About as graphic as it gets !
About as graphic as it gets !
The gates of hell were opened and we accepted the invitation to enter" 26/880 Lance Sgt, Edward Dyke. 26th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers , ( 3rd Tyneside Irish )
1st July 1916
Thought shall be the harder , heart the keener,
Courage the greater as our strength faileth.
Here lies our leader ,in the dust of his greatness.
Who leaves him now , be damned forever.
We who are old now shall not leave this Battle,
But lie at his feet , in the dust with our leader
House Carles at the Battle of Hastings
Just having a gander through a old book of mine, "Normandie Album Memorial", Editions Heimdal, from 1983.
On page 463, is this picture of a Tiger without a turret..
The translated text for 8th August says: "Wittmann was to lose his life and this Tiger has lost it's turret".
Has any one seen this picture before?
Has it been photoshopped?
I remember not so long ago, a "new" picture of Wittmanns Tiger was shown to be a fake, was this THAT picture?
That book cost me £25, in 1983, even without it's dust jacket
Still a cracking book to this day and it's very heavy
I cannot recall off the top of my head where this photo was taken but certainly not in the location where Wittmanns Tiger was knocked out on 8th August 1944 , but of course when it and the other Tigers from the action were removed from the Battlefield to be scraped is not known. Brilliant early Heimdal edition
The gates of hell were opened and we accepted the invitation to enter" 26/880 Lance Sgt, Edward Dyke. 26th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers , ( 3rd Tyneside Irish )
1st July 1916
Thought shall be the harder , heart the keener,
Courage the greater as our strength faileth.
Here lies our leader ,in the dust of his greatness.
Who leaves him now , be damned forever.
We who are old now shall not leave this Battle,
But lie at his feet , in the dust with our leader
House Carles at the Battle of Hastings
back in 1969 to 1971 when I was stationed in Germany, our regiment used to take the AA guns down to the ranges at Mourmelon le Grande, France. Along the route we used to take there were several knocked-out Sherman's and half-tracks lying where they had met their end by the side of the road, or in fields. I would imagine that German tanks were also still lying around back then. I also recall going past an airfield in Holland that was full of TBM3 Avenger aircraft.
Cheers,
Steve
Are those holes either side of the MG ? looks like AP holes
Did Joe Ekins fire 2 rounds at Wittmanns Tiger, there are 2 holes there in the front armour either side of the MG.....
Well, I think we can all agree that this could have been taken in any one of scores of locations probably only limited by the fact that is seems to be snow camouflaged. I see what looks like a section of the engine deck bent upwards pretty close to where the rear right of the turret would have been so perhaps this does suggest the turret "left in a hurry"(ie it was blow off) otherwise, the photograph being of an age of far lesser quality than today's digital media, is hard to interpret.
I don't know much about Photoshop but I don't believe it was around in 1983 when this was published (according to the caption).
As Steve says, for years after the war such sights were not unusual and even today the detritus of combat is still lying around on miltary firing ranges, albeit that the decent stuff has all been hauled away by collectors etc
I guess the short answer is that this is a Tiger I and it's not in the desert. Oh, and it's not a runner
Regards
Mark
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares more about than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature with no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
Didn't occur to me could be winter camo, thought it was just the exposure of the photograph ........
Its just in need of a bit of TLC...by Watchdog
I guess the short answer is that this is a Tiger I and it's not in the desert. Oh, and it's not a runner
Regards
Mark
I knew I'd seen this picture somewhere and it's gven me a nice little Lockdown Project to wade through my Normandy library to find it.
The photo is reproduced on p.228 of Deprun/Jouault's Villers Bocage : Autopsie d'une Bataille ( Heimdal, 2015 ).
The caption has stretched my schoolboy French a bit, but to sum up -
The photo has been known about but identification and locality remained mysterious for over 30 years. However, after much research and cross-referencing between local historians, the authors are confident to identify the Tiger as 104 of the Commanders' section of 1 Kompanie, SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101 destroyed by several a/t shots from a towed 17-pr of 65 A/T Regiment (Norfolk Yeomanry ). This action happened on the road between Cahagnes/LeQuesnay and Briquessard on 16th June 1944 and resulted in the death of Ostuf. Hannes Phillipsen.
I think that this is the most up-to-date research about this Tiger - apologies in advance if someone tells me that it's all rubbish !
The article includes a number of close-up photos plus views of the site today. I've recommended this book before ; it's essential for anyone interested in the whole 'Villlers Bocage' saga......
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