Tigers on the march,
Before a Tiger could be driven onto a trainwagon the crew had to make preparations.
This meant that the battle tracks and the track covers on the side had to be removed from the tank and replaced by the transport tracks.
The reason was simple, with its battletracks the Tiger would stick out 5 cms on both sides of a trainwagon.
The track itself weight in around 4 tonnes, you can imagine what it had to be for a 4 man crew to change every time they had to board a train.
Picture showing the difference.
Crews working on changing the tracks
picture of the special SS sym wagonstowing a damaged tank.
Each batallion had SDKfz 7 18 ton halftracked vehicles. 2 or 3 of them could tow a Tiger.
Later in the war the crews used captured Shermans, the Sherman had a escape hatch on the floor of the tank making it possible to use the Sherman for cover by the engineers.
The Tiger was a delicate machine specially its gearbox, roadwheels and its track were prone to damage.
Another problem with the Tiger was the way the roadwheels were attached to the vehicle. Unlike the Sherman which had wheels separately attached to its body, the Tiger had its wheels in pairs left and right of the vehicle connected by a steel bar and in 3 rows intermingled with the other wheels. That meant 3 or 4 roadwheels had to be removed before the damaged one could be replaced or repaired.
Road wheels on a Tiger
crew preparing a Tiger for towing
pictures : Spielberger, german battlefield pictures, Jentz and others
