Step Bracket

[Saxondog]

Has anyone seen this bracket on a Tiger1 Before,drivers side below the track retainer on front of Tank.Is this a foot step or some other purpose?

[sevoblast]

It's a foot step to get up on the upper glacis easier. Don't remember if it was a field mod or not, but think so.
Sev

[Saxondog]

Just reviewed Bovington Tiger1 and found it to have same step bracket,have reviewed many sights today and have not found this on other tanks which seams odd. Just another one of those differences that make accuracy difficult at times,and like camo no real positive proof of many patterns due to the few color photos of the Tiger1.I have only found 5-pictures of the Tiger1 I am modeling,13/reg.grossdeutschland march1943,tank S-13.And the bracket does not appear to be on this Tiger.

[mcevoyi]

i have a small pile of tiger books

its one of thouse ..

some did ....

.some did not ...

it looks like most of the early tigers did ..

if that helps ..

but chances are that soon got knocked off
being in a prone possission

[Rivetcounter]

The picture you are looking at is in-fact Tiger 131 from Bovington this modification was a field mod and also very rare not seen on many Tigers

[Saxondog]

On the side of the picture is the date of april,1943-And I beleive eastern front,can not make out the city name but appears Russian?

[Rivetcounter]

Sax, unfortunately this is yet another picture that has been incorrectly dated and the location is wrong, just look at the sun tan on the crew must get hot in Russia

[BigPanzer]

There is no way that pic was taken in Russia. Apart from the crew, look at the type of vegetation. Also the "road" looks baked hard as if it has seen no water for years.

If you look at the shadow of the muzzle brake you will also see the sun is too high in the sky for northern latitudes.

Based on this evidence and the small number of Tigers that made it to north Africa I would guess that this pic is either of 131 or one of its companions, which may well have had the same mod.

Peter

[Rivetcounter]

Peter, Glad you noticed the vegetation most people when they think of Tunisia they think of vast open lands covered in sand as opposed to lush vegetation, I have also seen this picture in several books captioned as being Senilager in Germany but this is also wrong, the step brackets seem to be unique to 131 as there are no Tiger pictures from either 501 or 504 with this mod

[Saxondog]

I'm not even implying where this photo was taken,closer inspection of the photo on the border has the same date but states Tunisian? If the bracket was only used on the Bovington Tiger ok.Perhaps I should have worded my Question differently,was this bracket added during production,if so when,if not during production then is it reasonable that it was a random fitting installed at random?