Best TIGER book, anyone?

There are lots of Tiger books, some VERY expensive, some look like 'potboilers' repeating the same old cliches. Like with 'Tiger Ace', it's easy to get caught out.

What are your votes for the best. I don't have many (yet) but I'll start with : -

'Tiger - Die Geschichte Einer Legendaren Waffe 1942-1945' by E Kleine / V Kuhn (Motorbuch '87)

 

Martin :

This depends if you are looking for book(s) covering the technical aspects of this Panzer of the histories of the units that used them.....are you interested in both ?

E

 

Thanks Erich -
Actually both, or memoirs/biographies of men exclusively associated with Tiger ( Wittmann, for instance ).

 

Ok Martin, this thread should be a long one if the guys will add in......

I enjoy this volume as there are some great memories of the intensity of fighting with the Tiger 1 and 2.
Will Fey's Armor Battles of the Waffen SS.
The superlative works by Wolfgang Schneider :
Tigers in Combat 1 and 2.
the newer book by Jean Resatyn Tigers on the West front and the Tigers on the East front. His two works are really great companion volumes to Wolfgang Schneiders and probably cover the best on the pics and histories of the Tiger units.
There are of course many fine titles covering the ttechnical properties of the Tiger at large......

any one else please !

E dang it's 103 degrees again today..

 

I've just found a rather hansome one : -

'Tigers At The Front' by Thomas J Lentz (Schiffer).
Yes it's a picture book but they're pics and the book sits nicely alongside 'Die Geschichte..'.
Another bizarre little 'find' is a card-covered book called 'Sturm & Drang 1 : TIGER' published in Japan 1990. I bought it very cheaply ( it's all in Japanese ! ) but it's stuffed full of very interesting pics - someone certainly did some digging in the Bundesarchiv. Loads of photos of Tigers at rest, re-ammunitioning, engine maintenance in the field etc.

 

I keep answering my own thread here - rather like a man who laughs at his own jokes !

I've just found another handsome one :
'Der Panzer-Kampfwagen TIGER und Seine Abarten'
by Walter J Speilberger ( Motorbuch 1984 )
Plenty of excellent technical drawings and photo closeups.
The Tiger bookshelf is growing . . .

 

Martin, as far as I am concerned...keep them coming. I have not much on the Tigers, so any recommendation is welcome. Many of the books are not readily available here or expensive, so it is good to know what to buy when I come across it...and what not to buy!

 

As far as photographic histories goes, Erich's advice is right on- Jean Resatyn's books are the way to go. Tiger I on the Eastern Front has overall the best collection of Tiger photos I've yet seen. I do wonder in a few places about the author's captions though. He (she?) seems to have no end of corrections to "previously thought" identifications, without source citation up back up his own identifications.

 

Howdid I forget this one...
"Tiger Tanks", by Michael Green. Motorbooks, ISBN 0-87938-954-0
This one is really good for technical info, with an iteresting twist- the point of view of the book is that of American tests and reports on the tiger. The author lists both Spielberger and Jentz (along with others) in his sources, so I'm guessing he has his info correct. But it's also really interesting to hear it from an american perspective. And as far as depth goes- incredible. You could probably drive and operate a Tiger after reading this.

also- in his sources-
Jones, T. Gregory "Panzerheld, teh Story of Michael Wittman, World War II's Greatest Tank Commander" (?) Self-published by author, 1993

anyone?

 

Crazy, you beat me to it. That is a very good book. It even includes exerts from the driver manuel. And it has some great photos that are a lot of help to model builders.

Crazy, do you have any more info on that Wittmann book. I need as many as i can find.

[ 19 July 2002, 04:55 AM: Message edited by: Bish OBE ]

 

Unfortunately no... I never really looked into it. Not sure about the self-published thing... how would we find that? Amazon?
I'll do some hunting today...

But yeah, after reading that Green book, I'm pretty sure I could drive a Tiger.
Anyone have one I can borrow?

 

Ooops.. sorry for the double.
Almost forgot- Didn't Otto Carius write a book about his actions in Tiger tanks? Anyone know anything about this one?

 

Once you know where the controls are, armoured vehicles are not that hard to drive. And 'd love to throw one of those about.

 

Revisiting an old Hobby shop this weekend yielded some interesting finds...
On Tigers-
Schiffer and squadron/signal both publish expansive series on ww2 technology. The books are kind of wierd- 8 1/2 by 11, horizontal opening, ~50 pages. they are kind of geared towards modellers, so specific info is kind of sparse, but definetely worthwhile... and for photos... they are geat...
I got "Tiger in Action", squadron/signal, ISBN 0-89747-230-6
Elephant-Jagdtiger-Sturmtiger, Rarities of the Tiger Family", Schiffer, 0-88740-239-9

 

CrazyD

The items you purchased I bought myself when I first got started my interests in German armor back in the early 70's. They are weird for sure, some very old news and the pics are not all marked true. Cough, choke, the forest fires here are really bad and the smoke is making all the poulace sick...

E

 

Right on, Erich. They are really good for photos. Some of the technical info also seemed pretty good, but that's probaly due to the fact that some of the books cover very narrow subjects.
And on the photo captions, that's a common problem I've found in many cases, in many different volumes. It might actually be fun sometime- post a pic here that is commonly included in books, and we could see how many different captions we could find. Bet we'd all be surprised!
And I've been hearing about all the wildfires out west. Best of luck- hope everyone and everything is OK out there...

 

Personally, a few pics might be nice to caption or to place or maybe even find the commanders for ? I have been helping a friend on feldgrau forum try and put together a listing of Panzer aces, both Heer and W-SS. Anyone out there have some sort of listing from higest score down. I know there are many but give it a start eh ?

Yep, 35 fires in the region of about 150 miles from Grants Pass, We have a national monument some 35 miles to the west and the forest service can do nothing except monitor it as there are no motorized vehicles allowed within the domain....completely insane as we expect more dry lighting storms tonight through tomorrow which could really toast the area and we will suffer from smoke from now till first rains in November just like back in the 1980's where our area got first hand news coverage all over the world.....what a life, it hurts to almost breathe here......cough, gag. Fun, fun.....anyone for a weiney roast ?

E

 

I like the idea about the photo aptiones. It really pisses me off when you pay a fortune for a bok by some expert, and he cannot even tell a Tiger from a Pz IV.

Anyone got the book Wehrmact, by Dr John Pimloot. There are a couple of corkers in that one.

 

Hope everything cools down, Erich...

On photos- I would love it if we could get together on the forum here and do some photo commentary. It seems like we are unable to post photos here- correct? Although I've seen some people attach images in the body of a message. Might be interesting though to try and identify photos or add info/captions.

 

Die Tiger Komme... Ostfront 1943-1945, Die schwere Panzerabteilung 502 und die Tiger der Leibstandarte im Ostfeldzug by Kurowski...
I've got this one coming but got no idea whether it is any good...

another on at the Wittmann thread...