Question about drivers vision slit on Tiger 1

[jarndice]

Hi Paul I have a Turnigy 6xs with a 7000s which gives me 7 channels and all for less than £50 brand new, I read a review on Turnigy products by an American journalist who was saying that they must be selling them at a loss given how good they are. If the Chinese had not decided to keep their politics Communist but their economy open we would still only have Tamiya's great but insanely expensive products to buy.. shaun

[majordisastor]

Vision holes above the main drivers veiwport - These were present on early Tiger models - The first batch that were sent to Tunisa would have had them.

They were discontinued from later models as a way of keeeping the production costs down. The welded or plugged tiger hulls had been prepared previously for the fitting of the optic system before it was dropped.

The second raft of Tunisian tigers were later models and had these holes plugged - Bovvy Tiger is one example - and had different turret bins, front mudflaps. hinged rear mudflaps and straight side skirts as well as a few other changes throughout the tank.

Hope this might help ...

Andy

[jarndice]

Andy all relevant information helps, thank you, it rounds off the picture and puts meat on the bare bones of some grainy photographs. shaun

[DavidByrden]

there are some differences between 712 and 131 although they were produced fairly close to one another.

November 1942 and February 1943.

For example 712 does not have a turret bin.

712 was formerly 821 and originally 221. It had a turret bin, the 1.4m wide type as seen on all the 501 Tigers. It still had this bin attached to the turret when it arrived in the USA for testing.

David

[scalawag]

I stand corrected.

You should visit more often David

Were the 1.4m bins fitted in the field by 501, or at the factory?

[DavidByrden]

Were the 1.4m bins fitted in the field by 501, or at the factory?

It's not clear where they came from. The Tigers, or some of them at least, were delivered to the unit with Pz.3 bins attached. So the 1.4m bins were attached by the unit. But, they may have been made at the factory, or by some equipment supplier. When you see almost identical bins used by different units, you have to assume they're not a unit invention.

David

[tanks_for_the_memory]

Pretty much all you could want about the Tiger 1 driver's vision block in this post:

http://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/ ... in-detail/


Included is this nice shot of the Aberdeen Tiger with original periscopes un-plugged:

drivers-visor-outside4psqx.jpg (35.65 KiB) Viewed 3128 times

[tanks_for_the_memory]

Actually I have a theory that the driver's periscopes were designed at a time when the Tiger 1 was supposed to have a hinged armoured shield which could be lowered to give extra protection for the front lower hull and tracks. There are photos of at least one prototype with this shield fitted. When it was in the raised position it rested on the front upper plate and would have severely restricted the driver's view through his vision block - hence the need for periscopes.

Tiger 1 Vorpanzer with armoured shield.gif (58.33 KiB) Viewed 3127 times

Tiger 1 Vorpanzer with armoured shield - side view.gif (47.24 KiB) Viewed 3127 times

[DavidByrden]

Actually I have a theory that the driver's periscopes were designed at a time when the Tiger 1 was supposed to have a hinged armoured shield

A similar episcope was present in early Pz.3 and Pz.4, and in the Porsche Tiger prototype where it was combined with the same armoured visor.

David