Tiger I-One Tough Cat

[Pirate-Drakk]

Originally Posted by cyberia

Tiger I moving through woodlands, Eastern Front 1943
Can you spot what two items are missing from this vehicle?[/center]

No outer bogie wheel next to the forward drive sprocket.
No mud guards on the facing side.
No muzzle brake (maybe censored out of the pic, hard to imagine an 88 without one).
No spare tracks.
No AA machine gun.
No national or divisional markings.
No crew members inside the vehicle. In fact the driver only has the upper half of his body and is missing a left hand. He's a ghost

There's something wrong with the bow mount MG. It doesn't look like it's coming out of the hole in the front of the tank.

Lots of odd things in that pic. Look at how the tracks fade in/out of the ground on the left and right sides of the pic. Looks photoshopped or something...

I think Cyberia is playing tricks on us! Thats not a "real" Tiger picture!

[cyberia]

Originally Posted by Pirate-Drakk

No outer bogie wheel next to the forward drive sprocket.
No mud guards on the facing side.
No muzzle brake (maybe censored out of the pic, hard to imagine an 88 without one).
No spare tracks.
No AA machine gun.
No national or divisional markings.
No crew members inside the vehicle. In fact the driver only has the upper half of his body and is missing a left hand. He's a ghost

There's something wrong with the bow mount MG. It doesn't look like it's coming out of the hole in the front of the tank.

Lots of odd things in that pic. Look at how the tracks fade in/out of the ground on the left and right sides of the pic. Looks photoshopped or something...

I think Cyberia is playing tricks on us! Thats not a "real" Tiger picture!

The two critical things I was hoping others would catch was the missing muzzle break and lower half of the driver's body. (missed the missing hand though).

I looked at this for close to a half hour trying to find the one thing that clearly spelled photo shop and not shadow or censor.

Look just below the treads on the left rear.

Now, the photo and caption info, was on what I would consider a very legit site the specializes in color WWII photos.

My next question was, why would someone go through this much trouble when there are plenty of good Tiger photos out there, including color, such as the first one in the post?

[MAGNA]

From what I remember about this picture it was an airbrushed one for censorship purposes as it went into a publication which would be sent by the usual channels to allied observers. The muzzle brake disappearing was the usual procedure to give the impression of a low velocity gun. The other imperfections (the imperfect driver?) look like complete cock ups on someones part. The other thing I remember is that a lot of these pics were printed in publications in black and white, making it even harder to spot changes. This one may well be an in between pic which isn't finished yet.

The above of course could all be wrong too.

[Gotthard Heinrici]

s.Pz.Abt.501's Tigers Check this site out for pics of Panzers in Africa. These photos are well worth the viewing.

[cyberia]

Originally Posted by MAGNA

From what I remember about this picture it was an airbrushed one for censorship purposes as it went into a publication which would be sent by the usual channels to allied observers. The muzzle brake disappearing was the usual procedure to give the impression of a low velocity gun. The other imperfections (the imperfect driver?) look like complete cock ups on someones part. The other thing I remember is that a lot of these pics were printed in publications in black and white, making it even harder to spot changes. This one may well be an in between pic which isn't finished yet.

The above of course could all be wrong too.

Now that is interesting. I never heard that before. Once I enlarged the pic the muzzle break caught my eye at once, that's what made me look closer. I thought it was just a photoshop goof, but could not think of any reason to put that much work into such a photo. But your explanation makes sense.

Thanks Magna.

[cyberia]

Originally Posted by Gotthard Heinrici

s.Pz.Abt.501's Tigers Check this site out for pics of Panzers in Africa. These photos are well worth the viewing.

Nice link Gott, thanks. Love waking up in the morning to new Tiger pics!

[Pirate-Drakk]

Originally Posted by cyberia

Nice link Gott, thanks. Love waking up in the morning to new Tiger pics!

EXCELLENT COLLECTION OF PHOTOS!!!!

[LAH 1 SS]

Originally Posted by cyberia

The two critical things I was hoping others would catch was the missing muzzle break and lower half of the driver's body. (missed the missing hand though).

I looked at this for close to a half hour trying to find the one thing that clearly spelled photo shop and not shadow or censor.

Look just below the treads on the left rear.

Now, the photo and caption info, was on what I would consider a very legit site the specializes in color WWII photos.

My next question was, why would someone go through this much trouble when there are plenty of good Tiger photos out there, including color, such as the first one in the post?

the other thing of interest is the rear stowage bin it is more than likely from a panzer 3 it was noted that the very first tigers that were sent to the russian front were sent there minus muzzle brakes ( hitler apparently didnt want to give the potential firepower of the new tigers away to the russians by having the muzzle brakes on the vehicles) and with panzer three stowage bins another interesting fact is the front road wheels were not removed on the very first tigers it was a field modification that the crews performed after battle experience jmo guys

[McCoy]

The first 50 Tiger I was delivered without a "Rommelkist" (stowage bin) n' it was a field modification that led to the use of the Rommelkist from the Pz III. I've never heard that the were delivered to the front without the muzzlebrakes in place though.

[LAH 1 SS]

i have another photo of a tiger somewhere without its muzzle brake fitted it was on a railway wagon i cant find it though the rommelkist was fitted to the porshe varient tiger ones when they were produced im not sure about the tigers allocated to 10th panzer division in north africa i know pzabt 503 in russia were fitted with the conversion as pzabt 502 had twin stowage bins fitted to either side of the turret