The Cromwell equipped the reconnaisance units of British armoured divisions because it had very high speed but not terribly good armour. There were five other tiger tanks of his unit involved. Micheale Wittman wasn't on his own when he shot up the reconnaisance colum of 7th Armourd division. This by the way is one of the reasons the Germans may have been winning the Battle of Britain when they switched to bombing London - the Germans had more experienced pilots flying than the British, so the replacement British pilots weren't living for very long. Earlier in the war there wasn't a specific number of missions to fly but a squadron leader would give his pilots a different job if he thought they were getting worn out/ too badly affected by 'battle fatigue'. Allied pilots were supposed to fly a certain number of missions (which was always increasing) and then be rotated to a training position or given a rest of some sort. Basically their pilots kept flying until they were dead or unable to fly any more.

The Germans had more aces because they were in the war longer ( some haveing started in the Spanish Civil War) and because they did not have a rotation system for their pilots. of course multiple T-34s can still try to flank the Tiger and achieve a side hit. Because that can create extra 'slope' for your armor, and making your armor harder to penetrate.įrom real battles, it was known that Tiger frontal armor can be penetrated by the 76.5mm gun on T-34 at a few hundred meters range, but if the Tiger is facing the T-34 with a 30 degree angle, the T-34 will not penetrate the Tiger at any range. I wouldn't expose my tank's side to the enemy if I can help it.īy the way, from playing some tank simulation game called World of Tanks, I learned that tank drivers should always place the tank at a slight angle toward the enemy instead of facing enemy straight head on. The side armor of Tiger is 80mm if I remember correctly, it is weaker than the frontal 100mm armor. Well, if the Tiger was driving a parallel path to the road, then it exposes its side to the enemy fire. Positioned his tank parallel to the enemy column? Was the British column stuck and the individual tanks in the column were unable to turn around right on the spot?

Battle of tanks t-34 actors