Posted on 08/25/2015 9:36:58 AM PDT by rey
Edited on 08/28/2015 4:48:42 AM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
FAIRFIELD
(Excerpt) Read more at pressdemocrat.com ...
My first flight instructor flew Me-110s during the war.
Mine flew a Piper Cub.
Tigers got nothin' on ol' "Rosie the Rocketeer...."
So did the Poles. [see saperka.] So did the Germans.
So do I.
Way cool! I’d be thrilled just to *see* a Tiger running.
While in the mech infantry at Fort Hood (1975-1978), we were constantly reminded that, when setting up night positions during a field exercise, to set up as close to a large tree as possible. This was so that, in the middle of the night, a maneuvering tank or APC would have less likelihood of running over you.
We were also told not to sleep underneath our APC, particularly during rain storms. Shortly before I arrived at Fort Hood, I guess, some tankers had decided to sleep underneath their M60 tank and it began raining during the night. The ground softened and the treads sank into the mud. They ended up, crushed and/or drowned, beneath their sinking tank.
If you have not yet seen the Bradd Pitt movie Fury, do so.
Mr. Pitt co-stars with the Bovington Museum's Tiger I, reportedly the last one in the world still running, though I would not be surprised if the Russians have a few still squirelled away.
Did he paint tank silhouettes on the side of his Cub?
We killed one of our mech infantry cohorts while I was in Germany with 70th Armor. He was left by his unit as a roadguard to give convoy directions at an intersection and told he'd be picked up by the tailend vehicle; for some reason the driver wasn't told, the sun went down, and it started snowing, with a fifteen-degree outside temp and wind picking up. He wisely moved away from the road through the brush and came to a trail, where he laid out his sleeping bag under a poncho, using snowman-like snowballs to help block the wind.
Unfortunately, he didn't check, but there was a second, parallel path next to the one in which he was laying: a tank trail; leading to a night gunnery range. And a couple of hours later, their firing exercise over or cancelled due to the lousy weather, the tanks came back from the range. Fortunately, there was a dismounted crewman with a flashlight leading the first tank. Unfortunately, he was on the other path made by the track on the other side. Fortunately, the second tank also had a ground guide with a flashlight, and he found the guy there before the second tank ran over the guy.
Unfortunately, not before the first tank already had. His head was facing the direction the tanks were coming from, so it's possible he never felt anything, if he didn't wake up.
We mostly quit referring to accompanying Infantrymen as *crunchies* after that, at least to their faces. There were too many fights, and they really did have a pretty good reason to have at us about that.
At the time I was the commander of the HQ Company AVLB tank bridge section. There was too much snow and mud for the battalion surgeon to get to the place in his jeep ambulance, so the next morning at sunrise, my driver and I took him in our AVLB with the bridge dropped off, HQ company's three M60A1 tanks being unavailable for taxi work. Doc fished around a while inside the guy's sleeping bag and came up with a couple of pieces of snapped-off fairly large bones. Then a wallet, and finally, the chain and a pair of dogtags. There was more fuss from the Infantry company and battalion commanders about the guy's missing M14 rifle than the fact that one of their guys was dead.
We were also told not to sleep underneath our APC, particularly during rain storms. Shortly before I arrived at Fort Hood, I guess, some tankers had decided to sleep underneath their M60 tank and it began raining during the night. The ground softened and the treads sank into the mud. They ended up, crushed and/or drowned, beneath their sinking tank.
Yup. Wet sand is pretty bad about that, especially where there are track ruts.
You know, there was a waitress in a German beer joint who sort of resembled....Nah. Couldn't be!
I don't see any. But he had his Rosie the Rocketeer nose art nicely displayed.
The Army and hometown newspapers kept score for him pretty good though.
I’ve seen them in movies and on tv, my goal is to see one in person.
The French have a running King Tiger, but it sounds like the driver needs a little practice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNJsiTZHdqU
Me too. I'm reasonably used to a clutch and laterals, but I've got to tell you, cross-drive transmissions are a better setup. Double-clutching a tank clutch while running through the gearbox is an art, and T-55/T62s are worse.
Tank, subterra/submarine, Mk1
The crazies at Kubinka got an old MS-1 up and running.
*feel the terror!*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzfhz7q6vV8
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