The Rough Heavy Tank the Soviets Built to Bury the Tiger
Mil Undecided
14,511 views
The Rough Heavy Tank the Soviets Built to Bury the Tiger
August nineteen forty-four, a wheat field in southern Poland, wrapped in gray morning fog. Eleven brand-new King Tigers rolled down the road toward the village of Ogledow, the heaviest tanks Germany had ever put in the field.
The matchup, laid bare:
August 1944, in the fog at Ogledow, Soviet heavy tanks ambushed a battalion of brand-new King Tigers and drove three of them back whole
On paper the Tiger won every line: faster gun, better optics, cleaner armor, higher build quality
The IS-2's 122mm gun fired a 60-pound shell that shattered late-war German plate even when nothing punched through
Soviet trials tore turrets off Panthers and Tigers and cracked King Tiger armor with non-penetrating hits
The Soviets built nearly three IS-2s for every Tiger Germany ever made, and a knocked-out IS-2 was usually repaired and back in days
The call sheet on IS-2 is pinned up top.
Subscribe for more armor history, and call the next matchup in the comments.
#IS2 #Tiger #KingTiger #WW2 #tankhistory #EasternFront #Ogledow #armorattack
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The Rough Heavy Tank the Soviets Built to Bury the Tiger
Mil Undecided
14,511 views
The Rough Heavy Tank the Soviets Built to Bury the Tiger
August nineteen forty-four, a wheat field in southern Poland, wrapped in gray morning fog. Eleven brand-new King Tigers rolled down the road toward the village of Ogledow, the heaviest tanks Germany had ever put in the field.
The matchup, laid bare:
August 1944, in the fog at Ogledow, Soviet heavy tanks ambushed a battalion of brand-new King Tigers and drove three of them back whole
On paper the Tiger won every line: faster gun, better optics, cleaner armor, higher build quality
The IS-2's 122mm gun fired a 60-pound shell that shattered late-war German plate even when nothing punched through
Soviet trials tore turrets off Panthers and Tigers and cracked King Tiger armor with non-penetrating hits
The Soviets built nearly three IS-2s for every Tiger Germany ever made, and a knocked-out IS-2 was usually repaired and back in days
The call sheet on IS-2 is pinned up top.
Subscribe for more armor history, and call the next matchup in the comments.
#IS2 #Tiger #KingTiger #WW2 #tankhistory #EasternFront #Ogledow #armorattack
IS-2 main gun: 122mm D-25T, firing a ~60 lb two-piece shell. (script)
Production ratio: 3,854 IS-2s vs 1,347 Tigers, nearly 3 to 1. (script)
The decider: brittle late-war German plate shattered and spalled under the 60 lb shell, no penetration needed. (script)
Rate of fire: IS-2 managed 2-3 rounds per minute; the Tiger fired more than twice as fast. (script)
Effective reach: 122mm holed a Tiger turret out to 1,500 yards; the 88 pierced an IS-2 front only inside ~500 yards. (Soviet + German reports)
Build cost in labor: an early Tiger took close to 300,000 man-hours, almost twice a Panther. (script)
Monthly output, Aug 1944: one Soviet plant poured out ~250 IS-2s; the whole Tiger program peaked at 104 in April 1944. (script)
Ogledow, Aug 1944: at least 3 new King Tigers captured whole, crews gone. (71st Gds Heavy Tank Rgt diary)