The Tiger stowage bin

[daviddunlop]

Hello Tony.

I had a quick forage through my Tiger I documents this morning and pieced together the following for your reference.

The Tiger crews complained bitterly about their lack of personal baggage storage when the Tiger I was first introduced, and it was initially field mods that some of the units came up with to utilize a modified Pz.Kpfw.III bin. A new baggage bin (or Gepaechkasten) was under development by 25 June 1942. This became the familiar Tiger I bin. Starting in August 1942, the Pz.Kpfw.III bin was mounted at the factory as a temporary solution. The units receiving these vehicles typically upgraded the bin to the new Tiger bin prior to going to the front. Two notable exceptions to this were 1.Kp./s.H.Pz.Abt.502 and s.H.Pz.Abt.503, who retained the smaller bin on most of their Tiger I's.

Running more or less concurrently with development of the new Tiger I storage bin, was a plan to install 15 spare track link hangers around the rear of the turret, between the escape hatch and the pistol port. The new storage bin displaced 6 of the planned hangers. The hangers were then relocated to the sides of the turret, as commonly seen in photos. 21 January 1943, the new Tiger I storage bin was formally installed on all new Tiger turrets.

The only official stowage items I could find reference to for the Tiger I Gepaechkasten were that 10 spare track links and pins, along with a 1200 mm x 1800 mm tarp were to be kept there, along with all five sets of cooking utensils for the crew. These were all from 1942 references. I would assume that as long as these items were accounted for, the crew could pack in whatever else they could fit. My guess would be that they would try to maintain easy access to the spare parts, as they likely would not relish rummaging through kit bits in an emergency.

Hope this helps, Tony.

David

[tiger205]

thanks for this david, makes quite interesting reading, i heard somewhere about them putting track links in the bins, but i wont be putting them in my bin, to heavy ::) i think that ill go with putting personal kit in mine, when i get round to making it with a few tools, i got to make good use of the openable bin lids rob is making for my "205" 

              Tony