Walter Krüger and 'Tiki'

For today's update we have a rather famous Tiger I by the name of 'Tiki', from 8./SS-Pz.Rgt. 2 (8th Company, SS-Panzer Regiment 2). The image was taken by SS-Kriegsberichter Friedrich Zschäckel in Russia on 20th April 1943.

SS-Obergruppenführer Walter Krüger can be seen here giving a speech to the troops from the front of Tiki, shortly before he presented a series of awards to men of the Das Reich division for their actions in the Third Battle of Kharkov. The officer in the stahlhelm to the left of Tiki is believed to be Otto Kumm, who was promoted to SS-Standartenführer later that day.

Before

After

Tiki sports a scheme of Dunkelgrau (RAL 7021) over sprayed by Dunkelgelb (RAL 7028), as per the order of 18th February 1943. The Sd.Kfz. 7/1 in the background has not received the over spay, as the paint reserves that were on hand were prioritised for use on the panzers.

Update: s.SS-Pz-Abt. 102 corrected to 8./SS-Pz.Rgt. 2, cheers Werner!

The original photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license.

Attribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101III-Zschaeckel-197-09 / Zschäckel, Friedrich / CC-BY-SA