The Tiger 2 had two prototypes from two different companies. In both of these two prototypes the hull and mostly all of the internal equipment stayed the exact same. The biggest difference was the turret shape and armor. The first version was designed by Porsche and the second was designed by Herschel. The Tiger 2 P and Tiger 2 H were both commissioned at the same time by the German military and the two companies had to produce their best product to show the military. The ultimate winner was Herschel and they started producing the Tiger 2 H for the German army in 1944; a total of 492 Tiger 2 Hs were made before the end of WWII. The Herschel turret had thicker armor on the cheeks, a more protected cupola, a thicker, more angled, gun mantle, and a fully protected turret ring. Even though the Tiger 2 P had a faster turret traverse, it made its turret ring very vulnerable, they tried to use a “bullet catch” design which utilizes an almost completely open turret ring attempting to pinch rounds between the turret and frontal armor. This makes an incredibly protected turret ring but it also comes with the risk of a shot sneaking through. While the Tiger 2 was much better than the Tiger 1 it still had some of the exact same issues, such as, maintenance on the engine and transmission being too extensive and repeated breakdowns. The Tiger 2s saw limited combat as they were developed towards the end of the war seeing only around 10 months of service. The German super heavy tanks were truly revolutionary for tank combat at this time. Another German super heavy is the Maus which was never actually built but the concept was incredibly interesting. America was also developing super heavy tanks during this time and I will end up writing about those in the future as well.

Tiger 2 P for comparison VS the Tiger 2 H used as the front cover picture.