During the war Hitler ordered a heavy tank be designed. Porsche and Henschel competed for the contract, and Henschel won. (Read how the Porsche Tiger's were used under German Elefant.) The new tank, designated Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger, was an awesome tank. It reached the front in 1943, and it dominated the Russian landscape through the rest of the war. It had very thick armour coupled with the 88mm gun. This was the first battle tank to mount the 88mm weapon. It was far superior to nearly all Allied tanks. Only the US Pershing and the Soviet Iosef Stalin series began to rival this tank at the end of the war. The problem for the Germans was that there weren't very many Tigers built. Nevertheless, it was immortalized as the symbol of the WWII German panzer.