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A brand-new Tiger, on its first day of service, within hours of being unloaded from a train, and while driving to the front line, was immobilised by a mine. To add to its misfortune, the Germans had to retreat the following day and leave it behind. Such was the fate of this Tiger in February 1943.
This is Akademika Pavlova St. in Kharkiv and its muddy, unpaved surface belies the fact that it is one of the city's widest boulevards. The small one-story houses lining the street are typical of Kharkiv and hundreds of them still exist in 2017, though not these ones.
Whether by the Russians or the Germans, this Tiger is now being stripped of its components. Its whitewash is dissolving in the rains of spring. The "Wolfsangel" symbol of the "Das Reich" division is visible beside the cross on its rear.
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