Many netizens were impressed by the 2014 war film "Rage", the Tiger tank in the movie is the only No. 131 Tiger tank in the world that can be moved, not a prop car.
However, what many people may not know is that the No. 131 Tiger was unable to start for decades, and it took more than ten years to repair it, and it is not the original Tiger tank.
The British captured the Tiger 131 in April 1943 during World War II, and after a series of tests and evaluations, it was not handed over to the Bovington Museum in the United Kingdom until 1951, when the 131 had been dismantled.
However, the British did not begin to repair the Tiger 131 until June 7, 1990, which means that the tank has been idle for nearly 40 years.
Museum staff removed the gearbox, seats and nearby parts, tracks, wheels, suspension and main reducer in turn.
One of the interesting details was that when the crew dismantled the double-row staggered load wheels that were almost characteristic of German tanks in World War II, they found that there was still a lot of dirt on the inside of the load wheels.
The dirt was not found on the battlefield of World War II, and it was quietly stored for nearly 40 years.
The complex structure of the Tiger made the dismantling and restoration work not begin until the beginning of 1992, when the staff descaled the tank, then painted the tank with anti-rust gray paint, and the rust-prone parts were painted with red anti-oxidation paint, and the interior of the tank was repainted.
The first is to install the suspension and load wheels of the tank, the staff also cleaned up all the parts, removed the rust, installed anti-collision rubber blocks on the shaft arm bracket, and then installed a large number of wheels one by one.
Install the load wheels
The installation of the Tiger track is also not easy, the staff will be the track pins installed, by moving the idler to adjust the tension of the track, the track is loaded back on the tank.
Install the tracks
At this point, the hull of the tank can be moved. Realizing that the turret for the restoration tank was beyond the skill of the staff, the museum dragged the No. 131 Tiger into the open air for a promotional program filmed by the television station.
These publicity increased the visibility of the restoration project, allowing the museum to raise £96,000 (equivalent to about 1.23 million yuan at the time) through related funds in 1998, which the museum used to entrust the British Army Maintenance Base to take over the restoration of the turret.
The British maintenance base dismantled the turret and took the opportunity to observe the situation inside the turret:
The main gun trunnion and shield rust area is large, but only on the surface.
The rifling of the 88 mm main gun has been quite worn, and it is not known whether the Loss of the German guns was large or whether the British army had a large loss during the test.
The Tiger turret seat has an inflatable rubber tube for sealing, and after the staff repaired the valve, they found that the tube itself was good, which means that it could be inflated more than fifty years later!
The internal ventilation fan is easier to repair, and the wiring is re-checked after disassembling and rust removal.
The original seat has been damaged, the upholstery of the chair has been lost, and the maintenance staff has restored it with similar materials to that year.
It should be said that the technology of the British maintenance base is still very strong, and when they rust, repair, restore and repaint the paint, the interior of the turret is renewed.
The interior of the restored turret
The upper part of the picture above is a close-up of the ventilation fan, and it can be seen that some netizens are purely sentimental about whether there is air conditioning in the tank, and all the three defense devices in that year are not available, but the ventilation fan is still there.
The second half was taken from the tank control tower, and the seats were re-produced, allegedly custom-made according to historical descriptions.
Among the many parts installed next, there are more than the original ones.
Many of the parts on the Tiger's ammunition rack were re-produced, and it was obvious that the 88 mm shells could not still be retained, so models were created for the audience's understanding.
The fire extinguishing system in the tank is reproduced, not to mention that the original has been damaged, and the fire extinguishing technology during World War II has obviously lagged behind, and the safety of this Tiger is obviously more important than the restoration of the fire extinguishing system.
The exhaust pipes of the tank should have been damaged during the battle that year and were rebuilt.
On top of that, the Tiger was an early model, using the Maybach HL210 engine, but the museum could not find such an engine that would work properly.
However, after contact, they got a Maybach HL230P30, which was once installed on the late Tiger model, the Panther tank, and the Tiger King tank.
At this point, it seemed that everything was going well, but during the test drive at the end of November 2001, the engine exploded, scorching the left exhaust pipe. Fortunately, no turret was installed during the test, and the damage caused by the explosion was extremely limited.
Fortunately, the British Army Repair Al Qaeda also had some spare parts to repair the engine.
At the same time, the Bovington Museum has conducted a historical examination of the 131 Tiger-style livery.
During the restoration, museum staff painted the Tiger with rust- and anti-oxidation paint, which some expressed concern at the time that it destroyed the tank's original livery.
Test run before the turret is not installed
However, relevant experts also found that the tank was re-painted many times during the restoration process, and some of the painting was even carried out by the British army when testing the tank.
By analyzing the original livery on the tank and combining historical materials, the museum verified that the tank was originally a two-color livery of RAL 7008 (gray green) and RAL8000 (brown and yellow), and finally restored the camouflage used in the desert of North Africa.
The repair after the engine failure lasted until July 2003, when the test finally succeeded.
It is not known why the repair of the engine dragged on for so long, but it may be related to the museum's search for the 131 Tiger diving snorkel.
Some historical photographs show that the 131 Tiger was captured by the British army with a snorkel, and when it was transported to the British for testing, the British even installed the snorkel on the commander's command tower of the tank and carried out wading tests.
Test the photo
Unfortunately, the snorkel could not be found and could not be restored.
In December 2003, the Bovington Museum in the United Kingdom announced that the No. 131 Tiger tank had been repaired and the tank successfully traveled in the museum on its own power.
But the 131 Tiger restoration is not over.
The repaired engine has been problematic, but interestingly, the Bovington Museum has worked with the SdKfz Military Vehicle Foundation to find many drawings and manuals on the Tiger, and the foundation has even obtained an HL230 engine that has not been used at all!
The new engine allowed the No. 131 Tiger to operate perfectly at the Tank Festival in 2006 and beyond.
In addition, the museum referred to historical drawings and customized inertial starters and gearboxes for the Tiger. Eventually, the automatic fire extinguishing system was also dismantled and replaced with a portable fire extinguisher, because the automatic fire extinguishing system could damage the precious engine.
Tank Festival
Pictured above is the No. 131 Tiger, which is shown at the Tank Festival, which travels with the Panzer III, paying attention to the livery.
Over time, there may be more and more such customized parts, and some netizens are worried that the No. 131 Tiger will still be the historical Tiger tank in the future.
This is similar to the philosophical ship of Theseus (the ship of Theseus), that is, when all the wood on the wooden ship is replaced, is the ship still the original ship?
There may be some debate in a philosophical sense, but what could be more exciting for a visitor to the Tank Museum than to see a famous tank in front of your eyes?
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