Apart from the view port, which was built into the structure of the wall, the two sides of the Tiger’s turret interior were fitted out with different equipment.
The left-hand wall had the turret’s circuit board, the notice board with the written guide to sealing the turret for underwater, a gas mask, the sealing plug for the pistol port, and the flare pistol.
Another thing that you should know, is that the turret equipment layout was changed over time. Myself, I consider that it had five different versions. When they introduced the “new” turret, for example, with the different cupola, they moved almost everything around inside the turret. And in late 1943, with the goal of simplifying production, they removed most of the items from the walls and put them in open bins on the base ring.
The photo that I already posted, shows a man in a “mid” turret. Your tank would have version 3 of the internal layout, and he is sitting in version 4. So, the circuit board behind his head is smaller than the one in an “early” Tiger, which is what you have.
This is a big topic and there are books you could read. The Germans drew up a detailed turret storage map, and you can read it in a manual that’s online for free; but it deals mostly with version 4 of the internal storage, which is the one in the photo as I already said.
The best reference for version 3 is a book called “Tiger Tank : a British view” which is the British report on their examination of Tiger 131. They enumerate the equipment items in great detail and they draw the position of all the equipment in the crew room.
And you can also have a look around Tiger 131 itself, if you can play Youtube videos. See :
“Tiger I part V”
David
