Tanks for the memories, part deux…

Murph has some of his pics up HERE, and in answer to Toejam’s question…

Lulubelle was MSGT Joe Gunn’s M-3 in the movie Sahara, 1943 (starring Humphrey Bogart as Gunn)

So here are some pics and a couple of videos that I took yesterday.  Of interest is the number of Brit, German and other armor units that were available and in the museum vs. the number of American units.  The reason is the Europeans are much more willing to ‘release’ old equipment where the US is not…

Since Murph covered the early US units, I’ll throw up some different ones here…

This is a WWII Bren Gun carrier, and the driving compartment is TINY!

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It could only carry three people and if you were over about 5’5”, your head stuck over the top of the armor!

This one is a set of Dingo light armored cars, an upgrade from the one above (these were developed in 1939 and carried through 1950 as operational units). You’ll see them in a video below.

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Note the weapons mounting in the Dingo…

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Here is a video of the Dingos with a Valentine Scout tank doing an ‘overbound’ op… e.g. each protecting the other…

Warrior and Dingos

And an old Soviet T-34, look at the ‘quality’ or lack of on the armor on the turret…

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And here it is clanking around…

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A funny one here, I was talking to the driver later about his ‘bow’ to the crowd, and he said it was NOT intentional, he said he couldn’t get the @#$%& thing to turn, so he had to stop and back up, plus these were notorious for tearing up transmissions, so he was just taking it easy, and it was no where as maneuverable as the other tanks (note the yank turn at the end).

And you just gotta pity this poor guy…

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And this was inside the letter…

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And the ‘trivia’ question???

It’s from this thing, better known as a BMP-1 Soviet troop transport…

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It’s a gun port for the troops to fire out the back, but only on a 45 in the forward quadrant… Unless you’re the guy in back, then you and the guy on the other side are effectively tail gunners…

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And here’s a view from the inside.

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And I know somebody is going to ask how did they get the gun through there? Well the little center piece actually opens up and you put the barrel and sight through the hole, then close the center piece back up over the barrel and gas port and reinsert it…

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And if you’re 6’ tall, you’re eating your knees in this thing… Enough for now, more later…

Comments

Tanks for the memories, part deux… — 11 Comments

  1. Tank crews and fighter pilots were all small guys. And they still tend to be. Now the P3 will allow a large, masculine, studly man to take the yoke, which explains a lot about the general virility of P3 drivers…

  2. LL- LOL,good one… I had an engineer years ago that was 6’6″ and 250, he had his OWN parachute since he couldn’t fit in the NB-8XL harness…

  3. I guess the tall men joined the Navy. Although I did an awful lot of ducking on that 1944 destroyer I lived on.

    Never mind. 🙂

  4. And the tallest folks joined the USAF and flew cargo and tankers. Lots of room in those, and some even had a real toilet!
    Had a great time at the Show! Glad to see all of the folks out there taking their time to do show-and-tell for everyone, and to bring their babies to be ogled over.
    Now, if someone can figure out how to put a 2″ receiver hitch on a Fox APC, I’ll have a good camper-puller…

  5. Hey Old NFO;

    Those are very good pics. And yes the Soviets were not known for building weapons with polish on them. Depending on when the T34 was made, the finish looked even worse. And they liked small people in their BMP’s. I remember when the BMP’s first showed up, as cramped as it was it was the forerunner of the modern APC, it showed that the APC could be more then a “battle taxi” like the M113( I really like those:) Our Bradley are taller than the BMP’s for more comfort. The West care more about their troops than the combloc did…I am sure it is something about a volunteer vs a conscript army. Awesome pics and I enjoy looking at old armor:)

  6. Rev- True!

    Ed- Yep, it’s a good one too!

    Stephen/WSF- You’re welcome! 😛

    WN- LOL, great to see y’all also!

    Brighid- You’re welcome!

    Bob- Good points, and just for you tomorrow, an M113!

  7. Managed to fit four dismounts in each of three Bren carriers at a WWII reenactment a few years back — and about half of us were NOT toothpicks. A bit cramped — but having our legs right up by the Ford enegine at least kept us realtively warm in 10F temps, as did not having to slog through knee deep snow in the mountains until we got near the various objectives.