That's on the sleds they pull with the reindeer....
[Sorry- couldn't resist!]
Posted on 12/28/2015 10:27:21 AM PST by C19fan
The terms of the Versailles Treaty that ended World War I prohibited Germany from joining Great Britain, France and other major powers in developing tanks — those heavily-armed, thickly-armored tracked vehicles that had debuted late in the conflict and had helped to break the stalemate of trench warfare.
But the tank ban didn’t actually stop Nazi Germany from inventing new tanks and refining tactics for their use. Instead, the treaty limitations pushed German armored vehicle development into the military-industrial shadows. In the decades before Panzers swept across Europe and the Soviet Union, the Panzerwaffe armored corps evolved in secrecy.
(Excerpt) Read more at warisboring.com ...
I did some research on wwii and only about 4% of tanks were destroyed by indirect fire.
That's on the sleds they pull with the reindeer....
[Sorry- couldn't resist!]
She's a Supermodel, actually.
Wake me up when it's time for Bah Humbug again....
I owe you this, at least: best restored StugIII in the world, Parola Tank Museum, Finland.
Yes, after I posted- oops. Seen that before, some time ago. Just as an aside, have you ever seen a Finnish movie called ‘Talvisota’? I think the Finns never throw anything away, but maintain it all in working order. I’m pretty sure (could be mistaken) that I saw funny early-war Russian tanks and aircraft in it. I was collecting foreign war movies for a while, I have a copy on DVD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ELfMprEbrI
Very nice. Sprightly little thing.
Samur has a running King Tiger. Kubinka just squashed a rumor that they were going to restore their Maus to operating condition anytime soon. They’ll do it they’ve said, but priority is always on the Soviet equipment from the Great Patriotic War.
Yep, first time, long ago, mid-1990s, after I began dating a Finnish KLM flight attendant who tried real hartd not to laugh at my bad Finnish pronunciation and worse Russian. First copy I had was in Finnish without subtitles, so having her around was a necessity.
You might also want to see another: Tuntematon Sotilas- [The Unknown War], about which *more here*
I may be wrong, but I think the one at Samur came from Spain. In the 1960s the Spanish were trying mightily to reengine some Tiger Is...and maybe two Tiger IIs.... with Diesel engines, 7 or 8 tanks in all, and both They had some second [more likely third or fourth hand] M47 Pattons and M48s but didn't receive full US FMAP military aid until they joined NATO around 1982 after Franco died.
Combat history of that King Tiger:
It ran into American artillery fire and did a Lebanon-movie runner, broke down and was abandoned under fire.
‘Lebanon’, another good tank movie. IDF reservists in a clapped-out Centurion during the 1982 war.
How'd they get the crews of the destroyed tanks to fill out the survey? Baaaaad day at the office!
But actually, 4 out of 100 really destroyed beyond economic repair sounds about right- one in twenty-five. Like this one.
I assume you've seen the Brad Pitt movie Fury- really more about tankers than real tank fights, though director David Ayer really went to great pains to try and get things right, even to the extent of hauling the Bovington Tank Museum Tiger I out as a co-star. Now I know why there are not more tank movies," Ayer admits, explaining that his team had 70-year-old antiques to work with. "They're dangerous. They're loud. It's really hard to communicate."
Yep. Best job I ever had.
THe British used armor export to study tank losses from July to December 1944. They have pretty good stats. Surprising how many tanks were abandoned and destroyed by their crews, probably ran out if fuel.
If you see a flipped over tank photo chances are that was indirect fire that flipped it on its back.
I'd suspect more than a few were brewed up by their crews when they began to hear Brit rocket-firing Typhoons and American P-47 *dicing* runs overhead.
Yes I have, if only to watch Bovington's 131 drive around and be menacing.
I've seen three tanks on their backs- not photos. One went off a railway flatcar while being unloaded after a movement, then had the poor taste to roll over after it then continued it's roly-poly ride off the loading ramp.
The second was a bridge job at Ft Knox, driven by a [You guessed it!] Second Lieutenant driver trainee getting his Armor branch introductory training. After he went through the side supports of the bridge he was on, he landed on the right side, in the water, and momentum did the rest. Happily, he pulled the escape hatch somewhere along the way and went out [up] after it was on its back, the driver and ground guide having abandoned ship before going through the bridge struts. It took four M88 VTR tank retrievers to pull that one out to where they could get to it.
The last one was an M48A3 in Vietnam. Not artillery, a command detonated 750-pound aircraft bomb. Blew the powerpack engine and transmission assembly out of the back and flipped the hull. Amazingly the crew all survived, not real badly damaged other than a driver with a broken leg and a few days total hearing loss by the turret crew, the turret retaining bars having snapped letting the turret separate from the hull.
What? WHAT?
M48A3 TANK EXPLODES A 750-POUND BOMB SET UP AS A MINE. Turret was hurled from tank, which was blown out of its tracks. *source*
incredible
Or a bomb. I think it was Hans von Luck's Panzer Commander that describes the aftermath of the preparatory aerial bombardment for Operation GOODWOOD; heavy armor flipped over or otherwise impressively disabled.
Terrific read if you haven't already read it, not dry and academic at all- and not without a touch of humor.
The actor who played the tank commander of the 105 howitzer tank that did the Infantry fire support as they were cleaning out the German holdouts with the MG in the basement window was just about a perfect double for the tank sergeant who was my first TC in Germany. I wrote both the director and Mr Pitt about that and some of the picky little details they got right and a couple they sort of messed up and added that little story. I got a couple of great letters back, no Christmas cards. BTW, the 105 Sherman from the movie is for sale.
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