So the recent movie "Fury" claims to be the first one to feature an actual Tiger tank. This turns out to not be the case, as there is a scene of one moving and firing in the 1946 film "Theirs is the Glory":
YouTube link
Looking at that tank, it occurs to me that it seems pretty spry for a Tiger tank in 1946, and it seems to have some early-manufacture details, like air cleaners on the back and (from what I can tell) early-pattern road wheels. To my addled brain, this brings up the distinct possibility that it is Bovington's Tiger 131.
So I contacted the guys and Bovington about it, and while they do not know for sure if it is, they aren't ruling it out. The scenes also features what appear to be a Hetzer and a Panther in the background, and an early-model Pz IV pulls up at the end. Their thought was that these might be captured German vehicles belonging to the School of Tank Technology, which was conducting tests on Tiger 131 in the later part of the war and so kept it in running condition.
Also note how generic the scene is – it's a field with trees in it, could be anywhere. Most of the rest of the armor scenes seem to have been shot in and around Osterbeek, with recognizable landmarks visible in the background, but not this one. So maybe the film makers got the British Army to run their captured German vehicles around for a bit for the film?
So, I have two requests to the good people of TMP. First, does anyone have a copy of After the Battle magazine, number 58? This apparently has an article about the making of "Theirs is the Glory," and I thought it might mention where that scene came from. A long shot, I know, but I'm desperate here.
Second, there is now a digitally re-mastered version of "TITG," but of course it's only available in Region II*.
link
Has anyone seen this or does anyone have it? I think a cleaned-up version of the Tiger scene would maybe provide enough data to ID the tank as 131 or not.
Thanks for any help anyone can provide,
Mark
NOTE: there's also a few Tigers in a 1950 film called "They Were Not Divided," so that's three.
* – I've complained before about how you Brits keep all the good stuff for yourselves!
