The FReeper Foxhole's TreadHead Tuesday - The A22 Infantry Tank "Churchill" - Mar. 9th, 2004

www.9thrtr.com ^

[stand watie]

HI, snippy!

free dixie,sw

[carton253]

Here's another favorite of mine...

[archy]

Military bicycles.

Great Britains Gurkhas have of course long been recognized as masters at the art of camouflage.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Snippy.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Aeronaut.

That one looks like something someone put together in his garage.

[Aeronaut]

That one looks like something someone put together in his garage.

Hi Sam. That is probably true.

[Professional Engineer]

Great Britains Gurkhas have of course long been recognized as masters at the art of camouflage.

WOW, they're good. I can't see either the bicycles or tanks.

[Darksheare]

"The under-gunning of allied tanks was an outrageously criminal lack of concern by the War Office. It resulted in what was in effect the murder of thousands of tank crewmen, a series of acts for which the War Office seems incapable of accepting responsibility."

Seems the War Department saw that we were advancing and that enemy tanks were being destroyed and figured that up-gunning the hardware wasn't necessary.

[SAMWolf]

Can you imagine trying to remember all that while getting shot at?

[SAMWolf]

Wow, just like World War One.
So was British military thinking in 1944.

LOL!

[Light Speed]

Morning troop : )

Great Britians R&D in tank design thru WW-2 may not have fielded a dominating tank for that period..but shortly after..the Centurion appeared..and it certainly had the legs to matter on the battlefield..and be workable/modifyable to be productive well into the 80's

The Yom Kippur war has a focus theme of infantry fired anti-tank missiles and early night vision equipment...here the narrative conveys Israels mounting tank losses and failure to impliment modern systems..which nearly cost them the war ..as some narratives go.

The Golan sector see's Israel with less than 200 Centurions and Shermans.

Attrition rates are high for Israel in the early days of the war...here..Israel is using blocking action action against numeric superiority.
I wish I could remember a book read many years ago on the Golan battles.
Several key points come to the forefront which forward why Israel was still able to hold the line.
The Centurion was comfortable to be in over Soviet design tanks...here fatigue is a factor in operational performance.
Israels tank maintenence crews are in some way the unsung heroes of the Golan battle.
Centurions were repaired under fire..towed short distances from the battle lines and quickly bogged to be back in service.
At this point..new crews are going back in..in most cases..with new tank commanders.
Israels training depth and reservist force allowed IDF to stay in the fight....shortly..Israels Airforce would begin to assist on the Golan..and the tide turned in Israels favor.

For several critical days..Israel was down to less than 40 operational Centurions..yet they were able to move rapidly to firing stations.
The Syrians were fooled by this action..thinking Israel had many tanks still.
Israeli tank commanders would change call names and ramp up the chatter on their voice net..knowing the Syrians were listening.
This blocking action and deception caused the Syrian advance to stall..soon..the IAF would decimate the Syrians with F-4 Phantom and A-4 Skyhawks carrying iron bombs,cluster bombs and napalm.
The Syrians were broken...hundreds of their tank and APC crews simply fled the battlefield ,,leaving empty units idling in the sun until fuel ran out.

Israeli communication and adaptive thinking held the line on the Golan.
The Centurion tank proved its value as it achieved a 5-1 and greater kill ratio over Soviet tanks.

In 1982..with reactive armor ,upgraded targeting and newer engines,
The Centurion still dominated its Soviet period counterpart in engagements.

A late WW-2 design tank from Great Britian,
that had legs for decades.

6 Day War 1967

Yom Kippur 1973

Lebanon 1982

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C. I'll check out the updates as soon as I finish here at the Foxhole. Thanks for the reminder

[SAMWolf]

Morning Mayor.

[SAMWolf]

design an extra large infantry tank based on World War I principles

Typical thinking, fight the next war based on the last, a day late and a dollar short again.

[SAMWolf]

Morning GailA. Biscuits and Gravy two days in a row. :-)

[SAMWolf]

The Brits had a habit early in the war of undergunning their tanks.

[SAMWolf]

Sam, what will we do when we run out of tanks?

Uh Oh! I'm more worried about what we'll do if we run out of history. ;-)

[SAMWolf]

Hi Feather!

[carton253]

For a good read (historical fiction) of all the wars Israel has been involved in... I highly recommend The Hope and The Glory. Herman Wouk did a great job...

[SAMWolf]

Which is something like being the best ice hockey player on Guam

LOL! The Brits never seemed to get the armor, armament, mobility balance worked out.