WW2 Tanks.... A question....

[onlinebiker]

I had a friend who was training for tank duty and he told me the average lifespan of a tank in battle was 20 seconds, IIRC.  I had to wonder why anybody would sign up for such duty.

You can walk till you're dead tired, then dead ---

Or - get a ride there - and be dead....


You' ll be just as dead - but less tired ...

[The Grand Nudger]

That's why you hitch a ride in on the back, warm up your dogs...and then bolt down into a hole when things get hairy.  Good luck fellas!

[Angrboda]

I had a friend who was training for tank duty and he told me the average lifespan of a tank in battle was 20 seconds, IIRC.  I had to wonder why anybody would sign up for such duty.

You can walk till you're dead tired, then dead ---

Or - get a ride there - and be dead....


You' ll be just as dead - but less tired ...

Are the dead any less tired?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You can walk till you're dead tired, then dead ---

Or - get a ride there - and be dead....


You' ll be just as dead - but less tired ...

Are the dead any less tired?

They always seemed very relaxed to me.

[Minimalist]

The Tank Encyclopedia says that the Panzer VI E carried 92 rounds and the King Tiger carried 86.

A combo of AP/HE rounds were available.

[Anomalocaris]

Heres a way to conceptualize it, Brian.  Think of a pringles can.  Now fill up your car with pringles cans.
(it's not -quite- right, but it's the first thing that jumped out at me)

One of my profs. rode Stuart tanks from Cairo to the Alps in WWII. He was fighting Tiger tanks in those bitty tin cans. I explained it to a class like this:

"Imagine a baseball bat. Prof. Rothenburg was firing shells about the size of the handle. The Tigers were firing shells the size of the business end."

The business end of a baseball bat is only 67mm across.  Tiger shells were 88mm across.

There was an account of a king tiger shell going through a sherman’s Gun mantlet, lower part of the gun breach, the engine compartment bulkhead, the engine block, exit through the back of the Sherman, going through an earthen berm, and penetrating the transmission case and the transmission of another Sherman behind it.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

One of my profs. rode Stuart tanks from Cairo to the Alps in WWII. He was fighting Tiger tanks in those bitty tin cans. I explained it to a class like this:

"Imagine a baseball bat. Prof. Rothenburg was firing shells about the size of the handle. The Tigers were firing shells the size of the business end."

The business end of a baseball bat is only 67mm across.  Tiger shells were 88mm across.

Proportionally.

[The Grand Nudger]

Yeah, I mean, if we we're being sticklers mine was off too.  Without looking it up im guessing that a 75mm m3 ap is what, twice as long as a pringles can (maybe a bit more or less)?  Still helps to see how they fit in a vehicle.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Yeah, I mean, if we we're being sticklers mine was off too.  Without looking it up im guessing that a 75mm m3 ap is what, twice as long as a pringles can (maybe a bit more or less)?  Still helps to see how they fit in a vehicle.

Speaking to a bunch of Indiana kids I did try to make it easy for them.

[Brian37]

It seems I have stumbled into the Big Bang Theory of warfare. Is this where I bring up the Roommate Agreement and ask someone to sing me Soft Kitty? I feel like Penny reading this thread.