Posted on 12/21/2004 10:38:14 PM PST by SAMWolf
Morning Darksheare.
And he was still going strong 60 years later!
Morning PE.
Thanks God that isn't a picture of President Kerry!!
We've received a couple of inches of snow today. The roads are a little bit slick in this part of the country.
They're forecasting 4-6 inches of snow along the Red River around Wichita Falls. not the best of days to be doing any traveling.
How's it going, Snippy?
free dixie HUGS,sw
"What do you mean I've been recommended? I've been in here for nearly three years now and ain't even made pfc yet. I'm not first sergeant material; I'm the biggest goof-off in the Army."
How many times have we read about men that were the "biggest goof-offs" turning out to be the heros?
If this kid was a day over 18yrs. old then I'm 29. So young!
Hard to believe we were that young and in uniform once, isn't it?
Morning shield.
You would have thought that Taylor would have tried to re-join his division as soon as he could.
General McAuliffe ended up doing a really good job at Bastogne.
Hi, W,
Thanks for the kind words.
Did a little bit on the subject this morning, since I liked it I figure you will (??!!!!!!!). This is from my #171 in yesterday's treadhead.
The biggest factor I didn't earlier cover is that the large diameter Christie wheels, when they move up and down, tighten the track on the top, returning run at the same time as they loosen the track on the ground driving run. This reduces tightening followed by loosening at high speeds, which is very desirable.
There is what as known as "track whip" where the track, momentarily loose, really does start to move like a cracking whip with the curling part moving down the track at faster and faster speeds and the curl getting smaller and smaller. This not over overloads the track joints but makes the track try to hop off of the idlers.
I did not see how to show why this is so without math or animations last night, and did not think to just state this in the text.
The end wheels, the front idler and the rear drive, are positioned just so, and the result is more even track tension. This is cool, and copied by everybody since.
Lastly, the Christie system does not scale up to heavy tank weights worth a darn. The BTs were small and very light, with armor that was not serious. An American M3 Stuart was 20% - 40% heavier than the BTs.
The T34 weighed 31 to 32 metric tonnes, 34 - 35 tons, about the same as the Sherman, and had armor not much thicker but with better slope giving about 40% better ballistic protection except in the glacis area, the front of the hull facing the enemy, which really was not adequately armored.
The 85 mm T34 gun was very powerful for the day while being lightweight, less than two tons. This was a real achievement. A number of specifications for this gun are respectable to this day.
Morning stand watie
Free Dixie!
The T-34 woke up a lot of people to new ideas in tank design. The Germans sure took the lessons to heart.
"My goodness Misses Cleaver what a lovely frock."
E. Haskell
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
free dixie,sw
From what I understand the German Army wanted to copy it but Hitler wouldn't stand for that because of ideological reasons. The Russians were slav's so how could they produce anything superior to the Ayrans.
Reason #49,204 why Hitler was an idiot.
Just thinking about it makes my muscles sore. Ready or not.....
GM, sw!!!!
free dixie, bf!!
free dixie,sw
Thanks Iris7. I'm getting quite an education from you. :-)
Good morning Aeronaut.
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