Bulgaria's Army Digs out Its Maybach Tanks

novinite ^ | 8 February 2008, Friday

[LibKill]

What’s the point of stationary guns in the 21st century?

"Stationary defenses are monuments to the stupidity of mankind. If mountains and oceans can be overcome..............." (Patton, the Movie)

[Squantos]

Archy fess em up !..........;o)

[rmlew]

As late as the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the Syrians were still operating some PzIV’s. Oddly enough, the Israelis were using some Shermans up-gunned with some 90mm’s.
The Israelis did not have Shermans upgraded to 90mm. Instead they used the high velocity canon of the French AMX-13 in the M-50 Shermans and a modified 105mm gun for their M-51 Shermans.

Israel still uses greatly modified Shermans. http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/vehicles/tanks/sherman/Sherman.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M50_Super_Sherman

[04-Bravo]

I had no idea there were still any Panzer IV’s in service.

[Bringbackthedraft]

This is not surprising. The soviet Block had over 55,000 tanks. Unlike the USA and it allies, the Soviets did not melt down old tanks and make new ones. They kept the old ones in storage. During the Cold War they used old tanks like pill boxes around areas like ammunition storage depots, where they dug them into the ground up to their turrents.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

An IS2 turret faces China. Tom Clancy described such.

[Travis McGee]

Ping

[grey_whiskers]

I used to live in Maryland, went to Aberdeen a couple of times...

It was interesting to see the rows and rows of tanks, from the earliest Panzerkampfwagen Mk I (or was it II's) with twin machine guns in the turret, up to the Ferdinands and Tiger II's.

The Sherman (or "Ronson," after the German cigarette lighter, since they exploded and burned easily) was very outgunned.

Good thing we made > 48,000 of them.

An interesting take on the quality vs. quantity argument there.

Cheers!

[fireforeffect]

Do not forget Fort Knox.

The Patton Museum has a King Tiger that has been cut away so that you can view the interior.

My dad said he thought the U.S. tanks were big until he saw the German tanks. But they are all tiny compared to modern tanks.

[fireforeffect]

Remember seeing a picture of an Israeli observing syria on the Golan Heights with a burned out Tiger tank in the background.

[rmlew]

They can provide some defense. It is suicide to be in one, but operated by remote control, these could stil be useful in slowing an enemy advance.

[PzLdr]

The Divisional shield on the front plate is 1st SS, although the troops in and on the tank are in a hodgepodge of uniforms. Seems to be a parade or exhibit in Russia or Bulgaria from the print on the banners [Cyrillic script] It’s one of the later [or up gunned] models with the high velocity, long barrel 75mm gun. Early Mark IVs [Poland, and 1940 in the West] had a short barreled 75 howitzer, and were intended for infantry support. The MBT was intended to be the Mark III.

There was a privately owned tank museum out here where I live [it has since moved to Va.]. The had a beautiful Mark IV they got in a swap with the Israelis for an M3 Stuart.

[PzLdr]

The Mark I had twin mgs. the Mark II was “up gunned” with oneof the mgs replaced by a 20mm cannon.

[FreedomHammer]

[ARE SOLE]

An interior shot of Maybach model owned by R. Limbaugh.

[grey_whiskers]

Thanks for the reminder -- it's been over 10 years since I visited Aberdeen.

Cheers!

[henkster]

At the Patton Museum, a Sherman sits next to the King Tiger. To think we expected our guys to go against the Tigers in the much smaller, under-gunned Shermans. I had a whole new respect for the courage of American tankers.

Nearby they also had a StuG III that had been recovered from a bog in Lithuania. Those things were actually pretty small.