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.
In the foreground an American tank with an English gun. M4A4 with a 17#er (round muzzle brake), called Sherman Vc Firefly. Looks like a defrocked M7 Priest in the background... no gun.
They probably are Poles, my mother's people. One can find this image on the Interwebs as the cover of pubs that Google translate says are about "Polish armored units in the west".
It was the ammo storage being hit. When "wet" storage for ammo was introduced along the bottom of the hull, and main gun rounds taken out of the turret and sponsons, catastrophic fire were greatly reduced. Over the course of the war, the crewmembers of a knocked out Sherman had an 80% chance of escaping the tank. T-34 crewmen had a 20% chance of bailing out. Gasoline burns more readily than diesel, but other British tanks and all German tanks used gasoline, too.
In the foreground an American tank with an English gun. M4A4 with a 17#er (round muzzle brake), called Sherman Vc Firefly. Looks like a defrocked M7 Priest in the background... no gun.
ReplyDeleteBrits used the Priest chassis w/o a gun as an improvised APC.
DeleteAbsoutely love "defrocked"; apt and clever. Good on you, sir.
DeleteThey probably are Poles, my mother's people. One can find this image on the Interwebs as the cover of pubs that Google translate says are about "Polish armored units in the west".
DeleteThanks for #12, you really don’t see many of those GTX’s anymore. Then again,I don’t remember seeing a whole heck of a lot them anyway
ReplyDeleteThe Brits called Shermans, "Tommy Cookers" due to the tank's gasoline engines and the penchant for German 88's to penetrate the armor.
ReplyDeleteIt was the ammo storage being hit. When "wet" storage for ammo was introduced along the bottom of the hull, and main gun rounds taken out of the turret and sponsons, catastrophic fire were greatly reduced. Over the course of the war, the crewmembers of a
Deleteknocked out Sherman had an 80% chance of escaping the tank. T-34 crewmen had a 20% chance of bailing out.
Gasoline burns more readily than diesel, but other British tanks and all German tanks used gasoline, too.
I may be wrong but the markings on the hull might indicate the 51st Highlander Division. (My distant cousins and fellow savages.)
ReplyDelete