Were there really no King Tigers at St. Vith for a Greyhound to destroy like some people claim?

by MaxRavenclaw

During the Battle of St. Vith in the Battle of the Bulge, an M8 of Troop B, 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron was able to destroy a German Tiger heavy tank after getting in behind one on the Schonberg Road. It's a relatively famous account, but recently I've heard claim that there were no Tigers in the area at that time, and that no losses were reported. Could it be that the report lied?

wotan_weevil

"Lied", no. "Mistaken" is quite possible - armoured vehicles were frequently misidentified.

This was discussed a few months ago by u/The_Chieftain_WG and myself in https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/a39tqr/during_the_battle_of_st_vith_did_an_m8_greyhound/ - our opinions were, respectively, "probably a Tiger II" and "probably a Panther misidentified as a Tiger II". Both are possible, and unless new information (such as photo of the tank) turns up, we can't know for sure.

There's no reason to doubt that an M8 knocked out an enemy tank by shooting it in the rear as described in the report. There is unresolvable uncertainty about what that tank was.