the german tiger ausf. B, or king tiger was arguably the very best tank that was put onto the battlefield during wwii, as well as the costliest. With each unit requiring some 300,000 skilled man-hours to complete, the king tiger went into serial production in december 1943 at the henschel factory in kassel. At the peak of production, it took only 14 days to complete, and by the end of the war 492 examples were ultimately produced.