Over 4500 people attended Tiger Day last weekend to see the world’s only running Tiger I tank in action on the 80th anniversary of its capture.
The highlight of the day was a battle re-enactment of the capture of the German Tiger 131, featuring several WW2 tanks, 80 years after it fell into British hands.
Tiger 131 only runs on Tiger Day in April and September and always attracts huge crowds when it does. Tiger Day Spring was another sell-out, with 4500 people coming from around the world to see the fearsome machine.
Museum Curator David Willey said, “A significant amount of work goes into keeping the Tiger running and it is extremely fragile and liable to faults.
“During the war it took 10 hours of maintenance for every hour the Tiger ran – now it takes the museum staff and engineers an astonishing 200 hours.”
Tiger 131 was designed by the Nazis during World War II and captured in Tunisia in April 1943. It was passed to The Tank Museum in 1951, where it soon became one of the most famous vehicles in the collection. The Museum started the restoration of the Tiger in the 1990s and, since 2012, has starred in its very own Tiger Day event, held twice a year at the Museum.
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