-72, M60 patton, Centurion tanks ( cold war era). Unreliable still a Tank Thing
@@_aragornyesyes_7171 Ik lol,this guy made what if war thunder is historical. he just made statistics according to historical facts, such as weakness's and normal issue ua-cam.com/video/h58Y9rFAVd0/v-deo.html check this out for example
Imagine how it would feel as an infantryman to test out your only reasonably ranged (more than a couple feet), slow firing and cumbersome AT weapon on an abandoned enemy tank then being unable to do any significant damage to it.
I know it's 3 year ago. and you still come 2020 here to loot and go back to Romania to sell it .. If you up to no good , stay there . If not Welcome xD
@@alterateawful6709 That every time a gang is arrested in Belgium , Most are from Romania www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2019/09/28/rumanian-gang-detain-on-suspicion-of-50-break-ins-at-garden-cent/ last year september and can you show a lot more Still not Every Romanian is Bad , you can be a nice dude . You said it yourself "'in Romania it would be stolen next day" .... 70 ton tank ,think what they do in your house ?
Copied this from the story about the tank - From the La Gleize Museum web site. "Tiger 213, another Tiger (221) and a PzKw IV were defending the Werimont Farm high ground on the outskirts of La Gleize. On December 21, U.S. tanks of Task Force McGeorge and Task Force Lovelady of the 3rd Armored Division attacked La Gleize. Around noon, Dollinger in his 213 and SS-Untersturm-führer Georg Hantusch in his 221 opened fire on 15 US tanks coming from Roanne but scored no hit. The American tanks fired back and blew off the front third of Dollingers tank's gun. Hantusch's Kingtiger got also severely hit and both tank crews had to bail out." Later (after the war) they welded a Panther barrel to replace the end of the Tiger's gun. (interesting as the Panther had a 75 mm gun and the Tiger 88 mm - but it looks good).
Id love to go there, to be able to see a Tiger still sitting where it was used would be really cool. Its terrifying how well armored King Tigers were, makes you imagine how it would have felt going against that sucker with a Sherman or Cromwell, no chance whatsoever from the front to stop it.
A fine specimen! The damage tells its own story about technology and practices of the time. The blown out barrel simply seems to be a standard case of asset denial demolition. But notice the shape of the impact marks on the frontal glacis plates: not only does sloping armor increase deflection probability and increase geometric effective thickness, but the "grain" and flow of the rolled armor plates can redirect the deposition of projectile mass, reducing penetration efficiency. As for all the pock marks around the turret, this appears to be an example of Allied- namely American- tank fighting tactics. The American 75mm cannon, while obsolete for dedicated anti-armor use by 1943, held a tremendous amount of explosive filler for its caliber and M4 crews would fire HEF shells at the turrets of tanks they could not penetrate. Aside from causing unseasoned crews to panic, the blasts could disorient the crews, destroy optics and kill exposed commanders. Due to poor visibility and ventilation, the commanders often were looking out of the hatch with binoculars. A loss of optics or the commander would usually cause a crew to flee in spite of specific orders not to unless of a fire. Still, a tank crew that can't see or coordinate is useless anyway: the tank is basically a steel coffin at that point.
+AppleJooc Park Your palm skin was destroyed by too firm a grip. As for spouting nonsense about Sherman tanks, that is another personality defect. Those little flecks on the side of the Tiger, they are more like 50mm Sherman hits.
It's hard to look upon one of these massive war machines with anything but awe. The sheer bulk of this thing outlined in the thickness of the armor plates shown by their size relative to his hand, only further punctuated by the massive shell buried in the nose of the tank, now married to the super structure from the intense heat caused by the impact. To have to fight one of these monstrosities in a Sherman must have been a chilling prospect. Nothing but respect for the men who died fighting in this war for our freedoms.
It's incredible that historical relics like these have been preserved. They're like time machines, taking you back to a place in history and joining the soldiers that sacrificed their lives amid such horrific circumstances. Some day, these relics will eventually turn into dust.
Yes, on most tanks the rear hull (and sometimes turret) armor is thinner to save weight as the front Is made to be pointed to enemies. The tiger II is one of the tanks where the side armor was as thin as the rear because the turret was bulky and heavy. Also the large gun was incredibly heavy as well. It's all about balance.
Wow those belgians are lucky. The tank is just sittin there near their homes. It's like owning a piece of history...imagine waking up in the middle of the night and just lookin out your window in full view of the tank in the shadow...Yes. Peiper is here!!
Reportedly Americans were removing war debris and a woman living in the town offered to buy the tank with a bottle of cognac and the American in charge accepted it and left the tank.
@@xor0001 Well there are multiple ways, a couple would be first off since Germany couldn’t play the mass producing game like the US or USSR, they had to make their tanks more technologically advanced to keep up, yet despite them being more advanced does not mean they were unstoppable, numbers, the Soviets outnumbered German tanks 3:1 or 4:1, and 4 t-34s can easily outnumber and kill something like a tiger or panther. Secondly, adaptability, German tanks weren’t that great at adapting compared to a Sherman or t-34 due to how expensive and time consuming it is to create them. Sherman’s and T-34s could be fit with many different roles while the tiger or panther typically stuck to its one role, like the tiger snipes and the panther to replace the panzer 3s and 4s though ended up just fighting along side them. One such adaptability was HESH used by the British mostly, While it may not look like the round penned due to it not actually going fully through and looking just like a big dent on the tank a HESH shell can cause enough explosive power to cause spalling on the inside, killing crew, igniting ammunition, damaging equipment, etc. Another thing is that the bigger tanks like the tiger 1, tiger 2 and panther often had technical issues all the time like the tracks giving out or the transmission breaking, poorly built parts, very complicated to repair, not enough parts to fix, you get my point. Lastly it’s something called CAS, the US ruled the sky’s and made the Luftwaffe non existent to say the least, and planes such as the p-47 with its amazing ground ordinance can completely wipe out the strongest of tanks, and it doesn’t make it better that the bigger tanks Germany produced were big targets and very very slow. I honestly think Germany would have been better off sticking with a simpler tank such as the panzer 3 and 4 and going of from there, just like the Sherman or T-34.
@@phantomeggs4315 ye ye another America, Gb or Russia lover. We are not talking about outnumber. We are talking about Hightech what Germany had under wwii. And they did their designs 100 %accurate. For me elegance and accuracy in their designs was trespassing another countries. And due to this they had advantage on field. Tell me what another tank can shoot 12 Sherman’s in 1st attempt??only tiger. And pls don’t try to ledefend American English or Russian sht designs they were Imcomparable with Germans. And additionally about metal spalling inside. Later German tanks were covered from inside with anti spalling material.
@@phantomeggs4315 and additionally. You think that this info you get wasn’t partly fabricated ? USA England and Russia were cleaning theirselves after wwii. And You can gets real info only from veterans that time or their families. And if Tiger, panther had so much problems with fixing them, no multi task and all what Yu wrote in front of them, so why the Russians mostly were producing so much tanks to defend so small amount of tigers for example? Because these tanks were way too much advanced and were able to destroy dozens of enemy tanks. That’s it.
@@Dooncat Oh boy, here we go. Despite the fact that German tanks were more technologically better, that still didn’t mean much, if they had the resources to build these tanks that would be a different story, but Germany was having oil shortages and resources shortages as early as 1941, that’s why they were so hell bent on defeating their enemies quickly because they knew they would have lost a dragged out war. And the designs themselves that they were creating were amazing I will say that, but the tanks themselves, eeh. Germany didn’t have that many resources like said before, and for these tanks that take tons and tons of time and resources building, and tons and tons more maintaining, that becomes a problem. These tanks were built out of missing and poor parts, which leads to stuff breaking down, having to repair them which takes a long time, then more stuff breaking down, you get my point. And while there are some stories of skilled german crews taking out an insane number of tanks, which I’m not saying isn’t true. The majority of the time these tanks were being easily overwhelmed, not even taking into account the air dominance, did I say tanks are very weak to bombs yet? And in the designs being shit for the Americans and russians, they wanted easily producible, easily adaptable, and easily repaired tanks. And even in many ways, American tanks were more advanced than German ones, such as stabilizers, machining parts such as engines, transmissions, final drives, etc. And tanks like the Sherman were easily reliable in every category. And a lot of misconceptions about German tanks being unstoppable killing machines can easily be proven wrong with some research. Misconceptions like the Tiger being a generic heavy tank even though it was more of a sniper than a heavy tank because that 100 mm of unangled armor proved quite penetrationable. And I would think if it’s a sniper they would fit it with a long barrel 75mm which would have more pen in that regard rather than a short 88.
They were impressive machines as far as firepower and armor. Their weaknesses were engines that weren''t powerful enough to move them well. The transmissions had to be rebuilt after just around 150 km of travel. If it could sit and didn't have to move it was an amazing tank with great range and killing power. Break downs and being difficult to work on, petrol shortages and the inability to keep parts for them was their downfall. Germany was only able to produce 492 of the Tiger II compared to the 108 k tanks by the Soviets and 88k tanks by the US. And no matter how good a tank you have that kind of numbers you can't get by with. Even if the Germans could of produced more and the war lasted into 1946 the British Centurion would of easily been its equal.
The other problem is that with a transmission so unrealiable and under stress as the Tiger II's, a big caliber shell could've easily make it useless and unable to move anymore just by destroying that very weak part
The actual problem was fuel. The reason these beasts were built is one would use less fuel then say 4 stugs. Not to mention they were losing experienced crews constantly and needed to better protect what few veterans they had left.
The front armor is incredible, seeing THREE deflected shell marks is just so intense to think about. Very intimidating but because of the huge size and slow speed they most inevitably fell victim to allied strike fighters/ bombers like Typhoon and P-47
MotorbikeMike ... Not to mention the Enormous lack of gas, ammo, food, raw material, people (!), and about éverything else needed to conduct war... The same prob's they had to deal with to fight off the alied fight/bombers...... The WHOLE, is the factor that decided the outcome... NOT their Tigers being "slow", They WEREN'T.! Plus, they could wipe out a Regtiment of these American Match-box tanks in No time... The Yanks Shat Themselfs, facing Tigers.!
MotorbikeMike The King Tiger was not that slow. It was about the same speed as a Sherman, or Panther tank. Actually if you have ever looked at stats, most of the tanks fell victim to their crews, not Air Power, like the History channel would leave you to believe. Just saying.@185532282 www.fprado.com/armorsite/tiger2.htm are two very good sources for you to start with. Cheers.
After watching your video, I've decided to go there now. Because its not so far from my house. Thanks for video. i live in germany and so much found of ww2 historical sites
From the museum website: "Around noon, Dollinger in his 213 and SS-Untersturm-führer Georg Hantusch in his 221 opened fire on 15 US tanks coming from Roanne but scored no hit. The American tanks fired back and blew off the front third of Dollingers tank's gun. Hantusch's Kingtiger got also severely hit and both tank crews had to bail out"
I saw this tank in 1988. The 'museum' was in a bar, from what I later heard, but it was open in the winter time. There were bars welded over the missing driver's hatch and I was thin enough to squeeze inside. The interior was of course gutted and filled covered in rust.
It is possible the ss crew destroyed the barrel before abandoning the tank , by putting a shell in the breach and another in the muzzle and firing it from outside , shortage of fuel could have made them have to leave it ,, the brittish used to do that trick in the desert with field guns before leaving them ,,my farther told me that ,,,,,,he was a Desert Rat ,,
+william redfern They probably could have, but if you look at the gun you see that it is stuck in recoil, so why did they bother to do that. They sabotaged the gun and set it so it would be stuck in recoil, and then even destroyed the gun? or the gun was shot of or blown off when the Americans were testing on it.
The gun tube might have been broken by the tank being used for target practice, but when abandoning the tank, I believe the complete drill for destroying the gun included destroying the muzzle brake as well as destroying the recoil system by letting the oil out of the recoil cylinder before firing the gun.
I dont think that destroying a barrel was considerd enough by the germans, they always just blew up the whole tank, and since you can see the damage i dont think they where in a position to leave
The slash in the front was the only thing I remember seeing, It's been move from were I saw it and repainted, the slash reminded me of a finger mark on butter, I don't recall any other damage. I saw this 55 years ago on a camping trip.
That thing is "HUGE"! Being inside of that after seeing those deflected round holes those guys must have felt invincible inside of that thing! Nice vid! Much appreciated! Now when describe the armour to people ill use the length of my finger and wait for the jaw drops!
Joshua Burkhart You can't make an invincible tank. The armor has to be thin somewhere like on the rear or the top where it is vulnerable to aircraft. The Ferdinand at the US Army Ordnance museum is there because a shot from a Sherman bent the front left sprocket making it immobile and it was abandoned by the crew.
simply beautiful. what a fine piece of machinery. to bad the had a lot of mechanical problems but still beautiful . i swear man germans werw ahead of time back then.
+hwoods01 have you seen the weapons the germans created and had in blueprints . heres a history lesson . (germany lost because they rant out of oil, Imagine if they dint rant out of oil.
I believe only about 10 the less than 500 produced survive to this day. If that tank was abandoned on the battlefield it is fortunate it was not destroyed with HE charges by the American Combat Engineers as my grandfather serving in 2nd Armored witnessed them do many times.
Interessante gostaria muito muito de conhecer objetos da WW2, principalmente na Bélgica, França e Alemanha...tenho um sentimento de respeito grande por isso.
If you are unsupported allied infantry it's probably about the worst thing that could happen to you short of a direct targeting from a fucking battery of 88's. It seriously would be a nightmare.
I enjoyed the dashcam trip, as well as the slightly distressed steel 'walk around' of the King Tiger. Never have been to Belgium. Nice to see it is peaceful .....again :>). Always curious about the fate of the crew? Would like to know how they fared after the 'disagreement'. Had distant cousins, neighbors, brothers in the US tank corps. They described all of the beautiful Messerschmidts hidden in the forests alongside the Autobahn. No fuel to fly away. The US tank corps drove along and demolished them by the hundreds, as war ended, they were of no further use.
I was looking at the tank @ 3:05 and thinking "How scary it must have been to face that?!" ...then I saw all the battle scars. How scary must it have been to be in that?!? Too young for Vietnam... too old for Afghanistan. Not sorry at all.
lordchickenhawk I get the feeling you don't really know anything about tanks. Do you realise that those scars on the front of the tank, where the armour is thickest, are purely superficial? None of those shells were even close to penetrating and I'm sure the crew of this tank were glad they were in a King Tiger at the time those hits were made. A less protected machine probably would have been knocked out by those. They are high caliber shell impacts.
Jake Kennedy “ glad they were in a king tiger when those hits were made” except it would sound like you were in a copper bell when you got hit, and there would be metal spalling shredding through your clothes and cutting exposed skin
***** i just found out that the Germans were getting a mineral from Spain to make there armor. this mineral would make tungsten steel that ex planes why there tanks were so tough.
+mad max -Germany owned and operated a Tungsten mine in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado USA, long many years before the rest of the world even knew what Tungsten was. Their mine was multi-tiered on the mountain slope to use gravity for tippling each stage of the ore processing. It was still visible, though covered in large trees and difficult to locate 50 yrs ago. Last use was the massive concrete anchor base, for one end of the mile or so of piano tight steel cable, strung straight and level across a valley. The other end of which was anchored into a distant mountain. A long antenna that literally shook the rocky mountain bed rocks, it was used to Talk to Submarines;... around the world.
It was parked behind that house and shooting at upcoming Sherman tanks and it probably ran out of ammo and the crew sabotaged the gun. you can see that the gun is locked back. Other story is that the Tiger was hit in the barrel and the barrel was blown off.
id love to get a look at the inside, that shell that stuck in the glacis plate joint must have been the main contributing factor in the crews abandoning it( the spalling must have killed or injured the driver and radio operater/bow gunner.)
the shell that made that divot was probably an armor piercing round, splinters of the armor plate break off on the inside and travel as fast as the shell that hit it (kinetic energy) causing serious injury (this is called "spalling")
to prevent this they started coating the inside of the tank with a 10mm thick rubber coating that stopped the splinters from getting to the crew (a spall shield)
the force it hit with would have been transferred thru the plate to the interior sending a shower of splinters off the back side of the impacted plate into the interior
Have not seen this beauty in a while, I was in the US Army, stationed in Mannheim back in the early 90's. Took a couple of different trips thru the USO and one of the things I saw was this tank. I think I still have a couple of photos of the tank somewhere in my archives. Including a photo thru the hole in the back hatch looking thru to the gun breech. I was surprised by the size of the tank even in comparison to the M1A1 Abrams that I was a crew member of . In fact, the weight of the Tiger II and the M1A1 are very similar.
Imagine how scared the machine gunner was when that shell hit.
Hornz The Alien i would have poop myself
K
He did a burnout in his pants xD
@@albinskold8792 don't need to pen that plate, one hesh shell and the armor itself becomes the projectile not to mention a chance hit directly on the bow gun (thinner armor I could imagine)
@@albinskold8792 hesh was developed in the late 40's, if a hesh round was ever fired at a king tiger I don't know(they were developed for fortifications), there was also heat weapons that Infantry carried, could probably pen the front plate as well
Being from Belgium myself, I visited the beast as well. An interesting thing I heard from talking to a local; The barrel is a replica, as an unknown farmer used the real one as a support for the roof of his barn when the war was over. The tank was not destroyed, it was just abandoned by the crew as they ran out of fuel.
Damn, imagine being so badass that you took the barrel of a Tiger II and use it for supports
@@TheGuyThatsNotFunny That one Farmer that carried a long-barreled 88 by himself:
🗿
The barrel is mostly original. The damaged front part (shot off by a Sherman tank) cut off and repaired by welding a section from another tank.
From Belgium to the farmer took the barrel for the main support of the farm y passed in a British TV show the big beer belly presentator buy ww2 stuff for old strong farmer for nothing (y don't know and respect the real price of the masterpiece of glory history of the battle of Ardenne thank for all soldiers for liberate and bleed and sharing the pain of the Belgian people in conditional respect
In my town 6x152mm 1898 French field guns captured by Germans was sent here to Norway to be part of Atlantic wall. (cant remember the exact caliber in mm) 2 of them are left (1 is restored), 2 got scrapped and 2 became (or the barrels) pistons for a giant press in the drydock place.
Some won’t like the term but, this is a, “beautiful” piece of history...
It is
Damn straight, and to anyone that says "iTs a nAzI TaNk" you can politely fuck off
@@SituationNormalAint Thats true. May be a Axis tank but man. The soo called "Nazi" engineers were brilliant at creating this tank.
@@SituationNormalAint yeah thats like criticizing the ak because its mostly seen being used by terrorists
@@SituationNormalAint agree completely, those idiots can't tell the difference between admiring technology of the past and actually supporting fucking Nazis
I don't see how people can walk by a Tiger II H and not be dropping their jaw... I'd be going nuts enjoying just the sight of it before even looking at the smaller parts.
I've seen the one at Bovington. Only one left with the initial turret. Very impressive.
Cameron Burge
I'll add that to the "things to do before I die" list.
SwaffyX
You should try. Pity it's crammed in a bit and the turret has to be turned. It would be even more impressive it it had more of its own space.
SwaffyX saaasme
The Tiger II is Ausf B, not H
5:20 "PLING , PLONG , PLING , ..." Is it raining outside ? - Yeah, must be raining...
@polar bear seems to be machinegun fire. Not really death, unless its a mg on another tank.
@NOBODY NOBODY Nien its rain
Просто солдат от безысходности стрелял по танку.
@GOMER PYLE lol a salty american kid not being able to face the truth lol
Nein it s not rain, hans you idiot... it s the civilian welcoming us throwing flower..
Amazing. A friend and I visited this tank when we were stationed in Germany back in the early 80's. It is still in the same condition today as it was back then. Clearly the people from the village take care of it. Thank you posting this.
For some reason it saddens me a bit seeing those comments scratched in the tank at 4:32. Not that they badly damage the tank or something but just the fact that some bored kids took the time to scratch some nonsense right in between two shell impacts probably not caring at all what this vehicle is, what it was used for and where those holes in the front come from. The idea of people thinking this is just a useless piece of metal without any meaning makes me feel...uncomfortable =/
Well, it's good that the German military never destroyed the cultural treasures of anyone else, then.
Teratornis May seem cheesy to say, but two wrongs don't make a right.
***** Definitely. I was visiting an M5 Stuart that resides at a local park recently, and saw numerous comments all over the tank. It may not have even been in combat, but it's a piece of history, and I was deeply saddened to see useless and stupid comments on it.
PetrovichGaming
- you are correct that two wrongs don't make a right, but warfare and vandalism are pretty much the same thing, just on different scales. And they are both equally hard problems to solve. The tank illustrates the same type of mental illness as the vandalism.
Teratornis Not really. War is about ideals, money, power, insanity. Vandalism are just the deeds of little ignorant assholes to be frank
thats not damage, those are just tickle marks.
theshapeexists the crew must have loved the tickle spalling
@@slopcrusher3482
Fan boys like that are such idiots, aren't they.
@@dukecraig2402 I think u r a bigger idiot for calling him an idiot over a youtube comment
Maybe they could hear the TING while a shell hits their tank
And i am sure those were Pershing rounds
"we didnt penetrate their armor"
"that one didn't go through"
"we didnt even scratch them"
"we just dinged them"
WoT players will understand
Ikr lol except hitpoints didnt exist that day
Ricochet
I play WoTB but this came to mind immediantly
@@_dajo same
@@ahmadadib6428 i expected people to make fun of me (most WoT pc players do) but thanks for relating
My father was a small boy at the time... the germans were in full retreat... one tiger tank and one king tiger tank stopped in front of my grandparents house... the crews got out of the tanks... my grandfather gave them civilian cloths and food... they quickly changed thier cloths so they cannot be identified... the crews took a couple of panzerfoust grenades and scuttled the tanks... the war finally came to an end.... my father had a bright idea to go inside the tiger one tank... he started to play with the foward machine gun... the machine gun went off ... the trigger was stuck and did not stop till it ran out of ammo... all the neighbors dropped to the ground... and when the machine gunn stopped.. they all looked up and saw my father getting out of the tiger tank.. they proceeded to take turns beating my father... soon the american engineers repaired the tanks and simply drove away .... the reason the tanks crews left thier tanks behind was alittle bit of fuel left and no shells left.. and no where to rearm... towards the end of the war my was father was recommended for Hitler youth... my grandfather worked in the German riechstag as an intelligence officer.... my uncle was on the Bismarck and survived.... spent the rest of the war in British prison camp...
Wow!
Wow ur a man of brief history
Spread these stories
Wow it ahhhhhhh
Wow, your grandfather was probably a very sweet guy, he gave his fellow germans civilian clothes. Your grandfather is a great human for realizing that the germans werent bad, hitler was. Only a kind and generous person would do that. And also, is your father doing well after all those beatings? What did the german crews do after your grandfather gave them clothes? Did they stay in your grandfathers house until the war ended? Or did the crews just run away?
The Germans built such incredible machines.
+DeNieuwe Tien Or Grand Gustav...
And your mom
when you notice it was a joke come back ;)
dubravko ostic Oh,sorry men.Dont want that :)
lol
Imagine the horrors of war this machine has seen, very sad. Rest in peace all that gave their lives ally or axis.
Plymouth you are very right. If you think about it axis were the good guys to the axis, but the allies are the good guys to the allies.
jedi night Anakin the Brave man in the war Just die their Jobs AMD protected their countries Like my grandpa in wwII
# Backfisch i totally agree my grandpa was lost in ww2
jedi night Anakin wich Nation ?
jedi night Anakin im sorry
For those interested in armour and in particular Tigers, I highly recommend the book “Tigers In The Mud” by Otto Carius. Otto was a highly decorated / very successful tank commander. He fought in Tiger 1s on Eastern Front and Jagdtigers on Western Front. Amongst all interesting aspects he goes into detail about both vehicles shortcomings.
For those interested about the strength of the Armor. The first hit at the wedge had to fight against 217mm effective armor, which is an brutal amount for very most tanks of WW2 to go up against. The second hit, which was even a way smaller shell than the first, had to come up against 220-227mm of effective armor. The third hit was facing about 230-232mm of effective armor.
The tank was abandoned due to fuel & ammo shortage. The commander and his entire crew made it out of the pocket the next day, beeing transferred to Hungary in January 1945.
Source?
@@markhylis9561 trust me bro
@@markhylis9561 its actually a fact, its marked in the losses list as such
@@Ko.Wi. ok
I use to play on this very tank as a kid. Crazy to see it 30 years later on UA-cam.
Incredibly remarkable that it wasn't destroyed. What a beautiful War relic. The German Tank engineering will always be fascinating.
Yep, there were not too many produced in the first place, so probability of good condition trophy was even lower than for other machines.
Noah привет!
I agree, they were ahead of their time & a little overkill too
Noah the germans were stupid they spend to much time and resources on shit heavy tanks like the ferdinand.
yup, extremely fascinating
at simply how they could build such an impractical machine.
it isnt destroyed the holes are just bouncers
+SIMSA75 The tank was probably only damaged but crew was shredded
George Pert In the end of the war, german steel had poor quality and it was brittle. Impact of the shot could make bunch of shrapnels inside the tank without making its way trough and it was often the case in Tiger II
+George Pert it's called spalling
George Pert Look, im not saying it occured in this particular case but it could be. The only way to check it is to look inside or to read story of this tank and what happend to its crew.
+PolesAreEverywhere Not really true for most Kingtigers, they were produced with the best steel the Germans had, Panthers suffered more from it although still a small percentage.
Tank who suffered the most of it during the war was the T-34. Who had incredible hard steel, what had more resistance against smaller calibers but 75mm and higher and it became a driving coffin.
Why are the Belgian towns so beautiful? And why when I see those roads make me want to ride a bike?
Cuz they have good chocolate maybe LOL
ima tell you sum bud so belguim is split in 2 parts you have wallonia and flanders wallonia is beautiful and the best part of the country and flanders is a depressing hellhole and sadly i live in flanders ive also visited this place and wallonia features little mountains and cliffs and cute little stone houses
so what im trying to say here is thath in this video it is probably showing one of the best parts of belguim
so yea belguim litteraly sucks in every aspect exept the chocolate
@@wehrmachtlevis2881 wel thath is kinda true but thath is also the only thing
@@boomspoon4004 "Flanders is a depressing hellhole..." This is, of course, utter bullshit.
@@JosHuysmans-v2k tell me your view of then. you think it's paradise or something
That "bit of damage" on the front, just under the hull machine gun was a direct hit from a large caliber shell. Obviously didn't make it even halfway though.
+Paul Zink That wasn't lost on the ETO. In the New Year, in contrast to their pre-invasion indifference, they were vociferously calling for more firepower.
Meanwhile, this machine was taken out of the fight when part of its gun barrel was knocked off. The other King Tiger present had its gun aiming apparatus disabled by the concussions of multiple shell hits. And in one of these two machines, a crewman had the misfortune to have had his head in the turret cupola when a shell hit it, and his eardrums were ruptured.
You are making a lot of assumptions, OP. How do you know that shell wasn’t a low velocity 75 or Russian 76? There are plenty of times where, especially late war tiger’s frontal armor would cave in when hit with big 152s or multiple 75/76s
The gouge is likely due to a Task Force McGeorge Sherman. There were no Russians anywhere near this battle.
Russians in Belgium. Wow, they must have had some good maskirovka.
+ Colin Thorneycroft
I facepalmed so hard at your comment
I bet any veteran Sherman tank crews would still feel nauseous at the sight of this tank close up.One of their worst nightmares in the flesh.
MegaFloyd100 Step 1: Lay smoke and run the fuck away.
Step 2: Bait the thing into movement.
Step 3: Wait until it breaks down, gets stuck or runs out of gas during said moment.
Step 4: Recover German tank without shot being fired, put in museum
Step 5: PROFIT????
***** Pretty sure they ended up "litteraly" shooting the Tiger multiple times in the ass during that scene. And that was a Tiger I, not II.
Tigers are only scary if they are well concealed and firing from ambush. Once they start moving, they're 90 year old men with elephant guns. Wait for him to trip and break his hip, then go up and take his gun away without having to fight him.
*****
"Once they start moving, they're 90 year old men with elephant guns."
That has to be the best metaphor I have ever seen in a given context.
Pretty sure that was a tiger 2 in fury
D3rpyTh3W0lf no it was a 1
Good thing for Belgium that that road wasn't paved back when this beast was still running. Great video and thank you! I plan on going there this summer
damn...i must save money and go visit there to hug the King Tiger!
***** wow i guess i gonna even cum when i see them and kiss to them
charly345mstlneo Ever considered psychiatric help?
Ronald de Rooij man, i'm just expressing how i love the tank
charly345mstlneo Good! Don't take my comment seriously. I was just joking.
charly345mstlneo You can also see the only working King tiger at the Saumur tank museum (it's in France) :)
Visited the Dec 44 museum recently. The absolute BEST museum I've ever been in! Astounding duration and realistic, exciting displays.
excellent, i must get over there sometime. i bet that tiger looked utterly awesome in the flesh. pretty much 70 tons of sheer terror.
The tiger II is truly a "thicc boi"
She's a lady
She's indeed *E X T R A T H I C C*
what about "Maus" !!!
thicc MAN..
Three minutes of dashcam before we even see the tank. What was the purpose of that? To show the Belgians have cars and paved roads?
Read the notes. I explain why.
Read the first part of the description.....
You watched that?
I had a lot of spare time...lol
Kojak0 Last I heard, these Belgians don't even crap outside anymore.!... Go figure.!!..
Nice video- cheers.
I'd just like to say to all the moaners who are criticising this video for one thing and another- It's not meant to be a full blown documentary, It wasn't directed by Steven Spielberg, It wasn't presented by Richard Holmes. It wasn't put together by a team of professional researchers. It was provided free of charge by two blokes, so you can watch it in the comfort of your own home- free of charge..
Please STFU and go and make your own if you're not happy with it- how's that?
The first time that I saw this tank and visited the Museum was in May of 2001. With me were 2 WW-II Veterans of the ETO and the Battle of the Bulge. Wally Swanson of the 101 and his son, daughter, in law and grandson. In addition was Wardlaw (Stumpy) Watson of the 87th Infantry Division. Then it came to my good friend S. Joe Chesnut (without a T after the S), and me. We visited Belgium, Holland, and ended up in Normandie for the D-Day celebrations where Wally and Stumpy along with so many WW-2 veterans were treated like movie stars, except they were not actors, but real players on the World Stage. I have been back many times since to Normandy and Belgium, and am amazed at that Royal King Tiger. What a magnificent machine. Thank God for the Allies that Germany only produced about 1300 Tiger 1's and about 800 Tiger 2's. Otherwise God only knows what could have been. The men who fought on both sides are heros in my view as I am a combat veteran, but no of WW-II but later. The WW-2 veterans have always been my special heros. Next week I will be going to Normandie for the 21st time for the annual D-Day ceremonies. I would not trade my trips and being with those great men and women when they come back for all the money on Earth. The experience is life changing and no one can really understand how folks like me feel unless they have gone themselves. Great video. Finally, I have been to La-Gleize enough times that I knew the men were lost when they past that restaurant and were heading out of town and still had not found the museum and the Tiger.
Only 93 King Tigers were made ... If they were 800 made of those beasts the cours of war might have actually changed...
More like 480+s _Königstiger_. You are perhaps mistaking the numbers with that of the _Ferdinand_ or the _Jagdtiger_.
@@versus4582 No mate, 800. You are thinking of the Elephant/Ferdinand tank hunter.
In 1973 my wife and I were living in Maastricht and used to go out for a ride in the Ardennes most weekends, we saw this tank but didn't have a camera with us or the faintest idea where we were so decided to come back the next weekend to photograph it. We came the next weekend and the next and the next.....it took us about six months before we found it again, we must have driven past it no end of times but it wasn't visible from the direction we came from so I can appreciate your search. Sorry if it was a bit of a boring tale but the video brought back happy memories of that area.
Interesting to see the way they had to cut through the armour in places to be able to weld those huge sections together. The big rectangular rough looking areas on parts of the hull are where they cut a section of plate out to allow access to the next hull plate, this was then filled with weld to give a good solid bond that wouldn't fracture under the force of an explosion.
In America the blue haired people would want this beautiful piece of history removed because it offends someone.
Thank you very much for this video-- incredibly beautiful country and a wonderful piece of history. Thanks for sharing your journey!
That tank has seen a lot of action
What a great people used to live in Gleize in 1945 - to save this tank from scrapping for the history was such a wonderful idea.
RE: the blown off gun barrel in the photo.....
The tank was one of Peipers and he abandoned them so perhaps the Germans spiked the gun to prevent it being used by the allies?
Indeed , in the night before the 600 Germans retreated in full silence they blew all tanks, also all halftracks and guns were made non working. In 1984 they found a buried canon part in a field , just beyond the long path where all the halftracks were set up, it belonged to a AT halftrack.
jnairac
Thanks
The gun was destroyed by a lucky shot from american tanks, in the 70's workers from Cockerill welded a piece from a 7,5 gun on the barrel.
cvx1190 Tiger uses a 8.8 cm...
Oh... Didn't notice that...
My God, it's terrifying to see parked up there 70 years later, image what it must of been like as an infantryman seeing one of those looming down on you.
it makes me so fucking mad that some kids have scratched words and shit into it
+guitaroidman524 Don´t mind. Its just kids having Fun.
+DayZ Bandit The tank does not care. It is just the painting.
My car ist not built for killing and not an historic symbol of the Nazi-terror. And: I do not own any car. I have some old bycicles.
built*
guitaroidman524 thnx, bro
Thanks for the drive about and the tank viewing. I do appreciate this little video.
Cheers !
Huge machine and a few of them coming over a field must of been damn scarey.
The photo looks like the tank says 215 though not 213............. but the damage on the front does appear to be the same. Thanks for sharing.
Not only is it a king tiger, it's a Henchel tiger which is the late war variant used in 1944-45. You can tell because of the flat cheeks it has instead of rounded like the Porche variant. That is quite a magnificent beast, it's only weaknesses being aircraft and itself. I mean itself because of how much fuel it guzzled down and how complex the parts are when it had to be repaired.
Old soldier never dies he just fades away
Thank You, great video. That King Tiger is a monster by 1944 standard.
What a nice place .... I feel something different when I see these beautiful places, my grandparents told some stories about suffering before fleeing from Italy to Brazil during World War II ..... One day I will visit all these places....Thanks for sharing
Probably the best tank ever made for such a short time to be made..
Dalton Hunt well it did had its downsides transmission for example
is-2 are you sure about that?
@@_aragornyesyes_7171 all tank ever produced until early modern era
(WW1- Cold War)
would likely had one or more issue from this list
+ Transmission
+ Suspension
+ Underpowered Engine
+ Fuel consumption
+ Engine temperature
+ Cramped interior
+ poor built quality
+ Hull cracks
+ poor welding
+ leaks
+ Fire
+ Thick smoke inside
+ fragile parts
+ Unreliable Gun / Gun breach
there are no such thing as Reliable Tank..
There are only Simple and Complicated Tanks to Repairs
German tanks due to its Underpowered Engine, so the transmission had a heavier job
Churchill and Matilda engine and suspension is a Nightmare.
if you dont believe me, there a channel ( about war thunder) that makes vids about tanks historical accuracy with proof where the information from ( mostly books).
even until T-72, M60 patton, Centurion tanks ( cold war era).
Unreliable still a Tank Thing
Comrade Nick war thunder isn’t really a great place for historical accuracy
@@_aragornyesyes_7171 Ik lol,this guy made what if war thunder is historical. he just made statistics according to historical facts, such as weakness's and normal issue
ua-cam.com/video/h58Y9rFAVd0/v-deo.html
check this out for example
Nice .... thanks for the video greetings from Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA....
those hit on the front are amazing
US troops tested Bazooka rounds on the front after taking the town. The tank was abandoned by Kampfgruppe Peiper.
It is actually typical thick armor AT round scratch.
Imagine how it would feel as an infantryman to test out your only reasonably ranged (more than a couple feet), slow firing and cumbersome AT weapon on an abandoned enemy tank then being unable to do any significant damage to it.
Bullshit, no Bazooka.
if that tank woulf stay like that in romania it would be stoled next day
@Loli4lyf 70 tons*
I know it's 3 year ago. and you still come 2020 here to loot and go back to Romania to sell it .. If you up to no good , stay there . If not Welcome xD
@@Mike_79 what is your point
@@alterateawful6709 That every time a gang is arrested in Belgium , Most are from Romania
www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2019/09/28/rumanian-gang-detain-on-suspicion-of-50-break-ins-at-garden-cent/ last year september and can you show a lot more
Still not Every Romanian is Bad , you can be a nice dude . You said it yourself "'in Romania it would be stolen next day" .... 70 ton tank ,think what they do in your house ?
It’s extremely hard to sell a tank without getting caught.
Thank you posting this footage. Always been intetested in WW2 specially growing up amongst many WW2 veterans...
Copied this from the story about the tank - From the La Gleize Museum web site.
"Tiger 213, another Tiger (221) and a PzKw IV were defending the Werimont Farm high ground on the outskirts of La Gleize. On December 21, U.S. tanks of Task Force McGeorge and Task Force Lovelady of the 3rd Armored Division attacked La Gleize. Around noon, Dollinger in his 213 and SS-Untersturm-führer Georg Hantusch in his 221 opened fire on 15 US tanks coming from Roanne but scored no hit. The American tanks fired back and blew off the front third of Dollingers tank's gun. Hantusch's Kingtiger got also severely hit and both tank crews had to bail out." Later (after the war) they welded a Panther barrel to replace the end of the Tiger's gun. (interesting as the Panther had a 75 mm gun and the Tiger 88 mm - but it looks good).
hmm that 75mm was then a good fit i guess, could not even tell
@@albinskold8792 The barrel bores are roughly 1/2 inch different in diameter or 1/4 inch per side. Probably hard to tell from a distance.
To me: The MOST IMPRESSIVE Tank ever made. A true MONSTER !
Id love to go there, to be able to see a Tiger still sitting where it was used would be really cool. Its terrifying how well armored King Tigers were, makes you imagine how it would have felt going against that sucker with a Sherman or Cromwell, no chance whatsoever from the front to stop it.
A fine specimen! The damage tells its own story about technology and practices of the time. The blown out barrel simply seems to be a standard case of asset denial demolition. But notice the shape of the impact marks on the frontal glacis plates: not only does sloping armor increase deflection probability and increase geometric effective thickness, but the "grain" and flow of the rolled armor plates can redirect the deposition of projectile mass, reducing penetration efficiency.
As for all the pock marks around the turret, this appears to be an example of Allied- namely American- tank fighting tactics. The American 75mm cannon, while obsolete for dedicated anti-armor use by 1943, held a tremendous amount of explosive filler for its caliber and M4 crews would fire HEF shells at the turrets of tanks they could not penetrate. Aside from causing unseasoned crews to panic, the blasts could disorient the crews, destroy optics and kill exposed commanders. Due to poor visibility and ventilation, the commanders often were looking out of the hatch with binoculars. A loss of optics or the commander would usually cause a crew to flee in spite of specific orders not to unless of a fire. Still, a tank crew that can't see or coordinate is useless anyway: the tank is basically a steel coffin at that point.
***** No, what's it say about trolls?
Hmmm...."long winded"...."take every chance available to bore others?...."unneeded lectures"....sounds more like a description of you.
It's gun was destroyed by a Sherman.
+AppleJooc Park Your palm skin was destroyed by too firm a grip. As for spouting nonsense about Sherman tanks, that is another personality defect. Those little flecks on the side of the Tiger, they are more like 50mm Sherman hits.
It's hard to look upon one of these massive war machines with anything but awe. The sheer bulk of this thing outlined in the thickness of the armor plates shown by their size relative to his hand, only further punctuated by the massive shell buried in the nose of the tank, now married to the super structure from the intense heat caused by the impact. To have to fight one of these monstrosities in a Sherman must have been a chilling prospect. Nothing but respect for the men who died fighting in this war for our freedoms.
Nice Tiger II history. Congrats from Brazil.
It's incredible that historical relics like these have been preserved. They're like time machines, taking you back to a place in history and joining the soldiers that sacrificed their lives amid such horrific circumstances. Some day, these relics will eventually turn into dust.
the most beautiful tank
This is the most beautiful tank of ww2.
Yes, on most tanks the rear hull (and sometimes turret) armor is thinner to save weight as the front Is made to be pointed to enemies. The tiger II is one of the tanks where the side armor was as thin as the rear because the turret was bulky and heavy. Also the large gun was incredibly heavy as well. It's all about balance.
I very much enjoyed the drive and also your tank commentary.
Wow those belgians are lucky. The tank is just sittin there near their homes. It's like owning a piece of history...imagine waking up in the middle of the night and just lookin out your window in full view of the tank in the shadow...Yes. Peiper is here!!
My Grandparents had an German 88mm Anti-Air battery parked outside their farmhouse in WW2. Sadly they didn't get to keep it.
They should have tried to purchase it with a bottle of liquor.
Yeah :3
Reportedly Americans were removing war debris and a woman living in the town offered to buy the tank with a bottle of cognac and the American in charge accepted it and left the tank.
Comments
50% haha funni memes
50% realizing how terrifying war is
You forgot the other half about people saying how invincible German tanks are when in real life they could be taken out pretty easily.
@@xor0001 Well there are multiple ways, a couple would be first off since Germany couldn’t play the mass producing game like the US or USSR, they had to make their tanks more technologically advanced to keep up, yet despite them being more advanced does not mean they were unstoppable, numbers, the Soviets outnumbered German tanks 3:1 or 4:1, and 4 t-34s can easily outnumber and kill something like a tiger or panther. Secondly, adaptability, German tanks weren’t that great at adapting compared to a Sherman or t-34 due to how expensive and time consuming it is to create them. Sherman’s and T-34s could be fit with many different roles while the tiger or panther typically stuck to its one role, like the tiger snipes and the panther to replace the panzer 3s and 4s though ended up just fighting along side them. One such adaptability was HESH used by the British mostly, While it may not look like the round penned due to it not actually going fully through and looking just like a big dent on the tank a HESH shell can cause enough explosive power to cause spalling on the inside, killing crew, igniting ammunition, damaging equipment, etc. Another thing is that the bigger tanks like the tiger 1, tiger 2 and panther often had technical issues all the time like the tracks giving out or the transmission breaking, poorly built parts, very complicated to repair, not enough parts to fix, you get my point. Lastly it’s something called CAS, the US ruled the sky’s and made the Luftwaffe non existent to say the least, and planes such as the p-47 with its amazing ground ordinance can completely wipe out the strongest of tanks, and it doesn’t make it better that the bigger tanks Germany produced were big targets and very very slow. I honestly think Germany would have been better off sticking with a simpler tank such as the panzer 3 and 4 and going of from there, just like the Sherman or T-34.
@@phantomeggs4315 ye ye another America, Gb or Russia lover. We are not talking about outnumber. We are talking about Hightech what Germany had under wwii. And they did their designs 100 %accurate. For me elegance and accuracy in their designs was trespassing another countries. And due to this they had advantage on field. Tell me what another tank can shoot 12 Sherman’s in 1st attempt??only tiger. And pls don’t try to ledefend American English or Russian sht designs they were Imcomparable with Germans. And additionally about metal spalling inside. Later German tanks were covered from inside with anti spalling material.
@@phantomeggs4315 and additionally. You think that this info you get wasn’t partly fabricated ? USA England and Russia were cleaning theirselves after wwii. And You can gets real info only from veterans that time or their families. And if Tiger, panther had so much problems with fixing them, no multi task and all what Yu wrote in front of them, so why the Russians mostly were producing so much tanks to defend so small amount of tigers for example? Because these tanks were way too much advanced and were able to destroy dozens of enemy tanks. That’s it.
@@Dooncat Oh boy, here we go. Despite the fact that German tanks were more technologically better, that still didn’t mean much, if they had the resources to build these tanks that would be a different story, but Germany was having oil shortages and resources shortages as early as 1941, that’s why they were so hell bent on defeating their enemies quickly because they knew they would have lost a dragged out war. And the designs themselves that they were creating were amazing I will say that, but the tanks themselves, eeh. Germany didn’t have that many resources like said before, and for these tanks that take tons and tons of time and resources building, and tons and tons more maintaining, that becomes a problem. These tanks were built out of missing and poor parts, which leads to stuff breaking down, having to repair them which takes a long time, then more stuff breaking down, you get my point. And while there are some stories of skilled german crews taking out an insane number of tanks, which I’m not saying isn’t true. The majority of the time these tanks were being easily overwhelmed, not even taking into account the air dominance, did I say tanks are very weak to bombs yet? And in the designs being shit for the Americans and russians, they wanted easily producible, easily adaptable, and easily repaired tanks. And even in many ways, American tanks were more advanced than German ones, such as stabilizers, machining parts such as engines, transmissions, final drives, etc. And tanks like the Sherman were easily reliable in every category. And a lot of misconceptions about German tanks being unstoppable killing machines can easily be proven wrong with some research. Misconceptions like the Tiger being a generic heavy tank even though it was more of a sniper than a heavy tank because that 100 mm of unangled armor proved quite penetrationable. And I would think if it’s a sniper they would fit it with a long barrel 75mm which would have more pen in that regard rather than a short 88.
They were impressive machines as far as firepower and armor. Their weaknesses were engines that weren''t powerful enough to move them well. The transmissions had to be rebuilt after just around 150 km of travel. If it could sit and didn't have to move it was an amazing tank with great range and killing power.
Break downs and being difficult to work on, petrol shortages and the inability to keep parts for them was their downfall.
Germany was only able to produce 492 of the Tiger II compared to the 108 k tanks by the Soviets and 88k tanks by the US. And no matter how good a tank you have that kind of numbers you can't get by with.
Even if the Germans could of produced more and the war lasted into 1946 the British Centurion would of easily been its equal.
The other problem is that with a transmission so unrealiable and under stress as the Tiger II's, a big caliber shell could've easily make it useless and unable to move anymore just by destroying that very weak part
The actual problem was fuel. The reason these beasts were built is one would use less fuel then say 4 stugs. Not to mention they were losing experienced crews constantly and needed to better protect what few veterans they had left.
Enjoyed the drive beforehand, Nice to see another normal.
everything is enjoyable starting from the village, the roads, the nature, and finally the tank
I love how the even new houses are built to look like those who stand there for hundreds of years.
"WE DIDNT PENETRATE THEIR ARMOR"
"that bounced!"
The front armor is incredible, seeing THREE deflected shell marks is just so intense to think about. Very intimidating but because of the huge size and slow speed they most inevitably fell victim to allied strike fighters/ bombers like Typhoon and P-47
MotorbikeMike ... Not to mention the Enormous lack of gas, ammo, food, raw material, people (!), and about éverything else needed to conduct war... The same prob's they had to deal with to fight off the alied fight/bombers...... The WHOLE, is the factor that decided the outcome... NOT their Tigers being "slow", They WEREN'T.! Plus, they could wipe out a Regtiment of these American Match-box tanks in No time... The Yanks Shat Themselfs, facing Tigers.!
Right, I definitely would shit myself if i saw this tank pull up, dwarfing small buildings nearby.
MotorbikeMike That tiger II saw some serious action for sure.maybe it was a fighter
MotorbikeMike The King Tiger was not that slow. It was about the same speed as a Sherman, or Panther tank. Actually if you have ever looked at stats, most of the tanks fell victim to their crews, not Air Power, like the History channel would leave you to believe. Just saying.@185532282
www.fprado.com/armorsite/tiger2.htm
are two very good sources for you to start with.
Cheers.
JuergenGDB this guy knows whatsup
After watching your video, I've decided to go there now. Because its not so far from my house. Thanks for video. i live in germany and so much found of ww2 historical sites
That's really amazing to have that tank there. Love the history.
That monster still preserve the battlefield scars on his armor..
I would like one of these to roll through my neighbourhood like a boss. Jsjsjs..
Tiger's crew getting shot at:
oh no!
Anyway...
Oh you're one of those people
What an amazing machine!
Stunning peace of engineering 👍👍 .
From the museum website: "Around noon, Dollinger in his 213 and SS-Untersturm-führer Georg Hantusch in his 221 opened fire on 15 US tanks coming from Roanne but scored no hit. The American tanks fired back and blew off the front third of Dollingers tank's gun. Hantusch's Kingtiger got also severely hit and both tank crews had to bail out"
I saw this tank in 1988. The 'museum' was in a bar, from what I later heard, but it was open in the winter time. There were bars welded over the missing driver's hatch and I was thin enough to squeeze inside. The interior was of course gutted and filled covered in rust.
skip too 2:25
ty
It is possible the ss crew destroyed the barrel before abandoning the tank , by putting a shell in the breach and another in the muzzle and firing it from outside , shortage of fuel could have made them have to leave it ,, the brittish used to do that trick in the desert with field guns before leaving them ,,my farther told me that ,,,,,,he was a Desert Rat ,,
+william redfern They probably could have, but if you look at the gun you see that it is stuck in recoil, so why did they bother to do that.
They sabotaged the gun and set it so it would be stuck in recoil, and then even destroyed the gun?
or the gun was shot of or blown off when the Americans were testing on it.
The gun tube might have been broken by the tank being used for target practice, but when abandoning the tank, I believe the complete drill for destroying the gun included destroying the muzzle brake as well as destroying the recoil system by letting the oil out of the recoil cylinder before firing the gun.
I dont think that destroying a barrel was considerd enough by the germans, they always just blew up the whole tank, and since you can see the damage i dont think they where in a position to leave
The gun was destroyed by a shell of an american tank (what a lucky hit !) ant the crew had to abandoned it.
true that, just google.
Still there in 2016 ? :)
There are a lots of tanks and halftracks still standing in the ardennes most are in towns.
cool.
Of course, it never moves.
I think it is hard to move 70t German steel :D
2017
So very cool to find and witness that relic of WWII. Thanks for sharing Jon.
I did hug this panzer back in june.... I has been repainted and standing next to this mother of all tanks was just amazing......
The slash in the front was the only thing I remember seeing, It's been move from were I saw it and repainted, the slash reminded me of a finger mark on butter, I don't recall any other damage. I saw this 55 years ago on a camping trip.
That thing is "HUGE"! Being inside of that after seeing those deflected round holes those guys must have felt invincible inside of that thing! Nice vid! Much appreciated! Now when describe the armour to people ill use the length of my finger and wait for the jaw drops!
imagine if Germany had completed the mouse that would be ridicules for anything.
Joshua Burkhart one Maus is actually completed. It is in the Kubinka museum, near Moscow
Joshua Burkhart maus got taken out becuase of american overwhelming numbers.
Joshua Burkhart You can't make an invincible tank. The armor has to be thin somewhere like on the rear or the top where it is vulnerable to aircraft. The Ferdinand at the US Army Ordnance museum is there because a shot from a Sherman bent the front left sprocket making it immobile and it was abandoned by the crew.
sabre26v
Maus never left the prototype stage. Not used in action. Both were destroyed prior to capture.
simply beautiful. what a fine piece of machinery. to bad the had a lot of mechanical problems but still beautiful . i swear man germans werw ahead of time back then.
ahead of their time? not with this tank.
+hwoods01 have you seen the weapons the germans created and had in blueprints . heres a history lesson . (germany lost because they rant out of oil, Imagine if they dint rant out of oil.
+Larammie Rosado he's a stupid probably patriotic American who thinks anything that's not American is shit
You got that right !
+Larammie Rosado my first thought was that you were going to be offended by what I said 😂
Very cool that it is standing so close to where knocked out.
Visited there couple years ago. This vid brings good memories. Thanks for uploading!
today any modern tank can beat it
but back then it was one of the most powerful vehicles ever made
(Knock knock)
“Is that Hans?”
“Go evay!”
I got that reference
Phly daily
I believe only about 10 the less than 500 produced survive to this day. If that tank was abandoned on the battlefield it is fortunate it was not destroyed with HE charges by the American Combat Engineers as my grandfather serving in 2nd Armored witnessed them do many times.
Thanks for doing video on me! 🙂
Whaoo😮😮😮...The King Tiger is a very MONSTER tank!!!Beautifull!
Interessante gostaria muito muito de conhecer objetos da WW2, principalmente na Bélgica, França e Alemanha...tenho um sentimento de respeito grande por isso.
i know they have ear protection, but imagine sitting inside while large at projectiles hit the armor. brrr!
Wow, imagine seeing one coming toward you in WW2, that would really suck
If you are unsupported allied infantry it's probably about the worst thing that could happen to you short of a direct targeting from a fucking battery of 88's. It seriously would be a nightmare.
I enjoyed the dashcam trip, as well as the slightly distressed steel 'walk around' of the King Tiger. Never have been to Belgium. Nice to see it is peaceful .....again :>). Always curious about the fate of the crew? Would like to know how they fared after the 'disagreement'.
Had distant cousins, neighbors, brothers in the US tank corps. They described all of the beautiful Messerschmidts hidden in the forests alongside the Autobahn. No fuel to fly away. The US tank corps drove along and demolished them by the hundreds, as war ended, they were of no further use.
Nice video! Thanks for the tour.
I was looking at the tank @ 3:05 and thinking "How scary it must have been to face that?!" ...then I saw all the battle scars. How scary must it have been to be in that?!? Too young for Vietnam... too old for Afghanistan. Not sorry at all.
lordchickenhawk
I get the feeling you don't really know anything about tanks. Do you realise that those scars on the front of the tank, where the armour is thickest, are purely superficial? None of those shells were even close to penetrating and I'm sure the crew of this tank were glad they were in a King Tiger at the time those hits were made. A less protected machine probably would have been knocked out by those. They are high caliber shell impacts.
Jake Kennedy “ glad they were in a king tiger when those hits were made” except it would sound like you were in a copper bell when you got hit, and there would be metal spalling shredding through your clothes and cutting exposed skin
it most likely ran out of fuel and got the hell shot out of it
***** i just found out that the Germans were getting a mineral from Spain to make there armor. this mineral would make tungsten steel that ex planes why there tanks were so tough.
+mad max -Germany owned and operated a Tungsten mine in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado USA, long many years before the rest of the world even knew what Tungsten was.
Their mine was multi-tiered on the mountain slope to use gravity for tippling each stage of the ore processing. It was still visible, though covered in large trees and difficult to locate 50 yrs ago.
Last use was the massive concrete anchor base, for one end of the mile or so of piano tight steel cable, strung straight and level across a valley. The other end of which was anchored into a distant mountain. A long antenna that literally shook the rocky mountain bed rocks, it was used to Talk to Submarines;... around the world.
i don't surprise me. there are traitors everywhere.don,t let your eyes deceive you
It was parked behind that house and shooting at upcoming Sherman tanks and it probably ran out of ammo and the crew sabotaged the gun. you can see that the gun is locked back.
Other story is that the Tiger was hit in the barrel and the barrel was blown off.
+Blogen Geezer Can you provide a name or link on info about this?
id love to get a look at the inside, that shell that stuck in the glacis plate joint must have been the main contributing factor in the crews abandoning it( the spalling must have killed or injured the driver and radio operater/bow gunner.)
+orvarg eikenskjaldi Do you think that a granate exploding on the surface of the tank injured anyone inside?
the shell that made that divot was probably an armor piercing round, splinters of the armor plate break off on the inside and travel as fast as the shell that hit it (kinetic energy) causing serious injury (this is called "spalling")
to prevent this they started coating the inside of the tank with a 10mm thick rubber coating that stopped the splinters from getting to the crew (a spall shield)
+orvarg eikenskjaldi The shell did nont get through. It stuck in the 200 mm armour plating.
the force it hit with would have been transferred thru the plate to the interior sending a shower of splinters off the back side of the impacted plate into the interior
Have not seen this beauty in a while, I was in the US Army, stationed in Mannheim back in the early 90's. Took a couple of different trips thru the USO and one of the things I saw was this tank. I think I still have a couple of photos of the tank somewhere in my archives. Including a photo thru the hole in the back hatch looking thru to the gun breech. I was surprised by the size of the tank even in comparison to the M1A1 Abrams that I was a crew member of . In fact, the weight of the Tiger II and the M1A1 are very similar.
The start is exactly what my brother and me did looking for that beast. Drove into town and right out of it again, had to turn around.
+ If you remember La Gleize from Red Orchestra: Darkest Hour.