The 8.8 cm KwK 43 was an 88 mm 71 calibre length tank gun designed by Krupp and used by the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War. It was mounted as the primary armament on the Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf. B Tiger II. The 8.8 cm Pak 43, an anti-tank gun, was very similar in design but mounted on tank destroyers or deployed stand-alone on the field.
A Tiger II mounting an 8.8 cm KwK 43 gun, preserved at the Musée des Blindés
PaK 43/41 at CFB Borden.
The Tiger II was a German heavy tank of the Second World War. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B, often shortened to Tiger B. The ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 182.. It was also known informally as the Königstiger. Contemporaneous Allied soldiers usually called it the King Tiger or Royal Tiger.
Tiger II, France, June 1944
Supreme commander of the allied forces in Europe General Eisenhower walks by an overturned Tiger II destroyed in Falaise pocket August 1944
A model depicting the curved front of the first version of the Krupp turret (erroneously called "Porsche turret")
The angular front of the "production turret" designed by Krupp (erroneously called "Henschel turret") taken during Operation Panzerfaust in Budapest, 15 October 1944. The rough Zimmerit coating is evident, used to prevent magnetic mines from adhering to the tank's armour.
