"The Myth of the BergeTiger" Topic

"The myth of the BergeTiger being a demolition charge placement vehicle still persists and the same old arguments keep being reprinted over and over. The turret crane on the Bergetiger was never intended for recovery but was used for the same tasks as other light cranes on maintenance vehicles. These duties included lifting drive sprockets, engines and other heavy sundry parts of the vehicles they serviced. Based on its size it probably had a 2 or 3 ton capacity like the later jib cranes.

These vehicles were built on mid production Tiger I chassis before pilzen was added to the turrets for the use of jib cranes…"

Full article here
link

Armand

A post of true value to me, at last. Thanks.

Still seems like a waste of a good Tiger hull to me, considering how valuable as a fighting vehicle they were considered. Maybe this conversion was more versatile than having to link several FAMO together? It could be used under fire, to some degree, or in tighter spaces.

I can now justify my 1/72 version appearing on the tabletop. I've had it for over 20 years without once bringing it out to play!

Let me second that. OK, the Germans were great at tank recovery, at least up to mid-war anyway, and that may partly be due to using kit like this. But it does seem odd to take top rated tank hulls then become Bergepanthers or Tigers or mounting fairly low calibre AA weaponry. Must admit, I had never heard of a BergeTiger

It seems a strange way to use a Tiger hull but then again they only made 3 – 4 of them – an as noted the Germans were very very good at recovering their damaged tanks

Its most likely a hull/turret so damaged that it can not be used in combat. Spares were a problem (not much use in being good at recovery if you are bad at repairing) so you can blow it up and leave it behind or you can use it as a tug. Seems a very practical decision. For sure a properly working Tiger would never be used in this way.
'Mythbusting' exposes are never what they claim to be.

Have to think of this as being practical as it took 3 Famo's to pull a Tiger 1, with this think of how many Tiger 1's it was able to save to be repaired and put back in combat. I don't have my Normandy book handy but check out the number of Tiger 1's from SS 101st Tiger Battalion that had to be in the repair shop after they made it to Normandy.

I've seen a picture of 2x Famo's towing a Tiger I uphill and 3x Famo's towing an Elephant on level ground and 2x towing a Panther on flat ground.

I think it took 3x to get it out of a ditch.

Wolfhag

Thanks!

Armand

Tiger 1s towing other Tiger 1s was discouraged. The Tiger was already underpowered, & towing another risked blowing the transmission or engine. It still happened though.

As for Bergepanthers, IIRC the Germans did not have an armored recovery vehicle suitable to recover Panthers, so they converted Panthers to do the job!

Damon.