Tiger Emblems Abt 503

[Allan Shannon]

Hi Colleagues

When I finish my tiger this year I will be doing ABT 503 paint schemed, their emblem was of a tigers head painted yellow and black, but to date I have seen no images of this being used. If you have any links or information about his please let me know.

Many Thanks Allan

[mark lawson]

Which theatre do you want tp place s.Pz.Abt.503 Eastern Front or Normandy which version of Tiger have you got, early, mid or late

[Allan Shannon]

Mark

It will be Normandy and it is a late tiger 1.

Cheers Allan

[mark lawson]

s.Pz.Abt.503 only has a limited number of pictures from Normandy of Tiger I and I dont recall seeing a divisional marking on them , later in the war the Germans stopped placing divisional markings on their tanks in order to stop them doing identified by the enemy having said that the other 2 Tiger Abteilung displayed markings on their Tiger, when I get home from work this evening I will have a look

[Allan Shannon]

Thanks for doing this Mark. Greatly appreciated.

Allan

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

Correct. They were painted over already at Kursk.

[mark lawson]

Throughout the history of s.Pz.Abt.503 I can find little evidence of the Abteilung using its divisional emblem painted on their Tigers in the early days before Kursk some Tigers had the divisional emblem.

No Tiger from s.Pz.Abt.503 during the Normandy campaign had a divisional emblem on their Tigers, the only markings were the Balkan cross and turret numbers painted black with a white outline.

[Allan Shannon]

Mark

Sorry to be a pest but are they the only two markings they would have had on the vehicles?

Allan

[mark lawson]

Yes x3 turret numbers one one set on each side plus the stowage bin and x2 balkan crosses one on each side.

By displaying no Abteilung markings the enemy would struggle to identify individual units and also work our how many Tiger companies are in the area, it would seem that s.Pz.Abt.503 had abandoned displaying its unit markings before Kursk in 1943 at the point when the base colour change of dunkelgelb came in.

[Allan Shannon]

Mark

This information is invaluable to me, and possibly to others on this forum.

Greatly appreciated.

Allan

[mark lawson]

No Problem Alla, glad to help.