Author: CaptianNemo
The following is a transcribe of part of an original postwar interview with the Chief Technical Engineer[i] Kurt Arnoldt, of the Henschel firm's AFV Research and Experimental Establishment at Haustenbeck[ii]. The interview was conducted by Captain R.A. Harrison of GSI (Tech) 21st Army Group starting on Monday May 7th, through the 8th, 1945. Harrison arrived back at the 21st Army Group HQ on the May 13th. The typed interview copy is dated May 28th and stamped May 29th 1945.
I could have sat down and done it all… but it is 30 pages of material and that’s not counting the appendixes. So, I am transcribing parts of it at a time. Sharp eyed readers will note that it is similar, and different, with the version provided by Henschel designer Dr. Erwin Aders in Walter J. Spielbergers books. Many thanks to MadestCat for his assistance with the German sections, name corrections and searches. And many thanks to Shapeshifter for leading me to the interview to begin with. And lastly, to Vollketten, for his assistence in getting the last part done and to everyone else for listening to me ramble away...
~Nemo.
BIRTH OF THE TIGER I.
The original order to construct a Tiger I was given to the firm Henschel in 1941. At the same time Dr. Ferdinand Porsche was allowed to develop his own idea of what the Tiger should be. Two versions of Tiger were eventually produced and were referred to, in industrial circles, as the Porsche Tiger and the Henschel Tiger.