Tiger I-One Tough Cat

[Pirate-Drakk]

Originally Posted by LAH 1 SS

if you look at the bottem left corner you can just make out the cut out in the hull extension seen on the late production tiger

so at a guess this would be a steel wheeled tiger built after january 44 the actual hull manufacture date cant be confirmed becuase we cant see the rear plate to see if there is the heater torch port visible under the left rear exhaust

LAH 1 SS, can you explain a little about the purpose and identification of the "hull extensions"?

[LAH 1 SS]

yeh no problems there were four changes in the tow shackle or hull extension design that was situated close to the final drive of the tiger 1 tank the first production tiger produced in or around september 42 had the tow shackle design and an armoured ring welded to the final drive seen in the first photo graph below



if you look at the photo you will see there is a peice of steel cut out at the top of the shackle this is the first production as stated. the second tow shackle design had no steel cut out from the tow shackle area and looked very similar to the first this was produced in october 42 see second photo



if you look at the tow shackle area you will see that it is one solid peice of steel also note how the shackle and tow cable sit on the extension. the third design of tow shackle or hull extension was seen in december 42 and had the base of the tow shackle area cut away. this gave the shackle more movement when the cable was applied see third photo



the design stayed like this until january 44 when it was completly changed again and stayed that way until the final production vehicle please see last photo



this last design shows the free range the tow shackle had. now the reason why these were changed was becuase of a couple of reasons the first three were due to feild experience and the tow c shaped tow hooks design which did not vary through the production design. the last production tigers that were produced after january 44 used the panther or tiger 2 designed c shaped tow hook which was larger and fatter than the previous design c shaped tow hooks. this required more movement and freedom to be used effectively hope this helps guys sorry about the photos not real good

[LAH 1 SS]

in my move of photo bucket i moved some photos around gere are the two deleted photos

[Pirate-Drakk]

Originally Posted by Pirate-Drakk

LAH 1 SS, can you explain a little about the purpose and identification of the "hull extensions"?

Hey LAH 1 SS, thanks for the info and pics!

[LAH 1 SS]

hoped it helped mate

[cyberia]

Fantastic info LAH!!!

[cyberia]

OK LAH, found this one in a large stash of armor shots and it had no info...

[cyberia]

A Tiger I fitted with a snorkle tube and water tight gun ball-mount cover

I'm thinking the two vehicles in this photo were captured as the Ketten is lettered in English

[cyberia]

Tiger I undergoing some extensive repairs

[LAH 1 SS]

Originally Posted by cyberia

OK LAH, found this one in a large stash of armor shots and it had no info...

hm ok going to be tough the unit and vehicle number im not going to guess will have to do some more looking. however the tiger is an early production tiger note the early tiger tank links with out the cleats and still has the front road wheel insitu. if we look at the tow shackle area we will see the cut out at the bottem of the shackle are so this dates the chassis after december 42. the front bow plate has what looks like fittings that would have held the shovel that have broken off it is also worthy noting the bosch headlight mountings on the hull top. the turret is of the early style with early pistol port and a loaders hatch. if you also not the turret doesnt have a loaders periscope fitted this mod was seen on tigers after may 43 so this turret was produced after december 42 and before may 43. interesting to note there is no turret bin