IMPORTANT: the Tiger photos are courtesy of Musée des blindés at Saumur, copy or publication are prohibited whitout the authorization of the museum.    

INTRODUCTION

Acknowledgments : I want to thank Colonel Olmer and all the team at the Saumur museum who let me take all these photos and publish them on the web. The museum's team is actually doing great work on displaying the tanks and making the public welcome. I also thank the Armament Archives center of Chatellerault who let me publish some technical drawings from the original German documentation . Also thank you to David Byrden for his help in the translation work, and to my friends who let me use their magazines "Signal"

WARNING :

The photos and drawings of this site are pubished with the authorization of the Museum of Saumur and the Armament Archives center of Chatellerault.

These pictures are strictly for private personal use; commercial use or publication are prohibited.

There is a lot of documentation about the Tiger I : history, units, markings... About the interior, the information is more rare, and it's almost exclusively based on the Tiger at the Bovington museum which is an early version . About the interior of the late version of the Tiger I, documentation is almost non-existent. One must say that Tigers of this version are not numerous : to my knowledge, there are still only three examples in the world :

• One in Russia near Snegiri (hull 251 227, thanks to Wlad)
• One in Normandy at Vimoutiers ( hull 251 113)
• And the one of the museum at Saumur                                                    

For the first two, the question of their interior is settled for good : they are empty or very damaged .

So, only the example at Saumur still has its original interior in really good condition. With the hull n° 251 114, and the turret n° 250 857, it's possible to date this example to May 1944. So, it's surely a late model, however it's not a final model because it still has the big muzzle brake. Production stopped at number 251 346, consequently, 232 Tigers were built after this one.

This tank had a strange history, it was first delivred (like the one at Vimoutiers ) to the 2nd Kompanie of the  SS.s.Pz.Abt 102, this unit came lately in Normandie and lost there most of his tigers. None of the tigers of this unit crossed back the Seine. Then it was recovered by "l'escadron de chars lourds Besnier", a French resistance group fitted with recovered tanks (Tigres 1, Panthers, Stugs III, Pz IV), this unit fought in the area of St Nazaire. At this time, this tank had a little French flag painted on the turret sides and the marking "COLMAR".

After the German capitulation, this French resitant group was enlisted as the 2nd platoon of the 6th Cuirassier regiment in occupation in Germany near Trêves. This tank was then used to make the French evaluation report in 1946.

As you will see, the interior of the Tiger at Saumur is extremely simplified and even incorporates some elements of the Tiger II. BACK

IMPORTANT: the Tiger photos are courtesy of Musée des blindés at Saumur, copy or publication are prohibited whitout the authorization of the museum.