I want to build the King Tiger of Joachim Peiper,but finding references is becoming confusing! Does anyone know the actual # and camo pattern? I thought it was #008 red with white outline,but i am finding allot of conflicting pics and stuff!
Any help is appreciated!
Dan
I dot think he commanded one particular tank. The Heavy Tank Battalion was added on to his Kampfgruppe, but were more of hindrance than help in his view. They were slow, ate lots of gas, and could not maneuver well on the restricted roadways of the Ardennes villages. He usually kept them at the tail end of his column.
He rode in a sdkfz 251 during the Battle of the Bulge…in fact, as far as I can tell he never commanded from a tank…his roots were in the halftrack battalion of a panzergrenadier regiment of LAH…
I am pretty sure Manstein is right, at least as far as the Buldge. If i remeber right, accodrding to his own account, he did command a Panther in Russia, i will have to dig the book out.
The 501. SS was an asset of the 1. SS Pz Corps and only attached to the 1. SS Pz Div.
See this is what search overload and assumption does to ya [:S] ! I saw the Joachim Peiper Forces of Valor King Tiger and remembered reading somewhere where he hated the tiger and preferred the panther. I just took it from there! SO, now I need to come up with a different ideal for this awesome Alpine Miniatures figure [whstl]
Guess it’s time to shop for a half track!
Thanks for the quick replies!
Dan
Well there are a few 251 kits out there. What you will need is an Ausf D model, i would recomend either the Dragon or AFV kit, personally i have gone for the later. Thats for a standard infantry carrier. Peiper would most likely have had a command vehicle, a 251/3 Ausf D. AFV do this, but you will need to try to find pics to get accurate markings.
There are a couple of pics of Peiper in a 4 wheeled vehicle, can’t recall if its a Kubelwagen or Schimmwagen
Bish, I recall seeing a photo of what you are talking about. It was with a Schmmwagen and the author of the book said that it was not Pieper, but a mistaken identity.
I take it you mean the one with the guy looking at the road sign. Yes, i think there is some issue as to if that is peiper, and it certainly doesn’t look like him. All my books are just piled up at the moment and i can’t find any of mine on Peiper or the BoB. But i recon you could be safe putting peiper in either a command 251, command Panther or a wheeled vehicle, its just getting the right markings.