The Tiger Tank

by Roger Ford, Peter Darman

Development history and service records, armament details, firsthand accounts from Tiger crews who fought Allied forces, and black-and-white photos and color art.

96 pages, Hardcover

First published August 28, 1997

Reviews

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a 96 page hardback containing over 70 photographs and a few artwork illustrations from various sources. The accompanying text tells of the design and use of the Tiger tank in WWII. The short length of the book cannot do justice to a subject such as the Tiger tank, and consequently the book has good points and bad points.
Regarding the bad points, the title ‘The Tiger Tank’ is misleading as the book is mainly concerned with the Tiger I, a fact pointed out in a footnote on page 9 – it might have been better to title the book ‘The Tiger I Tank’. Chapter 1 begins with a text error, photos on pages 2-3 and the rear cover are not credited, the Jagdtiger photo on page 90 is incorrectly captioned, and the artwork varies in quality and accuracy, not surprising since it comes from five different sources.
The good points are the text, which although it only scrapes the surface of the subject, is very informative. The photos are well selected and reproduced to a decent size, bringing out details as a result.
I enjoyed this book very much, and it made me want to read other more comprehensive books on the subject.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tiger is surely the most famous tank ever produced to this date, and Roger Ford has done a yeoman's job of outlining all the attributes that made the Tiger such a fearsome weapon while also hitting the behemoth's weak points. Ford's book features many excellent b/w photographs of generally high quality, showing the tiger in production, battle, and in several instances, destruction. There are several schematics and even a couple pages devoted entirely to the Tiger's camoflauge schemes, and Ford goes over the tank's technical data in considerable detail, giving the reader a good idea of what the Tiger's designers went through. The book's major weakness is an almost total lack of tactical history, as Ford chooses to focus instead on the Tiger's overall strategic role in the grand scheme of WW2. More detailed accounts of tank-vs.-tank encounters or even interviews with surviving participants would have made this a complete text. As it is, "The Tiger Tank" is still a quality book, and one I definitely recommend to any armored warfare enthusiast.