Tiger ausf. E : Commander's curtain

Technical information about the Tiger tank

 

Scale model kits

Physical index

Commander's curtain

To the home page

About this detail of the Tiger

When the turret was redesigned with an improved cupola, the commander's backflash shield was deleted. It had impeded communication between the commander and crew. It was replaced by a curtain that could easily be moved out of the way.

Support for curtain

I have seen no German drawings of this curtain. However, the holders for the curtain are still present in the Saumur vehicle. One of them is shown here.

Support for curtain

This diagram shows two views of a holder; it is a simple metal tab welded to the roof.

Support for curtain

Since it was supposed to be easy to move, I would expect the curtain to slide on a rail rather than hook into the two holders. There is no surviving curtain rail in the vehicle, but we can see that it would be 810mm long. We can also see where the curtain would have run underneath the edge of the cupola.

[1] Survey of vehicle 251114, at Saumur, by Jean-Charles Breucque

 
 

HTML5

Copyright © David Byrden 1998-2021 except where indicated

Follow @tiger1info