As stocks of their first Tiger I tank continue to draw down, and the release date for their second vehicle draws nigh, Forces of Valor decided to unveil images of its third Tiger iteration – an initial production tank that served with schwere Panzerabteilung 502, then deployed to Leningrad, Russia, during February 1943.
When the first production Tigers rolled out of the Henschel factory in late 1942, they were immediately sent to the training grounds at Fallingbostel to equip schwere Panzerabteilung 502 (502nd Heavy Tank Battalion). After just three days of training, the unit was sent to reinforce the German forces laying siege to Leningrad even though the tanks had teething problems and were still proving unreliable. Upon arrival at Mga, close to the front, they were ordered up to the front line where they would soon see combat.
These first nine Tigers had a unique appearance which differed markedly from later Tigers. To begin with, they had no fenders nor storage boxes on the hull sides. Further, their mudguards at the front and rear of the vehicle did not project beyond the hull side. They were also issued with “mirrored” tracks, i.e. the right and left tracks were different, unlike those of any other German tank. The crews disliked the inconvenience of this arrangement and eventually put just a single type of track on each Tiger. Finally, the initial production Tigers featured ammunition stowage racks conspicuously affixed to the sides of the turret, which would eventually be moved to the rear of the turret in later versions to reduce the vehicle’s profile and make them less of an obvious target to enemy gunners.
A total of nine Tigers were sent to this battalion, filling out its 1st company, before events in North Africa diverted additional Tiger production to the Mediterranean theater. The 502nd fought in forests and swamps south of Leningrad and achieved only limited success. Technical problems with the tanks caused as much trouble as the terrain, and so the more reliable Tigers were given the best components thus leaving the remaining vehicles in an even more precarious position.
On January 18th, 1943, a breakthrough by the Soviets cost the unit five Tigers, including numbers “121” and “100” (seen here), which were captured intact because they had bogged down in the swamps around Leningrad. Only two of the original nine Tigers remained serviceable by February, although their ranks were bolstered by three new vehicles still rolling off of the production line.
So why is this release so important if the vehicle turned out to be such a disappointment? Simply put, because it helps to trace the evolution of the Tiger tank series, from its earliest beginnings in the hands of inexperienced crews to its nightmarish engagements when commanded by tank aces such as Michael Wittmann. Unlike Unimax, who was content to simply repackage the same vehicle over and over again in different liveries and unit insignia, Waltersons is making a concerted effort to distinguish the differences of each variant, all of which helped to make each iteration unique in its own right. While it was feared by Allied warfighters throughout the latter half of World War II, its rushed production to regain momentum on the battlefield meant that the vehicle had to overcome a slew of mechanical obstacles before it could indeed live up to its fateful name and become a legendary war machine.
Look for the third vehicle in Forces of Valor’s Tiger I tank series to rear its head sometime this fall.