King Tiger #008 "Peiper" personal tank?

dragon53 · Post by **dragon53** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 4:59 pm

It's been discussed on SSHQ a number of times that the King Tiger-Henschel #008 has been claimed by FOV and Hobby Master to have been the personal tank of Jochen Peiper during the Battle of the Bulge. No one on SSHQ agrees with FOV and Hobby Master. My own Googling found that #008 was probably commanded by SS-Untersturmfuhrer Eduard Kalinowsky during the Battle of the Bulge.
Now I'm curious as to why both FOV and Hobby Master would think #008 was Peiper's personal tank--other than for increasing sales. Do any of you tank experts have any idea what reference sources the two model companies got their info from?

hworth18 · Post by **hworth18** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:53 am

IIRC, #008 was a command Tiger and since Peiper was the commander of the brigade, it would make sense that he would be associated with it. Peiper didn't like the King Tiger and relgated them to the rear of his column because they were too slow and used too much gas.
I think I read somewhere that Peiper actually preferred a 251 halftrack for the speed and openess so he could see eveything that was going on and used a Panther in some combat situations.

dragon53 · Post by **dragon53** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:42 am

HWORTH18:

Thanks. That may explain how FOV and Hobby Master, intentionally or unintentionally, state #008 was Peiper's personal tank. If I remember correctly, Kalinowsky was deputy commaner or some other command position, which would support that #008 was really his tank.