Tiger I units shipped to Rommel

Too little, too late. What on earth was the rationalization for this haphazard, logistically unsound decision?

Did the Tiger I units in the desert have any tactical victories and manage to slow down the allied advance? How many of them were there?

 

well from what I have heard the first tiger tanks off the line had technical trouble such as the steering mechanism breaking down under the vehicles weight.

 

My memory is spotty on this, but a very small amount of Tiger I's were shipped to North Africa. Maybe only a company to a battalion in strength. And Rommel already lost by then..

 

Tiger tanks were reported in numerous American after action reports of the Battle of Kaserine Pass. Though Panzer IVs were likely to account for a good number of the Tiger sightings, German records seem to agree with this. The Tigers were distributed among the German march columns singly or in pairs, and used in the typical Russian fashion, that is, deployd up front in armored wedges. The Tigers were a nasty handful to the Sherman tanks and very effective on the tactical level, instilling Tigerphobia in many a formation. Though the Tiger did well on the battlefield, owning to its rarity and lack of range American intellegence officers in the end did not consider the Tiger a strategic threat to future operations after the battle.

 

You mean the Tiger was used in pairs as the tip of the V?

 

I recall that from Yeid's The Tank Killers. The Germans were fighting in well handled wedge formation that unfolded to encircle the Americans, Tigers were encountered and 88 fire was credited for the heavy losses US tanks sustained at long range. Given some might have been the handiwork of Pz. IV "longs", the bulk of German tanks were still IIIs and it made sense that there will be Tigers at the Schwerepunkt.

 

As far as I can discover, Tiger tanks (belonging to s.Pz.Abt. 501) participated in the battle of Sidi bou Zid, but were withdrawn before the battle of the Kasserine Pass. They remained under the command of von Arnim, while Rommel fought the Kasserine battle, so they were simply not at his disposal.

If you have any "German records" of Tigers at Kasserine, I would be interested to know about them?

David

 

Did not Hitler start sending troops etc and Tigers as well to hold the position in North Africa and to keep Italy in war.