Tigers vs Shermans

[Imp]

I always thought the Tiger was the first tank designed specifically as a tank killer, not defensive mind. Added bonus of the 88 was it could also better defend itself vs infantry & ATGs as tank formations in WWII quite often acted independently as in outrunning their infantry support.

[PvtJoker]

Originally Posted by Imp

I always thought the Tiger was the first tank designed specifically as a tank killer, not defensive mind. Added bonus of the 88 was it could also better defend itself vs infantry & ATGs as tank formations in WWII quite often acted independently as in outrunning their infantry support.

Yes, of course tank killing was a major part of the breakthrough tank role, but it was not the sole purpose of the Tiger as designed. Conceptually the Tiger had many fairly close predecessors, the KV-1 one being the closest one, but the French B1bis was not very far, either. All of them had a quite respectable tank killing ability for their time (the Soviets in fact would have wanted to put a bigger gun on the KV-1, but no such gun was ready for production in 1941).