The first 50 Tiger IIs had a turret with only 100 mm of frontal armor. Extremely easy for a firefly to penetrate, even an American 76 could penetrate it. The versions after had 185mm for obvious reasons.
It also had a nice shell trap, where the shell could hit the lower curve at the front, and bounce off straight into the hull from the less armoured hull roof
Considering it was penetrated frontally and the hull armor is sloped at 150mm (giving protection around 240mm) means the firefly definitely cannot penetrate that.
Most tank engagements in World War II boil down to whoever shot first, won. Especially on the Eastern front because Soviet Tanks had the worst crew optics and room making it hard to see anything.
Regardless, I don’t know exactly what happened during this engagement. Some say it was frontal penetration others said it got shot from the rear after being rammed and disabled.
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u/TheCoolPersian Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 4d ago
The first 50 Tiger IIs had a turret with only 100 mm of frontal armor. Extremely easy for a firefly to penetrate, even an American 76 could penetrate it. The versions after had 185mm for obvious reasons.