Description
This tank was a staff Tiger of 8 company Das Reich, but not a Befehlstiger. The book 'Tigers in Combat 2' calls it 802 when it arrives at the front on 17 February 1943, but photographs prove that it was numbered 801 at that time. After the company's Befehlstiger was sent away for extended repairs, the company had to modify this tank to fill the role. It seems they did not perform a complete conversion. Apparently they put a ceramic-insulated antenna base on the left side of the tank, instead of the right side, for the Fu8. This would make it impossible for the radio operator to set the radio's range while sitting in his seat. They placed the antenna's ceramic insulator on top of the hull roof, lacking the sunken metal pot of a real Befehlstiger. They put a storage tube for star antenna in the usual place on the hull rear wall. They did not add mounts for the mast antenna to the hull side. Inside the tank, to power the Fu8, they must have installed a generator set, and they must have cut a chimney hole in the hull roof. We don't know if they managed to fit an Fu5 inside the tank along with the Fu8, but if so, they put it in the hull rather than the turret, because the tank's turret MG remained.
Photos
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