Hi All,

Watching a Netflix documentary on the battles in Tunisia in WWII, I noted that the winter in North Africa brought huge rains and incredible mud. I was wondering if the time period when the original Tigers in Tunisia (the newer Dragon 6608, I think) corresponds to any of that winter/rainy period, and whether a light/heavy amount of mud on that Tiger model would be appropriate. That is, were those Tigers ever employed at a time when they would have encountered rainy/muddy condition in Tunisia?

I would say yes. This example was captured by the British in Tunisia (hence the British 1st army shield on the left rear mud guard).

In the early days of It's participation in North Afrika, the Afrika Korps resorted to using mud as additional camouflage.

Africa isn't all sand and desert. Many coastal areas have arable land.

Gaz

Great information on "mud" in Northern Africa... Over the last 40 plus years, when thinking about DAK armored vehicles, I have always visualized sand and/or heavy dust.

Talking about Tigers in Tunisia, were this model of the Tiger tank used in/on Sicily or Southern Italy? Also, what was the difference between the Tunisian Tigers and the early Tigers used on the Russian Front?

The Tigers were used mostly in northern Tunisia, which is farmland and gets a lot of rain in winter. Military operations had to be limited in December and they rested up in Manouba.

Operation Ochsenkopf in February 1943 was a disaster for them because of the mud. This Volkswagen is trying to pass the wettest part of the road at Sidi N'sir:



The entire German battle group, Tigers and all, had to use this road.

Tigers were not in the Afrikakorps.

David

The 504 Tigers were identical to many on the Eastern Front.

The 501 Tigers had a lot of differences within themselves. The final two or three of them were near identical to some Tigers used by s.Pz.Abt.503. But that unit used its own version of spare track hangers at the front, a headlight on the turret, and the Pz.3 turret bin.

David

Here's a Tiger pictured in the same area :



from this thread :

http://www.tiif.de/print.php?threadid=606&page=1&sid=a60afaa7c173a388689619e5417720a3

H.P.

David, was hoping you would weigh in here, not that I don't appreciate the others' responses. I guess I had not realized that the "Tunisian Tigers" were not actually part of the Africa Korps, so I learned something! In addition, I found, in the Wikipedia article on the Tiger I, that the Tiger was referred to, in a picture caption, as 'supplementing the Africa Korps'. Nonetheless, your point about the February 1943 storms, supports the concept of a particularly muddy Tunisian Tiger. Thank you.

Curt, to put this in perspective, drive north of Las Vegas on the 95 and look at the landscape. That's Libya. Rocky, flat, sparse vegetation
Drive up to the Lake Tahoe area, that's Tunisia.
Tunisia is more temperate.

G

Wayne,

Thanks for the info. I get it, now. It helps for when I get around to building a Tunisian Tiger.