Mittelstollen / ice-cleats

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When Jean-Charles Breucque showed me pictures of his rare ice-cleat, I asked if we could do a webpage on it and here it is:

Walther J. Spielberger called these "Gleiskettengreifer". In English they are called Grousers or Ice-Cleats, but there seem to be more different names for these thingies.
Obviously, they are kept in position by a spring and pin construction, which allowed easy placement or removal.

 

Here is a German language part from the manual "D659/51 Panzerfahrer im Winter" (Please note this is not Tiger specific):

Fahren mit Gleitschutzmitteln
Bringe an jeden 5. bis 7. Kettenglied bei Schnee- und Eisglätte Stollen an, bei hohem und weichem Schnee Schneegreifer.
Nimm auf fester eis- und schneefreier Fahrbahn Stollen und vor allem Schneegreifer ab.
Laß, mit Rücksicht auf die auf den Leiträdern sich bildenden Eiskränze, die Kettenspannung nach.
Fahre mit Stollen und Schneegreifern auf fester Fahrbahn nicht schneller als 15 km/h, da sonst Laufwerkteile und stoßdämpfer schwer beschädigt werden.

The above should translate to something like:
Driving with anti-slip means
Mount studs (Ice Cleats?) on every 5th or 7th track link when there is snow or ice, with high and weak snow, mount snow hooks.
On normal snow and ice free roads, studs and especially snow hooks must be dismounted.
Because of ice build up, track tension should be kept low.
When driving on normal roads with mounted studs or snow hooks, the speed must be 15km/h max to prevent damage to undercarriage parts and shock absorbers.

 

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Jean-Charles also provided these drawings, which he found in the French archives.
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This one is from a half track