A13 in German use

and the Becker French (f) SPGs because the Jerries held the factories


....but started PDQ converting them over to German war work and designs There would as I said previously have been the spares available in French Army hands in 1940/41....it would be interesting to know what percentage of those were used up getting the French "battlefield" recoveries running again; Has anyone in France ever written on this side of the beutepanzers???...

...but when Alfred Becker started running up his confections again in 1942 and after, he was definitely only working from what was available in the old vehicle dumps - because we can see batches of only a couple of dozen of some types, because that was all the base hulls that could be got running of a paticular type The vast majority of what COULD be used I.E. viewed as practical - had already been creamed off in late 1940/early 1941 for Barbarossa; in 1942 he was shifting through the REAL junk!

EDIT: and of course....keeping those unreliable French types running in Russia would have used up even MORE of those "New Old Stock" French spares....!

 

I think I have more. K

 

Ivan K,

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Nice photographs that you have found.

Regards
Tom

 

Some great photos gents , thank you.
Welcome Ivan K.

It has to be said the Jerries were bl**dy big magpies - they used and converted anything which could be made to run.
I wonder did they get any via lend lease ? ( captured from the Russians).

 

Not much, but all I could find thus far. K

 

I think some, if not all, of the pics I posted were already posted. If so, I apologize. I'm new to posting, and some sites have a problem with such things. I double checked these, however. (There are two IIs.) Sorry. K

 

That MkVI '10.5 cm leFH-16 auf Geschutzwagen auf Fahrgestell Mk VI 736 (e)' (snappy title, as ever) is a personal favourite of mine too Phylo. Coincidentally I was just looking at an old post I made about it on a.n.other forum.
I like to think of it as the 'Baby Elephant'

Great analogy. Love it.

Wonder how far that thing moved when it was fired.

 

The US tried mounting a 105 on the M3 half-track and gave it up as impractical, and they weighted over twice what a Bren carrier weighted.

It must have been 'lively'.

 

(Seelowe training?)


Interesting pic - I wonder if that actually IS Dunkirk??? :p Spot the little Pak sitting ready for trials too...and work going on on another two barges in the background...

No shortage of 'New' coverage of that little cutie on Beutepanzer now.


Bloody hell, a 15cm version???

I can't help thinking that those REALLY must have stretched/worn those tracks, the track-warp steering's main bugbear :p

 

The US tried mounting a 105 on the M3 half-track and gave it up as impractical

Are you sure of that, or are you mixing it up with something else? US ordnance did mount the 105mm M2 howitzer successfully on the half-track, the result being the 105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage T19. Enough were made to equip units assigned to TORCH and it served in North Africa until the standard M7 Priest arrived as a replacement. The M7 was obviously better, but I haven't heard that the T19 was 'impractical.'

 

I stand corrected then. I thought I had read that the recoil was too great for the chassis and that they were converted back to standard troop carriers.

Sorry about that.

 

I stand corrected then. I thought I had read that the recoil was too great for the chassis and that they were converted back to standard troop carriers.

It seems that we are both partly right. A total of 324 T19's were made, but it did require some modification to absorb the weapon's recoil and 90 were later converted to M3A1 half-track carriers. 105mm HMC T19