About this detail of the Tiger
Some Tigers of s.Pz.Abt.503 had a unique style of turret bin. The reason for this is the defeat at Stalingrad. This catastrophe caused the emergency allocation of 2 co./s.Pz.Abt.502 to the region. They were a new company, training in Fallingbostel without any tanks, expecting to join their battalion at Leningrad. But just before Christmas 1942 they suddenly got their nine Tigers and were ordered to the Rostov region, where the German armies were retreating from Stalingrad in disorder.
The situation was so desperate that these new Tigers were delivered without some tools and equipment, including turret bins. The crews quickly made train journeys to various factories all over Germany to fetch the tools. During these frantic few days, somebody made turret bins for them, probably a workshop at Fallingbostel.
The heavy company of "Totenkopf", who trained at Fallingbostel shortly afterwards, also took at least one of these unique turret bins.
This diagram shows the right side of the turret, with the bin attached at the rear. It was held by four bolted metal strips, which were welded to the turret rear. The bin had a slanted lower face and parallel sides.
This plan view shows that the bin had a single wide lid.
This rear view shows that the bin was narrow enough that it didn't collide with the turret side hatch, unlike the wide bins that were being delivered with new Tigers at the time.
