...gives it a sort of 'Eastern Front' feel......

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

An enemy tank along that last set of trees......would that be an easy shot? Hard to tell the yardage from the picture.

Firing a PzGr39 anti-tank shell, the Tigers' 88mm KwK 35 L/56 gun was capable of penetrating 100mm of armour at 1,000 metres. The optics were impressive for the time, too - so I wouldn't like to be in a Sherman on the other side of the valley.....

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Who cares about all that! Some of our members sure have some pretty legs

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There is an ass in my avatar.

nice pictures

Great picks. Have either of you guys been to Saumur? The Barrel shots give you a real feel from the cupola.

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Coir a glaive

Nemo me impune lacessit

I haven't yet been to Saumur, H/O - but it is very high indeed on my 'to visit' list.....

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

me neither ...how about it Martin..?

The square design is perplexing in it's application as armour what were the designers smoking, maybe they thought it's massive amount of armour thickness would shrug off what the allies could develop. but it's still a thing of bueaty , so simplistic yet harboring one of the most feared weapons on the battlefield. Im not sure how the crack on the rear of the turret got there, be interesting to found out how if anyone has any ideas ?

The Germans were indeed applying thickness of armour - the Tiger II showed that lessons of sloping armour had been taken on board....

I've read somewhere that the cracked turret was possibly caused by detonation of the demolition charge when the tank was abandoned.....

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Don't forget the later Churchills 'win' hands down for frontal Armour thickness at 152mm.
Still couldn't always stop the German HVs, but worth remembering when talking 'heavy' tankage.

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are you flirting Za?!!

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...this army made up of ex-resistence men and named by the Prince Himself, became known as the STOOTTROEPEN(Stormtroopers).
Nulli Cedo = I'll give way to no one.

Scott

Another theory that i have heard, is that the scrap metal merchants moved in and began to cut the tank up and later gave up on the idea.

I'm not sure that all of the cuts/fractures have been caused by the scrap men as some of the damaged areas do look like explosion damage. Of course as we know, it was standard crew procedure to destroy a vehicle should it be abandoned

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Regards
John

"It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see" - Winston Churchill

I can't see a scrappy causing cracks in hardened armour, unless he was using explosives to break her up (though who knows in postwar France ). Far more likely, almost certain in fact, to be the two demo charges laid in 1944.

Cheers,
Adam.

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I noted that the Tiger appeared to be cemented to the ground, the crack in the turret seems to be the remnants an explosive charge or similar device but in response to the Churchill possessing thicker armour, I believe that the experience of a veteran crew would become pre-dominant in the event of enemy contact. I would give the Germans my vote hands down at the outset of the war, Poland,France, early eastern front but as german manpower ebbed away so did their once feared tank crews and capable tank crews on the allies became the favorite although the Germans never lost their tenacity to defend the Fatherland.

..this is the story that is repeated in the recent Heimdal publication 'couloir de la mort' - at least for the vertical weld along the rear of the turret visible in the pics. It took the intervention of a number of local 'experts' to halt the scrap work...

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Kaczmarek - a German view of the air war

Lovely photographs; I bet there is a good story behind that Tiger and I bet the crew had a bad week!

I have some shots of the Tiger at Bovington in the UK on my laptop at home; I understand it is the only fully operational Tiger left and would be happy to pop them on the site if anyone is intersted?

that is a big tank, photos in books don't do it justice. I can almost imagine tank panic now, Thank you for sharing.

It could have been just the weather. Acid rain from pollution can actually make metal "bend".

28th & 29th of June is the provisional date for this years 'Tankfest', when, as is becoming the norm, she's slated to run. Worth a shufti I promise you.
YouTube - Tiger
YouTube - Tiger 131 Backing Up
YouTube - Tiger 131 again

Cheers,
Adam.

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That's a date worth keeping

A small 'heads up' that the theme for this years 'Tankfest' has been announced.
Once again the rumour mill fails, and it won't be 'Panzerfest'...

Much better than that, this years title is "The British are Coming!".



Cheers,
Adam.

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