The Tiger Tank and Allied Intelligence Volume 3: Tiger 131: From Africa to Europe

The Tiger Tank and Allied Intelligence Volume 3: Tiger 131: From Africa to Europe

The Tiger tank was dramatically more powerful than any other tank when deployed in 1942. How did the Germans preserve its secrets? Why were the Allies taken by surprise? What did they discover?

After 20 years of research on three continents, across 25 battle maps, 31 tables of data, more than 500 photographs and drawings, and previously unidentified first-hand accounts, these volumes reveal what Allied technicians discovered and what the propagandists covered up and distorted. Thus, we can learn more about the Tiger as it really was, rather than the hearsay that history books perpetuate.

This second volume tells the story of Tigers on the Western front from February to April 1943: the Tigers leading the greatest Axis counter-offensive of the Tunisian campaign, through Faid, Sidi Bou Zid, and Sbeitla, on the way to American abandonment of Kasserine Pass; the counter-offensive against the British from Sidi Nsir to Hunts Gap; the “Tiger graveyard,” where seven Tigers were demolished; the American claims to knock out Tigers at El Guettar Pass, where Tigers never fought; how Tigers saved Maknassy Pass, but went unobserved by the Americans; the American claim to knock out a Tiger in between these passes, and the match with Tiger 213; the reasons why Tiger 213 was never reported higher than company echelon; the daring German spoiling attack near Medjez; the failed British counter-attacks against a Tiger at Djebel Djaffa; the strange abandonment of this Tiger without demolition; the British failure to exploit this Tiger; and American acquisition of Tiger 712, its restoration, enshipment to America, and subsequent neglect; the huge British and French offensive across Goubellat Plain, and how Tigers contributed to its defeat; and Tiger 731’s final battles, its demise, its capture without demolition, and the reasons why its capture went unrecorded.

Book Data

Author: Bruce Oliver Newsome
Language: English
ISBN: 9781951171063
Pages: 166
Photos: 131
Maps/tables/charts: 11
Physical: Hardcover, 280x216mm, portrait

Chapters

Introduction
Tiger 131: Day of Triumph
2: Gueriat Ridge: The Second Day
3: Tiger 131 Versus Infantry
4: Tiger 131 Versus Shell Fire
5: Tiger 131 Versus Churchill tanks
6: Churchills on Point 174
7: Tiger 131’s Recovery
8: Tiger 131’s Exploitation
9: The Final Offensive: Tunis and Bizerte
10: The Final Offensive: Hammam-Lif
11: Surveys of Tigers in Tunisia
12: Gab-Gab Gap
13: Technical Assessments of Tigers in Tunisia
14: Doctrinal Assessments
15: Press and Propaganda
16: Tigers in Sicily
17: Southern to Central Italy
18: Northern Italy: The 508th
19: Northern Italy: The 504th
20: The Explosive-Laying Tiger
21: Tiger 131 in Britain: The First Reports
22: Tiger 131 in Britain: Gunnery Trials
23: Tiger 131 in Britain: Automotive Tests
24: Tiger 131 in Britain: Final Influence
25: Normandy: Military Consequences
26: Political Consequences
27: Normandy: The Captured Tigers
28: The Last Fighting Tigers
29: The Last Surviving Tigers