Dear Tank Community,

we normally don’t comment on tank videos of other YouTubers except to praise especially good content. This time we have to write a critical comment, though, since Mark Feltons latest video is close to slander.

In his video „King Tiger Still in German Lake?“, Mark Felton states that the Panzermuseum „even recently sold a Tiger I to a private collector and replaced it with a 1:1 plastic model.“ (https://youtu.be/A3u-jQ7AH1A?t=448)

This is completely untrue. And not only that, it is a grave insult for any serious museum. The accusation that a museum simply sells originals is one of the harshest you can make.

Interstingly enough, Mark Felton not only could have known better, he should have known better.

Why?

First of all, we explained several times publicly that the Tiger was a loan and that the owner took the Tiger back after the agreed time was over, because he planned to also  restore engine and transmission so that the vehicle would drive again. Of course we cannot expect Mark Felton to follow all our statements on Social Media and in videos, but: We explain this in our video about the Plastiger replica. (https://youtu.be/O1S2-O8tI54?t=120). Since Mark Felton knows the name of the replica and our name, a simple google search would have lead him there. Now, we also cannot assume that he can understand spoken German, but it is 2022: With his large fanbase it would have been a matter of minutes to let somebody from his community translate the core facts for him.

Secondly, this does not even take into account that the forums and the youtube comment sections are FILLED with people who know about the fate of the Frankentiger and speak openly and correctly about it. He could have either searched the forums or simply asked around. The comments under the new King Tiger Video back this up: Several users commented on Felton‘s false statements regarding the loss of the Frankentiger.

Thirdly, he did not even have to actually do this. He just should have revisited and/or remembered his OWN work: In his 2019 video „Frankentiger – The Tiger Back From The Dead“ he correctly states that the collector himself sold the Tiger. He has got the reason wrong here, though. (https://youtu.be/3ttW7gC8AkU?t=195)

To make matters more interesting, we never were contacted by Felton. The Panzermuseum is very easy to contact and we would have been happy to provide the needed information – as our video proves, it IS public knowledge. But Felton did not do this either.

He simply  made stuff up and uploaded it. 200.000 people now saw the video and each and every person who did NOT know the background of the Frankentiger story now thinks we’re selling off priceless historical objects without hesitation.

Apparently, Felton just wants a maximum degree of sensation and emotion in his video, regardless of facts and with minimum workload – even if he contradicts himself directly.

This is consistent with another baseless, but cool sounding accusation in this video, this time aimed at the German government.  Felton claims that „the government could well use [the involvement of the Bundeswehr in the tank’s recovery] as a reason to claim the tank“. (https://youtu.be/A3u-jQ7AH1A?t=377)

This, again, is untrue.

All Wehrmacht materiel in the ground automatically belongs to the state by law – regardless who owns the land. The BImA is just the agency which books a new found item first, simply by functional responsibility. After that initial step, a discussion based on the kind of the object, its historical value and its condition will be lead between military museums, the MoD, the ZMSBw and other qualified parties, in which the fate of the newly found object will be decided, that is to say:  In which collection it will be placed. This is indeed the process in which MANY an object in our collection found the way into our museum halls.

All this is easy to come by knowledge if one is willing to put a small amount of time and work into the matter. Felton, though, sees it fit to speculate about sinister government schemes to bullishly „claim“ recovered objects from innocent private persons after they have dug out a tank.

We can’t and won’t judge why Mark Felton decided to make these statements that are so obviously wrong and damaging to other parties.

It was just important to us to clarify that we never sold the Tiger and we never would have.

We also find it important to clarify that the MoD and the Bundeswehr are our trusted partners in collecting and not a gang of tank stealing scammers.

Therefore we won’t discuss this topic any further publicly. Mark Felton said his part, we said our part and that’s that.

Best wishes from the German Tank Museum

Ralf Raths