AK155(SE) Pzkpfw ausf. H Tiger I #813

King & Country Afrikakorps catalog reference

AK155(SE) Pzkpfw VI ausf. H Tiger 1 #813 The second of our two new Tigers belongs to the 8th Company of Panzer-Regiment 7. By late 1942, the fate of the Italian and German forces in North Africa was looking bleak. On November 7, 1942, a large Anglo-American force, three-quarters of which were from the U.S., had successfully landed in Morocco and Algeria. Code-named ‘Operation Torch’ and commanded by Lt. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower their aim was to attack the Germans and Italians from the west while the British Eighth Army was advancing from the east thus squeezing the Axis forces out of North Africa entirely. To avoid this fate there was a rapid build-up of German reinforcements in Tunisia by both air and sea with aircraft and ships from mainland Italy and Sicily arriving daily. Among the badly-needed reinforcements to the Afrika Korps were several shipments of the new and very heavy Panzerkampfwagen VI tanks better known as ‘The Tiger’. Eventually a total of 31 Tigers arrived in Tunisia and they were divided among 3 individual heavy tank companies of 9 x Tigers each with the remainder going to 2 battalion staff units. Ultimately, the presence of this small number of Tigers had little effect on the eventual outcome of the Desert War. However, the battlefield reputation of the Tiger was greatly enhanced by its performance in several battles during the closing months of the campaign where they destroyed more than 150 Allied tanks for the loss of just 9 of their own in action. BATTLEFIELD PROBLEMS ELSEWHERE While the Tiger 1 has been called an outstanding design for its time, it was also labelled ‘over-engineered’, using very expensive materials and labour-intensive production methods. In addition, this highly complex machine was constantly hampered by ongoing mechanical reliability issues and, its massive weight of 56 tons, which strained its mechanical systems, resulted in frequent breakdowns. Other negative factors included the tank’s size which made it difficult to o

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