Posted on 09/29/2015 11:58:19 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Mine was built in 1944 by Buick in Flint, Mich., with a 975-cubic inch airplane engine in it. According to my records, it was sold as surplus after World War II to the Yugoslavian military, where it was used in the civil war there in the 1990s.
“Would whoever owns the 1984 Camaro, please move it, or we’re going to have it towed away.” Of course, nobody moved it. With everyone watching, I fired up the tank destroyer and crushed that Camaro. The crowds loved it.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
The StuGs were administratively under the artillery. They were originally intended as armored mobile infantry support guns (Sturm Geschutz; “assault gun”). However they became tank killers when it was discovered they could mount the effective PaK 40 75mm antitank gun on a Mark III chassis. The StuG III was cheap and easy to produce. Guderian wanted them transferred to thePanzer arm but the artillery clique objected, as service in a StuG was the only way an atrillleryman coluld get his Ritterskreuz.
Love my Hellcat in World of Tanks Blitz.
PS; re the above post, the Germans made an administrative destinction between the Sturm Geschutz and the Jagdpanzer (tank hunter). Same concept; use an existing tank chassis to carry a bigger gun. But administratively, the Jagdpanzer IV, Jagdpanther and Jagdtigers were under the panzer arm, not the artillery. That’s why the different labels for the same conceptual weapons system. Just a note on the Wehrmacht interservice rivalries.
I don’t believe an 88 was ever mounted on a Stug. Jagdpanther was the 88-based TD.
Me too. :(
That’s what I was thinking!
BFL
droooool...
Nice but how about those Chrysler tanks?
Great gift idea for any of your liberal friends.
Looks like an ass shot.
How did we win the ground war against the Germans with so technically inferior armor? It is a miracle.
Years back Andy Rooney, in an effort to save money, suggested the army purchase LeBarons in place of tanks.
300 inplace of each tank!
Useful only in a defensive role and then only from an ambush position. The M18 was the best tank destroyer of WWII, but got too late to the fight to make much of a difference. The whole tank destroyer concept died on VE Day, until we invented guided missiles that had a maximum range beyond that of tank main gun. When I was in the Balkans in 1994, I did not see any M18’s, but I saw plenty M36’s. They served for a long time, even though no longer thought to be useful.
No, its a side entry.
1. We had more stuff.
2. We had air supremacy.
German tanks were usually reduced to acting as defensive tank destroyers, because if they moved into the open, they would be taken out by artillery, flanking tank assaults, or tactical air.
It is too bad for our troops that we didn't get Pershing tanks to Europe in 1944.
Yes they were.
Great gift idea for any of your liberal friends.
Right down to the A57 *multibank* engine, five six-cylinder Chrysler 251 cubic inch flathead auto engines mounted on a common crankshaft, with all the interesting challenges that offered in the fuel system, ignition electrical wiring, and long-term maintenance; I hope those pals are mechanically inclined. Initially uncertain as to call it the *inline-radial,* the *cloverleaf* engine, the designation *multibank* eventually caught on. The welded hull of the M4A4 Sherman was stretched to fit the thing inside, Though the US restricted the use of the M4A4 to stateside training, the Rube Goldberg engines were indeed durable, and as survivable as any gasoline-engine tank engine could be. Chrysler claimed the A57 could still move the tank it was fitted in even if 12 out of its 30 cylinders were knocked out
Among the other users of the circa 7500 built: The British Royal Marines Armoured Support Group, which fitted the things with indirect fire sights and used them as beachhead indirect fire artillery at the Normandy landings. The British became the primary users of the M4A4/ Sherman V, which may constitute *giving them as a gift to your liberal friends.*
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