Destruction of History

US Residents, please read this to save your history.

I did have a nice article planed out for today, however, a story broke in the week that I felt needed more coverage, so we’re doing that today. For those of you who saw my Facebook post, scroll down a bit there’s some history stuff in there as well, although we have some more information. The details around this story come off social media, as for some reason the Organisations involved don’t want to publicly announce they’re being tits, so there may be other factors to this story.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s begin.

Here we have a very nicely preserved MBT-70, at TACOM and the Centre for Military History. As far as I can tell at the time of this picture there were five MBT-0 still in existence. Two German versions, two complete US versions and a wrecked hulk rusting away somewhere. This particular one was owned by the US Army and stored at TACOM. Here’s what was left of her a couple of weeks ago:

Although it’s likely that the turret is gone as well now. That’s right, they’ve scrapped her. Chopped her up into tiny pieces and melted her down. Why? No one seems to know. It’s even more curious that at least one other collection was offering to buy/home her. If you wanted the space move it to the other museum! But no, apparently its much better to destroy it. Sorry, are you afraid someone will be robbing the local bank with it?

But wait, there’s more! The “Centre of Military History” apparently has destroyed rather a lot of items of late. Either by scrapping, or dispatching vehicles to be hard targets on ranges. That I can find mention of are assorted rare M60 sub variants and a perfectly preserved, all original parts Sherman were all sent to the target range and are now, likely to be somewhat less pristine. In the latest round of scrapping apparently the following items were destroyed by the Centre for Military History.

• A large calibre gun or arty piece
• A “Spahpanzer”, possibly a Luchs?
• A M109
• A Swedish APC
• Some 4x4 mobility vehicle with what I guess is a 106mm Recoilless rifle on the back.

Now to be fair, not all of these exhibits are rare, although the M60 variants were. They included the only two M60A1E2 in the world. Luckily a few individuals managed to save one of the doomed tanks, the other was destroyed.

So what can we do about it? If you’re outside of the US, not a thing. If you’re in the US however, you can start making a noise! I would suggest writing to your state representatives. A quick letter takes you a few minutes or so. Apparently Robert Sampson (senator for Connecticut), has been written to by one guy, and he's unhappy. SO the ball is rolling, lets see if we can get more going!

Hopefully if enough people kick up a stink then we can prevent any other rare tanks being destroyed. At the moment the damage to history has been limited, but who knows what irreplaceable exhibits will be next?

The US doesn’t have a monopoly on doing this. Though, here are a series of pictures from 1922 which show the Imperial War Museum scrapping a MkV tank, Medium B Whippet, A7V, FT17 and most horrifically a MkI Gun carrier, the last in the world at that time.

If you wish to see more pictures from the set, the IWM website has them.

Even more recently, in the mid to late 1990’s Bovington scrapped the prototype FV221 Caernarvon, which had been hand built as a component tester. It is entirely possible they didn’t realise what they had at the time, as the chassis had been used for a variety of roles over its life time, and it is likely that they thought it just a FV214 Conqueror chassis when they disposed of it. The life story of that particular hull starts as the prototype FV221. Then she becomes a test bed for a gas turbine for a few years. Once again, she is modified into a dynamo vehicle for use at Bovy. Later she has a driver training cab fitted, and is then used as the commentary box on the old Bovington Arena, until the new arena was built, at which point she was scrapped

New Arivals

Before the Second World War El Alamein was little more than a railway halt, during the War it became the furthest the Germans reached into Egypt. The first battle held there had the Allies on the defensive to halt the Germans. As the situation resolved itself with the Germans held in place there was a place called Ruweisat Ridge. This would be the Germans high water mark, and they would never take one pace further into Egypt. The ridge was a bulge into the Allied lines, and so obviously they attempted to reduce it, and tidy up the battlefield, as Monty was prone to calling the act of straightening front lines.
The first attempt, on the 14th of July, had New Zealand and Indian Infantry Divisions attacking the position, with support from the veteran tank crews of the 2nd and 22nd Armoured Brigades. The plan had the infantry grabbing objectives in a night assault, with the 2nd Brigade then using those advanced positions as a springboard to launch into the German rear, while the 22nd moved up to support the infantry.

At first things looked to be going well. The New Zealander's achieved their initial objectives, although the Indians ran into stiff resistance. The New Zealanders had been forced to bypass several strong-points as well. At this point there was a general failure of communications with the armoured brigades. The scattered strong points also meant that supporting arms were unable to close up to the lead battalions. As the day wore on the tanks moved up, however the 2nd ran into a dense mine field, and being overly cautious due to months of fighting, failed to move up. Meanwhile the 22nd supporting the Indians got embroiled in a bitter tank battle with the Axis forces. This left the New Zealanders exposed and facing increasing pressure with dwindling ammunition and weapons. By the end of battle the Germans had held the position and captured around 700 New Zealand prisoners.

Plans were drawn up for a resumed offensive very quickly. the 23rd Armoured Brigade had only just arrived in Egypt that month, and was not fully constituted. However, two tank regiments the 40th and 46th Royal Tank Regiments, each equipped with Valentines, were rushed to the front. It was hopped that the green troops would be less cautious than the war weary veteran troops. These tank regiments would support an infantry assault on the base of the salient into commonwealth lines, while another regiment and infantry would attack the far side of the bulge.

On the 21st the New Zealanders advanced, starting at 1630 in the afternoon. In an almost identical replay of the first battle, several strong points were bypassed, and the objectives taken. The following day the Germans counter attacked and caused heavy casualties, over running the exposed New Zealanders. The 2nd Armoured Brigade tried to send forth support, however they ran into minefields and the strong points that had been bypassed. To save the failing situation the 23rd Armoured Brigade was brought up and would advance to the rescue on the following day. Thus the 23rd Armoured Brigade was launched into action with just fourteen days in country, on the 23rd of July.

At 0800, the 104 Valentine II's of the 23rd rumbled for,ward at a heady 15mph. First, they had to cross the minefields. Narrow gaps had been cleared, only 30m at most. Soon tanks began to lose their way along the mine free lanes and begin to strike mines. The two tank regiments did, however, push forward. Then they began to take anti-tank fire. One of the guns was the Germany newest weapon that had only just arrived in country.

The wild charge of the 23rd Armoured Brigade was aimed squarely, and entirely accidentally, at the German 104th Panzer-Grenadier regiment. The lead battalion was overrun by the marauding Valentines. However, their anti-tank platoon was still in operation. The platoon was equipped with PAK-36(r) guns, which had only been issued in the May-June period. These guns were originally Russian 76mm M1936 divisional guns, with some modifications. One of these guns was crewed by Gefreiter (Equivalent Lance-corporal/Private First Class) Günter Halm.

Halm had been born in in 1922 in Elze. He had trained as a machinist. He was conscripted in 1941, and after training posted to the Afrika Korps in 1942. Despite the storm of fire he and his comrades were putting down, the horde of British tanks soon closed up, now able to spot his gun they opened fire. A 2-pounder shot struck the gun shield and sprayed shrapnel amongst the crew wounding two. Despite this Halm carried on manning the gun and kept it in action. By the end of the day his gun had knocked out between 9-15 tanks (accounts differ, and the Germans had a habit of over claiming tank kills). For his actions in the face of a wall of Valentines he was awarded an Iron Cross 1st Class, which was later upgraded to a Knights Cross. This made Halm the youngest ever winner of the award. Halm would survive the war dying in 2017.

PAK-36(r) in action in Africa. Later versions would add a muzzle brake and reduce the size of the gun shield.

While the first battle of El Alamein had no territory captured, it had shifted the dynamic of the campaign. The Germans had held but had been battered flat suffering massive losses of men and material. The savage attacks had been conducted hastily by the 8th Army. The Germans were immobilised, stunned, and could no longer attack. Meanwhile, the 8th Army were beginning to prepare for a punch, and this time it would be properly planned. The 8th Army were going to make sure they had a brick in their hand, and the blow would start the fall of the Afrika Korps which would end in Tunisia in May 1943.

Image Credits:
alchetron.com, www.worldwarphotos.info and nzhistory.govt.nz

The CIA's Air to Air

In 1965 the US launched Operation Rolling Thunder over North Vietnam. Things went poorly for the US at first, with organisational and equipment issues, compounded by political interference. To make matters worse the monsoon weather in the region was proving a massive impediment to accurate navigation let alone bombing. There was at least an answer to the last problem, in Laos the CIA had for many years maintained a small base on top of Phou Pha Thi, a 5,800ft mountain with sheer sides all the way around. There was a single trail leading to the top of this mountain, and so it was judged secure. It was also only 125 miles from Hanoi. In August 1966 a radar beacon was installed at the base and became known as Lima Site 85. Lima was the phonetic name for L, and thus Laos. To US pilots it simply became "Channel 97" which was the frequency the radar beacon could be obtained from. It was able to tell pilots where they were with a margin of error of only a few feet. Over the next two years the system was upgraded several times, and even had the technicians at the base guiding bombing in very bad weather. Navigation and bombing results improved in very quick order.

The radar site on LS-85

It became such an issue for the North Vietnamese that they began to draw up plans to destroy LS-85. Originally the US had expected the sites destruction within six months. All buildings had been fitted with demolition charges, and the personnel were issued small arms for defence. However, it wasn't until January 1968 that the North Vietnamese started operating against the base. An NVA patrol was destroyed on the 10th of January, on the 11th there was an overflight by North Vietnamese aircraft, presumably a reconnaissance run for the mission on the 12th of January.

On that day two specially modified AN-2 Colts were sent to attack the site. These rugged biplanes had been fitted with an assortment of twelve shot 57mm rocket pods and machine guns under the wings. In addition, their cavernous fuselages had been loaded with tubes of 122mm mortar rounds. These were placed vertically with the openings pointing downwards, and a rudimentary set of bomb bay doors fitted. The mission also included other AN-2's, although accounts differ on how many. Some say one other plane, others say two. But these stood off and orbited the attack, obviously serving as either a master bomber, or equipped with navigation devices to find the site.

 As luck would have it, there was a US aircraft nearby. A lone UH-1 Huey from Air America was making a supply run to the site with ammunition. This UH-1 was flown by Ted Moore. Moore had been a UH-1 gunship pilot in the early years of the Vietnam War, before rotating back to the states as an instructor. He was then recruited to fly in Air America. As they approached LS-85 they saw the two attacking AN-2's clumsily looping and diving on the site, Moore said it looked like something out of the First World War. Unfortunately, his current Huey was utterly unarmed. Then his co-pilot, Glenn Woods, scrambled out of his seat, and grabbed an AK-47 they were carrying as a survival rifle. Woods slid open the side door and perched himself on the runner, as Moore gave chase.

A couple of Air America UH-1's at the LS-85 landing strip.

Over the next twenty minutes, the UH-1 chased one of the Colts, with Woods firing several magazines at the AN-2. Back at LS-85 a local guerrilla had managed to hit one of the Colt's with several rounds from his AK-47, which forced the attacker to break off. As Moore was flying above the AN-2 he was chasing, his downwash was disrupting the airflow over the plane and reducing its speed, so the second Colt was able to catch up. In short order both aircraft crashed, within three miles of each other presumably from the hits from small arms they had suffered. The remaining AN-2's that had been circling LS-85 left the area without taking any offensive action. This was the first (and likely only) time a biplane was shot down by a helicopter, it was also one of the few air-to-air kills the CIA has on its records (or at least admits to!). Moore would leave Air America and become a stockbroker.

LS-85 would remain in operation for another few weeks. Unbeknown to the US forces the North Vietnamese had been planning a special forces attack for some time. Around forty men had been undergoing rigorous physical training, especially in mountaineering. They had been observing the site since about December 1967. On the 10th of March 1968 regular units of about 3,000 men surrounded the base, and began to bombard it with artillery. Overnight the special forces had been scaling the sheer cliffs, and by 0345 the next morning were within 30 meters of the base, at which point they launched their attack.

Lay out of LS-85 radar beacon

Large numbers of the USAF technicians manning the site were killed in the initial assault, all the equipment was disabled. A small group of personnel managed to form a defensive position on the edge of the sheer drop down the side of the mountain. At the airstrip the special forces assault had run into guerrilla positions and had failed, leaving the North Vietnamese fighting desperately to prevent being overrun. At around 0700, Air America helicopters arrived, the first landed at the air strip to evacuate US personnel. Later in a daring rescue attempt another UH-1 hovered, out of ground effect alongside the mountain face, while under small arms fire to pluck the last wounded personnel from the mountain. Of note, was Master Sergeant Richard Loy Etchberger. He helped load wounded onto the helicopter, at the same time kept on fighting off the attacking North Vietnamese special forces. With the last wounded man aboard Sgt Etchberger climbed into the helicopter himself, only to be hit and killed by a bullet, the same bullet over penetrated his body and stuck the co-pilot’s AK-47 shattering it. Sgt Etchberger was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour. But LS-85 had fallen and would remain in enemy hands for a few months until they abandoned it. The USAAF would return in a couple of days and flatten every building left standing.

Image credits:
www.soc.mil and www.thegtrider.com

Sabres in Hand

On September 1st 1939, A Polish cavalry regiment spotted some Germans loitering in a clearing near Krojanty. The 18th Pomeranian Uhlans launched a charge at these invaders. The infantry regiment was caught off guard and quickly over run, before breaking, leaving the Polish cavalry in charge of the battlefield. Shortly afterwards a group of German Armoured cars appeared. The Uhlans immediately, and very sensibly fled, trying to break contact, but took heavy casualties during their flight. The next day an Italian war correspondent was brought to the battlefield (presumably after a clean-up of the remains of the German infantry regiment), the Germans advanced the lies that the Poles had tried to charge tanks. The Italian then published the story as an eyewitness account, and the myth of the Polish Cavalry charge against armour was born and lives on to this day.

Polish Uhlan. That's not a lance on his back either, but an anti-tank rifle.

However, the Poles weren't stupid enough to mount futile cavalry charges. At the Battle of Mokra on the same date the German 4th Panzer Division ran into the 21st Uhlans, who fought as infantry, and their 37mm anti-tank guns and anti-tank rifles gave the German armour a kicking, knocking out around fifty tanks. The Polish cavalry arm consisted of some 10% of the deployable army of the time, with about 38 regiments of cavalry. Many of these Poles would escape to the USSR, and when the Red Army formed its Polish units, cavalry formations were created as well. In the Red Army the cavalry was used more as dragoons (Equivalent to motorised infantry in more modern armies). The Polish cavalrymen were very unhappy with the horses they were given in the Red Army, seeing the horses as tiny little things, indeed one cavalry man would later state they looked like "Jesus astride a donkey!" due to the size of the mounts. After crossing into Poland, the cavalrymen were able to obtain proper mounts for themselves.

On the 1st of March 1945, as the Soviets pushed into Pomerania, the 2nd Polish Infantry Division found themselves facing the third line defences of the Germans around Borujsko. Ahead of them they could see an anti-tank ditch, and some hints of trenches. There were bunkers with machine guns as well. Manning these was the battle hardened 163 Infantry Division. What the attackers could not see was the heavily camouflaged positions, which each contained a couple of men and a stack of Panzerfausts. These littered the approach to the German front line and were described as being laid out in a chessboard like pattern. Borujsko itself sits on a low hill, and the ground around it is wet and boggy.

After an opening bombardment, that included air strikes, lasting around thirty minutes the first Polish attack was launched. Supported by four T-34/85's, with SU-85's in over-watch, the Infantry were soon pinned and two of the tanks had been destroyed. The Poles aborted their attack and fell back to re-organise and try again later. Another component of the plan was the 1st Independent Cavalry Brigade. This formation was to follow the attack in, and when the Germans broke, they were to exploit the opening. A new infantry regiment was cycled in to launch the attack, with fourteen T-34/85's, each with tank infantry riders on the back. Again, five SU-85s were to provide over-watch cover. This attack started at 1500 and was a total disaster. Over the next forty-five minutes the Polish forces tried three times to close with the German defences, and each time they were repulsed with heavy casualties. Most of the tanks had fallen prey to the Panzerfausts, and were burning away, creating a thick layer of smoke to the front of the German positions.

Suddenly, over the battlefield a single red signal rocket burst. The two lead squadrons of cavalry had worked their way forward using dead ground, now using his own initiative one of the junior commanders had yelled "Lancers! Sabres in Hand!" and signalled the charge. The two squadrons raced forward, seemingly to their doom, flowing past smashed burning tanks, and pinned infantry, who lying there would glance up as the horses thundered by.

Polish Cavalry in the late war. Picture is reportedly taken in Borujsko.

 The thick smoke thrown off from the tanks blocked all visibility from the German trench lines, and what could a man armed with a Panzerfaust do against a horse? The anti-tank ditch provided no protection either, as the horses simply leapt over them, as they did the German trenches. Any German who was found was cut down by sabre thrust. The Germans began to break and flee the charging cavalry. After breaking through the cavalry mustered at a nearby wooded area, dismounted, and leaving their horses under guard returned as infantry to attack any German strong points from behind. This coincided with a renewed attack, with extra armour from the front. By 1700 Borujsko was firmly in Polish hands.

Scanlon's Knock-Out Punch

There is a constant problem in doing these articles. Sources can conflict quite badly. Sometimes you need to glue snippets together from multiple sources, other times they seem contradictory, so let’s see how we get on this week!

We start, early one morning with a French farmhouse near Issy les-Moulineaux before the First World War. Out of nowhere a 37mm shell smashed into the farmhouse and ploughed through the building. The projectile was recovered and there was much curiosity as to where this could have come from. Such a projectile was normally used by the Navy, but there were hundreds of miles between them and the nearest naval firing range. Equally, all the eyewitnesses had not reported a gunshot being heard. A local newspaper reporter then got onto the case and begun investigating this curiosity. He very quickly worked out what had happened. It was a stray round fired by a Voisin aircraft that had been testing 37mm guns fitted to planes for the French military. This, by the limited source we have, solved the mystery to the satisfaction of everyone who heard about it, but upset the authorities who had wanted to keep this project rather more secret.

A Voisin IV, with its 37mm gun

The plane’s designer, Gabriel Voisin, had a history of strapping large guns to planes, having first displayed such a weapon on a plane in 1912. Although that plane never flew, and it is unrecorded what type of plane this experimental model was as the internet seems to confirm that the first such 37mm armed aircraft was the Voisin IV of 1915, and yet some sources state that a squadron of 37mm aircraft were used to defend Paris at the start of the war.

Voisin's 1912 display piece.

Voisin's best efforts with this new project would be rewarded, when it is claimed two US aircrew from the Lafayette Escadrille in a Voisin aircraft, with a 37mm mounted in the rear seat of a plane, managed to score a direct hit on a German plane on the 10th of January 1915.

The pilot was stated as Norman Prince, who was born in Beverly, Massachusetts in 1887. He had ties to France with an estate being bought there by his family in 1910. In January 1915 he travelled to France to persuade the French authorities to set up the Lafayette Escadrille, which became operational in 1916. For that reason, I fear we can assume the date of the air to air kill was wrong.

Norman Prince

Prince would serve in the Lafayette Escadrille until October, when with four kills under his belt he flew an escort mission for bombers hitting the Mauser works at Oberndorf. During the mission he achieved his fifth air to air victory. On return to his base, as he was approaching the landing strip, he flew too low and his undercarriage caught on a set of telegraph wires, and his plane crashed killing him.

Bob Scanlon

The gunner on the aircraft was listed as being Bob Scanlon, a person much harder to locate documents for. He was born in 1886 in Mobile, Alabama (or Milwaukee...). As a black he found life in the Land of the Free very unpleasant and soon moved abroad at the age of 16. His first job was a cowboy in Mexico, but he then moved to the UK as a middleweight boxer. Up until 1914 he lived in London working several of the boxing event clubs there. In 1914 he seemed to have moved to Paris. When war broke out he appears to have joined the French Army serving in the front line, at first with the Foreign Legion, then the regular Army. A newspaper story mentions Scanlon by name, when woken during an alert one night he grabs his rile and scrambles up out of his bunker and onto the firing step. He stands there with his rifle until stand down is called. It is at this point the exhausted Scanlon realizes he had grabbed a plank of wood used for shoring up the bunkers rather than his rifle. To make matters worse an inspection is immediately called, there he was, with no rifle in the middle of an alert! Scanlon snapped to attention shouldering the plank and hoped that the officer will not notice. The inspecting officer halted and stared at Scanlon. This officer was quite provincial, and not familiar with Colonial regiments, or the novelty of meeting an American. He assumed it was some traditional tribal weapon, and thus a good display of bloodthirstiness and eagerness to get to grips with the Germans, congratulated Scanlon and moved on.

By December 1915 (Or January 1916) Scanlon had moved to the machine gun company of his battalion, when he suffered an injury to the hand in the closing days of Verdun. This seems to have caused him to be discharged out of service. There is a newspaper article mentioning Scanlon, and it is entitled "Chops of finger to stay in the war", although details are non existent. Thus, it is likely that Scanlon could have joined Lafayette Escadrille as a gunner after this time, with his expertise in a machine guns serving him in good stead for a role as an aircraft gunner.

After the war Scanlon returned to boxing, living in Paris, until 1923 (or 1927). By one account his boxing career was ended when a jealous woman shot him! With that he seems to fade from the records.

Image credits:
www.ww1-planes.com and boxrec.com

Operation Gutesholz

At 1400, on 27th June 1944 the guns around Rauray, almost due west of Caen, fell silent. Both the Germans and British forces had agreed a local truce to allow recovery of the wounded. The village of Rauray had been the focal point for the British attack that had been rolling on for the last few days. Rauray had been selected as the objective, because it was on the high ground, and a British attack was to pass underneath this position as part of the larger battle for Caen. If the Germans had been left in position, they would have had full observation across the attack, and had a perfect jumping off point for an attack into the flank of the Scottish 15th Division. To give you an idea of the severity of the fighting, earlier a company of the 11th Durham Light Infantry, consisting of two platoons, and seventy men had been reduced to just six uninjured. On the German side a company of Panzer Grenadiers was down to just 21 men.  During the truce, at 1600 the Germans withdrew, considering their position untenable in the short term, and left the British in charge of the ruined ground.

Clearing a sniper in Rauray.

The remains of the exhausted 11th DLI battalion occupied Rauray itself. In support was the 1st Tyneside Scottish battalion. Over the next couple of days, they pushed out from their position but met stiff German resistance, and were subjected to particularly heavy Nebelwerfer barrages. The resistance came from Kampfgruppe Weidinger, which was made up of elements from the 2nd SS Panzer Division. By the 1st of July the 1st Tyneside has extended their line to the south east of Rauray and linked up with the Kings Own Scottish Borderers. The 1st Tyneside's positions were not entirely random. Previously they had reconnoitered the area looking for good defensive positions. Most of the area was bocage, with limited fields of fire. However, A company was sited in a large five cornered field, which gave several hundred meters view range. Into this field were deployed several of the 1st Tynesides surviving 6-pounder anti-tank guns. The others were dispersed where they could find the best fields of fire along the relatively open front. In addition, two dummy guns were set up to further confuse the Germans. To their rear was the Suffolk Yeomanry.

Early on the 1st of July the Germans launched a major attack. Kampfgruppe Weidinger was reinforced by the 9th SS Panzer Division and this mass of tanks and Germans advanced on the battered battalions around Rauray. The German objective was not to take Rauray, but head for Cheux. Rauray, and the positions to the south east were directly across the German's axis of attack. In doing so they would slice off the head of the British salient extending past Caen, and cripple British forces in Normandy. Von Rundstedt saw this as their last chance to throw the Allies back into the channel. The initial opening looked very very promising. The attack started at 0600, and by 0630 the 1st Tyneside company that had been the focal point of the attack was reported as falling back through the Suffolk Yeomanry's positions. All that stood in the way of this mass of armour were a handful of 6-pounders.

Those 6-pounders however had a secret weapon, super velocity rounds. These days more commonly called APDS these days, this was likely the first real test of this brand-new projectile. But initially it caused problems. Brian Stewart, commander of the 1st Tyneside's anti-tank platoon reported that the gunners were caught out by the velocity of the shots, and most of the rounds fired went high. However, the range was short and some would have struck. It is likely that after the initial opening salvo's the 6-pounders had used up their scarce few APDS shots and started firing good old fashioned APCBC, with telling results.
Due to the unusually open terrain, at least for Normandy, the Germans found themselves in a rather horrific crossfire. Tanks from the 24th Lancers had moved up to support the 11th DLI in Rauray and were on the left of the German attack. The 1st Tyneside's 6-pounders were on the right-hand side of the attack, and the Suffolk Yeomanry were blocking the front.

Moving a 6-pounder by hand.

There is an account from the Suffolk Yeomanry's after-action report, where a German tank flanks a pair of anti-tank guns and begins to lay accurate fire on them, causing causalities. One of the gun Sergeants, by the name of Hall, rallied the survivors and formed an ad-hoc gun grew. These men then manhandled their gun 350 yards to bring it into a new firing position. They got their gun ready to fire, and just in time. A Tiger used a burning enemy tank that had been previously knocked out to advance into a hull down position. Two rounds were fired, the second one causing the Tiger to brew up. A second Tiger attempted the advance in exactly the same way. The crew had the range perfectly and only needed one round to destroy it. Shortly afterwards a Panzer IV became engaged with the gun team. A fierce firefight broke out, and several men were wounded, and one killed. However, the Panzer IV was destroyed. Then a packet of four or more German tanks attacked. This was too much for the infantry who retreated, leaving Sgt Hall's mauled gun team to hold them off. In the bitter fighting that followed it seems that Sgt Hall knocked out or destroyed two of them.

This crossfire, and the stubborn resistance by the Suffolk Yeomanry blunted the German attack. Later that day, around 1100 they shifted their axis of attack northwards and closer to Rauray. The Suffolk's, DLI, 1st Tynesides and 24th Lancers, although battered and exhausted kept on fighting holding the Germans with bitter fighting. By 1700 the Germans retreated. The exact losses the Germans suffered is hard to tell. But as an example, Kampfgruppe Weidinger lost 48 vehicles from all causes. The 9th SS Panzer Division, on the 2nd of July reported the following vehicles operational, 10 Panzer IV's, 19 Panthers and Stug III's. Upon hearing of the results of the battle, Von Rundstedt was asked, what do we do know? To which he responded "Make peace, you fool!".

Attacking prepared massed anti-tank guns is expensive in tanks, as the British would find out in Op Goodwood. However, there was one huge difference between the German attack at Rauray and Op Goodwood. The British actually managed to take ground, the Germans failed.

Image credits:
www.militaryimages.net and www.dday-overlord.com

Bouncing Bazooka's

About two months ago I mentioned, on my Facebook page, a friend in the US by the name of Harold Biondo. Now he's a lucky bloke, and gets to spend his time leafing through the US Archives. He recently came up trumps again, finding this testing report:

At first glance It's pretty earth-shattering stuff. Tanks with Zimmerit on them are proof against Bazooka's and presumably other early shaped charge warheads like the PIAT! Simply by providing a cushioning effect against the fuse. However, this report provides an ideal example for you historians on critical thought, and how to deal with sources. Now, I have no doubt that some of the doggy denizens of the internet who have vested interests will try to make much of the claims held within the above letter, I saw enough of that with the Japanese heavy tanks from my first book, but it’s something we'll have to bear as long as there's free access to the internet.

First, let’s review what we do know about Zimmerit. Zimmerit was born out of a problem that was facing all nations. Technology was advancing fast enough that tank armour was pretty quickly leaving infantry anti-tank weapons behind. After the opening salvos of the war it became pretty clear that anti-tank rifles were not going to do the job any more, so everyone started scrambling for ways to defeat the armour. For example, Britain produced the No 68 anti-tank grenade which could be fired from a cup discharger from a normal service rifle. This was a pretty poor warhead but did have the advantage of starting research that would eventually culminate in the PIAT, but that is a story for another time (and is going into a book!). In the meantime, Britain used the sticky bomb, a kind of hand thrown HESH round which you could use to beat a tank to death with.

Note the guy on the right? He's about to smash his sticky bomb onto the hull of this Valentine "Panzer", at which point the sticky glue will hold the bomb in place and allow the explosive gel to spread. At the same time, when the safety lever is released it starts a short time fuse before detonating.

In Germany thoughts turned to HEAT weapons as well and resulted in the Hafthohlladung. Unlike the sticky bomb, which used glue to affix itself, the Hafthohlladung used strong magnets. Now weapon development in Germany during the war was one of trying to stay one step ahead of everyone. You can clearly see it when you look at tanks. Each generation of AFV's would be one up on the previous generation as Germany tried to introduce the answer to their own tank design. This ensured that if any of the Allies tried to match them, they would be ahead and have better tanks. Of course, this all went horribly wrong when the Allies reached the level of the Sherman and happily stayed there, while the Germans kept on devoting massive amounts of time and energy to getting the newest thing.

As they kept designing the counter to their own weapons, the obvious concern was the magnetic anti-tank mine. This is where Zimmerit arrived. It was a paste designed to be added to the tank that would cause any magnetic mines to fall off. When applied it could be allowed to dry naturally, but this would take eight days. By using a blow torch this could be sped up to two days to coat a tank. The use of a torch started considerable fires as the solvents used in the application were burnt off, but the time saved was considered worth it. Earlier I mentioned that Germany spent a lot of time and effort preparing for an enemy weapon that was not yet in the field, and here is a prime example. In the ten or so months that Zimmerit was applied to German tanks roughly 15,000 tanks and AFV's were produced. Please do note this is a very rough figure to illustrate the point. At two days per tank that equates to 82 years worth of work just to apply the Zimmerit!

Zimmerit was discontinued from September 1944, which leads us back to the original report quite nicely. You'll note that Captain John Long states that tanks equipped with this covering were only encountered in Belgium. Most of Belgium was captured in September to November 1944, which seems to tie up quite nicely with Zimmerit service. But there are additional problems with his account, which illustrate why eyewitness reports are so notoriously difficult.

Tiger turret nicely showing off the Zimmerit, as some areas have been knocked off.

First, he states the colour as green-grey (possibly German field grey?), but 15% of the composition of Zimmerit is pigment, which gives it an ochre colour. Next he states that the thickness of the covering was 6.35-19.05mm. Yet every other source I can find states that the Zimmerit layer was between 4-6mm. It could be Cpt Long misremembering the facts, as this report seems to have been generated sometime after February 1945. Or it can be explained away, by such factors as painting the tank and dodgy measurement taking.

That last point applies in spades to the rest of the report. Those of you who have seen reports from grown ups at dedicated trials departments will know that every aspect of the trial is documented. Often batch lots of ammo are recorded. Indeed, in testing one form of protection, one trials department had to source ammunition from a particular batch, from a particular factory, that had gone out of production the year before just to ensure consistency in the trials. This involved the British logistics system scouring its depots for boxes of ammo that had not been yet fired off (You'll be glad to hear, that it was successful, the testing proved the facts, and the Germans got a hell of a surprise when they found themselves on the wrong end of a WASP flamethrower and couldn't kill it).

So here we are to ask so many questions of Cpt Longs trials. What was the fusing like, the angle of impact, what type of warhead and rocket (the M6 Bazooka rocket was notoriously unreliable)? Also, what was the expected result? This last point should be considered as the text talks about rockets not sticking in the covering... was this something you were expecting? Why? We don't even know the number of rockets fired. There are just too many variables not recorded in this report, so we cannot say why Cpt Long got the results he did.

What we do know is that HEAT warheads were killing German tanks with Zimmerit, and that the Germans stopped applying it from September 1944. if it was so effective at stopping incoming HEAT warheads you can bet the Germans would have been plastering it all over their tanks, yet they did not. This would indicate the problem was with Cpt Long's methodology. This is why you should always be careful of badly documented reports of trials carried out by troops in the field!

Still a damn interesting find by Harold, so our thanks to him for letting me share it with you.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrt!

 Last week we looked at the background to the mighty A-10 and its development, now we continue the story.

The A-10 has been made famous by its weapon, the GAU-8 Avenger. A weapon so massive that the A-10 has to have a special jack under its tail should the GAU-8 be removed for servicing. The weapon itself is offset to one side, and the barrel that fires is actually the 9 o'clock one. This barrel is the one on the centreline of the aircraft. In later years it would be related to another US procurement mess. 

Video doesn't seem to be working correctly, so here's a link. http://i.imgur.com/2TFpP1G.gif

In the mid to late 1970's the US Army was facing a number of new issues, mostly helicopters performing pop-up attacks and a new generation of vehicles, the M1 Abrams and M2 Bradley's entering service. The later had a higher degree of mobility than previous chassis and would therefore leave those older vehicles behind. This included the M163 Vulcan and Chaparral SAM's. For that reason, the US Army instigated the Advanced Radar-directed Gun Air Defence System (ARGADS) program. The hull in all versions was to be a M48A5 with a new engine, and rear deck. This seems utterly perplexing, as this would not have been able to keep up with the new front-line equipment either. 

Several companies were invited to tender designs. These included General Electric with an AA vehicle based around the GAU-8. All four entrants received a designation number. Although there has been no documentation to confirm it, it is likely the General Electric’s entry was given the number XM248. This is down to published numbers of all the other competitors, XM246 (General Dynamics), XM247 (Ford) and XM249 (Sperry Rand). There was a fifth competitor in the shape of Raytheon, but they were proposing a German Gepard turret mounted on the M48 chassis, and it is not entirely clear what happened to this project. 

The General Electric entry, with its GAU-8 was only ever created as a model. But one can get an idea of how devastating it could have been. On 7th of November 1979 an A-10 was used to attack a company of tanks, spread out in an attack formation. These tanks were M47's, fully stowed with ammo and fuel. The A-10 made ten passes, with one quick burst per tank, a total of 174 rounds were fired (total ammo capacity for an A-10 is over 1,000 rounds by the way). Each burst lasted for about 0.57 seconds. 

Interestingly, the attack angle for this was only about 3-4 degrees, so the A-10 must have been almost flat to the ground! This dive angle was to simulate the nap of the earth flying needed to avoid Soviet air defences. 

Of the 174 rounds fired, ninety rounds hit the vehicles, thirty of which penetrated the tanks armour. Three of the tanks were destroyed, four more were immobilized, of which two had their main armament destroyed and one final tank suffered a minor degradation in its ability to use its main gun. Thus, the A-10 had rendered an entire company combat ineffective as only two tanks were still operational, and a third mostly operational. 

The ARGADS project seemed to roll on for a while, and then was re-named to DIVisional Air Defence System (DIVADS). At this point General Electric brought out their scale model, re-worked it with a new radar fit, and new optics modelled on and resubmitted. Of the competitors only the Ford (XM247) and General Dynamics (XM246) designs were selected for comparative trials. In a shootout the XM246 thrashed the XM247. The XM246 achieved twice the number of hits, at over twice the range of the Ford entry. By the end of the shoot out the XM246 had shot down fifteen helicopters and the Ford just 8. 

So, the contract was awarded to the Ford with the XM247 becoming the ill-fated Sgt York SPAA. I have no idea how this happened, but I suspect the words "Congress" and "Committee" will be included somewhere. 

If you read the US Air defence journals.. this is the most awesome Air defence tank of all time...

The Sgt York went on to perform disastrously badly, on one occasion managing to lock onto the spinning blades of a ventilator fan on a toilet block on the range. Another time, the gun locked onto, and laid its guns onto, the viewing stands containing large numbers of the Army's brass, only to be prevented from firing by the gunner. 

As the Army had no other backup they continued to press forward with the project. Eventually Congress stepped in again, this time for good. The Sgt York was ordered to be put through a series of battlefield tests to prove it was capable. At first the Sgt York could not score hits on the drones, even when just flying along in a straight line. So, the drones were just set to hover, and still the Sgt York missed. In the end the drones were covered in radar reflectors to increase the strength of the radar return. Further tests and checks showed that while the gun was sufficient the tracking and laying system was fault ridden. Operational reliability was given as just 33%, which means that only 1/3 of all Sgt Yorks would be working at any one particular time. In 1985 the program was terminated.

Image credits:

AW upcoming releases and media.defense.gov