About this detail of the Tiger
The Tiger was designed with two Bosch headlights on top of the hull, at the front corners. These headlights were vulnerable to damage from the main gun.
The 1. company of s.Pz.Abt. 501, among the first to be issued with Tigers, apparently decided to correct this deficiency. No other Tiger unit did anything about it.
A movable armour shield had been deleted from the Tiger's design at the prototype stage. This left the first few dozen armour hulls carrying features associated with the shield, including two small holes above each sprocket wheel.
The mechanics of 1. company took advantage of this. They fabricated metal stands for their Tigers' headlights, bolting them to the glacis plate via these holes. This put the headlights below the level of the hull roof, safe from the gun. But these stands were made L-shaped so that the headlights were held approximately the same distance apart as before.
The stands were made of U-beams and sheet metal. They were not factory-made, because small differences can be seen between examples.
The glacis plate was slanted at 10 degrees, and it seems that the stands and the headlights were tilted forward, but at a smaller angle. I can only guess that shims were used to straighten them up.
