Tiger II (10.5 cm Kw.K)

Description

The Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf. B mit 10.5cm KwK L/68 (Sd.Kfz. Index: Sd.Kfz. 182) is a rank German heavy tank with a battle rating of (AB), (RB), and (SB). It was introduced to the main tree during the Closed Beta Test for Ground Forces before Update 1.41 as a main tree vehicle, however, as of Update 1.91 "Night Vision" it was shifted to become a gift vehicle for players who previously owned it. Increasing Tiger II's main cannon to a whopping 10.5 cm cannon, the Tiger II (10.5 cm Kw.K) boasts a much more powerful armament than any of the preceding German heavy tanks.

General info

Survivability and armour

The armour on this variant is the same as on the regular Tiger II (H). The upper front plate provides excellent protection against any regular AP (APCBC, APHE etc.) shell you might face. The turret, however, is only 185 mm and easily penetrated by most enemies, but you can make it very difficult to hit by "wiggling" the turret left and right which will often result in bounces or non-pens. The lower glacis is a weak spot but the transmission right behind it often takes most of the shrapnel, it can catch fire pretty easily though, meaning researching FPE should be done as soon as possible.

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour
• Cast homogeneous armour (Gun mantlet, Cupola, driver MG port)

Notes:

• Suspension wheels are 20 mm thick while tracks are 30 mm thick.
• Some part of the turret side have track links on them, which gives an additional 30 mm of protection to the armour.
• The weak spot is the front of the turret (185 mm), but it is small and very difficult to hit at mid-long ranges, where it is also harder to penetrate.
• Machine gun port could be marked as a close-range weak spot. Although most of it is still 150 mm thick, the angling is much worse.

Mobility

Modifications and economy

Armaments

Main armament

Ammunition

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the Tiger II (10.5 cm Kw.K)

Note:

• Right side empty: 27 (+27) shells.

Machine guns

Usage in battles

This tank's best role is as a sniper/support tank. Stay at distance, or your reload time and mobility will be the death of you.

Use your mobility to reach sniping zones and wait for enemy tanks to show up. Keep your distance to maximize the effectiveness of your armour and use cover to reload without having to worry about being destroyed. Avoid close combat as much as possible since most of the other tanks at your battle rate can penetrate your armour very easily and your reload rate is 20 secs so if your shot doesn't penetrate you will be easily killed.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Armed with a 105 mm gun that rivals the American 105 mm gun found on the T29, T28, and T95
• Really good ballistic properties on the default APHE round, making it fantastic at long range sniping or shooting at moving targets
• Due to the high TNT load of the default APHE shell, shots that penetrate an enemy's crew compartment almost always leads to an instant kill
• Once fully upgraded, the 10.5 Tiger II's engine is even better than the one found in the Tiger II (H) Sla.16
• Upper front plate still borderlines on being impenetrable with the exception of inbound APDS and HEAT rounds
• Lower plate susceptible to penetration, however, the transmission stands a good chance of absorbing all the potential damage
• Runs with a 6-man crew. Knocking out the tank with a single shot is difficult to achieve unless the ammo is hit
• Armed with a 12-shot, semi-automatic smoke grenade launcher

Cons:

• The sides of the turret now have a two ears that can be penetrated, making the turret even worse than the one on the Tiger II (H)
• Sluggish main gun reload time of 15 seconds, so snap-shooting or engaging in brawls is ill-advised
• Despite being quick and manoeuvrable for a heavy tank, do not expect to outmanoeuvre any medium which may be on the battleground
• As long as the tank carries at least 2 shells, there's always ammo stored in the back of the weakly armoured turret

History

Tiger II

The Tiger II with its 8.8 cm KwK 43 cannon was one of the most formidable tanks in World War II. Its 150 mm thick front armour plate sloped was never penetrated by an Allied tank throughout the war and its cannon could destroy any Allied tank fielded in the war. However, some German higher-ups believe that the armament on the Tiger II was just not enough, something more was needed.

Concept

Ideas of rearming the Tiger II was brought up by Krupp in sometime in late 1944. The concept drawing Krupp made was for the Tiger II to be rearmed with a 10.5 cm KwK L/68 cannon. This design would require new mountings and new mechanical parts to be optimized for the larger 10.5 cm gun. While the idea was indeed a very interesting one to up gun the Tiger II, it was never implemented because of its drawbacks. The 10.5 gun uses two-piece ammunition, which requires the presence of another loader. This is impossible because the turret is already cramped as is with three people inside, and the addition of another will make the interior a very miserable place to be in. Plus, the fact the gun's ammunition is two-piece already means that the drawback behind this upgrade is a much slower fire rate. This causes the concept to be rejected by German high command, and if it wasn't, it certainly ended with Germany's surrender in May 1945.

No prototypes were made and its existence is only proven by a concept drawing.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Tiger II (10.5 cm Kw.K) from live.warthunder.com.

Sights

• RideR2's Realistic gunsight (TZF4a, TZF 5a/b/d/e/f/f2, TZF 9b/b1/c/d, TZF 12/a) for Pzkpfw II, Pzkpfw III, Pzkpfw IV, Pzkpfw V, Pzkpfw VI

Images

• 

  The Tiger II 10.5 cm concept art from Krupp

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.