Tiger 1 - s.Pz.Abt. 501
Commenti
NeulingExcellent build and interesting information! Thanks for showing/telling!
Spanjaardit looks simply perfect. it is asking for a small base to shine even more 🙂
Gary CurlingMany thanks for the tiger photos,a first class model.Not many people make and paint a north africa tiger now days
gvizbiThank you, Gary and James. Yeah, couldn't find many Africa Tiger models online while looking for references. I guess they are not that popular choice because camo is not as colorful as in other theaters.
Fritz01That's a very nice one. I like your colour modulation and weathering. Great job!
Album info
This is my take on Tiger No. 112 of s.Pz.Abt.501 in North Africa. The 501st Heavy Tank Battalion was formed in mid-1942 and spent a few months training in Germany. This tank was one of the first two Tigers delivered to s.Pz.Abt.501. Battalion, including Tiger 112 arrived in Africa in Bizerte on November 1942. Its first combat engagement was the Battle of Tebourba. At this time, the 501 Battalion still had only four Tigers in Africa, of which only three were in working condition. They fought American tanks on 1st December, in the olive groves east of Tebourba.
During the next few months, between December 1942 and March 1943, Tiger 112 participated in several engagements, of which Operation Fruhlingswind and the battle of Sidi bou Zid were the biggest success when heavy losses were inflicted on American armor.
At the end of February 1943, the 501st was attached to the 7th Panzer Regiment and sent to capture Beja. The mission was a disaster, with seven Tigers lost in the battle of Hunt's Gap. The eleven remaining tanks, including Tiger 112 which survived the battle, were attached to the newly arrived 504th Heavy Tank Battalion and continued fighting until the surrender of Tunisia. After being transferred to 504th, Tiger 112 was renumbered 724.
The damaged tank was abandoned and left by the main road, somewhere in north-eastern Tunis. There are few photos of the soldiers posing by the abandoned tank in the spring of 1943.
This model should represent this tank while it was still Tiger 112, in its condition sometime around January 1943, before Operation Fruhlingswind.
