Question about drivers vision slit on Tiger 1

[jarndice]

Above the drivers vision slit are two holes he looked through when the vision slit was closed down, on the mantlet of the main gun are the same two holes for the same purpose, when the turret is centred fore and aft it appears that the holes in the mantlet are in line with the holes above the drivers vision slit , BUT am I right? When the drivers vision slit is open the two holes above it are still visible, so before I put the pin vise into the glacis I would like the position of the holes to be in the right place. thank you my friends. shaun

[scalawag]

Hi Shaun,

The two holes above the drivers vision slit were for a periscope for the driver, but I believe this was abandoned very early in Tiger production. The Bovington Tiger is an early version which has these holes but by the time it went into service they had been welded shut as you can see in this pic. They are centred on the drivers vision port.



These holes for the drivers periscope are not seen on later production tigers.

The two holes in the mantlet are for the Gunners binocular gun sight. After March 1944 a Monocular gunsight was introduced, and late production tigers have only one hole in the mantlet as a result.

[jarndice]

Scalawag you are aptly named, a born trouble maker if ever their was one, my fault, I should have explained I am building a Tunisian campaign Tiger 1 and working from the builds of the heroes who are on display within this Forum plus Photographs from every website I can find, so anyway's up do you know the answer? ps the ALAN HANBY site shows the holes quite clearly in many pictures. shaun

[scalawag]

Hi Shaun there are lots of pics of tigers which show the holes in situ, however they have clearly disappeared later on in production.

Of the 2 Tunisia vintage Tigers that survive one has the holes (712 the Aberdeen Proving Ground Tiger the earlier of the 2) the other has them welded up (131 the Bovington Tiger).

My understanding is that these holes did not have covers or lenses, and were open all the way through the glacis plate. An F.F.F.2 or similar removable scope was used as far as I can make out. I can imagine that if the scope was removed in Tunisia then the dust coming in through the holes might be a problem. This could be a possible reason why these holes have been welded shut on some examples.
The drivers vision port itself has armoured glass and provides a better field of view than the periscope would, which I suspect is why they disappeared. They simply were not being used by the drivers. There seem to be very few pics where the vision port armoured cover is fully down.

I suspect that the reality is that early in production lots of variants were coming from the factory as there are some differences between 712 and 131 although they were produced fairly close to one another. For example 712 does not have a turret bin.

Of course Units may have also modified them in the field.

If you are are modelling one particular Tunisia Tiger then I suspect you would need to identify a photo of that particular tank to confirm the details.
If you are doing a generic Tunisia Tiger then I guess the best way would be to look at which of the 2 tigers I have mentioned yours most resembles and go with what is on that version. with this option then neither is really correct or incorrect, its down to what looks best to you.

As for the position of the Holes in the Glacis plate the picture of 131 I posted should give you a good idea of how big the holes would be and where they are positioned. This pic shows the vision port with the armoured cover fully raised, as you can see this leaves approximately half of the periscope holes visible. I believe they are only fully uncovered when the armoured cover is fully down.

Hope this helps

Paul

[scalawag]

This site might be useful too.

http://tiger1.info/tank/501-Africa-list.html

[jarndice]

Paul your blown up picture of the vision slit answers my question exactly, thank you, A friend on discovering how long I have been sorting this particular Tank out called me a perfectionist, I had some difficulty stopping my ladies hoots of uncontrolled laughter, this hobby carries a burden that ordinary people just do not understand, she wants to go dancing, DANCING!! I have an IBU2 to install, has she no sense of priorities? once again thank you old friend. shaun

[scalawag]

Hi Shaun,

You're welcome. No such problem for me regards dancing and other halves.

I love the IBU2, how do you find it?

The pic of 131 is a close up I took of it last Saturday. I went along to Bovington to their Tiger day. Watched it running in the wet LOVELY

[jarndice]

Thank you for the site, I think I looked at it a fair time ago but I failed to load it to my favourites page, job now done. shaun

[jarndice]

Ian sent me my IBU2 PRO in late December, he swore me to silence at the time as they were not officially available until January What a cracking bloke cannot do enough for you. who needs a handbook when Tankbear is looking over your shoulder. It made wonder what all the fuss was about the CLARK board , the IBU2 just is so flexible. My outstanding memory of Bovington was when I looked at the Panzer 4 then I saw the Panther a little further away, It was difficult to realise that both of these Tanks were classed as Medium when there is such a difference in size between them, the Panther being much closer to the Tiger 1 in size, The IWM at Duxford is the only other museum that comes close to Bovington.shaun

[scalawag]

Ian is a top bloke, Ive found him very helpful, and his customer service is superb. I would not go back to clark boards now, as you say the IBU2 is just so flexible. What Tx set up are you using? I have turnigy 9x and 9xr on mine, find it fantastic. Can customise all the controls to be the way I like them, and reasonably cheap into the bargain.