Using rare and unpublished photographs, Hitler’s Heavy Tiger Tank Battalions is an illustrated record of German heavy tank battalions or Schwere Panzer Abteilungen during operations on the Eastern, Western and Italian fronts between 1942 and 1945. It represents a visual account of the various elite battalion- sized tank units of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS equipped with the Tiger I and later Tiger II heavy tanks.
The book shows early formation units comprising twenty Tigers and sixteen medium Pz.Kpfw.IIIs, it illustrates the various vehicles that each battalion used in a supporting role, and the special independent Tiger tank maintenance companies which kept the vehicles in fighting condition. Much was owed by the Tiger tank battalions to their maintenance teams, which were able to quickly repair combat damage and return tanks to the battlefield to inflict more harm on the enemy.
The development of the Tiger tank battalions is traced from their deployment on the Eastern Front in 1942, Italy a year later, France in 1944, and to defensive actions outside Berlin in 1945. With detailed captions and text the book tells the story of how these battalions evolved and shows that although they were successful on the battlefield, mechanical unreliability continuously reduced the battalions to smaller and smaller combat-ready units. These heavy tanks, which were constantly required to fight offensive and defensive missions, were shuffled around and organised into ad hoc units according to conditions on the battlefield. Huge numbers were lost, but in spite of this the battalions fought on until the last days of the war, when the crews finally destroyed their equipment and surrendered to their enemies.