Armor and Heavy Tanks

The most important part of any tank is the armored shell that protects components and crew alike. For Heavy Tanks, this protection is even more important due to the nature of operations heavy tanks are used on, which will often leave them exposed to counterfire from enemy tanks and antitank weapons for extended periods of time. What’s interesting about heavy tanks with regards to armor is that although the major tank builders of WWII differed greatly when it came to their design philosophies regarding armament and mobility, armor design stayed relatively constant, with three main criterion: Heavy Tank armor had to be thick, thick enough to stop a shell on its own if needed; it had to be simple, so that it could be easily mass-produced on a large scale; and it had to be easily serviceable, so that armor plating could be easily repaired in the field. In order to accomplish this, most heavy tanks of WWII were designed with very thick armor with almost no sloping. While it meant that the armor plating would take the full force behind a shot with very little chance to simply deflect an incoming shell, it did mean that the armor was so thick that said shells might simply get stuck in the armor and never fully penetrate, or if they did, not have enough remaining velocity to cause major damage to internal crew and components. Armor being simplified for repairs meant that it was surprisingly easy to refit a heavy tank after a large battle, greatly increasing their operational life. It also allowed for armor kits to be more easily installed, boosting the damage tanking ability of a heavy tank even further. Tanks like the Soviet KV-1 for example had their existing tank shell to house the crew, and then armor made form steel sheets that was made to be riveted on in the field for maintenance purposes.

A Soviet KV-1E. Notice the visible rivets on the armor plating

 This design philosophy of big, vertical armor plates stayed relatively constant throughout the Second World War, but that didn’t stop people from innovating on defensive design. Rather surprisingly, it was the Germans, not the Soviets, who first began their efforts to revolutionize the design of the heavy tank, even more surprisingly, it was the Porsche company, which was competing with others in Germany for the contract for what would later become the legendary Panzerkampfwagon VI “Tiger” Heavy Tank. This tank, the later known as the Tiger I(P) by historians, attempted to take the best parts of Soviet tank design – mainly the sloped armor, and mounting the turret forward on the chassis instead of in the middle – and apply them to a German heavy tank. And although many such design philosophies were adopted following the Second World War, Porsche’s tank was ahead of its time, not to mention riddled with mechanical problems. Even after numerous test runs, the tank was still prone to being stuck in the mud, suffering engine failure, and then spontaneously combusting, usually in that order. In a last act of desperation, the few remaining Tiger I(P)s were fitted for combat for the Battle of Berlin, but these were all destroyed In the fighting.

An artist's rendition of a Tiger I(P). Very few actual photos of the tank exist