Jagdtiger

## Basic Information

The **Jagdtiger** is a German tier 9 tank destroyer.

Developed from 1942 through 1944, the heavy tank destroyer, with the chassis of the Tiger II heavy tank, became the heaviest mass-produced armored vehicle ever. According to various sources, 70–79 tank destroyers were manufactured from 1944 through 1945. The vehicles saw service in the 653rd and 512th Heavy Panzerjäger Battalions.

The undisputed "King" of German tank destroyers before the 7.5 update, & by some still considered to be better than the Jagdpanzer E-100, the Jagdtiger offers thick frontal armor & a selection of two heavy guns capable of dealing massive damage to any target. Due to its high weight, it is slow & unwieldy. The gun mantlet, while thick, shots which hit it still manages to damage the gun. If de-tracked, or attacked from the rear or sides, it will die easily & quickly. Do not approach this tank from the front even if you have a gun with sufficient penetration; it will probably be the last thing you see before becoming a smoking wreck. This tank destroyer is best played with one or two mediums acting in support role, defending its sides & rear. It has a large weak spot, as with most German tanks, on the lower glacis plate. Either way, drive or attack this tank destroyer with caution.

Note that the Jagdtiger in WoTB is the Henschel version with 9 wheels on each track.

The Jagdtiger leads to the Jagdpanzer E 100.

## Pros & Cons

##### Pros:

- Second highest HP pool of all TDs in the game (2100)

- Very thick frontal upper superstructure armor (250 mm)

- Excellent gun performance - DPM, Handling, accuracy

- Excellent DPM

- Decent gun depression

- Good base view range for a TD (390 m), can be boosted considerably with equipment & skills

- Decent maneuverability & acceleration for its size

##### Cons:

- Weak rear & side armor (80 mm) makes it very vulnerable from flanking

- Although thick, superstructure is flat & can be penned by "premium" ammo when un-angled, & even standard-issue ammo in tiers IX & X

- Upper glacis is only 200 mm effective thick & unreliable, easily penetrated by even lower tier TDs

- Lower plate is extremely weak & easily penetrated by anyone you meet

- Poor camo rating, although good view range compensates for this

- Slow traverse speed, easily circled

- Extremely weak ammo rack and engine

## Performance

The JT is a relatively one-dimensional tank that uses several facets in pursuit of that. The first & foremost focus of the JT player is one thing: damage. The JT cannot scout & cannot flank other tanks; its role isn't distraction or spotting. Its role is to simply hammer away at the foes' hit points, one shell at a time. Compared to many TDs at these tiers, the JT seems to be a less damaging tank, what with its 490 (later 560) damage-per-shot rating, when many other tier IX & especially T10 TDs are doing 750 or more.

However, it is easy to forget that for all the awesome power the 150 mm+ class guns have, there is a cost to such damage: long reload cycles. So long, it should be noted, that most large guns don't have any real suppressive power: they take a shot & regardless of results, they are open & vulnerable for enough time for a medium or a group of tanks to push up & focus fire them without any recourse. The JT on the other hand excels at punishing a foe when they make the attempt to push forward. With the shorter reload of the 12,8 cm gun the JT is capable of running sustained fire on targets in the open, & doing so allows it to rake in more damage overall than the single-shot cannons while simply being a more flexible weapon.

What makes this TD special is its ability to reengage targets while staying still due to its awesome gun traverse dispersion, aim time and accuracy. The benefits it gets can be controversial comparing to JP E100. The E100 focuses all its concentration on a single tank while JT cut its damage in half for more flexibility to reengage targets.

There are some drawbacks to the JT though: the mobility & lack of effective armor. It also has bad camouflage values, so it is not a particularly good idea to rely on it. It should be said that the 250 mm casemate plate, mantlet, & 8 degrees of gun depression does make the JT quite good in a hull down position. However, when attempting to relocate to a location, or in the open without cover, the JT is without question vulnerable. If flanked, the large profile makes it easy to track & hit. The armor, outside of the casemate front, doesn't amount to more than 210 mm effective, which is less than almost any tier 9 and 10 tanks can do anyways. The best way to use the JT is to use situational awareness: pay attention to what everyone in front of you is focused on, make sure that you're not the focus of their attention, & then use that time gap to move from cover to cover. Outside of some hills & small rocks, the JT isn't a terribly good tank for abusing cover, but it still can hope to do more damage than it takes, even if it gets caught in the open 1-on-1, with its damage-per-minute. The most effective JT is either in the second line sniping what forward spotters see, or immediately in front of an opponent, face hugging & annihilating them. The tank is most comfortable at long or zero range; its weaknesses are more apparent in the midrange game where its weak spots are large enough to be targeted accurately & where it is often easy to be targeted by more than one enemy at once, focus fired, & reduced to flame & ash.

## Historical Information

Jagdtiger: the common name of a German tank-destroyer (German: Jagdpanzer) of World War II. The official German designation was Panzerjäger Tiger Ausf. B. The ordnance inventory designation was Sd. Kfz. 186. It saw service from late 1944 to the end of the war on both the Western and Eastern Fronts. The Jagdtiger was the heaviest armored fighting vehicle to see service during World War II.

Although well protected and armed, it suffered from mechanical problems attributed to its excessive weight. A total of almost 80 vehicles were manufactured.

## Historical Accuracy Errata

The 12,8 cm Pak L/66 gun was merely a proposal by Krupp to add an extension to the rear of the Jagdtiger's superstructure in order to fit the gun. Due to the gun's enormous size, it had to be retracted into the rear casemate when the tank is moving. The project was deemed unrealistic and rejected. Therefore, the L/66 configuration on the Jagdtiger without the extension is fake.

* The Jagdtiger was already plagued with mechanical problems due to its excessive weight. Hypothetically, upgunning the tank and extending the superstructure would've necessitated an upgrade of the engine and suspension to cope with the increased weight. However, no option exists to mount a stronger engine other than the historical version.
* From August 1944, German tanks had a dark yellow base coat, RAL 7028 Dunkelgelb. Jagdtigers produced from autumn 1944 had a "light and shadow" camouflage pattern with dark yellow and dark green spots. The base colour was changed to dark green in November 1944. In World of Tanks, however, the Jagdtiger is in early Panzer Grey; there is no option to apply Dunkelgelb other than purchasing a paint from "exterior" section.
* Historical Sla.16 diesel engine with 750 hp is missing. According to various of sources such as *Military Engineer and Amazing Porsche and Volkswagen Story*, the engines were tested with positive results. A diesel engine was mounted onto a Tiger II as a prototype built by Nibelungen Werke and went through testing in the spring of 1945, though results has not been found from this test. Further proposals also wanted the engine to be mounted in the Panther and Jagdtiger vehicles for increased power, but the war's constraint on supplies and Nazi Germany's capitulation resulted in the cancellation of these programs.