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RE: Two WWII veterans are reunited after six decades, and History is richer as a result!
sir smithlabs! I thought the Panzers were so superior that shells just bounced off of them?
Plus, you are saying that the old rust bucket that got restored has feelings and was glad to see his old commander again???
These tank destroyers had first generation shaped charge AP rounds. They also had a long (high velocity) barrel to push it. They could kill any tank they could hit.
Ask and person that has crewed a ship, plane, or tank; and they will tell you that machine has a soul. So who am I to disagree?
:)>Well I just always heard that the Panzers made mincemeat out of our old, junky tanks, that we were no match for them. But it's good to hear if that isn't true.
Machines have souls....that's a new one on me. Does that mean they have personalities too?
The Panzers were junk (open turret light armor), but the Tigers were Bad news! They are the one you are thinking about. Our Sherman tanks were a medium tank, with a short low velocity gun, and they were a poor match for a Tiger. BUT we made a LOT of Sherman tanks, and they went after the tigers in mass.
The Abrams tank was named for a WWII tank ace Creighton Abrams who had 50 tank kills in a Sherman, so it was not a dogs fall or the German tanks. Late in the war, we came out with a heavy tank, that ATE Tigers for lunch. The problem with building a heavy tank was casting the turret, we could only cast the Sherman turret size at the start of the war.
There was a Sherman they called the firefly that had a 76 mm gun that was high velocity, that could penetrate a Tiger's skin, but we had limited quantities of them.
Mt Father used to recover and repair dead Shermans off of the battlefield in the Pacific.
:'(oh! That's right sir smithlabs, I was thinking of the Tiger! They were almost unbeatable until we came out with heavier ones at the end of the war. Did you ever see the Brad Pitt movie called Fury? About tanks and tank battles in WWII?
I have a copy, LOL!
The biggest challenge to the Tiger was the T-34 the Russians made. They copied the Bogey system from a US design, ans added a big gun ans sloping armor; and a star was born!
:)>