Interesting note about Tiger manuals from WW2

[tao]

The Wehrmacht was adamant that crews actually read the Tiger’s manual before charging into battle with one of the Third Reich’s most vital (and expensive) pieces of hardware. But experience showed that young tankers had little interest in poring over pages of dry instructions and boring schematics. Knowing this, Panzer general Heinz Guderian allowed engineers to load the official Tiger handbook with off-colour jokes and crude pictures of scantily-clad women to keep readers interested. Known as the Tigerfibel, the document stands out not just for its humorous and playful tone, but also for its striking graphic design, which ironically was inspired by the ‘degenerate’ and ‘communist’ Bauhaus school of the 1930s so detested by Nazi ideologues. Each page of the groundbreaking document was printed using just black and red ink with the text broken up by illustrations, cartoons, and easy-to-read technical diagrams. It provided an influential model for future army manuals, including the Panther’s Pantherfibel and, to a lesser extent, post-war American publications like PS Magazine.

[jackalope]

Any links to these manuals or pics them?

[tao]

http://usmbooks.com/tigerfibel.html

[tao]

English translation on ebay I think all the illustrations would be there


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tigerfibel-Pzkp ... SwymxVQW3B

[westyIII]

I've been tempted by this one.

Contains the manual, with English translation.

[aust85]

Have a look at the Bovington tank museum shop they had copies of Tigerfibel with english translation for £30. I don't see it on there site right now possibly out of stock? but it's identical to the original! crude drawing and all.

[Craigm1992]

I found a Tigerfibel on the Bovington Tank Museum online shop for £30, but it was a few months ago.

It's an interesting read and the section which has the armour and gun calibre of Allied Tanks they were likely to face on the Eastern front is good for those like me who like facts and figures

I think the one from the Bovington online shop is published in America, which might explain the cost difference between it and the Bob Carruthers one on Amazon, although I'm not 100% sure.