TIGERFIBEL

The Tiger 1 was a complex and expensive machine, prone to break down in places where repair or even retrieval might be impossible. Lt. Col Hans Christern, in charge of training Tiger crews, realised that a manual written by soldiers might be an easier read than the dull booklets authored by the manufacturers.

Lt. Josef von Glatter-Goetz, charged with writing the book, decided to use colloquial speech, rhymes and comic-book illustrations. He named this manual, officially known as D656/27, the Tigerfibel or Tiger Primer.

PFC Gessinger and Non-com officer Wagner drew the illustrations, personifying the tank as "Elvira Tiger", a young lady. The Tigerfibel became known as a souvenir worth collecting. Many copies have therefore survived the war.

An English translation of the book was published in 1997 by Wulf-D Brand, who provided the above details of the book's origins. The newest edition of his translation, faithful to the original, will soon be available. It includes an appendix with facts about enemy tanks, which is missing from this website.

To the modeller, the Tigerfibel provides surprisingly little useful information. Photographs are poorly reproduced and often show damaged tanks. However, there are useful drawings of the ventilation system, radios and a few other items.

THE PAGES

Here is the book. Files average 85k in size. Blank pages are not included. Certain pages with useful technical diagrams are indexed separately.
The English translation of the book is copyright 1997 Wulf-D. Brand. This copyright covers all illustrations. You may download these illustrations for your personal use only.

Cover	1	2	3	4	5	7	8	9	10
11	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32
33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42
43	44	45	47	48	50	51	52	53	54
55	56	57	58	59	60	61	62	63	65
66	67	68	69	70	71	72	73	74	75
76	77	78	79	81	82	83	84	85	86
87	88	89	90	91	92
Sherman chart
T-34 chart
KV-1 chart
Lee chart
Churchill chart

USEFUL TO MODELLERS

Page 23 (size 190k) shows the rear of the ventilation system. It's an accurate diagram that you can use to detail your model. The ventilation system is explained briefly on this page.

Page 49 shows the radio gear as seen from the radio operator's seat. Again, it is highly accurate. The large box underneath the radios is of course the gearbox housing; the radio gear did not touch this, it was suspended from the roof. The boxes labelled "umformer" were stored under the floor behind the radio operator.

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