[Bruce worrall]

Thanks folks. Sounds plausible that the Germans did this damage to Blitz after it had been knocked out/abandoned. A demolition charge to the front VVSS assembly sounds most plausible, as I would imagine it would take a lot of force to blow the arms apart and remove the road wheel. It also appears that the fire damage to the rear two road wheels may have also been caused by a German attempt to burn the tank, as there is a gerrycan visible on the rear deck immediately above the fire damage... I can't imagine that the crew would have put it there, as the historical accounts above make it sound like they bailed out quickly. The interesting thing is that the German newsreel shows Blitz's suspension intact, and then shows the tank with the damage described, meaning that the film crew was there long enough to film the after-effects of the attempt to render the tank unrecoverable.