The Tiger II Ausf.B Königstiger was the most powerful battle tank of World War II, for which the Allies had no effective countermeasure in their arsenal until the end of the war. The M4 Sherman was unable to penetrate its main armor even at very close range, while the M26 Pershing or IS-2 had to fire from a distance of less than 1,300 meters to achieve a successful hit.
The design of the Tiger II began in May 1941, and serious work on a new tank intended to replace the Tiger I began toward the end of 1942. By Hitler's order, the new Tiger was to be armed with an 88 mm gun, with 150 mm of frontal armor and 80 mm of side armor. Following the example of the Panther, the armor was to be sloped and attached using so-called interlocking joints. The contract to develop the tank was awarded to Henschel and Porsche. Of the two designs, Henschel's version was selected for series production because it was more compatible with existing German tank-design principles, shared many components with the Panther, and was simpler to build.
Production of the Tiger II began in January 1944, and until September 1944 all Tiger IIs were coated with Zimmerit (an anti-magnetic paste intended to prevent the attachment of magnetic mines). The first 50 tanks were fitted with turrets manufactured by Krupp for Porsche, and these are commonly known as Porsche-turret Tigers.
The Tiger II with the Henschel turret weighed 69.8 tonnes. It was powered by a 12-cylinder Maybach HL 230 P30 engine producing 700 hp, which gave the tank a maximum speed of 41.5 km/h. Its main armament was the 88 mm KwK 43 L/71 gun, supplemented by two 7.92 mm MG34/42 machine guns. The hull's frontal armor was 150 mm thick and sloped at 50°, while the turret front was 180 mm thick at 9°. The hull side armor was 80 mm thick at 25°, and the turret side armor was 80 mm thick at 21°.
By the end of the war, a total of 487 Tiger II tanks had been produced.
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