Have a King Tiger for your troubles.

"ly2v8-Brian" (ly2v8-brian) 07/02/2014 at 12:33 • Filed to: None

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*note: Let's not make this a debate about what happened during the war. This is just simply a video of a restored and operational (bet that PaK43 isn't functional though) King Tiger.* 70 tons of German steel and a gun that could knock out any tank it came across. It's major shortcomings were mobility and the severely crippled German industry at the time could not produce parts of good enough quality (most Tiger II losses were breakdowns).

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ly2v8-Brian 07/02/2014 at 12:37

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I've never bothered to learn *that much* about the Tiger II, but it does appear they eschewed the concrete troweling that you see on a Tiger. Why, I'm not sure, possibly because they had more steel involved and less labor.

ly2v8-Brian > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 07/02/2014 at 12:41

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Concrete Troweling??

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ly2v8-Brian 07/02/2014 at 12:52

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It's very visible in this picture. Apparently it wasn't just applied to the Tigers, but they're the best known for it. Concrete is an over-simplification, called " Zimmerit ". I think that discontinue date pre-dates the Tiger II, so that explains it.

It's very accurately captured on the Tigers in the movie Kelly's Heroes, which was in a lot of respects one of the first WWII movies to spend serious time on tank prop accuracy, despite being a comedy.

ly2v8-Brian > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 07/02/2014 at 13:25

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I thought you meant Zimmerit but I wasn't sure. Cool little technological innovation. It made it so tanks could avoid magnetically triggered AT mines. But those 'Tigers' in Kelly's heroes looked great.

desertdog5051 > ly2v8-Brian 07/02/2014 at 13:32

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That collection was featured on a show on Velocity (Million dollar Collections) if I remember correctly. One of the unique things about this collection is that most all the guns on the various machines are fully functional.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ly2v8-Brian 07/02/2014 at 13:33

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I read about the Battle of the Bulge extensively years ago, and the author of one book referred to the Sherman "Jumbo" variant several times as a Cobra King type as a shorthand, after the first to reach Bastogne. I always thought there was a nice symmetry in King Tiger vs. Cobra King.

Apparently the Cobra King itself was "missing" until 2008, when they successfully IDed it .

ly2v8-Brian > desertdog5051 07/02/2014 at 13:38

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I didn't know that. That is Awesome. I know that if you jump through enough hoops you can legally own functional anti-tank guns in the US. I wasn't sure with this because the PaK43 is a monster gun (it might even penetrate modern armor) so I doubt this gun is legally able to be functional, but I don't know.

ly2v8-Brian > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 07/02/2014 at 13:41

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My Dad is in the Army and always talked of German and American tanks of WWII. So I am interested in learning about WWII machinery. It is an interesting subject.

desertdog5051 > ly2v8-Brian 07/02/2014 at 13:44

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Yeah, do not recall. But it would probably make little difference. Where would you get ammunition for it?

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ly2v8-Brian 07/02/2014 at 13:47

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"Any Other Weapon". Tax stamp, approval of local law enforcement: no arbitrary limit on bore size. If you've got artillery, that ain't getting measured.

ly2v8-Brian > desertdog5051 07/02/2014 at 13:50

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I suppose gun shops that have the licensing for manufacturing, might be able to make some rounds. But hey this is America if it shoots you can own it (terms and conditions apply).

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > desertdog5051 07/02/2014 at 13:51

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You'd probably just need to buy a stock of casings, get a foundry mold for the bullet, and hand-load for anything in a wacky size - otherwise, I think stocks are sometimes on the market. Considering the tipover to Any Other Weapon is bore size, not possession of ammo (I think), it would probably depend on whether said ammo counted as a jurisdictionally banned explosive whether ordinary civvie ownership was allowed.

Hand-loading might require adapting to a different sort of primer, but a lot of artillery primes oddly anyway.

ly2v8-Brian > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 07/02/2014 at 13:52

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That's kinda what I thought, wasn't sure though

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ly2v8-Brian 07/02/2014 at 13:54

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Casings would be easier to get than a correct primer, but you could probably just lathe an adapter plug and use a shotgun primer or some such.

ly2v8-Brian > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 07/02/2014 at 14:01

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That is the tricky part isn't it?

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ly2v8-Brian 07/02/2014 at 14:06

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Primer gets spent every time you fire just like the powder, which is a much simpler thing. However, I just checked, and from appearances, some US shells use a two-stage primer. That is, it's basically a blank - standard cartridge primer goes "bang", ignites blank cartridge, which goes "bang", setting off the main load. IOW, it's easier than I thought to feed a fieldpiece. Much easier.