Originally posted by ramzey
in RL 37 mm gun cant kill Tiger, only make scraches on the armour
50mm too, 76 mm have big problem and tiger can survive several hits..
They can immobilise Tiger only if destroy secound row of whels.
It's called getting the 'golden BB'. There are a number of points on the Tiger where a good -- or lucky -- shot can blow past the armor much easier. From the front, hitting either the driver's vision slit or the gunner's sight ports will work. It's not a high-probability shot, but it's possible.
The first Tiger tank destroyed by the Western Allies was knocked out by a mere 57mm antitank gun -- a UK 6 Pounder at work. It
dig take several shots, but the first complete penetration was at a range of 600 yards, at an angle of impact of 30 degrees from normal, through homogeneous armor 82-mm (approximately 3-1/2 inches) thick. Ammunition used was the 57mm AP semi AP solid shot.
The ability to destroy a Tiger I from other than the front is described in a wartime report from the 7th Armored Division while in Belgium in December of 1944:
While northern and eastern flanks had been heavily engaged, the northeastern section had been rather quiet. The only excitement there had been was when an M8 armored car from "E" Troop destroyed a Tiger tank. The armored car had been in a concealed position at right angles to run along a trail in front of the MLR. As the tank passed the armored car, the M8 slipped out of position and started up the trail behind the Tiger, accelerating in an attempt to close. At the same moment the German tank commander saw the M8, and started traversing his gun to bear on the armored car. It was a race between the Americans who were attempting to close so that their puny 37-mm would be effective in the Tiger’s "Achilles heel" (its thin rear armor), and the Germans who were desperately striving to bring their "88" to bear … Suddenly, the M8 had closed to 25 yards, and quickly pumped in 3 rounds… the lumbering Tiger stopped, shuddered; there was a muffled explosion, followed by flames which bellowed out of the turret and engine ports, after which the armored car returned to its position.This also illustrates a problem with the current AH damage model in that you can pump round after round of 75mm AP into the rear of a Tiger (in my case, ten rounds) without doing anything more than smoking the engine.
There is also one case where an M5A1 light tank caught a King Tiger driving through a ravine and pumped five rounds of 37mm into its rear deck and started an engine fire, causing the tank crew to bail.
Or, if you want
really ignominious, the Russians captured their first Tiger with an infantry unit:
In Romanovsky’s [A Soviet Lieutenant General] version published for the first time in
Operatsiya Iskra (Spark), Lenizdat 1973 and reprinted in
Leningrad Does Not Surrender by N. Kislitsyn and V. Zubakov, Progress, 1989: "
I was informed that an unusual enemy tank was moving through the corridor. Our light guns fired at it, but even direct hits could not stop the heavy, obviously strongly armoured vehicle. The German tank was heading for Schusselburg and at the time our 18th Infantry Division was approaching the road. The tank came under heavy direct fire. The shells did not cause dameage, but the driver, evidently taking fright, turned off the road and tried to get away towards Sinyavino. As it turned, the tank got stuck in a peat bog."
