Plans

In the run up to Christmas, getting some building work done, and fervently hunting for a new job I completely failed to get an article done for this week.
However, while leafing through my documents folders, in a dusty corner which I don't visit too much I found a sub-folder marked "Plans". Upon closer inspection it wasn't plans for world domination or how to make a million doing history, but plans for assorted tanks. Ah-ha I think, I know a few interested historians who'd like to see those, and so I'll post those.

Before we do, I just want to say thank you to a couple of people.


First to Dean Bartle for his generous donation through Paypal (historylisty-general@yahoo.co.uk).
Next to fatoler and KbdNoOni for donating through Patron


Thanks to you all for reading, and a Merry Christmas, or if it all gets on your nerves Bah-Humbug!

Right to the tanks, also, if you're using a mobile device, check your Wi-fi is on!

A.17 Tetrarch:

M10C Achilles

Now those of you who are exceptionally observant will notice a few interesting points on these plans. First it is listed as the SP3. This was a brief alternative classification used by the British towards the end of the Second World War, standing for Self-Propelled. SP1 and SP2 were, if memory serves, the Alecto and the Archer, but I forget which got which number. SP4 was a mysterious beast, a Centurion with a 32-pounder gun. While there are pictures of Centurions with 32-pounders, these seem to be separate to the SP4. So far all that has been found is a single document on the subject, which covers the ammo handling inside the vehicle, and that fails to include a picture of what the tank looked like.
The other interesting point in these plans are it includes the extra armour that the M10 was sometimes fitted with. You can just see the armour on this vehicle, under all the stowage.

A.43 Black Prince:

 

M3A3 Stuart:

A.39 Tortoise:

The MBT-70 story (part two)

A few weeks ago, you'll remember me putting up an article on how TACOM scrapped the MBT-70 prototype. Well there has been some movement to the story, but not one that ends with someone getting double timed into an office for an interview without coffee and a "chance to explore new career options", as far as anyone can tell. 

First, we need the full background. The site where most of the destroyed kit was being housed was rented and closed in 2017. The landowner requested that all the military equipment that was still there be cleared away. Thus, with no-where to store the items TACOM decided to start gas axing exhibits. 

Upon hearing of this the owner of another museum requested that the exhibits be moved to him. This request was not dealt with by the relevant office; indeed, it seems to have been ignored. By this time the scrapping alluded to in the previous article was done. 

The other collection then contacted senator Richard Blumenthal, who started creating a bit of noise and asking some pointed questions. TACOM responded agreeing that the treatment of the other museum had been wrong, and they had received poor customer service. They then shot back that the other collection did not meet the exact requirements to be considered a museum, and thus they could not dispose of the items to this second location. Which all seems a little bit too much like trying to deflect blame to me. 

TACOM's "defence" letter

 

The picture that was supplied with above letter to prove the MBT-70 was too dangerous!

Another vehicle that was given the chop, but its not American, so no one cares... according to TACOM

Anyway, TACOM also said there were other reasons why the exhibits were destroyed. For several the answer was "They are not American items, so no one cares" or words to that effect. The other reason was because the exhibits were a bit rusty and thus not safe to be a display piece. Unless this is a new sort of rust that generates airborne toxins, massive amounts of ionising radiation or spontaneously explodes, I feel that someone is grasping at straws. 

I say this because I am qualified and have done quite a bit in the Health and Safety field, and my approach to such a problem would be to make a display where the tank is a safe distance away from the public, if there is any danger of a collapse. Either way, it’s not TACOM's call to make, it’s up to the organisation who would be displaying it. As the very blurred shot (and the unblurred shot of the tank) shows the suspension is in very bad shape. But the MBT-70 had hydro-pneumatic suspension, so its likely collapsed as there is no fluid. That means the bottom of the hull has rested on the ground and is likely where the rust is. But the sides of the tank would still form a solid footing to prevent a collapse. 

Such Danger! How would anyone survive visiting Bovington... I mean it'd be utterly foolhardy to place a car park next to this hazard!

But I can understand your reluctance of believing some bloke on the net, so let’s look at another example. Bovington Tank Museum. One suspects they know rather a lot about displaying tanks and safety of their visitors. At the overflow car park, they have several display pieces that are pretty much giant lumps of rust. They have unfortunately, I fear, been classified as restoration impossible, and so have been parked out there to await their fate. This include some very rare tanks such as the Churchill Gun Carrier. Yet, despite the presence of so much very dangerous rust, you can get to within a few feet of them. 

Italians joining in the Gas Axe party.

In other news, OTO Melara has joined in the scrapping madness. They recently are reported to have chopped up a prototype Palmaria hull for scrap. It is thought this was the prototype OF-40 hull as well.

Miss Fit Mavis

On 23 October 1942 a PBY-5a Catalina was flying over the Solomon Sea. Around lunch time she became embroiled in a vicious gun battle with a Japanese H6K4 "Mavis" flying boat, the flying boats battered at each other with their machine guns, the PBY horribly outclassed in firepower and performance by the Japanese plane. The PBY had to stay away from the tail of the H6K4, otherwise the deadly 20mm cannon mounted there would rip them apart. As it was the machine guns would do enough damage. As ponderous dogfight pulled close to a squall, the bright sunlight glinted off the wings of a third plane overhead, which broke off to join in, the crew of the PBY saw the four engined plane in a very steep dive towards them, then lost sight of it.

Moments later the plane burst out of the squall, about fifty feet away from the PBY's tormentor. It had used the cloud to close up with the combat unseen. It was a B-17E, named Miss Fit after a series of faults and one short landing which ripped off the tail. When the prototype B-17 was unveiled it was described by the Seattle Times as a "fifteen ton Flying Fortress", simply because of the large number of guns it carried, Miss Fit now put its arsenal to work. Both the B17 and the H6K4 swung their turrets to bear and began to hammer at each other. Tracers crisscrossed the gap, the planes were almost wing tip to wing tip, and both were shuddering from the vibrations of the guns and the pelting of the bullets. Tracers could be seen ricocheting from both planes like hail.

The H6K4 pulled a tight turn away from Miss Fit, this was to bring the 20mm cannon into play which would have ended the fight straight away. The pilot of Miss Fit increased speed and had to follow the turn on the outside, in a deadly aerobatic manoeuvre. Tracers continued to flash the short distance between the planes, when nature decided to join in. The turn had brought them into the squall, and a torrential downpour lashed both sides. The H6K4 kept on using the rain and cloud to break contact, but every time Miss Fit would chase after him, and each time would catch up. This happened five times. By now the H6K4 was low to the water to prevent the B-17 from getting under him. Then the Japanese plane started to smoke, one of its engines failed and it crashed into the sea. The entire engagement had taken forty-four minutes from start to finish. The bombardier and navigator were both wounded by the storm of fire, although the navigator had remained at his gun. The H6K4 was flown by Takeshi Shimoyamada.

Back at the Shortland seaplane base in the Solomon Islands the 851 Kokutai were awaiting the return of Shimoyamada. When he failed to return the squadron commander was beside himself with anguish. Shimoyamada's plane was the latest to have just vanished while on a mission. All that the base would receive was a morse code signal from the flying boat saying "plane", then silence. A month later the total of lost planes was sixteen, when Lieutenant Tsuneo Hitsuji lifted his H6K4 into the sky on a routine patrol.

Around 0700 Lt Hitsuji's plane spotted another, it was Miss Fit. Lt Hitsuji put his plane into a dive to get as low to the sea as he could, while ordering his crew to battle stations. Miss Fit remained flying above the flying boat and slightly off to the rear starboard. Lt Hitsuji felt that she was radioing in his position. Lt Hitsuji threw his plane into a tight starboard turn, which caught the pilot of Miss Fit off guard, and allowed the H6K4 to pass under the B-17. As she entered the rear gunners arc the 20mm cannon scored several hits causing one engine to start smoking. Miss Fit broke contact and headed for home, while Lt Hitsuji continued his patrol.

The crew of the H6K4 ate their breakfast, then just after they had finished, off to the port heading right towards them came another B-17. The crew manned their guns, and Lt Hitsuji activated a CO2 fire extinguisher in the fuel tanks to fill the tanks with inert gas to prevent a fire, and they were ready. At a height of 30 meters Lt Hitsuji turned for a squall. The B-17 flew alongside out of gun range, then passed in front of the H6K4. Both planes made a head on pass, but neither side scored any hits despite filling the air with as much firepower as they could. The B-17 made several passes, each time from a slight angle to avoid the tail gun. Each time Lt Hitsuji saw the sea behind them turn white with foam from near misses. On the fourth pass the situation deteriorated, Lt Hitsuji could smell smoke, and two crew were wounded. Equally the fuel tank was hit and began to leak into the cockpit. On the sixth pass a .50 round smashed a hole next to Lt Hitsuji's foot which he could see the waves through. 
Sensing the end was near Lt Hitsuji grabbed his pistol and announced his intention to ram if the opportunity presented itself.





The B-17 came thundering in from the side, the co-pilot suddenly dived, which meant that the B-17 crossed directly astern, at a range of 30m. The 20mm in the rear could never ask for a better target and raked the B-17. Lt Hitsuji even leant out of the window and fired a few rounds from his pistol. The B-17 pulled into a turn next to the H6K4, but was not firing as all his gunners were injured or out of ammo. At that point the H6K4 entered the squall and the B-17 was lost from sight. Leaking fuel it limped back to base, where ninety-three holes were counted in her fuselage.

Grand Theft Pig

 Part one can be found here.

On the evening of the 14th of January 1942 the mission, codenamed Operation Postmaster, began and it soon went wrong. The operation was timed perfectly to start at 2330, as that was when the islands power was cut off for the night. This gave lights to steer by in the run up, and then darkness to complete the operation in. However, planning had missed one important fact. Instead of being on the local time, the island was running to Spanish time, and thus the lights would be on for another hour. Luckily the two tugs were able to abort and loiter unseen offshore for an hour.

Ashore a local had been contacted by an SOE agent. The local was deeply opposed to the Nazis and wanted the Axis powers gone from his home island, so was very willing to play along. Through this intermediary a party was arranged for all of the officers from the three Axis ships, and they were all there getting drunk. To ensure the party kept going he had arranged for a supply of paraffin lamps, so there was no need to stop at 2330. Equally the seating plan had all the officer’s backs towards the windows, which looked out onto the harbour. The local agent had also supplied an 'Unusually large amount of alcohol', to quote one of the serving staff. To make matters even better, a large thunderstorm had appeared off the coast, with rolls of thunder in the distance. The SOE agent took a stroll down to the harbour and found many of the Spanish Guardia asleep at their posts.

In the harbour the two tugs entered. One stopped near the harbour mouth to allow canoes to be launched, while the other made a beeline to the Duchessa d'Aosta, and laid alongside she made contact. Immediately the raiders swarmed aboard, covered by Bren guns on the bridge. Despite the gentle contact the tug rebounded after only five men had boarded, so she was nudged in allowing a few more to jump across, then a third such manoeuvre deposited the last of the raiders. The lead commando racing forwards in the dark suddenly crumpled to the deck with a cry. He had not been shot but had tripped over a pig that was wandering around the upper deck. The commando suffered a minor injury in his fall. Storming the bridge, it was found to be deserted, a sweep of below decks found the remaining crew asleep or passed out from that evenings drinking. A few did try to resist, but the coshes soon drummed that idea out of them.

Quickly the commando's slapped plastic charges onto the mooring chains and triggered their detonators. One chain refused to be cut and required a second charge. Then the tugs made for open water, one towing the Duchessa d'Aosta, the other towing the German craft, at the heady speed of three knots.

Ashore the explosions were taken as an air raid, and AA guns opened fire as cries of "Alerto!" could be heard echoing through the city. The Guardia raced to its armouries and every man checked out his rifle, as their officers tried to determine what had happened. At the party, most men were too drunk to stand, although some had staggered to the local brothel. The officers of the two ships collected themselves and in a swaying mass staggered, half undressed, to the harbour, where much to their surprise and incomprehension their ships had simply disappeared. After the confusion had died down both the locals and the Spanish worked out what had happened and were laughing themselves silly at the Axis officers, who were still very very drunk.

At about 0130 the still rather drunk German captain of the Likomba burst into the British consulate and demanded to know what had happened to his ship. The Consul ordered the German out, at which point the German punched the Consul. The Scottish Vice-Consul punched the captain, knocking him to the floor, and ripped out his trusty revolver. Staring down the barrel the German wet himself and followed up by defecating as well. It was in this state he was handed over to the local police.

No trace of the ships, or their attackers could be found. Various rumours were flying around the next day, pinning blame on the Vichy-French, the Free French, the British and even the US or local anti-Spanish pirates. Indeed, the skeleton crew placed on the Duchessa d'Aosta replaced the Italian flag with a skull and crossbones.
The Germans immediately started accusing the British of piracy, stating that a "British destroyer had entered the harbour and dropped depth charges to blow up the anchor cables and the ship's crew were shot"
In reply Britain pointed out that no British ships were in the area (all very true), but reconnaissance had spotted a large ship in the area and ships had been dispatched. In fact, HMS Violet, a Flower Class corvette was planned to bump into the Duchessa d'Aosta, seemingly by accident, as part of the plan, and this response to the Germans gave them a perfect cover story.

HMS Violet

In total twenty-seven Italian men and one female, an African and one pig were taken prisoner. Apart from the injuries suffered by the commando tripping over, and a few bruises for the Italians no injuries to either side were suffered. All the prisoners, (minus the pig I expect) were interned in a special internment camp in the middle of the jungle, about 150 miles from anywhere. This was done to prevent word of the raid leaking out, they remained there for the rest of the war.

The Duchessa d'Aosta was sailed to Scotland, in July she caught fire and sunk, but was refloated, and renamed to Empire Yukon. She then served for the rest of the war before being sold off to a Canadian company. In 1951 the Canadians sold her back to Italy, and a year later she was scrapped.

U-boat Safari (Part one)

On the morning of 9th of August 1941 a 65 ton Brixham trawler named Maid Honour chugged slowly out of Poole harbour. Its destination was the west coast of Africa, to target the U-boats that were prowling around the area. These U-boats had been reported as using the rivers of Vichy French controlled areas as refuelling and rest stops. Here they could tie up on the surface and relax without the threat of a British escort heaving into view over the horizon. The plentiful cover would also keep them safe from aircraft observation. Maid Honour however had a trick up her sleeve. Looking utterly innocent with nothing warlike on deck other than winching gear, she was shallow draught and could too sail up the rivers. Upon spotting a U-boat one of the pieces of winching gear would suddenly turn out not to be so innocent. The trawler was fitted with a Blacker Bombard, which to the casual observer, would look nothing like a gun. In fact, it could quite happily fire a 20lb HESH round several hundred yards. With said weapon the Maid Honour could happily mallet any submarine with a few swift blows.

The main armament of the Maid Honour.

On board as crew were five men of the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF), armed to the teeth with Bren and Tommy guns, as well as lots of knives and some explosives. Another fifty men were to travel by other means to rendezvous with the Maid Honour at Freetown in Sierra Leone. Described as a 'Bunch of Hooligans', all the men had gone through Commando training, and were recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Their commander was briefed that should opportunities for other mayhem occur that he was to use his initiative.

I'm no expert on fishing boats, but this is the closest of what I think the Maid Honour would have looked like.

After a six-week voyage around the coast of France, looking like an innocent trawler sailing along, the Maid Honour arrived unmolested by the Germans, and the search for U-boats began. It soon became apparent that there were no U-boats using the rivers of West Africa. But other opportunities for mayhem were present. The Spanish owned harbour of Fernando Po, on the island of Santa Isabel off the coast of Africa held three vessels of interest. These were the Italian merchant Duchessa d'Aosta, weighing in with 8,500 tons. Her manifest was given as a variety of wools, textiles, leathers, asbestos and 1.1 million ingots of copper. However, SOE agents were able to find out that the first page of the manifest had not been submitted and the suspicion rose that she was carrying arms and ammunition. She also had a powerful radio transmitter fitted that could pass on ship movements. The rules of neutral ports stated the radio should be blocked while in port, but this one was still in operation. The Duchessa d'Aosta had arrived some time in 1940, and not yet left. Equally she was captained by a hard-line pro-Nazi. All this led to the suspicion she was a spy ship. There was also a German ship called the Likomba. Some sources describe it as a tug, others as a supply ship. There was also a third ship in the port, also German, which was a large barge called Bibundi. A plan was drawn up to sink the German and Italian vessels, as the Maid Honour had limpet mines and collapsible canoes it would be simplicity itself to sink all three vessels. However, the fear was such an action would cause Spain to enter into the Axis.

The Admiralty thought this operation sounded like a brilliant idea and gave the go ahead in November. However, the commander of West Africa refused to co-operate warning this was an action against a neutral power and might look like piracy. He found allies in the Foreign Office, who were worried about the Spanish reaction. Eventually after several months of negotiations the go-ahead was given. The Foreign Office demanded that there be no evidence of British involvement.

Thus, the SOE began gathering intelligence. First airborne photographs were obtained, by a local agent hiring a Spanish pilot for an airborne tour of the island, during which he took some pictures of the harbour which just happened to show the ships locations. This agent’s camera skills also came into use when he took some photographs of the Spanish governor, quite naked, with his mistress. These were discretely shown to the Governor, who very graciously agreed to relax security surveillance against the British community on the island. This gave the SOE more room to operate.

Captioned to be Axis ships in Fernando Po. If so the main vessel might be the Duchessa d’Aosta, although there are differences between the above picture and the one posted earlier. So this maybe the German contingent.

A British priest was then contacted, who rather joyfully agreed to assist the war effort. In a disguise he got onboard the Duchessa d’Aosta and found some useful information. The crews of the ships were essentially sitting in a safe port, getting paid to do nothing. Thus, they spent most of their time partying, whoring and drinking. Indeed, all three captains had become regular drinking buddies and would spend most nights ashore. In such an environment security was utterly lax as nothing would ever happen to them in their safe port...

In 11th January 1942 Operation Postmaster was commenced. Maid Honour was utterly unsuited to this mission so had been sold. In her place were two tugs graciously donated by the Governor of Nigeria, along with seventeen men handpicked by the SSRF's leader. These joined four SOE men, and eleven SSRF commandos. Training carried on throughout the journey, until on the 14th they were in position to strike. On the day, in sight of the volcanic cone of Santa Isabel, cold rations were issued, as the galley was being used to shape explosive charges. In addition to other weapons, coshes were issued. These were made from 12in steel bolts sheathed in rubber.

Part two can be found here.

Image Credits:
www.britishempire.co.uk and www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk

Happy Birthday

Those of you whom have read my articles for a long time will have spotted a trend not to cover German forces in the Second World War too much. There is a reason for this. Most simply, German forces tend to be over represented and covered already, and analysed to a ridiculous degree, so the likelihood is that the article is not that new. Equally, for some reason exploits of the SS forces tend to attract even more coverage than you would expect. A few times I've been looking at an interesting article, until I find out the German involved is in the SS, and instantly gets himself deleted from the to do pile. While there is some mileage in the Wehrmacht not being bad guys, and I have covered Wehrmacht soldiers before when they have a good story, for those in the SS there is no defence (although many have tried). However, I recently stumbled across a story about a SS bloke, which I thought I really should cover, so please hold your nose (maybe even literally) and read on.

Josef Dietrich, born on the 28th of May 1892, was an over promoted chauffeur and thoroughly unlikeable bloke. Yet somehow, he managed to end up in charge of 1st SS Panzer Regiment. This unit's main claim to fame was the number of innocent Polish who were massacred by the thugs in uniform during the Polish campaign. In time for the invasion of France and the low countries, the unit had been increased in size to a motorised rifle regiment. During which this force managed to arrive at its primary objective, a bridge, which the Dutch had already blown up. From then on, they just sort of motored about the countryside, once shooting a German student (by accident). Thus, in the 1940 campaign they had never really faced any serious opposition, until they ran headfirst into the rear-guard from the BEF at a place called Wormhout.

After having the town flattened by the Luftwaffe, the 1st SS began to get ready for their assault, which occurred on the following day the 28th of May (yes, Dietrich's birthday). The Germans advanced under cover of artillery and close air support and took over the neighbouring town of Esquelbecq. The British forces there had partially evacuated the previous night, and the HQ had abandoned the chateau. Now Dietrich took it over as his command post.
All the while this was going on Wormhout had been attacked by Stuka's around 0600, with the main advance of the 1st SS arriving at 0745. The town’s defenders are a mixed force taken from the  2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment and 2nd Battalion of the Cheshire’s Regiment. In total there seems to have been some two companies of men, with a couple of heavier weapons, such as machine guns and a 2-pounder or two.

By 0900 the might of the 1st SS division was still being held by the stubborn resistance, and they were losing precious armoured vehicles. About thirty minutes later German infantry try to work their way around the flank of Wormhout, and promptly run in to a Vickers machine gun platoon, which halts any advance on that flank, and indeed keeps the German infantry pinned down in place for the entire morning.

By about midday Dietrich was frustrated by the lack of progress and decided that what the front lines needed was his chauffeur training, and so summoned his personnel vehicle, and an escort and headed for Wormhout.
As they charged forward, they turn a corner and run into a roadblock across the carriageway. A 2-pounder gun immediately started knocking out the escort vehicles, while Dietrich's personal vehicle is riddled with Bren Gun fire from the defending infantry. His driver is killed, and Dietrich and an officer with him are forced to leap out and take cover in a shallow ditch beside the road. Any attempt to move is met with a hail of very accurate Bren Gun fire. What's more, burning fuel from the devastated column started to drain into the ditch, the 2nd officer in the ditch was able to crawl away from the fire to hide in a culvert. However, the burning fuel was between Dietrich and this means of survival. It slowly spread towards him. Dietrich's only course for survival was to smear himself in the mud of the ditch to keep from burning in the heat. As an added bonus, the water, slime and mud in the ditch was actually the runoff form a nearby pig sty so included liberal amounts of pig droppings.

Captioned to be Dietrich's car.

As the day wears on the German advance is going nowhere, to make matters just that bit worse for them the Royal Artillery joins in. Some units try to bayonet charge the defenders yelling "Heil Hitler", and are cut down. However, the constant pressure and lack of ammunition means the defenders start to break. Around 1400, armoured units manage to get round the south of Wormhout and begin to enter with supporting infantry. Around the same time Dietrich was rescued, although the Germans lost a further three armoured cars doing so.
For the next few hours the British defences were mopped up and a large number of prisoners were collected. orders were given for the prisoners to be shot, and the Wormhoudt massacre occurred.

After the war Dietrich was accused of the massacre, his defence was it was not him, as he was still in the ditch when the orders occurred. At the time there was no way to disprove this, although recent discoveries show Dietrich issuing orders at 1500, and thus before the massacre. Another officer who was on the hook for the war crime was captured by the Soviets and wasn't released until after the Nuremburg trials were completed. The British, and then the Germans, did try to convict, however, there was a serious problem in acquiring evidence, and despite several attempts no conviction was possible.

The Firsts

At the outbreak of the First World War the Austro-Hungarians immediately attacked their neighbours. The attack went badly. There is a story that the Austro-Hungarians by accident ended up charging across one of the few artillery ranges the Serbians had. This meant the Serbian gunners had some very precise ranging information already known, and thus caused heavy casualties. However, the Austro-Hungarians also had some achievements in the early years of the First World War.

The first was against the Kingdom of Montenegro. Over their artillery positions, in the first days of the war the Austro-Hungarians flew Lohner L flying boats from Kumbor. These planes took pictures of the enemy gun positions below and was arguably the first use of aircraft in the First World War.

Lohner L in flight.

The other first again involved the Lohner L flying boat, flown from the same base. On the morning of 16th September 1915, a flying boat (number L132) was returning from a mission to Durrës. On the way back its observer was scanning the surrounding sea, when he spotted a submarine. Upon landing the information was passed to their commanders who checked to see if it was a friendly submarine. The results were soon back, it was a negative, the submarine was an enemy vessel. The submarine was the French Foucault (Q70).

Another Lohner L, number L135, was armed and dispatched to search for the submarine. About ten nautical miles south-west of Cape Oštro, the submarine was spotted. It seems likely that the aircraft was spotted, although several sources give differing accounts of the exact sequence of events. However, what the accounts do agree on was the submarine was only at around 10 meters depth when the L135 released its two 50kg bombs. These were dropped from an altitude of 200m. Each bomber had a delayed action fuse, which was set to 10 meters as well. Both bombs missed by some 7 meters. Another source has the ship diving after one bomb attack, and then later a second bombing run is carried out.

Either way, the Foucault was diving when the bomb exploded near her stern. The blast caused serve damage, and the submarine started shipping water. A fire is reported in some accounts, and water damage to the electrics in others, which in turn released poisonous fumes. In the choking atmosphere the submarine began to sink into the darkness. At 40m the Foucault passed her test depth, and kept going, the hull creaking and groaning in the fume ridden darkness with water sloshing around the feet of the crew. The 29 souls onboard faced one of several unpleasant deaths.

The Submarine Foucault.

Then, the lights flickered on and the pumps began to whir. By a miracle the engineers had managed to fix the circuits. The Foucault began to ascend and when it finally breached the surface around 30 minutes had gone past. L135 had been joined by L132, both planes were on the verge of abandoning the hunt. The crew began to abandon ship into the rough waters of the Adriatic. The last man off was the captain of the Foucault, who had plunged into the choking atmosphere and opened the seacock to scuttle his boat.

Here the two pilots of L135 and L132 showed their bravery. In the flimsy biplane flying boats they set down on the choppy seas. There was no way they would be able to load all the submarines crew and take off again. Instead they acted as floats, allowing the Frenchmen to cling onto the wings, floats and hull as best they could. After a short while later an Austro-Hungarian torpedo boat arrived to take the crew off. The two officers of the submarine were flown back to Kumbor aboard the flying boats. In this entire encounter not one person had been injured. This was the first recorded sinking of a submarine at sea by an aircraft.

Postcard of the saving of the crew.

The first recorded sinking of a submarine also went to the Austro-Hungarians, when on the night of 9th August 1915 21 aircraft attacked the port of Venice. One of the bombs hit the submarine HMS B10, which sunk. Later she was salvaged, and the Italians began to refit her. The British cautioned against this, however, the warnings were ignored. Then an Italian workman drilled into one of the HMS B10's fuel tanks, which caused an explosion and subsequent fireball. The fires it started could not be controlled, and so the dry-dock had to be flooded, utterly wrecking the HMS B10 again. At this point the Italians stripped the submarine of whatever they could and scrapped the rest.

Image credits:
www.flymag.cz and www.wrecksite.eu

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