No, a WWII Tiger Tank Can't Destroy an Abrams, Armchair War Historian Explains Why

Claims that declare things like "It took five American Shermans to take out one German Tiger" or "The Tiger could take on a modern Abrams tank and win" still echo across sweaty Reddit threads. No, seriously, there are people on online forums who think that. We could spend weeks, heck, even months e-mailing the curators of America's war museums to find all the reasons much of the Tiger's mythos results from gross over-exaggeration.

Happily, there's someone out there who more or less did just that. LazerPig on YouTube is a war-vehicle enthusiast's dream come true. He's a veteran armchair war historian and master wordsmith who backs up his considerably inflammatory opinions on our favorite tanks, planes, and warships with cold, hard, unconcerned-with-your-opinion facts. He also does it in a hilariously entertaining way.

We highly recommend checking out his video on the Tiger Tank when you're done here. It's some really mind-opening stuff. In the meantime, let's combine some of the information LazerPig admirably gathered with some of our own insights to explain why a good deal of the post-war hype around the Tiger tank is total nonsense.

Let's start with a rundown of the basics of the Tiger tank. It was designed and built by the same Henschel Manufacturing team that beat Ferdinand Porsche for the design contract for the Wehrmacht's main heavy tank. Many of Old Man Porsche's Tiger Prototypes were later converted to Elefant tank destroyers. It was a role they famously blew chunks at. Just ask anyone who knows about the Battle of Kursk if you want the textbook definition of a thrashing. It may have had more to do with Soviet tactics than anything else. But even so, the Elefant was less than effective.

As for the Tiger I itself, it would be wrong to say the tank was a complete failure. At roughly 250,700 Reichsmarks a piece, over 1,300 were built between 1942 and 1944. Though its original Maybach V12 HL 210 engine was a tad underpowered, it was soon upgraded to the lauded Maybach HL 230 with a beefier cast-iron block and 700 horsepower to play with. Good for a top speed of around 45 km/h (28 mph) on paved roads. Not bad for a heavy tank.

Sporting an 88 mm main gun and a 7.92×57mm MG-34 machine gun as armament, the Tiger made quick work of lightly armored Allied vehicles. Thousands of Jeeps, half-tracks, and light tanks fell by Tiger crew hands during the war. It defeated a fair number of heavy tanks its own size as well. From long range, the gun was terrifyingly accurate, as the Allies discovered during the German Army's North African campaign.  The Soviets especially learned that lesson the hard way. But again, that isn't to say the gun didn't have its faults.

Specifically, the biggest issue was that Tigers rarely engaged Allied tanks from its preferred firing range as the war dragged on. Especially during Normandy, where tanks often engaged at point-blank range, that was a real issue. Against British Churchills and Cromwells, Canadian Grizzlys, and American Shermans, the Tiger and its accompaniment of Panzer IVs failed to stave off the largest invasion by sea in human history.

As LazerPig is quick to point out, the way Allied and Axis forces counted tank losses plays heavily into Tiger I's somewhat inflated kill-to-loss ratio during this time. For one thing, the convoluted way the British Army tallied their lost tanks made so little sense that often, one tank would be written off twice. Conversely, the Germans were all too happy to underreport the number of prized heavy tanks they'd lost during the war.

The end result is War Thunder, Hearts of Iron, and general war history forums across the web boldly declaring the Tiger to be just about indestructible. If only Soviet T-34 and American Sherman crews were still around to tell these people how wrong they were. At Kursk, Stalingrad, Tunisia, and Normandy, the Tiger I did fight admirably. But saying they wiped the floors with the Allies would be plainly false. Clearly, because this article isn't in German.

It's also worth mentioning that the whole jazz about five Shermans to one Tiger notion has more to do with U.S. Army tank tactics than anything to do with the Tiger itself. Shermans, like stinging insects, usually did better in a swarm. But let's get to the real question of the hour. Could the Tiger really take down a modern American Abrams tank? Well, to quote LazerPig himself, "The short answer is no. The long answer, NOOOOOOOOOOO!!."

Okay, in fairness, you could bury a Tiger tank in deep sand and stick the barrel of its gun sky-high. If an Abrams tank so happened to drive over the Tiger, there's a chance the 88mm cannon blast could make an Abrams crew member spill his coffee ration. But in anything other than a total joke scenario, the Abrams turns the Tiger one into paste 999 times out of 1000. Granted, the Tiger's car like driver's position remains a feature in today's most modern western tanks.

When you lay it all out in this way, you can't help but think people on forums have gone a little bit mad. with how much they've overstated the Tiger's abilities. Ideations that it was somehow an indestructible wonder weapon have been allowed to permeate the internet for far too long.

That's why we once again thank LazerPig for being instrumental in putting yet another myth to bed. Go check out his video down below.