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I've seen many photos of tanks showing unique places to hang the crew's helmets, but ran across one recently that's pretty original... on the Tiger alone, it was common to use the smoke launchers, spare track link brackets, lifting trunnions, hooks for the track cable, and other spots to stow the helmets, but it sure seems like this is about the most inconvenient place to stash them for retrieval during a sudden fight!



Regardless of possible impracticability, I've set about making a similar front armour 'hanger' for one of my kitties with these little metal 1/16 scale German brain buckets. Obviously just at the pre-paint fitting-out stage but should be a quick & easy mod



What's the craziest place you've seen helmets stowed?

Great photo! If a tanker needs a helmet, the tank is probably already damaged anyway, and the mounting location doesn't matter. Or maybe this is just to cheer them up – "that extra 1mm of metal won't hurt"

Ive never seen that picture!!

I suspect its a bit of a propaganda statement rather than any practical demonstration.
Setting the theme to the other arms that the "Tiger-Strong" feeling reaches the common Soldaten.
Or, it was some bizarre factory testing experiment to prove the durability of the M40 helmet!!

Hell of a novel point of difference mate, great find.

Good Morning,
That is a neat Find and makes me consider the possibilities of why they would do this? Like Kaczor has mentioned, may be it was for morale or a propaganda piece since the Tanks Bow MG is covered and I see other Tigers in column behind. Who was the extra Helmet for? How did they mount those on the spare track there? I don't see any straps in the photo and the bottom row of track guides should be sitting directly on the support Bar. Well, It will be a fun piece of Detail to add and give interest to an often over looked section of the Mighty Kat!
regards,
Painless

PainlessWolf wrote: ↑Fri Oct 24, 2025 12:42 pm Who was the extra Helmet for?

I have a theory.

Kaczor wrote: ↑Fri Oct 24, 2025 1:49 pm

PainlessWolf wrote: ↑Fri Oct 24, 2025 12:42 pm Who was the extra Helmet for?

I have a theory.

Kaczor!
In the words of Dr. Billings, "Your Theory has Legs." ;0)
regards,
Painless

Infantryman dark humour? If I'm going to freeze to death near Kharkov I might as well be comfortable.

In "The War of the Innocents" by Charles Bracelen Flood, the author is in Vietnam interviewing a member of the LURP's (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol--a US recon unit out for weeks at a time and travelling light), and asks why he joined the outfit?
"Well, to tell you the truth , Sir, I got so tired of walking under that helmet..."

Mike.

This photo of a Tiger from the 505th on the Eastern Front in early May 1943 came from the lavishly-illustrated book "Tigers at the Front" by Thomas Jentz, author of the excellent "Germany's Tiger Tanks" Vol I & II (with Hilary Doyle). This book has some of the highest-quality reprints I've ever seen, far superior to his previous titles (really nothing but photos here, with very little text anyway) and it contains an absolute treasure trove of rare photos I'd never seen before. I get the feeling these are selections from his research that didn't fit into the other books... win-win! Funny how even though there were only about 1,350 Tiger Is ever produced (and almost 500 Tiger IIs), it seems like they're still finding new photos of them all the time... the number of Tiger I photographs must surely surpass that of the actual number of tanks! I wonder if each & every one eventually found its way into a photo?

Good point that helmets would be the one of last things you'd worry about if a firefight broke out & you still had a working tank you could "button up" inside of... still, it'd be nice to know they're actually attached on the vehicle & haven't fallen off somewhere along the way! Perhaps we've overlooked the obvious here... maybe they accidentally just ran over six unlucky infantrymen standing in a row

Kaczor, you're killing me with that bit of visual catnip... what's the story behind THAT photo?