Tiger to Tame

In their western-front offensive, the Germans used new weapons. One was a leviathan tank, the 75-ton Koenigstiger (Royal Tiger), whose turret could turn through the full circle, whose hitting power was a greatly elongated version of the high-velocity 88-mm. gun. In one model the monster's frontal armor was six-inch steel plate, slanted at high angle to bounce shells off. But in another version the Koenigstiger was reportedly a true land battleship--its turret faced with twelve inches of armor, probably impenetrable to all but the heaviest field-artillery projectiles.

Out-Armored. The Royal Tiger was comparatively slow (18 to 20 miles an hour), but nimble at turning to fight. Its tracks were 2 ft. 8 1/2 in. wide, to give it sure footing on sloppy ground.

Another effective enemy weapon: a 45-ton modernized tank-destroyer. It carried the same 88-mm. high-velocity gun as the Royal Tiger, but in a heavily armored boxlike compartment.

Against the German weapons were some new U.S. guns and tank-destroyer types still on the secret list, but the basic ground-taker was still the medium Sherman tank, carrying either a 75-mm. gun (outclassed by the 88-mm.) or 105-mm. howitzer. The Allies have nothing of comparable size to the Koenigstiger, consider such monsters too road-bound to be of great value.

Bearing the brunt of U.S. antitank defense were two reliables: 1) the M36 (Slugger) with a high-velocity 90-mm. gun; 2) the fast, low-slung M18 (Hellcat) and its 76-mm. pieces. But the best antitank weapon of all is the rocket-firing fighter-bomber--weather permitting.

Weather did not halt the German ersatz air force of pilotless V-bombs, and by last week Allied commanders were willing to concede that the V-bombs had true military value when coupled with an offensive. The Germans fired salvos of V15 and V-25, and a shorter-ranged, smaller version of V-2 as they would have used heavy artillery in advance of an assault. Their effectiveness was obvious: even haphazard strikes could do military damage aplenty in junction towns crowded with men and materials. The enemy claimed to have poured them on Antwerp, Brussels and Liege without mercy.

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