Why the hole in the Tiger/Panther track guided horm

[Steen Vøler]

Hi all


We discussed sunday at our panzer day out here in Denmark, why there are holes in the track guide horn/teeth on ie. Tiger and Panther.

Areas like costsavings = less steel or more realibility to avoid broken guide horns/teeth was discussed but we really did not conclude

Any german track experts out there

[mark lawson]

On the Bovington Panther there are a few spare links with solid guide horns, certainly with StugIII solid guide horns were used on later models owing to guide horn breakage

[Mark Heaps]

Maybe they were a designed in weak-point because of the "Schachtellaufwerk". In high-stress situations, they would flex or break before damaging the roadwheels or hubs. Replacing a few tracklinks with broken guide-horns would have been quicker and easier than getting to an inner wheel-station.