Hoping someone can help...

I'm looking to figure out if Tiger 6 of 1.Kompanie, 506 Schwere Panzer Abteiling was lost in combat/abandoned in 1943, prior to the unit being pulled off the front, and trading it's Tiger 1's for II's.

Thanks in advance!

Alex;

It's funny that you should ask after that Tiger; it has been much in my mind of late.

Tigers in Combat, Vol. 1 has the battalion helping out Panzer Regiment Bäke and then giving up most or all of their Tigers at the beginning of March 1944. The battalion is then reestablished and gets 45 new Tigers at the end of March.

TIIF.DE, the compilation of Tiger photos, has two images of the same Tiger 6 in the 1st company;



It is in snow-free surroundings. All the photos that I've seen of the Panzer Regiment Bäke operations show lots of snow. I therefore suppose that this was one of the Tigers delivered in March, though it could possibly have come in the January or February deliveries.

However, it was built in January 1944 and so it most definitely was not lost in 1943! If there was a Tiger numbered "6" in the 1st company in 1943, we don't have any photos of it.

David

Thanks for the help David!!

I was trying to figure out initially if it was from the 1943 1.Kompanie, or 1944. If you haven't figured it out, I'm beginning work on the latest DML 1/72 Tiger, and based on the paint scheme, it must be the ones we're seeing photos of in 1944, probably post-relief attempt at Cherkassy, Lvov, or later.
This link breaks down when/where tigers were lost, but without any indication of tank # or kompanie.

http://www.alanhamby.com/unithist.shtml#506

I guess what I'm still looking for is, did the tank survive long enough to be part of Army Group North Ukraine, or all the way to Germany to be traded in for Tiger II's...

Well, I'm sorry to say that I have seen very few instances where the call numbers of Tigers are included in action reports. But I've only seen modern books, not the original diaries.

David

Thanks so much for your help David!