Porsche and Militarism

It's no secret that the same people often build tanks and peaceful vehicles. For instance, the Kirovets K-700 tractor was designed by the same people who designed heavy tanks at the Kirov factory (including the IS-7). The same designers also produced the KT-12 skidder immediately after the war, and they were pulled off of military projects to do so. Harry Knox, the creator of American light and medium tank chassis, was a successful car designer before going into tanks. Even the famous John Walter Christie worked on (and drove) race cars as well as fire engines before building his tanks. There are plenty of examples where the same person created military and civilian vehicles.

Ferdinand Porsche reaching to touch his Tiger tank.

Ferdinand Porsche is perhaps the best known German tank designer. He is usually remembered for the Tiger (P), Maus, and other fighting vehicles that never made it into mass production. He is also well known for the "Beetle" (also known as the kDF-Wagen or Porsche Typ 60) and sports cars. While the former category of vehicles was unsuccessful, the latter is tremendously popular. Because of this, some claim that Porsche intentionally sabotaged the Third Reich. Let's take a look at what kind of pacifist Ferdinand Porsche turned out to be.

Third Tiger Out

The history of the Tiger heavy tank is often presented as a duel between two models: The Tiger H1 designed by Henschel with a mechanical transmission and Tiger (P) designed by Porsche with an electric transmission that allegedly led to its downfall. This common presentation is incorrect. The Germans worked on three Tiger tanks in the spring of 1942: the Tiger H1, Tiger (P) Typ 101 with a Siemens electric transmission, and the Tiger (P) Typ 102 with a Voith hydromechanical transmission. A lot has been written about the first two, but the last remained in the shadow for a long time. Books only contained scattered mentions or dry overviews of this tank without any photographs or blueprints.

Typ 102 refuelling in the vicinity of the Nibelungenwerke factory. The small fuel tanks and poor fuel economy meant this had to happen quite often. Ferdinand Porsche, director of Steyr Oscar Hacker, and Voith chief engineer Fritz Kugel.

The author of this article first wrote an article about the Tiger (P) Typ 102 back in 2017, describing its design, production, and trials. However, it contained many serious mistakes and left a lot of mysteries. Michael Fröhlich's book Der andere Tiger (The Other Tiger) was published in 2019. The author performed a lot of work and found a lot of new information on the Tiger (P) Typ 102, but not without mistakes. Now, combining all known information, the author returns to the topic with the first complete history of this mysterious Tiger.

Limping Jagdtiger

The German Jagdtiger tank destroyer was built in two variants: one with a Porsche suspension and one with a Henschel one. The former was deemed poor and removed from production. This fact is stated in every publication dedicated to the Jagdtiger, but is not discussed in detail. In this article we won't stop at brief descriptions, questionable overviews, and conclusions, but instead will discuss how German late war tank suspensions were developed, cover the Porsche suspension, then present the history of the Jagdtiger's suspension in the appropriate context. Our tale will be based on an analysis of the design rather than compilations of opinions of other authors.

On the Way to the King Tiger

There is an unwritten rule in tank building: start working on a replacement for the tank that you just built. This rule is especially true in wartime. In some cases, work on the replacement began before the predecessor left the drawing board. This is how work started on the Tiger II, the heaviest mass produced tank of WWII. Formally, development began in 1941. The tank named VK 45.02(H) gained a lot of weight during development and changed its name and designs multiple times.

Porsche's Tiger: A Victim of Dirty Competition

The German heavy tank program began in 1937, but work dragged on. Changes were being introduced into the design of tanks that hadn't even been built yet. Because of this, Porsche K.G. began working on a new Typ 100 heavy tank, known also as the VK 30.01(P), in December of 1939. Work on this project let to the creation of another tank, the VK 45.01(P), or Pz.Kpfw. Tiger (P), the main subject of today's article. This vehicle, often called the Porsche Tiger, was accepted for service and could have become the main German heavy tank of the war, had the situation developed a little differently.