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Turret internal storage
The Tiger 1 had stowage on the inner side of its large, cylindrical turret. The Turret Manual [4] includes an interesting diagram of the stowage. It shows what you would see if the turret wall were unrolled into a flat strip. I have followed the format of that diagram to prepare stowage diagrams of my own.
These diagrams are a work-in progress. They show only some of the items on the walls, because I have not yet researched the others. Also, because of the unrolling, the items appear to be less crowded than they really were.
The stowage in the Tiger's turret was rearranged several times. There are very few photographs of interiors and we may never know the full story. Six different arrangements can be seen, and are shown in the diagrams.
The earliest arrangement is known to me only from two photographs of a destroyed turret. Only one of them has been published [2] . This is possibly the earliest arrangement of stowage. A metal strip about 55mm wide is fixed to the upper wall, running most of the way around. It's a wiring board, and the turret's electric cabling is fixed to it. This diagram shows how the strip runs above the MP holder and below the roof beams.
Only a little of the turret can be seen in the photographs. Many items are missing. However, I can reconstruct the stowage of some items in the front left of the turret; it is shown above. All items are screwed into small lugs welded to the wall; some of them are held on metal strips.
The next arrangement is seen in the surviving tank #2500031 [5] , and in photographs of the destroyed '833' of S. Pz. Abt. 501 [6] . The cables are now fixed to the edge of the roof. The metal strip is gone from the wall, and items have been moved to take advantage of the extra space.
The tank's stowage was redesigned in December 1942 [7] , possibly because the escape hatch was added. There were complaints that AP impacts caused items on the wall to fly off and injure the crew. Therefore, the items were now fixed to metal strips that were welded to the turret roof and the turret ring. Nothing touched the wall. This arrangement is seen in the surviving 'Bovington' vehicle [8] and in another early Tiger [1] .
Another arrangement is drawn in the Turret Manual [4] for the turret with the 40mm roof. But this arrangement must date from earlier, when the turret was redesigned with a new cupola. The gun counterbalance is now fixed to the rear wall; you can see its support in the diagram. This forced the designers to move the stowage boxes. The small circle up near the roof on the midline is a hole for the turret's rear lifting lug.
In the final Tigers, as seen in the 'Saumur' vehicle [9] , the manufacturers omitted non-critical items to cut costs. For example, the position indicator was deleted from the cupola in February 1944 [7] . Perhaps for the same reason, stowage boxes were removed from the turret walls and replaced by open coamings on the turret ring [10] . This change was made before the 40mm roof was installed; it can be seen in one photo of a tank with a 25mm roof [3] .
Sources
[1] Panzer Tactics: German Small-unit Armor Tactics In World War II by Wolfgang Schneider
[5] Survey of vehicle 250031, by Stephan Vogt
[6] Tiger 1 on the Western Front
[7] DW to Tiger 1
[8] Survey of vehicle 250122, Bovington, by David Byrden
[9] Survey of vehicle 251114, at Saumur, by Jean-Charles Breucque
[10] Survey of vehicle at Saumur, by Hilary Louis Doyle
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