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Posted on 03/16/2004 12:00:43 AM PST by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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King Tiger  The Tiger II was also known as "Tiger Ausf. B" or "Königstiger" (King Tiger) and was the last major tank design to see service during the war. The original Tiger design was finalised before the Russian T-34 was encountered so it lacked the excellent ballistic shape which was a feature of the Panther. The Tiger II went into production late in 1943 and was first engaged in action on the Russian front in August 1944 and was later encountered by the Allies in France in August of that year. It was born of a demand from the Waffenamt (Army Weapons Office) in August 1942 for a redesigned Tiger tank incorporating thicker armor, sloped plates to deflect shots as on the Panther and T-34, and armed with the 88mm L/71 gun, which should be capable of dealing with any new tank development that the Russians could possibly produce.  Tiger II with Porsche turret Both Porsche and Henschel were asked to submit designs to these specifications. The Porsche design (VK 4502P) had alternative layouts with the turret either well forward or at the back of the hull. It was to mount the longer L/71 KwK 43 gun as in the Elefant tank destroyer. At first the Porsche model was considered for production and the construction of turrets by Wegmann of Kassel for this vehicle began, but due to the shortage of copper required for the parts in the electrical transmission this tank project was cancelled. The Waffenamt also rejected the electric drive as unreliable and too sophisticated for service conditions.  Adding camouflage colours The second design from Henschel (VK 4503H) was powered conventionally like their Tiger I and was accepted. The project was put in hand as a top priority effort and the first prototype was delivered in November 1943. By that time the Panther II had been designed, and under the new rationalisation policy it was decided that as many parts of the Panther II as possible had to be incorporated to standardise design features between the two vehicles. Production of the Tiger Ausf. "B" began in December 1943 on the Henschel production line, parallel to that which was building the Tiger Ausf. E. The first production models began to reach the Army late in February 1944.  Tiger II of the "Feldherrnhalle" Panzergrenadier Division (1945) Henschel remained the sole builders of the Tiger II during its whole production life. By September 1944 Tiger Ausf. E production ceased completely in favour of the new vehicle. Production was scheduled to reach a rate of approximately 145 per month, but disruption by enemy bombing and shortage of materials reduced the best ever monthly output to 84 in August 1944. By the end of the war 487 Tiger IIs had been produced. The first 50 Tiger IIs to be completed were fitted with the spare turrets originally intended for the Porsche Tiger. This turret had a curved front mantlet and a bulged commander's cupola on the left side. The remaining vehicles had a Henschel-designed turret, having thicker armour and eliminating the re-entrant angle under the mantlet.  The protective effect of the sloped lines The Tiger II was derived from the Tiger Ausf. E and both tanks had many features in common. At the same time it bore a much closer resemblance to the late model Panther. Common fittings included cupolas, engines, engine covers and road wheels. Compared with the other vehicles the Tiger II had thicker armor and was dimensionally larger. It incorporated various features which experience had shown were desirable; notably the front glacis plate, which was now sloped as on the Panther and T-34 tanks instead of squarely vertical as on the original Tiger. The armor protection, particularly that carried on the front of the vehicle, was the thickest to be employed on a tank that was due for large scale production. The front plate was 150mm set at a 40o angle, the turret face 180mm thick, and the side and tail plates, including the turret wall, were 80mm thick. Frontal attack of this tank, by any weapon available to the Allies, was out of question.  After completing the camouflage, the crew fit the armored mudguards. The extremely wide tracks gave the Tiger II good cross-country performance despite its excessive weight. The Tiger II incorporated all the good points of the Panther tank and armed with a new main armament, the 88mm KwK 43 L/71 which was almost 21ft long. This gun represented the largest calibre length to be employed operationally by the Germans in a tank mounting during the war. There was a small, conical Saukopf (pig's head) mantlet, and a well-sloped turret and sloped morticed armor plates making up the hull. The tanks were often covered with Zimmerit to prevent the attachments of magnetic mines.  A battalion of Tiger IIs drawn up for inspection in Paderborn-Sennelager, autumn 1944 Internally the vehicle followed the usual German layout with front sprocket drive and crew positions as for the Panther. The big turret had several interesting features; it lacked the usual basket and was built out very wide over an immense 73inch diameter turret ring. To assist in loading the big ammunition rounds carried, 22 rounds were mounted in the rear turret bulge, thus giving the loader a minimum handling movement. Power traverse was as for the Panther and Tiger.  Tiger of sPzAbt. 'Fernherrnhalle' in Budapest, spring 1945 Suspension was by torsion bars and it followed the same type of arrangement as in the Tiger Ausf. E. However, the wheels were overlapped rather than interleaved as on the Tiger. This change was adapted to simplify the maintenance problems which had been inherent with interleaved road wheels. Similarly, the tendency for the wheels to freeze solid with packed snow was obviated to some extent. Steel-tyred resiliently sprung wheels (which featured a layer of rubber between two steel tyres) were standard on the Tiger II as on the late models Tiger Ausf. E and Panthers.   The early-style turret.............The Serien-Turm (series turret).
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I recall reading that the only thing you could hope to do with a bazooka is knock a track off and get a mobility kill. This, of course is difficult to do unless you get really close, but worked on a couple of occasions. similarly, troops were instructed to try and place a satchel charge on the tracks to blow them off for a mobility kill. Don't know how often it was actually tried with success.
What a horrible way for a warship to die.
I believe you are correct. Many people are to myopic to see the enormity of current events. I think very long term events are in progress, and won't end with the November elections, or even by the 2008 elections.
Reminds me of the Soviet use of "mine dogs"
Even as early as 1941 special service units (Spets sluzhba) started to be formed for combating the enemy's tanks. Each unit consisted of four companies with 126 dogs in each company, making 504 dogs in each unit. Altogether during the war there were two special service regiments formed and 168 independent units, battalions, companies and platoons.
The dogs selected for the special service units were strong and healthy and possessed plenty of stamina. Their training was very simple. First, they were not fed for several days, and then they began to receive food near some tanks: the meat was given to them from the tank's lower hatch. So the dog learned to go beneath the tank to be fed. The training sessions quickly became more elaborate. The dogs were unleashed in the face of tanks approaching from quite considerable distances and taught to get under the tank, not from the front but from the rear. As soon as the dog was under the tank, it stopped and the dog was fed. Before a battle the dog would not be fed. Instead, an explosive charge of between 4 and 4.6 kg with a pin detonator was attached to it. It was then sent under the enemy tanks.
Anti-tank dogs were employed in the biggest battles, before Moscow, before Stalingrad, and at Kursk. The dogs destroyed a sufficient number of tanks for the survivors to be considered worthy of the honour of taking part in the victory parade in the Red Square.
Gang of Three - Paris-Berlin-Madrid!
Europe has seen this before, Petain-Hitler-Franco.
Secondly, the overwhelming majority of the Polish people wants Poland to postpone her entering the EU "as we are not prepared to enter it on May 1".
Good. Can't help but notice the date. Ironic that Poland would give up her Independence on the Communist May Day. :-(
I think the dogs may have had a different opinion. ;-)
Thanks. I think too many people have forgotten world history. Not among FReepers, but in general.
PZL P.37 Los was developed in response to the specification for a new bomber for Lotnictwo Wojskowe issued in the summer of 1934. It's designer, Jerzy Dabrowski, paid special attention to the aerodynamic cleanliness of the aircraft. Very small, elliptical cross-section of the fuselage, while good for airspeed, allowed little room for bombs, but this problem was solved by adding additional bomb bays in the central section of the wing between engine nacelles, where the airfoil cross-section was at its thickest. Low fuselage weight coupled with light-weight wing design based on Franciszek Misztal's concept used previously in other PZL aircraft (including the P.23 resulted in overall low airframe weight, which allowed the plane to carry an exceptionally high bomb load. The initial project was accepted in October 1934, but because of its avant-garde nature, a conservative PZL 30 design was to be developed in parallel. A provisional order for 10 aircraft (including one prototype) was placed in late 1935.
The first prototype, powered by two Bristol Pegasus XII air-cooled radials flew on 13 December 1936, and while the performance conformed to the expectations, a number of other problems were revealed. The second prototype, fitted with more powerful Pegasus XX engines intended for the production variant, addressed these problems. It featured redesigned cockpit interior, twin vertical tail surfaces, and new main undercarriage of unique (and as it turned out, excellent) design by Piotr Kubicki. The second prototype made its maiden flight in November 1937.
In the meantime, the initial order was expanded and now covered 28 production aircraft and the two prototypes. The deliveries commenced in March 1938, but the aircraft were fitted with Pegasus XII (instead of XX) engines, and the first ten production units retained the single vertical tail surface of the first prototype. These planes were designated PZL P.37A, while the rest of the first production series received the designation PZL P.37Abis. One of these machines, fitted with the 1020hp Gnome-Rhone 14N-01 engines, became the prototype of the P.37C variant, intended for export. During trials, it attained the speed of 453 km/h (282 mph).
Because of its good performance, excellent handling characteristics (especially maneuverability), huge bomb load and exceptionally clean lines, a considerable foreign interest in both the P.37C, as well as the future P.37D variant developed, but priority was given to the fulfillment of the domestic order, which meanwhile had been expanded to cover 124 airplanes in total. The first P.37B aircraft with Pegasus XX engines were ready in August 1938, and production reached the pace of 14 aircraft a month by the end of 1938. Deliveries were slowed down by some problems, most notably a series of mysterious crashes (7 aircraft in total) which, as it turned out, were due to the over compensation of control surfaces.
In December 1938 PZL began moving the production of the remaining aircraft to a new factory in Mielec, and as the result of consequent delays only 90 aircraft were accepted by the Air Force till 1st September 1939. Of these, 36 aircraft, not all of them fully equipped, became part of the Bomber Brigade and were responsible for a large proportion of the damage inflicted by the Brigade on German Panzers. Another 10 aircraft were received as replacements, while most other P.37s - in training centers and at Malaszewicze air base, where a bomber wing was being formed - were destroyed on the ground, either during fighting, or by Polish personnel - to prevent them from falling into German hands. It must also be stated, that used in difficult operating conditions, attacking mostly German armor instead of soft targets, and even unable to carry their full bomb-load (because they operated from soft airfields), the P.37s were deprived of realizing their full potential in the campaign. On September 17, 17 P.37s of the Brigade and 10 from other units made their escape to Romania, while four others landed in the USSR. One of a number of damaged aircraft captured by Germans was repaired and shipped to Rechlin where it underwent flight trials.
Romanian P.37 fitted with 20 mm MG FF cannon in the nose Romania used the P.37s operationally against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944. In an interesting episode, three Romanian P.37Bs bombed Kosice in Hungary on 26 June 1941, with the intention of provoking the Hungarians to declare war on the USSR. The ploy worked, but the price was paid in September 1944, when the remaining P.37s of the Romanian air force were destroyed in revenge by Hungarians at Cimpia Turzii airfield.
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