Bovington 'Tiger Day' - 31st March 2012

Was a great day.
If you want to see some pictures of today then here are some on my Flickr area:
Tiger Day 31st March 2012 - a set on Flickr
I just wish I could have afforded the premium ticket so could have got closer to the Tiger.

 

JW
Looks like a great day, superb photos thanks for uploading

 

Excellent photographs and thank you for sharing.

Regards
Tom

 

Great photos., thank you for sharing them.

 

A short and not amazing video I took (over peoples heads):

[YOUTUBE] Tiger Tank at The Tank Museum - YouTube [/YOUTUBE]

 

That's an excellent collection of photos you have posted there, John. Thanks for sharing them. Safe to say it looks like you had a really good day.

 

With appologies to JW, here are the Premium Ticket pics

And not to rub salt in the wound, but in some pictures you only see part of the Tiger because it was TOO close...

Regards,

Marco

 

And some of the others...

 

Undoubtedly in the wide open steppes of the USSR, Tigers were formidable opponents. In the hilly/mountainous area over which the the western allies fought the story is different.

When two tanks are in the killing range of each the advantage goes to the one with both the faster rate of fire and laying on the opponent. In Italy Churchills mounted with 6-pounder guns had both, those deployed in North-west Europe had neither, resulting in one of the great tragedies of the war.

Four of Schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502 Tigers were the first to be deployed. It was in East Prussia however, as they bogged down in the unsuitable terrain Russian tanks were not engaged.


The first tank versus tank encounter between Tigers of Schwere Panzer-Abteilung 501 and tanks was with Churchills of the North Irish Horse, Hunt's Gap, Tunisia. During this battle a Churchill was the first tank to destroy a Tiger when, on at a range of 500/600 yards, a 6 pdr AP shell penetrated the 81mm thick turret front of its opponent. Subsequently another Tiger was put out of action by Churchill fire at about 900 yards. At the end of the battle ABT 501 was badly mauled that is was disbanded and its remnants transferred to Schwere Panzer-Abteilung 504.


Sadly the powers that be in the UK ignored a significant report, which included penetration tests on a disbabled Tiger, pressing ahead replacing 6-pdr guns first with US 75mm guns, later with British. Consequently in Italy Churchill's Na 75 of 25th Tank Brigade, and the Mark VIIs deiivered to the regiment when it was transferred to 21st Tank Brigade, were used as mobile artillery.


Later when instructions came to mount tracks on Churchills to provide additional protection, when tests showing a significant slowing down of turret traversing Churchills, and the welding tracks both on turrets and elsewhere added a significant increase in overall weight, hence the decision not to do so. Again the report sent to the UK was ignored. A copy of this report is not in my possession however reports on the penetration data combined are.
See: http://northirishhorse.net/documents/25thTB-Tiger.html


Cheers.

Gerry

 

Any plans to get either of their Tiger IIs running? I don't think either one has an engine at the moment.

 

Haven't seen any talk about that yet, no.

 

Independent's illegitimate son:

 

There was an interview with the author of that book on Angus Wallace's WW2 Podcast.

 

How about their Jagdtiger? Engine looks good, at least cosmetically. Does this one run?