Steve Nelson wrote:
One of the Achilles' heels of the Nazi military was that it was completely enamored with cutting edge technology, at the expense of servicability. The Tiger was a great tank, but it was a maintenance nightmare..constantly breaking down in the field. The Russians could built three or four comparatively primitive T-34s for the same cost, and they were much more dependable and easier to fix.
My father was in North Africa with a forward maintenance battalion of 1st Armored Division and he and his crew was assigned to get a Tiger I in running order so it could be tested. (This is one of those stories I wish I'd taped or written down.....) He said the tank was beautifully finished and built incredibly strong but had a weak transmission and final drive design. They scrounged several machines to find the parts they needed to get "his" tank operational. Once they had her running everyone was appalled at how slow it was and how much fuel it burned, but they did like the idea of all that armor around them.
The tank was spirited away, dad moved on to the Italian campaign, and the Tiger ended up at Aberdeen. I've done some research and it appears that "dad's tank" is now in England being restored. I plan on visiting one day so I can actually touch an artifact that my father had a small part in saving.
Great pictures!
Scott
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