The Tiger I Tank Purchased By Japan

[rickshaw]

Reading Between the Lines: The Tiger I Tank Purchased By Japan

[PR19_Kit]

All very entertaining, but how the devil would they have got a Tiger I inside a submarine? 

Even if they had dismantled it to its smallest components, the hull and the turret were vastly larger than the hatches on any U-Boat ever built, maybe any submarine EVER built!

[NARSES2]

But some of the Japanese subs were huge. So maybe sails from Japan to Germany carrying various raw materials, metals etc and returns with a Tiger in exchange ? 

[Rheged]

But some of the Japanese subs were huge. So maybe sails from Japan to Germany carrying various raw materials, metals etc and returns with a Tiger in exchange ? 

Chris has a valid point.

The Japanese I-400 class submarines    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400-class_submarine    could carry THREE  Aichi M6A Seiran  aircraft (that's about 13 tons in total !)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_M6A  and had the range to get to Germany and back.

[Jakko]

This one is really easy to model:

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Or will be, anyway, when that kit actually comes out.

Though IMHO, far less interesting than actual Japanese designs that never made it beyond the prototype stage because the war ended.

[PR19_Kit]

But some of the Japanese subs were huge. So maybe sails from Japan to Germany carrying various raw materials, metals etc and returns with a Tiger in exchange ? 

Chris has a valid point.

The Japanese I-400 class submarines    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400-class_submarine    could carry THREE  Aichi M6A Seiran  aircraft (that's about 13 tons in total !)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_M6A  and had the range to get to Germany and back.

I don't disagree, but the Seirans folded up considerably, both the wings and the floats were disconnected and stuffed inside the tube-like hangar on the decks of the I-400s. I still can't see a Tiger I hull or turret fitting in one of those hangars.

[Steel Penguin]

to quote the late great Spike Milligan, " they make them in 2" squares and mail them to the front"    

[PR19_Kit]

After spending some time scaling drawings and figuring out what bits go where on that MONSTER I-400, I'm now inclined to agree that a Tiger I WOULD fit into an I-400's hangar, just............ 

And here's a drawing in the ever popular 1/182 scale to show what I mean. They wouldn't even have to take the turret off! But the tank commander better NOT drive in there standing in his hatch!

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[Rheged]

After spending some time scaling drawings and figuring out what bits go where on that MONSTER I-400, I'm now inclined to agree that a Tiger I WOULD fit into an I-400's hangar, just............ 

And here's a drawing in the ever popular 1/182 scale to show what I mean. They wouldn't even have to take the turret off! But the tank commander better NOT drive in there standing in his hatch!

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Having looked at the I-400 in some detail, I concur with your assessment..............................but the approximately 55 ton weight  in one great lump in the hanger could well lead to stability problems.   It's going to need a lot of backstory work involving your  second rule to get round that situation!

[Wardukw]

According to The Tank Book from The Tank Museum in Bovington the Tiger 1 weights in at 57.9 to tonnes (63.8 tons) .
Like Rheged said the stability of the sub carrying that much weight on top of its hull would be a massive issue.
3 planes spread out over the hull would balance it in 3 places but a single large 58tonne chunk of steel in one spot would be a hell of a problem ..not to mention the weight for a support structure for the tank to sit on and be tied down to..ya wouldn't want that to move an inch ..well at all really .

I have seen pics of Japanese officers with German officers watching a tiger 1 going thru its paces so what I can figure is that yep Japan brought a tiger but it never got to Japan dew to the war turning to custard for Germany and Japan .
Japan brought 4 tanks ..the tiger..a Panther and 2 Panzer llls ..none made it to Japan .
Now say the Tiger did make it to Japan and they used it in combat..it's life would have been very short ..never designed for that climate that would have been a problem..the mud would also been a real pain and the biggest issue would have been Navel fire support..pretty much everywhere the Allies fought the Japanese would at some point come in to range of navel guns....ive seen what a 16in round does to a Tiger by just landing near one..throws it around like a rag doll .
All in all big and powerful the Tiger was but for Japan's needs..useless.

[NARSES2]

Though IMHO, far less interesting than actual Japanese designs that never made it beyond the prototype stage because the war ended.

Absolutely 

[Dizzyfugu]

1:72 Type 99 'To-Ra' (SdKfz. 181 Panzer VI Ausf. E 'Tiger I'); vehicle 'ケ-1 (Ke-Ichi) / A259' of the Imperial Japanese Army 14th Independent Company; Kagoshima region (Kyushu), Japan, summer 1945 (What-if/Hasegawa kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

More here: https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=50883.0

[Weaver]

The other thing is, what would the Japanese actually learn from a Tiger I? It was a conservative design: basically a scaled-up Panzer IV. The only innovative thing on it was the interleaved suspension, and that was an over-complicated dead end. If the Japanese wanted a 60 ton tank with an 88mm-ish gun, they could just have built one. Even if they though there was somethingh to learn, what would be the point of shipping the actual tank to Japan? Surely they could learn it just as well from the blueprints?

[Wardukw]

I'd make a pretty good guess that Japan's biggest issues would be making them .
One thing Japan has had a massive problem with is resources...you need a massive amount of materials to build something as big as a 88mm armed 60ton class tank.
You need about 1.6 tons of iron ore to make one ton of steel ..the numbers just go up from there and that doesn't include everything else needed to build a machine of that size.
Now I'm sure the Japanese would have simplified the hell out of it which would have life easier but with the US pretty much bombing them nine ways from Sunday it wouldn't have long before the factories would have been flattened.
I think it was from early 1943 when the Allies really started to hammer the Japanese so it was down hill for the Japanese from that point on.

[NARSES2]

Strategic bombing was mid 1944 mate, although there were some smaller raids on the outer islands in 1943. Courtesy "Whirlwind -The Air War Against Japan" by Barrett Tillman.