Happy-looking Waffen-SS Schutz of 5th SS Panzer Division, "Wiking", communicates with the rear by field telephone.  This was probably in the course of the Division's relief of the relief of the Kovel encirclement, March-April, 1944.  The tanks in the photo appear to be PzKpfw V Panther G type.  The lead tank may be a command version - although the usual array of radio aerials is not visible.  Best regards, JR.

'Allo, 'Allo ... "Wiking" on the phone ...

Early model Tiger I deployed in Tunisia, 1942-'43, examined by locals.  Given the difficulty of producing Tiger Is, the difficulty of transporting them, and the difficulty of maintaining them, it is truly difficult to see any rational basis for the deployment of such rare assets in North Africa at the very last stages of the Axis resistance in this theatre.  Of course, there was Hitler ... JR.

Tunisia Tiger.

Column of PzKpfw I tanks pass a formation of German sidecar troops, Poland, September, 1939.  The Panzer I (as had been shown in the Spanish Civil War) was barely proof to machine-gun bullets, and its dual machine-gun armament gave it no effective tank-on-tank capacity.  Nonetheless, the Germans' shortage of more effective tanks forced the Panzer units to press these vehicles (essentially training/demonstration vehicles) into battle in Poland.  Consequently, where they were lucky enough to encounter them in favourable conditions, Polish artillery, cannon-armed light tanks and even (very rare) cannon-armed Polish tankettes inflicted heavy losses on panzer units composed of PzKpfw I.  

The PzKpfw I continued to constitute an important element in the Panzer forces in the course of the 1940 western campaign.  An illustration, as much as anything else, to Germany's unpreparedness for a major war in 1939.  Best regards, JR.