Why the U.S. captured Tiger 712 armor is cut away: Curator Rob Cogan explains
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- This question and similar comments are some of the most common on the pictures and video of Tiger 712 these days. Curator Rob Cogan at National Armor and Cav Collection explains the history behind these distinct cuts and plans for the Tiger's restoration and future.
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Great explanation, and amazing they’ve kept it safe from the elements or scrap for 75 years. That should convince anyone that there is real meaning behind keeping pieces original to their time period, especially if they were historically modified.
It's not been in the care of a single "they" for all that time, and it's not always been safe from the elements. It was left outdoors for many years. The exhaust mufflers rusted away and literally fell apart - I don't see them on the tank now.
Yes I like cars and trucks in their original condition as well! I agree with the fella below that they should've left it whole, it's super-easy to look down the hatches
I saw this and the Tiger II at Aberdeen, MD back in the 80s. They were outside and exposed to the elements. Glad these tanks will be restored and set up properly in the new museum. Looking forward to visiting the NACC someday.
We made family "guy" trips to APG in the 70s and early 80s, and it was best to go on Armed Forces Day. The Army would hand out ear plugs and treat you to live fire and tank races from M60s and early M1s, Cobra gunships hovering just in front of the grandstands firing cannons and rockets at targets. THEN you could mosey around the field of armor where all the old tanks were.
I had no idea an 8.8cm muzzle brake was the size of an adult man's torso, incredible o.o
It's not, that guys just a small bloke
Cool fact that if the muzzle break was damaged they were instructed to not fire the main armament
Exactly what I was thinking! And the 88 mike mike is built like a Battleship cannon. Thickest at the breech and it gets thinner towards the end where the pressure from the explosion of powder charge in the 88 shell is weakest.
The round is 88mm not the tube duh
88mm flak gun made one hell of a armored vehicle main gun.
Cut away vehicles, etc. are great for those of us who AREN"T equipped with x-ray vision. If someone can't climb in/on a tank, this is great!
The Deutsches Museum in Munich has a cutaway WW1 submarine and a cutaway V2 rocket motor. Both are exceptionally educational exhibits. After examining the V2 motor it was clear to me how a contained volume rocket motor functions.
@mark houghton I believe they just moved the cut away tank to the new exhibit facility.
Fully agree, I spent 10 times longer looking at a cutaway T34 than I did a any other vehicle in that museum. 😁
Very well put! I agree 100%
It's part of the History of the tank too
I guess that since the tank is done being a weapon of war at least we all could see through the imaginary walls and see more of what it was like. Great vid, thanks
Amazing to see the different thickness of armour .
While it is sad to not have many surviving running vehicles the cut away has its own history and provides a unique opportunity. NACC is going on my bucket list for the future.
Well the victors write the history ! and why keep facist weapons of war that dont have a purpose other than being targets!
@@moffepolle our entire icbm and space platform were accelerated with the knowledge we gained from inspecting, dissecting, and studying fascist weapons of war. Sometimes new insights or forgotten truths can be learned by going back to historical sources. Institutional knowledge and understanding can prevent future blunders. When dealing with weapons of war it can save lives. I am finding in my field (telecommunications) that we are already seeing young engineers and product marketing people repeating mistakes we learned from 20 years ago because they do not understand the foundational principles and ideas for why things are done a certain way. The old ways of doing things can hold you back or help you forward depending on if they are based upon dogma or experience. Just my view of it. History matters.
@@tfodthogtmfof7644 Exactly. I recently learned that current high bypass turbofans are made that use 1/4 the fuel earlier designs use. However the circumstances are quite specific. During the climb to altitude and at the cruise setting.
Generations of engineers tweaked this,studied that,chased after a few percentage points,interrupted or enhanced blade tip whorls ,and the expensive cumulative results paid off. One channel I follow,young guys think they can design their own jet engine,suitable for an R/C model or a light plane. It took many people and many expensive mistakes,one person alone is not going to reinvent the turbine wheel,or any other.
@@moffepolle I think it was explained in the video why it was kept, and please explain to me how a tank can be fascist. It's a tank. It's not capable of being anything other than a tank.
@@moffepolle 100% you have no idea what your talking about. shit bait.
The cutaways are definitely a highlight, and adds to the display. Yes, the outside visual is jarring, but you can always walk around to the other side to not see it...but without the cutaways no one could see the INSIDE, which is also quite interesting!
It is the whole point of the exhibit.
I'm so glad this Tiger1 didn't end up as target tank. Can't wait to see it live again !
In the British War Museum in London there is a cutaway that has been done to a Jagdpanther to show the massive gun and its mount. quite interesting indeed.
The cutaway Jagd Panther is now at the Imperial War Museum aircraft at Duxford, in the Land War section next to the American Air Museum building.
Thanks for clearing up the paint question .
Now can we get a few closeups of the FUCKIN TANK !!!!
Nice pose with the shell at the end, displaying the business end of things. Thanks Sofilein.
I remember visiting this shop back in 2013. Frank gave us a tour around the shop and let us wander the yard and take pictures. Tiger had the turret off and on a dolly. You can see where the turret was hit near the cut away and the armor re-welded before the armor was cut away. I think my brothers highlight of that visit was the wooden model of the T57 in the office.
Far more went to scrappers and don't exist at all. At least this one is there and revealing all it's mysteries.
Scrappers inadvertently saved some panthers by hoarding them waiting for scrap metal to go up.
Sofi and Rob; great work as always! Your two Tigers will be the stars of the display at the new building once they're ready to go. Sofi; thanks for doing such a great job documenting the move to the new building and the vehicles still waiting their turn...
Daaaaayuuuuumn. I got quarantine hair going on here!
Great talk by Rob. LOVE the Tigers!
Bare primer, cutaways, no tracks...this is the true scandalous tenk content we need
Find a shop that restores classic cars from the 30's and up and look at what's sitting around, it's a work in progress, you work with what was handed to you, where they'll hopefully get this to where it should be, and have the funding to do it right. FWIW, love the comment of where the guys boss is taking this one on, and sounds like he has the type A personality where he's doing the work by himself :)
Can't wait to see it when it is restored. Thanks to the NACA and Ms. Sofilein for the great and interesting videos. Go big Armor Go.
It looks like it's going to be a runner ! That's cool. If we have to press her into service we weld some plates on !!
It's never going to be a runner -- that's not in the plans at all. Only for display and examination.
I always wondered the reason for the cut aways. Watching the drills he was talking about would be interesting
Gee, I want a DANGER do not walk under gun tube sign! Great vid as always! TO SHORT!! Cheers!
When you consider that they have used Panther armor for the Super Pershing, one can only wonder what they had in mind with the Tiger armor. 😄
They used one slab of Panther glacis armor for the Super Pershing T26E4 mantlet slab. No other. Plus, by 1945, Tiger 1s were extremely rare.
In Bovington tank museum U.K. they have cut a tank straight down the middle! I can’t remember if it was a centurion because it was three years since I have been there and they have cut the side of a panzer three.
Yes it is a Centurion
Thanks, Sofi!
So even the cutaways are historical now!!!
Cool!
It's a shame so much materiel was destroyed after the war, it wasn't worth much back then but still. Kind of painful to watch footage of American GIs take sledgehammers to messerschmitts.
The painful reminders of a world war aren’t something you generally want to preserve when you’ve only just come out of it.
Theres a cool video about how ww2 ship steel is a real commodity now.
American aircraft went from assembly line to scrap yard as the war ended.
Picking up a few P51s and B25s would be nice! The airlines snapped up military DC-3's to the point, Douglas couldn't sell new DC-3's or 4s.
@@kevinoverbeck4250 Not really the regular steel, but the thick armor, due to it's not being radioactive like almost all modern steel is.
@@dundonrl oh, yeah! That stuff was high tech manufactured steel for sure
Thanks Sofilein another instructive video well done.
Love your outro graphics! Also, got the impression you have a long term plan to revisit this beast when it is ready for display. Can't wait for that! (Liked - Subscribed)
Looking at the size of those drive sprockets and the muzzle brake, gives an appreciation of how heavy the tanks must have been.
In an era where 20 ton tanks were considered light tanks, 40 tons were medium, and 60 tons were heavy tanks... A Pz VI (Tiger) was a heavy tank (which most bridges could not handle by the way) and today's Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) weigh nearly the exact same amount.
But WWII was different, because armored warfare developed continuously throughout it, which is why you see the weight classifications (because the older tanks that had survived continued to be used even though they had outlived their battlefield superiority)...
😉👍
Another great vid! Thanks Sof!
Was a tiger 2 at Patton museum in Kentucky that was cut...such a beast....
I didn't realise the muzzle brake was big as it actually is when a person is standing right next to it that's just impressive
I mean, you usually see it mounted to a bigass tank, of course that makes it look small.... ;)
Now imagine the round blasting out of it and traveling for 2km and devastating the lighter armored vehicles it faced initially...
😶
That's a really unique and cool Tiger, in it's own right. :)
I honestly didn't know there was that many wheels on that thing. Holding that 88mm shell like it's nothing. Nice!
I believe there is a model company that makes life size shells as well as life size tracks pretty impressive for a plastic model kit
Well done on the video ...well spoken too ...Thank-you for your time...do some more videos...
Good Luck for this Restauration.
Nice Regards from a Reenactor from north Germany :)
@eLKy 15 thanks for the Flowers ^^
Thanks for recording all this history.
I saw this tank in 1985 at fort Knox during tank school, I understand the reason for the cutaways but also want to see it be restored to running like tiger 131. I thought the tank went overseas for restoration and we demanded it back, and were going to restore it. Love your work Miss Sofilein.
Steven Scott what you are thinking of is the Elephant self propelled gun. It was restored in the US at APG and was sent over to Bovingtons Tank Museum to be on display. If memory serves it was to be there for 2 or 3 years. But was cut short when it was asked to be returned early.
@@metalmilitia1o740 I thought I had read that Kevin Weatcroft had it for measurements and restoration for an overly long amount of time. I could be wrong.
Yes, I have a copy of the book Tiger without a home that talks about it going overseas. Kevin Weatcroft stored the Tiger after the US took it back. He used to have a statement about the Tiger on his website. I believe it was in Munster at one time. That Tiger is well traveled.
Wow, great video. Thank you very much Sofilein for the outstanding video and presentation on the history of this rare Tiger I tank. I was able to go to the Aberdeen museum many years ago and saw several German tanks that had the cutaway sections.
I was so exited when I saw this pop up earlier. Thanks so much Sofi for sharing your content with us fellow tank fanatics. I am still smiling ear to ear.
You are so welcome!
It’s nice to have a whole vehicle like Tiger 131 here in the uk.
But agreed it’s nice to see what’s inside.
5:19 love the photo!
I like the DANGER DO NOT WALK UNDER GUN TUBE sign. Highly unusual warning. I trust it was safe for Sofenlein to stand underneath for the end cap piece. Thank you for an interesting story.
5:06 nice picture!!!
I remember one of the german tanks was in the field at the ordinance museum in Aberdeen. I remember the turret was cut open and was slowly turning to rust . Also had railroad gun and giant bomb.
Some people get their shorts all twisted up because a tank has either not been restored or as in this case displayed as a museum piece. These people seem to not understand that not everything is worth saving and not everything is worth restoring. The mythical status of the German Tiger 1 and Panther tanks fails to include that the machines were reliability nightmares. A great tank is one that can be maintained and returned to service quickly. Even in the middle of a war the Germans abandoned tanks because they couldn't be repaired. Another reality of war is that captured weapons are used for testing. If you want to test an anti-tank gun there is no better way to test it than doing so on the actual tank you are trying to destroy.
You seem to be telling us that a Tiger 1 was "not worth saving"?
That British museum use their Tiger to draw crowds to their annual "tank day". They appear to be making money off it. And yes, they did have other Tigers which they used as range targets to get all the information they needed.
I went through the Armor Advance Course at Knox in ‘71. I was an Infantry captain then, back from two Vietnam tours. The Soviets were a major potential enemy at that time and the Army (I think) decided to send a few of us Infantry types through the Armor Advanced Officers Course to get cross-qualified (we all received secondary 1203 (Armor Unit Commander) MOS’s in addition to our primary 1203 (Infantry Unit Commander) primary MOS’s .
Why did this make sense? Because on the European battlefield, tank-Infantry combinations were going to be the order of the day if we ever went to a shooting war with the Soviets. That apart from whether the whole damn thing would go nuclear in a heartbeat anyway.
OK, the reason I’m relating this is I went to Knox as an Infantryman. I had never seen the inside of a tank before. We were training on the M-60 then, and we all fired the tank on the range in all the positions inside the turret. It was remarkable how constrained everything seemed and how the layout was designed to enable the crew to operate.
Seeing videos of the insides of tanks and looking at diagrams are one thing, but unless you have X-Ray vision, there is no way to actually get a good 3-D ‘capture’ of the inner workings of the entire system. That this Tiger is being brought back to being able to be placed in such a way that visitors can see straight into the turret is terrific.
I want to commend the people who are doing this. The fact that this vehicle sat out in the weather for so long and is now going to be restored and sheltered for the foreseeable future is marvelous. On a par with the wizards at the Smithsonian who restored so many of the aircraft collection that in the same fashion as this Tiger sat out in the elements at Suitland, Maryland and can now be seen fully restored at the Udvar-Hazy collection near Dulles airport in Virginia.
I knew Jacques Littlefield for many years; he and his technicians fully restored a Panther to as close to original-issue as possible.I would be surprised if Jacques wouldn’t think the same.
I’m hoping to be able to visit the armor museum at Benning someday and hope this Tiger will be on public view.
Kudos the staff and technicians at Benning.
In Hungary a fully functional T-55 can be driven which has been a crew trainer originally too.The turret is a properly shaped steel cage though.Try it in summertime!
I have pictures from the 90s when I visited Aberdeen Proving grounds of a Panther a Panzer IV and III with big holes cut in the sides of the turret and sitting outside rusting. I'm glad these, and all the others are getting some love and restoration. All 3 of those german tanks were painted white along with a Sherman and many others!
Does Ft Benning have the Jagdtiger? It looked like it took a few hits, on the front and the gun, but it is in pretty good shape and does not have any cut panels.
Yes the Jagdtiger is there also!
Good video! I saw the King Tiger at the Patton Museum in Kentucky near Fort Knox several years ago with a large group of Boy Scouts. It looked fantastic despite the cut away. I heard it was moved to Ft Henning by rail. It was already in display condition then. Why has it not been displayed all these years for the public. There are tons of people ready to see it. It should have been left at the Patron Museum on loan until new museum was built and ready.
Another great video, thanks Sofilein!
I used to be one of the angry ones on the topic of cutaway tanks. But after having read vastly more about tank design, i now love them. Because a tank is hard to see in by design and even then many aspects are hidden from the eye. Which is also why I recently did my first non Book Review Video on a cutaway of the german "Schützenpanzer Marder" from the German Tank Museum (In German ;) ) I Would love to see the Cutaway Tiger one day in person.
There’s a cut up T-72M1 tank at the museum at Ft. Stewart, Ga.
I served there and always got a kick of seeing the insides of a tank without having to crawl inside.
It’s a shame that they cut up a Tiger I, but I bet this thing was mangled up before being cut open.
That must be the one to one scale PIG models plastic 88mm Pzgr 39 APCBC.
even if its cut away, I would like to see it fully operational. I have seen M-48 training turrets cut away , that way recruits could be watched by an instructor etc.
I have seena good many of these captures tanks and vehicles at different Forts and overseas....The Ft.Benning Museum has a good many tanks and Armored Vehicles from the Patton Museum from Ft.Knox ,KY... they have a beautiful intact German Panther Tank there ,I saw it there at Ft.Knox back in the early 80s as a Soldier...if you get a chance go to both Museums ..GO....the Patton Museum has a great collection of General Patton 's equipment, weapons, vehicles he used ,etc. ...
I think it would be great to weld the armor sides back on this Tiger and bring it back to life ... just me ,and the Panther Tank too ...just think of the attention that would bring to have both running ....
Nobody said nothing about locking horns with no Tigers, baby!
Great video as always girl!!!!!
Aloha Sofi; mahalo for this installment!
I wish you restored it
I've always wanted to see how the Germans manufactured the turret of a Tiger 1. Wondering if any film survived the war of the manufacturing process?
The steel, the electronics, the gun and the hydraulics etc. etc. would all be made by different firms. I don't think anybody ever visited them all to make the film you're thinking of.
Great video thank you Rob & Sofi- Rob the Tiger I was a great tank technically & if used correctly was lethal. Very mobile for its weight and with power steering and pre-selection of gears. 88mm say no more. The kill ratio of the battalions was outstanding and too much time is spent concentrating on the negatives - fuel consumption. L1A1 Abrams has terrible fuel consumption vs Leopard 2 - still it a very effective tank when used correctly.
I love that picture at the end of you holding the tank shell! Was that thing loaded? As in full of powder? If so, it must have weighed a TON! Cut-away tanks do upset people, but what's done is done. As he said, they make excellent teaching tools, so this way we can see inside, and how thick the armor actually is.
Live ammo has to be stored in secured locations under guard. Those are displays. They are inert, but they are weighted to simulate what the actual round would weigh.
@@Red_Four What i was really wondering was about the weight. How much do you think that thing weighted?
It was inert, but it's all metal and very very heavy!
@@Sofilein I was VERY impressed you could hold that with back history. Job well done!
@@janstan8407 short answer has to be, it depends. Scroll down to 8.8 cm KwK 36 L/56 & you will see a choice of 4 rounds. Your guess is as good as mine as to which one was photographed.
panzerworld.com/armor-penetration-table
I hope it will run with the original engine.
Jeez why the anger? Everyone deserves to see how the Tiger was constructed up close. Given how some were completely destroyed, its good to have this one as a teaching piece.
I'm with you on that man. The excessive emotion about it is a bit uncalled for and I wish people would be more interested in understanding instead of just being rude! This comment section has been a bit much lol
Why are you accusing people of "anger"? They just objected to something, that's all. Are you trying to make them look stupid? You can't read their emotions.
@@daveybyrden3936 have you read the comments like she said before you asked me this? There are angry people in the world over anything and everything. That's a fact. It's just being g done that way as a teaching tool is all my friend. Not everyone will see it like that.
When this is done, I wanna take a trip back to Ft. Benning (I went to BCT there, but no Tiger) and see these huge tanks for myself. It's better than having to go all the way to England to see one.
What better way to see how one worked and was put together
Many better ways! For starters, you could remove the back wall to display the engine.
But in my opinion the best way is a virtual 3D walkthrough with components you can move with your VR gloves.
Shows more of this tiger!
My current reading list includes "Tiger Tracks", this video is a welcome supplement to said book, as it enables me to further picture what the author is talking about.
You know that Faust book is fiction, right? Portrayed as non-fiction but complete fiction.
I have made comments about reference materials used or not used in the past, but one of them just popped into my memory. Since digitizing records has passed the just typing in data, one should also look for machinists manuals and replacement parts contracts. A number of NATO/OTAN countries still train machinists to make repair parts in the field, we do still have trained machinists in the US forces, so those manuals, for the most part, are still printed and as for contracts for replacement parts, since the lessons learned in past wars, the WW2 contracts will have very precise measurements for what is needed and a specific description of what it must be made from.. Just a thought.
I think it’s great I love it
5:10 Wow! Sofi! You're as stronk as KV2! But thankfully much more svelte. 😉😆😆😆😆
Saw this tank back in the 70’s when it was painted green and was at Aberdeen Proving Ground
Being able to do that makes it able to help make tigers that can’t move or do anything looking at the stuff to make tigers work again
Very interesting seeing how thin the side armor really is on a Tiger 1.
@Ford From the very start looking at all the cuts, there is no way the top or sides are 8CM or just over 3Inc.
@Ford Just looked it up on Wikipedia, 25mm or 0.98 inc.
It's rolled homogeneous armor, and it's also face hardened, so it does not have to be as thick to still provide decent protection.
@@Red_Four tell that to Michael Wittmann
@@hardergamer Specs say that the top is 25mm and the upper sides are 8cm. If you can prove that it's less, please do so.
Don't understand these idiots who get upset at cut aways. The majority of times it was done at a time the vehicles were reasonably common and at a time that what could be learnt from them was still technically relevant.
Of course as they get scarcer over time they get more valuable in a pristine/original state and I agree it would be sacrilege to do the same these days.
The real trouble is we wait so often for once common items to almost dissappear before realising it, and it can often be too late to preserve whats left. We should be supporting these organisations who preserve these thing not attacking them for keeping rare vehicles in their historical altered/dysfunctional state.
When you object to something, it doesn't mean you're "upset".
Why would anyone be angry about this? Being able to see inside is cool, esp as people like me have difficulty understanding interior volume of large objects, be they airplanes, space ships, or tanks.
When you object to something it doesn't imply that you're "angry".
But why would people object? Perhaps because the cut-off parts are lost now, including the tank's main circuit board with the intercom links, the light switches and the backup battery.
There was a large storage bin on the back of the turret - that's gone too.
Excellent video. Thanks.
still fantastic
Interesting fact about the transmission of both the tiger 1 and 1st generation panther was the same.
If you were trying to learn where to shoot a TIger - a cutaway would really help visualize ammo and crew targets.
This cutaway was done after the War.
I would like to know how the German tanks which I saw at Fort Knox and the Patton Museum of Armor, came to end up at Fort Benning. I visited Fort Benning a few years before the move took place when all there were were generally a Stuart at every parking lot, a few damaged pieces of artillery/anti tank Guns, a possibly Czech T 80, etc. I saw the King Tiger at Fort Knox on display. It looked quite clean, but dang, it doesn't any more.
Since most of the vehicles that were at Ft. Knox belong to the Army, when the Armor School was moved to Ft. Benning in 2011 the vehicles followed. The Patton Museum at Ft. Knox is actually "owned" by the Patton family and is filled with items from and specific to GEN Patton. Eventually when the Armor & Cavalry Museum is built, most of the collection will be moved to and displayed there.
It's almost a pity that it wasn't sectioned like Bovington's Centurion so you could really see the interior and crew positions.
There’s a sectioned Centurion in a tank museum in Germany.
Really puts in perspective how thin the hull roof armor is.
very educational
I wouldn't be mad if someone made a cutaway tank out of an existing tank if it was for the betterment of society by education personally. We need both kinds of examples, complete exteriors and cutaways.
*LOVE THE CUT AWAY TANKS, SEE ACTUAL INTERIOR, OTHERWISE WE WOULDNT BE ALLOWED. PLUS THE STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING FOR MASSIVE TONNAGE.*
_WHAT KIND TORCH OR PLASMA CUTTER USED TO CUT THRU SUCH THICK HARD STEEL?_
@Sofilein >>> At about 04:32 in this video:
_Is that a giant bolt in your hand, or are you just happy to see me?_
😊😊😊
I used to sit on that tiger doing guard duty at Aberdeen prouveing ground 1971 it was painted forest green at that time,
Very cool vid. Always love the details
Was this tank used in the Bob Carruthers series "Tanks" where they used a cut away view with crew in German period uniforms showing them in crew positions? or is there another cut away Tiger out there..
Well done Sofi, love this kind of content, and it must be remembered that this is humanity at its worst, this was made to kill people in the most hideous manner... but it's history, and history, and more importantly, the lessons of history, must be learnt. Lest we forget.
(edit: I wondered whether Learnt as a word was common vernacular, and it is).
If you think getting shot by a 88mm cannon is dying in the most hideous manner, you should google torture, that'll set you straight.
@@the_hate_inside1085 Torture is back yard, if you are looking to destroy people on an industrial scale you need bombs, gas, and nuclear, now there is hatred at a global scale.
In a video a few years ago, Nick Moran - the Chieftain - explained that the Tiger l was first designed as a breakthrough tank, and that in the few times it was used that way, it was very effective. But it's not an intentional implement of terror or torture. It's a tool. So is an axe. And when someone talks about a really bad criminal, they'll say "ax murderer." But we haven't outlawed axes. As the old saying says, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."
If the restoration is successful, they'll have an excellent teaching tool for future soldiers and a wonderful exhibit for paying tourists. And the cutaway, if the rest of the interior is installed again, will be better than any animation.
@@DavidSmith-ss1cg We have no understanding of the hell it is, to sit in that box, and kill people you don't know...(well some do, that hasn't changed)
Thanks for the comment.
@@eatdirtmofo It wasn't hell for a German tank crew to sit in that box and kill the enemy
This tank is one of my favs (my most favorite are the Jagdpanther and T29)
Thank You !!!
Fantastic ! More please! King Tiger next ??!
1 would think there would be more than 2 Tigers left in the World! Awesome tank just to tech for its day. Had a lot of mechanical problems.
I wonder though, how complete is the interior of the thing? Are the various small parts and pieces still in there? I can understand and appreciate why they cut her open at the time when they did, but, a fully restored interior is something I would love to look at, since I'm pretty sure I'll never have a chance to crawl through the hatch of one to look around.
The interior was in very good shape when the tank reached the USA in 1943. But it was left in the open for years, with the side cut off, and I believe the public were able to get into it. By the 1990s many of the internal items were missing, apparently prised off the walls and stolen. And the turret floor, I am told, is too rusted for standing on - anyway I haven't seen it in any photos since the 1990s.
I am personally reconstructing diagrams of the missing items and the internal layout, We cannot find this information explicitly in surviving German documents or photos. But I can figure it out from photos of similar Tigers, traces of items on this tank's walls, and the standard Tiger equipment manifest. It's been a long process but I'm almost there.
Nice info on that particular big cat. Didn’t know it was an Africa campaign capture. Is there any information on its bigger brother 332?
Just listened to a reading from a Tiger Tank commander book. In the right hands lethal two tigers took out about 16 Russian Tanks in one go. They rushed them and surprised them. Weapon plus crew who knew their tactics.
I think it's really cool to have a cutaway