The gunner's pedals
The Tiger's turret was rotated by the engine via a hydraulic gearbox on the turret floor. The gunner controlled the gearbox with pedals, then made fine adjustments manually with a handwheel.
Here is the forward left area of a Tiger's turret floor [3] . This turret has been removed from its tank for future restoration at the Tank Museum. The gunner's pedals are part of a complex assembly labelled [A]. The pedals control the hydraulic gearbox at [B] via a linkage rod. This museum example is fully intact.
This is a plan view of the pedal assembly [2, see Bild 41] . It does not face directly forwards in the tank, but is turned about 18 degrees to the right. The gearbox is at the bottom of the image. The diagram highlights the axle, running left to right within the pedal assembly, that the pedals are attached to. In fact this is two axles, one nested inside the other.
The core of the assembly was a hollow, internally braced shell, bolted to the turret floor frame via a base flange.
The first version
This museum example is somewhat damaged and has been painted white. The gearbox linkage is broken. There is a small pedal, painted black here, that operates the coaxial MG. This example is seemingly intact though the final linkage rod is missing. The MG pedal arm is mounted on the same axis as the main pedals, but is not connected to them. On the far side of the assembly, a flange and a tubular arm support the curved shield that protects the gunner from colliding with objects in the hull while the turret rotates.
In its original version, as you can see here, there was just a single main pedal. The gunner should press it forward to turn left and backward to turn right. Complaints were made that this pedal was not easy to operate.
Two pedals
The pedal assembly was modified, early in 1943, by splitting the pedal in two [4, see 3.4.2.12] . Both pedals now required only to be pressed forward, one for each direction. I have not yet discovered how that mechanism worked.
This photo is the gunner's view of the pedals. The gunner's seat (missing its cushion) is visible at the bottom of the photo. As you can see, a Tiger's gunner was obliged to sit in a cramped, twisted position.
Peering into the unit from behind, we can see a spring arm that returns the right-hand pedal to its neutral position. Strangely enough, when the pedal was split in to two, no arm was added for the left-hand pedal.
A hand lever
Later, a third version of the pedal assembly was created; but I have seen no documentation about it and I have little idea when it was introduced. This example exists in the Saumur Museum Tiger, whose turret apparently dates from February 1944 [1] .
The system has been modified by the addition of a lever, at top right of the photo, for the gunner to operate by hand. It's not clear exactly what it can do, but it's geared to rotate the axle that the pedals are mounted on. It's possible that the pedals were never made comfortable to operate, so this lever was a complete alternative to them.
We can see the lever (arrowed) in this "Mid" Tiger turret. The loader's hatch, which is visible in the uncropped photo, has a central locking disc. Therefore the lever already existed in September 1943 and was possibly introduced with the "New Turret".
[1] Survey of vehicle 251114, at Saumur, by Jean-Charles Breucque
[3] Survey of Tiger 250122, at Bovington museum, by David Byrden