Jörn Fleck: Germany’s decisionmaking has been torturous. John Herbst: These tanks could spearhead a Ukrainian counteroffensive

What difference will these weapons make on the battlefield? How will Russian President Vladimir Putin react? And is this a turning point for Germany’s participation in arming Ukraine? Our experts lay out what’s next.

Meanwhile, the United States will send its own M1 Abrams tanks. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced Wednesday that Berlin will send Leopard 2 tanks-and allow other European nations to do so. After months of haggling and delay, both the United States and Germany are sending the battle tanks requested by Ukraine for its extended fight against Russia. Unlike other tanks, Tigers were primarily assigned to independent heavy tank battalions of 45 tanks each that the high command parceled to help out in particularly tough battles.JanuExperts react: The West finally sends in the tanks. The channel charts the combat effectiveness of the various tank battalions equipped with Tiger, comparing wartime and total losses versus the number of enemy tanks destroyed. And, as Military History Visualized reveals, an effective tank-though perhaps not as great as history tends to portray it. The Tiger is one of the most revered tanks of the war, if not in the entirety of tank history. First fielded in 1942, the Tiger was meant to forge breakthroughs on the battlefield, destroying enemy tanks at long range while shrugging off hits from lesser Allied anti-tank guns. The final version of the tank weighed 54 tons, had a crew of five, and was equipped with a mobile version of the famous 88-millimeter anti-tank gun. The Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger tank was a German heavy tank that served on the Eastern Front, Western Front, and in North Africa during World War II. A new video at the YouTube channel Military History Visualized breaks down actual data on the German Tiger tanks.

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