King Tiger and Fallschirmjager in the Ardennes

Well, at least I have proof somewhere that what I did "might" be correct!

Here is a photo of 204 and another Osprey artwork;





Oddly enough, this Osprey book, Ardennes 1944: Peiper and Skorzeny depicts 222 with blue/yellow numbers. The other Osprey book depicts 222 as red and white.
And I'm not so sure that this artwork matches the above photo. Plus, compare the bow plate of this artwork with the previous artwork I posted, not the same at all.
Little wonder why there is so much confusion on the issue.

Man- that one is Blue and yellow. The decals I have are red and white!

Here is Osprey's take on 204;



I've got some photos of 204 too, but right now I'm going to run outside to photograph the lunar eclipse.

Thanks TMN!

204 is what I am going to do (easy- since I don't need to by any extra decals) Anything you have is fantastic!!

Well I'll be dipped in ... so it does. One of the color plates in Tigers in Combat II shows 223 in solid yellow numbers. If I had bothered to read the next paragraph after the blurb on color-coded company numbers on page 7, I would have known that. There were 11 tanks taken over from Bat. 509 with yellow numbers. The 34 KT's delivered in late fall '44 would have the color-coded company numbers. Sorry for the confusion. Maybe next time I'll read just a little bit further.
If you decide to go with 204, I have some photos and 2 different color plates you can choose from.

Peridexion have already given you alot of help. But regarding the color of the turret numbers for 222, they were solid yellow. 222 was one of the 11 tanks transfered from s.PzAbt. 509 in early Decamber 1944. These had yellow turret numbers hand painted on in a hurry.
The comander of 222 was Obersharführer Sowa, who was a very known comander.
My reference is Tigers in combat Vol. II page 25. which Peridexion have already mentioned.
How ever I can not confirm or deny this with any of my 14 other Tiger books, and I always like to have more than one source for a piece of reference. Tigers in combat how ever is regarded as one of the best reference books on Tiger tanks so I consider this information to be very close to the actual truth.

Well, they probably cound't keep up on foot because they all seem to be a bunch of 2-pack-a-day men. Let this be a lesson to all the young kids.

I am also inclined to believe the red with white outlines. I have 2 sets of Tamiya King Tiger decals- one from their original Hentschel and one from the "Ardennes Boxing". The original has 222 in blue with gold. The new one has 204 in red, with white. It also has 003, but off hand I cannot remember the color (I believe it was red as well).

since you guys are so keen on tigers and "Teds" Im gonna endeavour to buy myself a scanner and post in some good shots of a captured tiger and a smashed tiger during the Italian campaign!

Damn lazy Fallschirmjagers all they ever did was ride on tanks and smoke, geez...

Paraphrasing Osprey here; By December of '44, the once fearsome 3rd Fallschirmjager Division, decimated in the summer battles, was now reconstructed using surplus Luftwaffe ground personnel, reject-grade recruits and lead by inexperienced Luftwaffe staff officers. After the embarrassing all-day delay of the start of Peiper's advance by a US infantry platoon holding-up a entire paratroop regiment, Peiper commandeered a battalion of paratroopers to reinforce his own men. Since the paratroopers could not keep up with Peiper's columns on foot, he had them ride on the backs of the Kingtigers. They saw very little combat during the opening phase of the battle.
So...yes, they rode on several KTs, it's just that 222 was a camera hog, at least it seems that way. I have photos of many of 501's TKs, including 204, but I don't see any of 234 yet.
I have color plates of 104, 212, 223, 313, 003, 332, and 204. I now notice that Osprey depicts 204 and 003 with tactical numbers in blue outlined in yellow.....Hum... And this Osprey title is by Jentz and Doyle, and they are supposed to know this stuff, though the artist is Peter Sarson. Maybe he slipped one by the editors? The previous statements about the color-coded numbers for each company came from Tigers in Combat, volume II, page 7. For what this book costs, it had better be correct! So it seems there is some disagreement as to the number colors...(like I haven't seen this problem before!) Personally, I am inclined to believe the Tigers in Combat version. Why would the author simply make up this color scheme, (which was not uncommon with other units), if he didn't have any evidence? Also, Osprey's artist depicts 2 KTs of second company, 222 with red/white numbers and 204 with blue/yellow numbers. My intuition tells me that having two different color schemes in the same company is rather unlikely. Plus, Tigers in Combat is a 421 page book, Osprey's is 48 pages......Make your own call.

Well, the 222 they included is blue with yellow, so it must be a different tank. my options for a tank from sSS PzAbt. 501 are either 204 (with the G- new Tamiya boxing) or 234 (no G). I guess my next question is did more than one tank carry Fallschirmjager's or just 222?

Thanks!

OK, the letter "G" is the "March Route" meaning this vehicle had to use route "G" during the offensive. This was an easy way to help direct traffic on the mess of roads used during the B-B. Can't say that I've seen any other letters like this on other vehicles used for this offensive, but then again I haven't been looking for them either.
As for the numbers, red outlined with white is correct for the Tiger IIs of the second company of sSS PzAbt. 501. The third company used blue outlined with yellow, the first company black with white outlines. Battalion command tanks were "large" red numbers with white outline.

As if reading my posts, I saw this from Jaguar on Greatmodels' New list!!

Thanks!! Hope you didn't ruin the book. By the way, whats with that G on the front? Never seen that before. Tamiya gives you the 222 decals in the regular King Tiger kit, but no G. The other oddity is the color of the 222. The Tamiya decal is blue w/ yellow outline. That pic and a model I saw of 222 show it with a red 222. Is that due to an interpretation of BW pics or is one just wrong?

Osprey's Battle of the Ardennes 1944 (1) has a 2 page center-fold color plate based on Tiger 222. I would try to scan it, but I don't think it would look very good due to the center-line seam between the 2 pages and I don't really want to trash the binding trying to flatten it out, sorry.

Well, hell with it, I did it anyway!

I will have to look for that, thanks Tigerman

I believe in the World at War series, episode "Pincers", they have a quick blurb of the Tiger with the paras in Peridexion's photo riding down the road.

these are great-thanks. I saved the first three. I will check back later

This photo is from; Battle of the Bulge Then and Now, part of the After the Battle series of books. I'll get some more up in a few minutes.
Here is the classic shot of Tiger 222, probably one of the best known tank photos of all time!



And here is another shot of "Smokem if you got em"



Note the guy on the left armed with a Sten SMG.

Is that from a book, by the way??

I am going to be building my first diorama and views of the tank, the Fallschirmjagers and the background are all useful. Thanks. The really noce thing is I have the Tamiya Ardennes tank with the motorcycle in it, so that pic you just posted is fantastic.

Jason, I'm not sure what you want to look at, close-ups of the Fallschirmjagers, the Tiger or both with some background in the image? Here is a close-up of the Paras having a smoke on the back of the well-known Tiger 222;

Thanks!! I will grab them tonight.

I have some of them. I need to scan them in and I'll post them here in a little while.

I believe that there was a "Rally the Troops to Victory" movie made by the Germans of a King Tiger with members of the 3rd (I believe) Fallschirmjagers riding the tank to the front. I have seen only stills from it.

Interesting you said it was propaganda....did any of the fallschirmjager actually meet up with any armour during the Bulge? I believe their operations (in german uniform) were all doomed to failure in that operation.