Tiger Tales: Henschel’s VK.45.02

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by CaptianNemo(EU/US)

I intend to make Tiger Tales a series of articles covering the more obscure and unknown tanks from the Tiger chassis. The articles will more then likely not be very lengthily and may not always have photos simply because photos or drawings do not or did not exist to illustrate the design in question. – NEMO

The VK.45.02 Henschel is one of those tanks that is not an exotic tank like the VK.45.02 Porsche. It is a much more tame design by comparison. Although “design” is really the not right word for it, as the VK.45.02(H) was always more of a production modification than anything of the “normal” VK.45.01(H) Tiger I tank.

There were three proposals and attempts to produce the VK.45.02(H) during the war and all three were shot down almost as quickly as they were proposed. Lastly, one should keep in mind that the first 250 VK.45.01(H) Tiger I tanks were equipped with HL 210 P45 motors and the first 250 Panthers with the HL210 P30 motors.

The first proposal for the VK.45.02(H) stems from an August 19th 1942 request to install the Panther HL 230 P30 motor in the Tiger I tank. This request was followed up by Maybach, who proposed a transitional Tiger tank, the VK.45.02(H), between the then in production VK.45.01(H) and the planned VK.45.03 (SS: Tiger II), so that as of vehicle number 200 onward, the VK.45.02(H) could be equipped with the Panther HL 230 P30 engine, Panther cooling system, Panther ventilation and what amounted to the Panther rear end. According to a study by Maybach, the rear plate of the VK.45.01(H) would only need to be angled 2 degrees out of vertical. Mind you, Henschel had only produced a total of 9 Tigers by the end of August 1942 and Tiger number 200 would not be reached until April of 1943. By the end of August, the proposal by Maybach for the VK.45.02(H) was rejected by Albert Speer and one would think that that would be the end of the VK.45.02(H), but the idea would just not die.

The VK.45.02(H) was brought up yet again in October of 1942. This time, the delivery plan for the VK.45.03 was being put together and finalized. 424 Tigers were still on contract at that time to be finished before the start of the VK.45.03 production was declared to be impossible. So, a transition vehicle was proposed again, as the VK.45.02(H), with 170 vehicles to be produced and the total number of Series 1 and 2 vehicles to be increased to a total of 500 (CN: From 424.) so that the Type 3 (VK.45.03) could be produced from vehicle 501 onwards.

(CN: I took some liberty with the wording to make it more correct as the person who translated the book from German to English has some grammatical issues.)

Oberst [Colonel] Thomale however rejected this proposal to put the VK.45.02(H) in the middle between the two design runs and he approved the beginning of VK.45.03 (Type 3) production for September 1943. It was also suggested that the VK.45.02 should have its front plate inclined at less than 40 degrees(CN: But I have no clue as to what is going on with the inclination of the VK.45.02′s plate as it is just one line of text… There is no real context. Some brief background though: Oberst [Colonel] Thomale had been working with the Tiger Program since the beginning. At first as an ongoing liaison officer and shortly thereafter as one of two chairmen of the Tiger Commission, whose job was to recommend to Hitler, which tank to manufacture in November of 1942.)

The third proposal is a little more obscure and I am not sure if it would have been labeled VK.45.02(H), but from the wording and timing of the proposal itself, it is more the likely that the name would apply. In the autumn of 1942, Henschel tried to persuade the Ordnance Office to accept an intern solution to new developments, that would lead to the VK.45.03. The proposal was that the Tiger Type “E” was to be equipped with a curved bow plate. By retaining the earlier “L 600C” steering mechanism of the Type “E”, an intern solution between the stepped hull of the Type “E” and “Tiger II” hull would be created, but the proposal was rejected.

The VK.45.02(H) never came up again after November 1942 and nothing ever came of any of the proposals. Nothing was found in other sources either, but considering the vagueness of the proposals I did not expect to find much. It was after all, at best, a proposal.

Source:

Tiger I and II and their Variants (English edition), Walter Spielberger, pg 92, 96 and 106.

Silentstalker’s afterword: A quick explanation about the numbers used in this article. Nemo uses “VK.XX.XX(X)” format for the VK vehicles. The use of the dot after the VK shortcut is not common in literature (as far as I can tell), but it is not wrong – since it struck me as odd as well, I went to check the book (granted, German edition) and it is really there on some places.

34 thoughts on “Tiger Tales: Henschel’s VK.45.02”

    • No, it was a very early evolutionary step.
      Actually there even were two VK 45.03, dubbed “Tiger II” and “Tiger III”, with the production one being the “III”.

      • So, if I’m correct, in WoT, the Tier 8 VK tank of Maus line is actually the real Tiger II, and the production Tiger II is actually the Tiger III… Right? *tilts head*

            • I’m pretty sure anyone who’s actually read about the Byzantine mess that was the Third Reich inner workings will sneer derisively at that expression. No, they didn’t even get the proverbial trains to run on time – quite the opposite as maintenance and replacement of the rolling stock was all but ignored in favour of making moar gunz and tonks.

              • “With a military split into four completely separate parts that had to be actively bullied by Hitler into cooperating (Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe, SS), two competing intelligence services (SA, SD) that never shared information and occasionally offed each other’s agents, two civil services and two courts (one regular/normal, one SS), and five atomic bomb programs that shared no information or resources with each other Nazi Germany was actually one of the most inefficient states in history.”

          • I personaly prefer this system to what the US were running. Or the japanese for that matter. Also, what’s so messy in (project initial mass).(version number)(manufacturer)?

            • I don’t think they’re really talking about the indexing system per ce, but rather the plethora of proposals with mostly similar names and oftentimes unclear relations. The running numbering inside category the US used was somewhat clearer in some respects.

  2. I could do with a clarification.

    ” According to a study by Maybach, the rear plate of the VK.45.01(H) would only need to be angled 2 degrees out of vertical.”

    The rear plate on the production Tiger was sloped somewhere around 10 degrees outward allready, does this mean they intended to reduce that to just 2 degrees, or add to the sloping allready there?

    Otherwise, interesting read, and I’m looking foreward to the next article in the series.

    • I honestly don’t know. I would suspect it would be added to the slope to make more room for the cooling system. But it is not very clear even in the book.

      • That’s what I reckoned too. Presumably they would only bother to swap to the new cooling setup if it was noticeably more efficent than the original, meaning larger radiators, fans, etc. Stuff that would take up more space.

        • It was not about efficiency. The original intent, if I read it correctly, was speeding up production of the Tiger and using the same setup as the Panther as far as engine and cooling. IE Common parts.

    • I covered Porsche heavy tanks and TDs already… anything else that might interest you?

      • Didn’t the French try to nab Dr Porshe to help design their post war tanks? Did this ever happen? I know there was a lot of political wrangling and house arrest involved with the whole affair.

        • Was there a field of the postwar divvying up that *didn’t* involve copious amounts of gratuitious wrangling, stonewalling and all-around parochialism? IIRC what I’ve read of it only the Anglo-American relationship was even remotely smooth.

          • That depends really on who you’re asking. The relationship between Montgomery and Eisenhower was appauling at times – putting Eisenhowever as the head of all allied forces added a year to the war according to Monty.

            “They’re over paid, over sexed and over here!” as some of our guys said.

            • *cough* I did say “postwar”. And Monty’s troublesome quirks aside the wartime Anglo-American cooperation on the whole went fairly well – at least compared to the original Anglo-French Entente and “Mr. Diplomacy” de Gaulle’s Free French.

  4. Nice article, nemo! I love reading these at school, where noone has no idea what the VKs were.
    Oh and didn’t you once comment on a Winter Mod video of mine?

    • IMHO it’s a small concession to clarity that doesn’t really hurt historical accuracy.

    • There is almost nothing additional in that book. Just looked at my copy.

      The VK 45.02(H) they are talking about is the VK 45.03(H).

      The most I could have added is about the April 1942 8.8cm L/71 gun Tiger conceptualization that was named at the time VK 45.02(H). Which I suppose I can write it up and back edit it in. This ended up as the VK 45.03(H) in the end.

      • The first mention of the VK45.02 (H) with Sloped armor+8,8 L/71 is from April 15th 1942, this first version use the Tiger 1 components(drive train and suspension).(Now: VK45.02 (H) Model 1);

        The second mention is from August 19th 1942 request to install the Panther HL 230 P30 motor in the Tiger I tank(like you mentioned), no mention of armor and gun is given.(Now: VK45.02 (H) Model 2);

        In the end of August the decision of the Albert Speer is to increase the contract of 300 tiger to 600, of the additional 300 is to produce 140 VK45.01(H) and 160 Tigers with the drive train and suspension of Tiger but with sloped armor( VK45.02 (H) Model 1), the Maybach proposal
        ( VK 45.02 (H)Model 2) is rejected.No mention of VK 45.03(H) is made yet.

        The first mention of the Henschel working in a new project is from August 19th of 1942 between Krupp and Wa pruef 6 about the turret Tiger-Turm(H3 und P2).

        In October 1942 The first mention to VK 45.03(H) is made in a discussion between about plans for production from you text:
        “The VK.45.02(H) was brought up yet again in October of 1942. This time, the delivery plan for the VK.45.03 was being put together and finalized. 424 Tigers were still on contract at that time to be finished before the start of the VK.45.03 production was declared to be impossible. So, a transition vehicle was proposed again, as the VK.45.02(H), with 170 vehicles to be produced and the total number of Series 1 and 2 vehicles to be increased to a total of 500 (CN: From 424.) so that the Type 3 (VK.45.03) could be produced from vehicle 501 onwards.”

        Is important to point that the model proposed here is the VK45.02 (H) Model 1 not model 2.

        Conclusion: VK 45.03(H) is mix between VK45.02 (H) Model 1 and VK45.02 (H) Model 2, plus others changes made by Wa Pruef 6