Teenagers nowadays are hardly excited about history. Yet if you look closer, there are quite a lot of intriguing facts. Did you know, for instance, that the great conqueror Napoleon was once attacked by bunnies? Although this might not be a rosy moment of history, I am about to introduce you to one of the famous, fearless, and unbreakable weapons Nazi Germany made during World War 2.
War is a period when every technology, including weapons, develops faster than any time. WWII is no doubt the biggest and cruelest war in human history. Besides, this is also when humanity witnessed the most rapid development of technology. During WWII, Germany was one of the countries which possessed cutting-edge technology. I was convinced of this as soon as I saw the tank called Tiger 1. Equipped with an 8.8cm barrel, 10cm of thick steel on the front, 12cm on the front of the turret, and 8cm in the rear and sides, Tiger, which weighs 54 tons, required five crew members for proper control. Thus, it won’t be an exaggeration to call this tank a monster since most of the tanks from the allies back then weighed around 30 tons, which suggest that they had weaker armor. The monster’s debut was in 1942. From 1942 to 1944, guns supplied by the allies could not penetrate the Tiger 1’s armor; the only way to destroy Tiger 1 was to come close within a few hundred meters. However, Tiger 1 was able to destroy most of the allies’ tanks within 2000 meters, making the approach tactic impossible. That is, the allies’ tanks were devastated even before they reached a few hundred meters.
There is no room for argument that Tiger 1 was undefeatable. “If one counts Tiger tanks versus the number of enemy tanks claimed destroyed by Tiger tanks, Tiger tanks killed 11.52 tanks for every one of their own destroyed in battle.”
By: Minsoo Kim