Posted on 08/06/2008 6:36:41 AM PDT by DemonDeac
"Scuba divers searching for hidden treasures at the bottom of the English Channel got more than they bargained for when they stumbled across two massive army tanks on the ocean floor."
"Divers found the massive vehicles were relatively well preserved with guns still intact even after more than 64 years under sea.
And by painstakingly checking minute details on the sunken vehicles against historical records, investigators managed to identify them as rare British Centaur CS IV tanks.
The historic weapons were destined for battle during the D-Day landings but never arrived.
Historians discovered the tanks fell overboard when a landing craft capsized on its way to the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944."
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Mangled Generals Ping.
Panzer food. I know it wasn't supposed to go toe-to-toe with a mk V Panther but even so it wasn't always a bad thing to be an infantryman.
Geez, this makes me feel old. I remember when our Battalion replaced our Shermans with M60’s.
Recently I did a lot of study on WWII tanks, (hobby) and actually the British used a different systm altogether designating tanks as infantry or cavalry style.
Infantry tanks were expected to keep up with the infantry and were not designed for hardcore mobile warfare. They were also heavier and better armored.
Cavalry tanks were designed for scouting and mobile warfare at speeds that infantry or slower tanks could not match.
Excepted from THE EVOLUTION OF THE TANK IN THE U.S. ARMY
"In 1919, an economy-minded Congress considered the postwar organization of the US Army. General Pershing the AEF commander, accompanied by his aide Colonel George C. Marshall (the World War II Army Chief of Staff), testified that tanks should remain a supporting arm of the infantry. As a result the 1920 National Defense Act disestablished the Tank Corps, directed that tanks be assigned to the infantry, and denied the establishment of a tank branch. This legislative restriction was not lifted until the 1950 Army Reorganization Act established the Armor Branch.4"
“The crews didnt get out. They went down with their tanks.”
- - -
VR, why would you just throw something like that out
not knowing if it was true or not?
It hurts your credibility.
see post # 24:
“All the Royal Marines and crew aboard were rescued but the tanks, along with two armoured bulldozers and a field gun plunged to the sea floor.
There was a show on the Discovery Channel or the History Channel or maybe TLC a few years ago about US duplex drive Sherman tanks outfitted to float and motor up to the beaches. Most capsized and sank in the rough seas.
My least favorite part of tanking. :-))
In the late 1950's we formed a Battalion of these. Each had a crew of three, and 6, count them, 106mm Recoilless Rifles. You can consider it "The Worlds Biggest Shotgun".
Semper Fi
An Old Man
Looks like it would be in the league of the older German Marks. Certainly not the Panther!
I’d hate to have been the loader for one of those.
It took a lot of brass to post that one. ;’)
Chill out!
Thanks for the ping, abb.
Milhist ping
from your link:
“The Ontos carried the beehive round that sent out a hundred darts per firing to clean out a jungle of its enemy. There was no other weapon that could clear a jungle for a depth of a ¼ mile like the 106mm recoilless rifle using the beehive round. “
The U.S developed a heavy tank at the end of WW II, but never fielded it. I saw one at Knox in ‘68. It was huge. The first Pershing [?] tanks, with 90mm cannon appeared at the end of the war in Europe. It was the ONLY American tank capable of a one on one with a Tiger or a Panther. Shermans, while mechanically reliable, and massed produced, were junk.
That's entirely possible. My paternal grandfather was a supervisor at The Budd Company in Philadelphia. During the war he worked at "The Tank Plant" which was a new facility to construct... Tanks. In peacetime The Budd Company stamped metal components that went into car bodies for Chrysler, AMC & Ford Motors. They also had a division that made railcars.
Eventually they were bought-out by Thyssen Steel in the late '70's, early '80's time frame.
I think there's only 1 documented engagement that I've seen between an M26 Pershing and a Panther right at the end of WW2.
The Sherman was a pretty good tank when stacked up against the Mark III & Mark IV Panzers -- these were its true developmental contemporaries. Mass production decisions pretty much precluded a better design entering the pipeline until late-'44. As you say, it didn't show well against the Tigers or Panthers.
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