King Tiger tanks query

[CheeseMerchant]

The 506 Tiger Bn fought on the Western Front. Market Garden, Aachen, and Bulge being some battles they fought. A report on Feb 1, 45 showed they only had 26 of its initial 59 Tiger II. And all were under repair. A major cause of damage was Tigers towing Tigers resulting in damage. By March 5th they had just 3 runners out of 15.

Strange that most damage was caused by Tigers towing Tigers. i am sure the manual advised against this. but seeing the German army had an absolute lack of suitable towing vehicles it is rational to assume that some units still did it in emergency situations.

[Erik1]

Besides lack of spare parts, another reason for low readyness rates and high rates of breakdowns even when the King Tiger was regarded as reliable, could have been lack of maintenance. In the 503's report from Hungary, nov 1944 they say that they were not allowed to do maintenance on their KTs by the leadership the battalion was under, despite their frequent and urgent requests. They say that despite that, roughly two thirds of all tanks were available on any given day, thanks to their mechanics working night and day. So I assume that breakdowns that would have been prevented by simple maintenance happened.

As to why they weren't allowed to do maintenance, who knows, they say that the leadership didn't understand the needs of a Tiger battalion. I wonder if it could have been because of the desperate situation, German forces being overwhelmed, they weren't allowed to take breaks for maintenance. For Tiger 1, 1 day of maintenance between 3 days of fighting was recommended.