Tiger 131 is perhaps the most well known vehicle in the tank museum's collection
it was the first Tiger to be captured intact and the only one that still runs
it's been the subject of books articles and documentaries thanks to its
appearance in the 2014 movie fury it's now arguably one of the most famous
museum artifacts in the world you can even play it in a videogame but if you
thought there was nothing new to add to the story of Tiger 131 you'd be wrong
this is because new information has come to light which has caused us to
reevaluate the evidence I'm Kate Adie former BBC chief news correspondent and
in this video we'll explain how an ordinary visitor changed what we know
about the capture of Tiger 131
I just have the utmost respect for him than these four colleagues I just I just
don't know how they could've done it it's well-known that British forces disabled
the infamous tank in Tunisia in 1943 it was the first example of the fearsome
new German machine to be taken in tact by the Western Allies a lucky shot had
wedged itself in the turret mechanism causing it to Jam the crew was said to
have panicked and fled leaving the largely undamaged tank to be recovered
from the battlefield Tiger 131 was recovered and shipped to the UK and
underwent extensive evaluation led by lieutenant Peter Gudgin at the school
of tank technology his work went on to inform future tank design Gudgin had
himself been recently fighting Tigers in Tunisia as a troop leader with 48 royal
Tank Regiment on the 21st of April 1943 he was knocked out of his Churchill tank
whilst taking part in an attack on jebel Jaffa an 88 millimeter shell probably
fired by a tiger penetrated the frontal armor of his Churchill but he was able
to bail out with only minor injuries the regimental war Diary is held in the tank
museum archive it reports that later inspection of the battlefield revealed
that a total of five enemy tanks were disabled in the fighting 3 of which it
states were not damaged at all seriously among these was a Panzerkampfwagen
Mk 6 now generally referred to as a Tiger 1
throughout the rest of his life Gudgin believed that the Tiger tank abandoned
on his objective at jebel Jaffa was Tiger 131 he was certain that the tank
that knocked him out was the same tank that he spent the rest of his war
evaluating we now believe that he was mistaken Peter Gudgin's account gained
widespread circulation during the 1980s through his published work it had been
adopted as fact by the Tank Museum until a retired civil servant made his first
visit the museum there on Dale Oscroft and I
come from sunny Nashville in Nottinghamshire the first visited the
Tank Museum in 2012 my wife and I were on holiday and decided to pay a visit
coming face-to-face with Tiger 131 he was struck by the similarity of its
story with something he'd been told years before by his father and the
father was John Oscroft they served with the 2nd Battalion Sherwood Foresters
in the Second World War one story that remained with Dale was his father's first
encounter with a Tiger tank John had told him that this was the first Tiger
to be captured intact my father didn't say very much about his
war service he kept his war experiences to himself so as a teenager
I've quite often prompt him to talk about it
the hilltop that the Foresters had been told to attack had been attacked the
previous day by another battalion so my father was naturally a little
apprehensive about the coming attack particularly as it would be his first
time in action but he was reassured by the news that the attack would be
supported by tanks but the tanks failed to arrive and the Foresters had to
attack without them John described it as a terrible baptism of fire as soon as
the Foresters came into view of the Germans they were shelled mortared and machined gunned
and despite suffering very serious
casualties they managed to take the top of the hill the foresters dug in to
await the inevitable counter-attack when it came the German infantry was
supported by a number of tanks including Tiger tanks as my father carried his
platoons PIAT he was ordered forward to engage the nearest one after creeping
forward as close as he dared to the thing he took aim and fired only to
see his bomb strike a glancing blow on the turret and bounce off but fortunately for
him at that point the Tiger was hit by what my father was
later told was a French 75 that was captured from the Germans by the Foresters and
the crew bailed out and it later transpired that the turret had been
jammed the Germans had withdrawn but the position was still contested meanwhile a
Tiger tank sat just yards away from their foxholes my father and the
Foresters were on the position for the next few days during which time
he saw a lot of excited technical experts crawling all over the thing
clearly amazed at the size and power of it Dale's father had died in 1982 but
the similarity between the story of Tiger 131 and the story he'd been told
as a teenager inspired him to find out more
Dale's research identified that the action with the Sherwood Foresters took
place near Gueriat el Atach on the 24th of April 1943 he discovered that
the military knew the hill where the fighting took place as Point 174, Point 174 was
about 10 miles away from Jebel Jaffa this was the location of the 48th Royal
Tank Regiment action in which Peter Gudgin participated three days earlier
on the 21st of April 1943
Dale also tracked down this footage in the Imperial War Museum's online film
catalogue a piece of film shot by the War Office film unit on the 26th of April in
1943 the final sequence shown here is described as a Tiger tank captured by
the 2nd battalion Sherwood Foresters we know that this tank is Tiger 131 the
damage to the loaders hatch the missing smoke discharger and the step are all
consistent with the other photographs and descriptions of the tank on its
recovery one of the really interesting things
that I discovered I found two press cuttings from the 11th of May 1943 one
was in the daily sketch and another one was in an Aberdeen
paper Dale tracked down this original photograph in the archives of the
Imperial War Museum the caption reads after a sharp engagement by the second
Battalion Sherwood Foresters in the advanced towards Tunis the Forrest has
gained an important rich after gaining this height our men held a strong
counter attack by the enemy which was supported by tanks included in the
attack was one of the German Tiger Mk 6 tanks which advanced within five yards
of our lines before being disabled the crews surrendering to our troops during
the original attack musician by our troops a German anti-tank gun was
captured and it was with this gun that the Mk 6 was knocked out this
remarkable story backed up by evidence showing the Foresters were credited with
the capture at the time is the stuff of movies so how was it that this much more
thrilling story was lost and replaced by a much more mundane account apart from
the father's memory that it happened it didn't bear any great significance for
this for the Foresters the whole battle for Point 174 only occupies three lines of
the war diary what of the evidence in The Tank Museum archive the earliest
documentary evidence here tells us that the tank was recovered on the 7th of May
1943 by Major Douglas Lidderdale of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical
Engineers Lidderdale was responsible for getting Tiger 131 from the
battlefield in Tunisia via Horse Guards Parade to The School of Tank Technology
in Surrey where Gudgin would later complete his technical evaluation of it
back in 1943 Lidderdale clearly and carefully recorded in his papers the
exact location from where the tank was recovered Point 174 and yet Peter gudgeon a
frequent visitor to the museum archive in his lifetime still believed Tiger 131
was the tank that nearly killed him why what may surprise many is that Lidderdale and gudgeon
knew each other both in wartime at the School of Tank Technology
and in peacetime when they exchanged letters on the subject of Tiger 131 on
recovering Tiger 131 from the battlefield Lidderdale had been told
that 142 Royal Armoured Corps of 25 Tank Brigade had knocked it out but
Gudgin was adamant that it was his unit 48 Royal Tank Regiment of 21 Tank
Brigade Lidderdale's willingness to accept this is summarised in a letter to
the museum curator in 1987 where he wrote that he was there at the time I
only later intriguingly they didn't discuss the
matter of location in their correspondence we suspect they didn't
realise they were talking about events at two different locations as a result
they couldn't challenge each other they didn't disagree but further examination
of the movements of 48 Royal Tank Regiment in April 1943 revealed
something intriguing three days after the attack on Jebel Jaffa B squadron of
48 RTR was detached from 21 Tank Brigade and sent north we understand that Peter
Gudgin may have been among them as an infantry liaison officer the squadron
was allocated to 142 Royal Armoured Corps under command of 25 Tank Brigade
who'd been assigned to support the show at Foresters for their assault on Point 174
this was the unit Lidderdale had been told were responsible for knocking out
Tiger 131 as John Oscroft recalled the tank support arrived late and the
infantry took the hill without them but nine tanks arrived just in time to
support them during the German counter-attack taking up positions on a
ridge behind the Foresters positions we know that B squadron 48 RTR engaged the
enemy tanks attacking Point 174 Captain Rance saw an aerial mast moving along the
ridge of 174 he put his gun on to it and inform the rest of nine troop the tracks
appeared and the tank was identified as a Mk 6 he told his troops to hold
their fire as there was one of our infantry carriers just below the Mk 6
and he thought an under might hit the carrier this unfortunately happened but
the Mk 6 disappeared he came up again at a different position and was hit
the crew bailed out and was shot by our infantry
by the time the 48 RTR withdrew from Point 174 they were able to record in their
war diary that five enemy tanks had been destroyed a Panzerkampfwagen Mk 6
a Tiger was damaged this must have been Tiger 131 for the first time over 75
years on we now have an accurate picture of how Tiger 131 fell into British hands
the Foresters taking part in their first battle assaulted and took Point 174
without support they dug in and under heavy shell and machine-gun fire they
beat off a number of infantry counter-attacks then German armour
appeared and Tiger 131 made its way up the slope and into the Foresters
positions meanwhile nine Churchill tanks from 48 Royal Tank Regiment and 142
Royal Armoured Corps had just arrived on a ridge 500 yards to the rear as Tiger
131 came into view the Foresters fired at Tiger 131 with everything they
have even small arms John Oscroft was ordered forward with a PIAT but some
quick thinking foresters turned around a 75 millimetre anti-tank gun left behind
by the Germans the Churchill tanks opened fire
mistakenly hitting an infantry carrier now alerted to the presence of
enemy armour Tiger 131 reversed beneath the ridge and the maneuvered up into a new
firing position it fired up and destroyed one of the Churchill tanks
John Oscroft got as close as he dared to Tiger 131 and fired his PIAT Hood could
only watch as the round struck a glancing blow the Churchill tanks opened fire and at
the same time the Foresters fired their captured anti-tank gun at Tiger 131 at
close range the tank was stopped and within moments that crew emerged from
inside although the sources disagree as to whether they surrendered or shot down
as they fled it's an enormously tantalising prospect that Tiger 131
the first Tiger captured intact was disabled by infantry using a captured
anti-tank gun rather than by a Churchill tank measurement of the scars left by
the disabling round suggester 6 pounder as fired by a Churchill tank but the
angle of the hit and its accuracy equally suggests that it could have come
from closer or from a lower angle but we have to accept that the only trained
anti-tank Gunners present that day were sat in Churchill tanks I've learned that
old soldiers recollections can't necessarily be taken at face value and
that's an approach I had with my father's story I didn't assume that it
was correct because I know from reading about these things that actually being in
action obviously affects people's perception of the events that take place
around them Peter Gudgin who died in 2011 may have been incorrect in his
belief that he faced and was knocked out of his tank by Tiger 131 at Jebel Jaffa
but we have to remember that he never claimed to have knocked out Tiger 131
just to have been there and perhaps he was
the Foresters held on to Point 174 and they remained on the ridge for several days
under heavy fire in doing so they sustained heavy
casualties but their dogged defense enabled the recovery of Tiger 131 by
Major Lidderdale and the importance of that recovery and the part it played in
the education of Allied tank crews and designers in the next few months cannot
be understated nor can its importance to our ability to appreciate the vehicle
and its history if my father were here today to see Tiger 131 he would be
amazed to know that it is now the most famous tank in the world and I think he
would be proud to tell people with part that the Foresters played in its capture
but at the same time I think we would want people to understand its proper
historical context he would want people to know and to understand that although
we can appreciate it as a fine piece of engineering it was in fact a killing
machine invented by the most heinous regime and I think we should always
remember that