RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

hi I have noticed that in some pics of summer 1943 the tiger tanks of the GD dont have the letter S together with the number on theyr turrets
So instead of tiger S 23 eg. it appear to be tiger 23 without the S
S stands as for Schwere or heavy and in many cases appear to be erased or painted over
why is this?

http:/tiif.de/thread.php?threadid=90&sid=ecab7daeea5c9386c1317e7599c08ab6
thank you for your reply
stefano

On 18 July 1943, GD transferred to Army Group Centre, seeing action again on 25 July. The Tigers saw limited action between then and 14 August 1943 when it was redesignated and assigned to the new III Battalion of the newly expanded Panzer Regiment GD.

I believe the answer is this statement above,the pictures of GD Tigers in question were in this transition period,the iII Battalion is expanded to regiment size with three companies,9th(A) 10th(B) 11th(C).

A Company would be made up from the Older GD Tigers formally the 13th company of 4-platoons(15 Tigers) so while the Division is re-organized,and the Tigers are in this transition period their S designation is painted over,and will be replaced with an "A" as the regimental structure is developed.

Also it seems likely that the pictures in question were taken while the crews are at rest,the crews are un armed and the Tigers seem to all be out in the open. Not the look of a company of Tigers in a combat area?

These are my observations, and without a first person account their is little we can do to prove this is correct or some other explanation is possible?

Saxondog

Forgot the main problem with these Tigers and the link. If you go to the German forum and follow to the end of the thread another source is offered, AFRICA kORPS and Grossdeutschland Tigers were not their. this is certainly Tiger Pictures and some are I agree Grossdeutschland but the pictures are in several different background scenes, and weather conditions from Desert,to forest, to winter, to the Russian steep.

Hope this helps to establish the Grossdeutschland units from others that clearly could not be GD Tigers.

Saxondog

http://www.hobbyhavoc.com/forum/index.php?topic=1084.0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;