king and country tiger 1 wittmann (4 Viewers)

[Byrden]

If we can we tell if they definitely are the 600mm idlers on 007 and if we can determine that small idlers were used only with the steel wheels, then we could conclude that 007 had steel wheels.

Terry

Thank you Terry, that was my point.

Doyle and Jentz do state that the small idlers were introduced to the production line after the steel wheels.

Here is a large idler;

And here is a small idler. The central hub is the same size. The outer rim has been shrunk inwards:

Here is our one and only photo of 007. Fortunately the idlers are visible.

David

 

[Phantom Warrior]

The alternative and convincing proof would be if the small idler wheels could not be used with the rubber wheels at all making it conclusive that 007 had steel wheels.

Terry

 

[Blowtorch]

and we can assume they found this data in the German archives.

No you can't. I applaud Jentz & Doyle for raising the bar to new heights, but unless work is footnoted to lead another researcher to a box in an archive or some other primary source, then a '?' will always hang over the work.

Sources must be revealed.
A theory must be fully explained.
If another researcher can not fully repeat a work, then it is no better than cold fusion.

That's the scientific process.

 

[fmethorst]

This investigation has certainly been interesting.

For me there remains a disonance due to the lack of agreement between the various information sources.

I went back to "Tigers in Combat II" and for the date January 3, 1944 the following entry leaves a "?" on the answer for me.

"Again a pick-up team for 10 TIGERS (2 command tanks) is sent to BURG; arrival 09.01.44 in MONS (Belgium). Due to a damaged railway car, one TIGER has to left behind near the Belgian border and arrives several days later."

These "2 command tanks" would have had to have been rubber rimmed if the February date for steel wheeled introduction is accurate. Since we have a picture of 009 with steel wheels we can extrapolate that the other two tanks in the command section were the rubber rimmed Panzerbefehlwagen Tiger Ausf.Es which, according to the source noted above, arrived in January.