However, the Germans could be attempting an intelligence game with the Allies with the pontoon mounts on the Tiger that could backfire. The Allied intelligence may not believe a pontoon float for the Tiger I would work in practical terms and the Allies have not spotted any. therefore the backfire is the Allies are motivated to sink the barges on the Seine because it is the only way the Tigers can cross the river. Thus the Tiger I crews may realise that the pontoon idea is a backfire and this explains the Tiger crew playing with the pontoon mounts with cardboard.webmill wrote:Therefore, I would put forward the possibility that these pontoon mounts on the Tigers in France 1944 were there in experiment on possiblities of adapting a large Tiger tank pontoon that enable a small barge work for the the Tiger I. A smaller barge that is more easily hidden from Allied Air Attacks, and needs help,from a Tiger self pontoon mount due to the heavy 55 ton weight of the Tiger?
However, if my idea of combining a Tiger I self pontoon with a small barge was not it, as it was not it with the idea of combining with the pontoon bridge sections and the Tiger self pontoon; then the pontoon mounts on the Tiger were there before the Allied invasion to show the Allied Tactical Air Command that allied air attacks on the Barges,with the Allied planes sinking barges before these were needed in anticipation (of the important French or European rivers to be crossed by the Tigers) would not be successful in stopping the Tiger mobility in the expected battles to come,as part of intelligence game with the Allies by the Germans
Webmill