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Commander's traverse gears
The Tiger's turret incorporated a toothed ring, hidden inside its bottom edge. To attach the turret to the hull, bolts were put through the hull roof into the ring. The turret turned itself by driving a small gear wheel against this ring. The gear wheel could be powered by the gunner, by the commander or by a motor on the turret floor.
The gear wheel was on a vertical axle. It was driven by two horizontal worm gears at the top of the axle. There was a large cast housing that contained the worm gears. This is the housing in the 'Bovington' vehicle, with its original black paint. The large toothed ring can be seen at bottom left, because its cover plate has been removed.
For attaching the gear housing, an 8mm plate with the necessary bolt holes was welded on top of the turret ring. We are fortunate to have the manufacturing specifications [1] for this plate. They are copied in the diagram below. (Dimensions that are copied from design drawings are coloured green.)
A hole was cut in the base plate, to clear one of the main bolts holding the turret ring together. All of the gearbox bolt positions were specified relative to this main bolt.
The cylindrical gearbox housing had a webbed flange. It was bolted to the base plate as shown in this diagram [2] . Because it interacted with the main gear ring around the turret, its position would have been specified relative to the turret center. I believe I have shown precisely the correct position.
Sources
[1] Factory drawing: Turmgehause 2AKF31861U1B11 (overall turret armour)
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