Restored battle tank readied for restaging of Iwo Jima conflict

The Monitor ^ | February 18,2005 | Dulcinea Cuellar

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Cadillac gasoline engines were used in one variation...

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My dad flew C-46s over the Hump in the Chnia-Burma-India Campaign as a civilian pilot. He was born in 1906 so he was a little too old to step forward in 1942. The CBI was a place no one wanted, so that's where he went.

[llevrok]

As a civie, was he with Chenault in China? We had lots of what would be Air America today guys like your Dad pre-WW2.

Your Dad was a great American patriot.

[WindOracle]

Had I read that before seeing the old Jap soldier, I might not have been so respectful, regardless of their age!

I can understand precisely what you mean. One of the things which really ticks me off is how in Japan their children are so well educated about Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but they know nothing about The Rape of Nanking, or places like where my Uncle was captured, Corregidor, and the Bataan Death march which followed. When I was a kid, he told me lots of stories about what he saw and went through in the POW camps and Hell Ships... the Japanese soldiers deserve NO respect so far as I am concerned.

[WindOracle]

Hirohito should have been HUNG!

[StoneColdGOP]

Wow.

BTTT.

[astounded]

I'm sure, too, but it's too bad we have not allowed the use of flamethrowers in Afghanistan. They would have been ideal for the cave battles. Likewise in Fallujah - excellent room clearing method, plus it would scare the bejeepers out of the hajis. Fighting fire with fire as it were - remember the Blackwater contractors...

[StoneColdGOP]

Hirohito should have been HUNG!

He probably would have liked that too, but you know what they say about Asian men...

[tanknetter]

I think it depends on the variant. The M4A1 had a Continental R974 C4 9 cylinder 4 cycle radial gasoline motor. The M4A2, a GMC 6046 12 cylinder (6/engine) 2 cycle twin in-line diesel. The M4A3 a Ford GAA 8 cylinder 4 cycle 60° V gasoline. The M4A4, a Chrysler A57 30 cylinder 4 cycle multibank gasoline motor. The M4A6 an Ordnance Engine RD-1820 9 cylinder 4 cycle radial diesel.

From the pretty wide treads and the muzzle brake apparent in the picture I'd say this guy owns an Sherman Easy Eight .

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Chenault was the CO of the Flying Tigers. My dad was involved in hauling freight, soldiers, and in one case, a piano, over the Himalayas from India to China to supply Nationalist Chinese troops. This airlift became necessary after the Japanese took the Burma Road which was the only supply route for this part of the war. The Chinese (and a few Brits and Americans) tied down over 1 million Japanese troops on the mainland while the the US Army and Navy (Marines) island-hopped toward Japan. The freighter group had several names including Ferry Command, Air Transport Group, etc. The same outfit did the Berlin Airlift a few years later.

[WindOracle]

I think the reason they are no longer used is they were dangerous for the man using it, as well as anyone nearby, if he took a round. But then again when I was in the army, I never stood too close to guys packing the M-79 grenade launcher and wearing the vest with grenades covering their chest.

[Redbob]

My Dad carried Jap steel from a mortar shell to his grave.

That's all the Jap iron my family ever had around - never a Jap car.

[neverdem]

The logistics of getting such equipment there in those days seem quite formidable to me.

That's why they developed the LST, landing ship tank.

[Charlespg]

I Read a book called called DEATH TRAPS By Benton Cooper,

Said the Germans Called the Shermans "The Ronson Lighters" it took a great loss of life to knock out one tiger, Heard also of a tiger commander named barkman(sp?} that destroyed over 12 shermans before he was finaly overcome

[AmericanInTokyo]

I knew a certain number of other Americans who were also wounded by the Imperial Army during the War.

But they all seemed to get over it somehow before they passed on to the other side. Or, some are still alive today.

Not a one of them (at least that I've talked too) hated the average Japanese over what their military had done, nor hated Japan after our bilateral 1953 Peace Treaty with them.

I guess most of them realized that America Had Won (in a huge way), that Japan changed, and they just went on with their lives.

[WindOracle]

I think my uncle did not own a single Japanese product at all... he was rabid about that, and would spend much more money on things just to avoid buying Japanese goods.
Such undying hatred is a sad thing, but for having endured what so many of them did, like him watching the japs burn his best friend alive in a POW camp, it is at least understandable.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Plenty of people I believe actually own products that they don't know the components, for example, for sure aren't made or sourced in Japan. It is very hard to tell these days.

[llevrok]

The whole story about Hirohito being set free in itself would make a great book.

Think what today's media would do with that.

Wait a minute. That was done by Harry Truman. The story would be on page Z99 or in the classified section and we'd never know about it!

[WindOracle]

Well, sorry to disillusion ya about that, but my uncle hated them so badly that when his sister went to japan in 1952 and adopted two Japanese babies, he never spoke to her again. His last words to her ever were "Get those Nip bastards off my land and never show your face to me again."

[AmericanInTokyo]

Sad. Understandable. But still sad.

Those little babies hadn't even a microscopic trace of sin over what the Nippon Teikoku Rikugun did before their births.

But what can you say or do?