The Tigerfibel Manual - D656/27

Tiger crewman went through many hours of both classroom and hands-on training at the panzer school located in Paderborn, Germany. While serving as the head of training for the Inspectorate of Panzer Troops, Oberstleutnant Hans Christern, a Knight's Cross holder, decided it would be beneficial to develop a special training booklet for the Tiger students. This booklet was assigned the official publication number of D656/27 and given the name Tigerfibel, which means Tiger primer. The task of writing the new training manual was assigned to Leutnant Josef von Glatter-Goetz. Glatter-Goetz conceived the idea of writing a manual that would get the attention of the young men training on the Tiger. To do this he used humorous and risque cartoon illustrations along with slang the combat troops would identify with. Hans Christern Hans Christern The illustrations in the Tigerfibel were done by Obergrenadier Gessinger and Unteroffizier Wagner. These included allegorical sketches, technical drawings, photographs and cartoons. The cartoons often involved an attractive blonde woman named Elvira who frequently found herself without any clothes or in a romantic setting with cartoon Tiger crewman. The Tigerfibel also contained many short, memorable verses and limericks referred to as “morals” or “mottos”. All of this was done to capture and hold the attention of the fledgling trainees.