Bad History in question: this comment, which references this video.
From D-Day until the fall of the Reich in 1945 US tankers only had 3 encounters with Tiger tanks. In the first one the Sherman won, in the second one the Pershing lost, and in the third one the Tigers were being loaded onto train cars. So to say "a few Tigers vs a large number of Shermans" is historical isn't really true. Source: The Chieftain's recent "Sherman Myths" video.
This is pretty much a direct quote from the video, so I'm really addressing Moran's video, who actually uses one of my sources (Zalooga) as a source.
That sounded really fishy to me, so I did some research. Clearly, I didn't have much to do at work today. This is what I found:
On December 21st, 1944 at 5 pm, 6 Tigers of 506th Heavy Panzer Battalion attacked the 7th Armored Division near St. Vith in the Ardennes. The Tigers started with Star Shells and followed up with armor piercing, destroying all of the defending American vehicles, including tanks. [1]
Also during the Battle of St. Vith, an M8 Greyhound of Troop B, 87th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron destroyed a Tiger I tank. [2] EDIT: This was actually a Tiger II, according to the AAR.
Staff Sargent Lesniak encountered a Tiger in Nouville during the Battle of the Bulge. He quickly fired 3 75mm rounds that apparently did nothing, but the Tiger crew retreated, backing over a jeep and became disabled. The tankers destroyed the Tiger with thermite. [3]
On December 19th 1944, Donald Nichols engaged a Tiger at 600 yards with his 105mm Sherman, resulting in a confirmed kill. He was later engaged by a second Tiger, and retreated. He knew it was a Tiger from the distinctive sound that the 88 mm shells made [4]
Also on the 19th, two Tigers were engaged by a Sherman, a 57 mm gun, and infantry with bazookas. The Tigers were thoroughly destroyed. [4]
A Tank Destroyer engaged a Tiger near Foy. The Tiger was not destroyed, but it was driven off. [4]
On December 21st, 1944 an M16 engaged a Tiger with its .50s, and forced it to retreat. [4]
On December 24th, Lt. Brunson and his crew engaged a Tiger II at 30 yards and destroyed it. I believe he was in Sherman, but possibly a lighter tank as well. [4]
On Jan. 12th, three Shermans in support of an assault by the 101st Airborne engaged a Tiger. The Tiger destroyed one US tank. [4]
A Tiger knocked out a Pershing in an ambush at Elsdorf, as he mentioned, and this Tiger was abandoned by it's crew shortly after when it was stranded on some debris. [5] Shortly after that engagement though, another Tiger was destroyed by another M26 90-mm HVAP T30E16 ammunition at 900 yds. [6]
Another M26 destroyed a Tiger in Cologne, [7] and there was a report of a Tiger being killed by the lone Super Pershing, but it's questionable. [6]
So there you go. That's a large number of encounters between Tigers and American tankers, and these were only really during the Battle of the Bulge and after. Moran does make the point that "everything was a Tiger" to American tankers. This makes sense, as it's very hard to find out what actually happened during a battle. But in many of the above incidents, the enemy tanks were very close to multiple witnesses, and often times the remains of the tank were still there for all to see.
You could also say Moran is also referring to Tiger Is, and yes, my sources were not always clear as to whether or not the tank in question is a Tiger I or II. That's a fair point. But, if Zalooga is indeed correct in saying that only 3 Tiger Is were encountered, it's still like saying that only a few BF-109G-2s were encountered in 1944. They were being phased out, or they had already broken down or been bombed, and by the time the Bulge came around, the Tiger II had stepped up and taken it's place.
RobinofFoxley, if you end up over here, you'll see that I've pretty much copy/pasted what I responded to you. Also, my response is really more to Moran. I just figured people over here would be interested too.
Super old post EDIT: At request of /u/MaxRavenclaw, here's an update. to my findings, and a bit further analysis after performing some further research.
I definitely was off about some stuff, and it turns out that a lot of the Tiger sightings that I found ended up being King Tigers. Going back to the Zaloga interview he did say that the Americans ran into King Tigers way more often than Tiger Is on the Western Front.
Zaloga also describes one of his "three times" as "And then there was a single Tiger company up in the Bulge that was involved in some fighting" which could lead to multiple encounters. He even said "It definitely could have happened, there are certainly lots of gaps in the historical record both on the German side and the US side. I think the idea that the US encountered a lot of Tigers during WW2 is simply due to the tendency of the US troops to call all German tanks Tigers."
I have to defend Zaloga, because I think he has said nothing wrong. He's basically saying "Tiger I encounters with American troops were actually very rare, I've only been able to find 3 separate instances where they were definitely in the same area of operations and reports are 100% confirmable. There were probably a few more, but not many" That's an accurate, nuanced way of looking at it.
Moran parroted this, but in a way to sound entertaining and interesting to people who aren't necessarily interested in the nitty gritty of doing history. He said, "In northwest Europe between D-Day and the Fall of Germany, American tankers saw Tiger Is only 3 times." Moran has taken Zalogas open-ended, trend-focused statement, and turned it into a more absolute statement. I don't like absolute statements in History, but at least he still qualified tankers, Tiger Is and northwest Europe.
Unfortunately, Moran was talking to a bunch of WT and WoT players, who have no idea what nuance is, so that whole thing quickly becomes "US soldiers of all types only saw Tiger Is or Tiger IIs three times ever through the entire war" like Italy and North Africa don't exist.
I still believe that the M8 Greyhound killed a Tiger II. It was on the outskirts of the fighting area at St. Vith, and so were the Tiger IIs. Recon troops know what they are talking about. Also, this.
Sources:
[1] Saddles and Sabers: Timeline of St. Vith
[2] The Battle at St. Vith, Belgium, 17-23 December 1944. US Army Armor School. Pg. 31
[3] Bastogne: The Story of the First Eight Days. Col. S. L. A. Marshall. Pg. 88
[4] The Tigers of Bastogne. Michael Collins. (which incidentally was not about Tiger tanks during the battle, but the 10th Armored Division, nicknamed "The Tigers.")
[5] Wikipedia page on M26 Pershing, which quotes United States Tanks of World War II by Georgy Forty, pg. 138-139
[6] Wikipedia page on M26 Pershing, which quotes Armored Thunderbolt by Steve Zalooga. p. 287
[7] Wikipedia page on M26 Pershing, which quotes Pershing, A History of the Medium Tank T20 Series by R.P. Hunnicutt. Pg. 25
make it short in 3lines