Dragon DRA61028 German Initial Production Sd. Kfz. 181 PzKpfw VI Tiger I Heavy Tank - "100", schwere Panzer Abteilung 502, Leningrad, 1943 (1:35 Scale)
"Leningrad first, Donetsk Basin second, Moscow third."
- Adolf Hitler discussing his objectives during Operation Barbarossa, August 6th, 1941
The German Waffenamt issued an order to design the VK4501(H) (as the PzKpfw VI Ausf. E was then known) in May 1941, just one month prior to the commencement of Operation Barbarossa. Interestingly, Henschel und Sohn of Kassel was charged with building the heavily armored chassis while Krupp, by far the largest munitionwerks in Germany, was given the task of developing the turret. The PzKpfw VI Ausfuhrung E (type E) was one of the first German tanks to feature a torsion bar with eight interleaved wheels, which was designed to support the weight of the mammoth 57-ton tank. The Ausf. E mounted a huge 8.8cm KwK36 L/56 cannon and featured two MG34 machine guns for close support against enemy infantry. By war's end, 1,354 vehicles had been produced, some rolling off the Wegmann assembly line.
Dragon Armor has produced a fine 1:35 scale model of a Tiger I from this famous unit. The fully assembled and finished model represents an Initial Production variant of a tank fighting on the eastern front during 1943. Sold Out!
Length: 10 inches
Width: 4 inches
Height: 4 inches
Release Date: February 2009
Historical Account: "Blockade" - The Siege of Leningrad, also known as The Leningrad Blockade was an unsuccessful military operation by the Axis powers to capture Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) during World War II. The siege lasted from September 9th, 1941, to January 18th, 1943, when a narrow land corridor to the city was established by the Soviets. The total lifting of the siege occurred on January 27th, 1944, 872 days after it began. The Siege of Leningrad was one of the longest and most destructive sieges of a major city in modern history and it was the second most costly in terms of casualties.
The siege was conducted by Wehrmacht troops associated with Army Group North, with assistance from the Finnish Army, as part of Barbarossa, which was launched on June 22nd, 1941. The siege followed the Finnish offensive in Karelia, and the German offensive on southern suburbs of Leningrad. Once the offensive portion stopped and the 4th Panzer Group had left for Moscow, the Germans started to dig in as a preparation for executing the siege. General Georgy Zhukov overlooked this change and made preparations for Leningrad to withstand the expected German assault.
On August 6th, 1941, Hitler repeated his order: "Leningrad first, Donetsk Basin second, Moscow third." From the time that the Wehrmacht troops reached the outskirts of the city in August 1941 until the siege ended in January 1944, the Leningrad operations dominated the decision-making of the German High Command concerning all operations in the northern area of the Eastern Front. By August 1941 all railway lines to Leningrad were severed, and the city was encircled on land by Finnish armies to the north and German troops to the south.