Just scanned these from a book I got friday - The Tiger Project - Book 2 - Schwere Panzer (Tiger) Abteilung 505
What I found interesting was that the ‘Ritter’ insignia area is free from zimmerit in all shots - was this normal in the field?
Four pics showing
Set 44 - the day the tank was issued
Set 44 - Engine replacement before deployment
Nov 44 - feild maintenance at Bartenstein
Oct 44 - In action
Well for 505 it was … well atleast on some of their tanks. Now you have to remember that only s.Pz.Abt 505 used the charging knight as the unit insignia. On most of the Tiger I’s it was painted on the zimmerit. But on some of the TigerI II’s the zimmerit was cleared to make room for the insignia, I don’t know on how many of the tanks this happened.
Edit #1
Let me quote from Wolfgang Schneider’s “Tigers in combat Vol. 1”
“on the Tiger II it was painted right in the middle of the turret side on a rectangle clear of the zimmerit paste.”
This would surgest that it was so on all Tiger II’s but I only have his word for it.
Edit #2
I have just gone through the Tiger II pics from s.Pz.Abt505 in “Tigers in combat Vol 1” and all of Tiger II’s in these have the insignia painted on the turret side in a rectangle clear of zimmerit. So I would say that it was very common and it probably was like this on all Tiger II’s in 505.
Here is 2 more:
