Destroyed tanks

Not WW2 I know however not too far off...this dates from autumn 1952, and Exercise HOLDFAST in West Germany, an early NATO event. The photo is from 'Soldier' magazine, November 1952, and the caption reads :

"Three luckiest men in the manoevres belonged to 8th RTR. The transporter carrying their broken-down Centurion skidded and catapulted the tank upside down into an orchard. Trooper D. Lee, lying on the engine cover, was pulled out from between the gun mounting and the turret (where soldier is pointing). Troopers J. Webb and T. Hodson, asleep in the tank, crawled out through the engine compartment."

Ouch. The force required to "catapult" 51 tons of MBT is not to be sniffed at.

One question, of course, before anyone else asks it - Centurions had crew of four, correct ? So where was the fourth guy ? Cosy in the transporter cab perhaps ?

 

Here are some shots of Nip armor, knocked out in the Central Pacific, courtesy of the U.S. Army Military History Institute, from the book "Japanese Tanks and Tank Tactics" (sorry about the resolution):

 

Now that's destroyed.
Char B? or what's left of it.

Wonder if it was a German or French crew?
And whether the poor sods were anywhere near it when it was reduced to that state...

Furthermore, WHAT reduced it to that state...

 

Here are some shots of Nip armor, knocked out in the Central Pacific, courtesy of the U.S. Army Military History Institute, from the book "Japanese Tanks and Tank Tactics" (sorry about the resolution):

Nip Armour?

 

Nip Armour?

Type 95 lights at Guam and Peleliu, and a Type 97 medium at Saipan, in that order.

Sorry if I forgot the captions, but most of the times I get mixed up with this thumbnail thing.

 

Cheers,

I thought you was refering to the Japanese then for a minute

 

Cheers,

I thought you was refering to the Japanese then for a minute

Maybe...

 

Ok.....Bare in mind you hastily gave me negative feedback not so long ago due to you misreading a post I made to do with race and diversity.

Do remember to practise what you preach old boy

 

Anway back to tanks


Any ideas Adam

 

Ok.....Bare in mind you hastily gave me negative feedback not so long ago due to you misreading a post I made to do with race and diversity.

Do remember to practise what you preach old boy

OK, let´s PM this.

Knocked-out coffins pics, anyone?

 

It's one of the 'Maus' prototypes Andy, destroyed at/near Kummersdorf by it's crew.

~A

Hahaha I knew I should have dug deeper than the first page of a google search..................BRB

 

Here you go

 

Now that's destroyed.
Char B? or what's left of it.

Wonder if it was a German or French crew?
And whether the poor sods were anywhere near it when it was reduced to that state...


Just saw that pic on this thread for the first time.

I'd guess at internal ammo stowage cooking off. Reason? Look at the ground BETWEEN the camera and the remains of the tank - copious amounts of nice black OIL on the ground

Now...IIRC the Char B's big and vulnerable oil radiator was on the starboard side rear..I.E. the side of the tank we're looking at. So the oil has been blown from the tank TOWARDS where the photographer is now standing :mellow: In other words, the explosion was on the other side of the radiator blowing the oil AWAY from the tank - therefore the explosion was INSIDE the tank

 

Could it not be POL that has just leaked out of the engine etc and run down the hill after it was destroyed?

Regards
Andy

 

That's odd...I THOUGHT I'd posted a post correcting myself on that...AND it had something on Drew's pic on the demolished panzer...

Which is a PzIII, you can see on the right where one complete torsion bar suspension rod has been torn off the bottom of the hull, and still has a roadwheel on either end!

 

Phylo,

I agree with you the photo shows a Pz Mk III or a Pz IV rear end. Spare road wheels on rear left and torsion bars attached to blown off wheels.

The track is also German and not from a Char B.

Regards
Tom

 

Here you go


North Africa? Sicily? Italy?