And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Looks like the ammunition cooked off - wonder if it was already damaged or disabled and therefore destroyed in place as a road block to buy time for the retreating Afrika Corps or if it was lost in battle. The main gun and armor on that outclassed anything else in North Africa by a long shot. You wouldn't expect it to lose a fight but an air attack maybe(lucky hit to cause a catastrophic kill like that) but I'd put my money on it being a mechanical breakdown followed by a demolition charge or thermite grenade used by the crew. I don't think Tiger had the best operational readiness of the German tanks and that would have been a relatively early model, so maybe even less so. Would like to know more about that photo subject.
That must been quite the bell-ringer.
ReplyDeleteTurret looks like it went up and came back down like that, the barrel appears to be bent at the muzzle brake
ReplyDeleteLooks like the ammunition cooked off - wonder if it was already damaged or disabled and therefore destroyed in place as a road block to buy time for the retreating Afrika Corps or if it was lost in battle. The main gun and armor on that outclassed anything else in North Africa by a long shot. You wouldn't expect it to lose a fight but an air attack maybe(lucky hit to cause a catastrophic kill like that) but I'd put my money on it being a mechanical breakdown followed by a demolition charge or thermite grenade used by the crew. I don't think Tiger had the best operational readiness of the German tanks and that would have been a relatively early model, so maybe even less so. Would like to know more about that photo subject.
ReplyDelete