armor « Lone Sentry Blog

Tanks on Iwo Jima

By Lone_Sentry_Admin, on January 9th, 2011%

Video footage of U.S. M4 Sherman tanks on Iwo Jima and damage to tanks due to mortar fire:

Panther at Hotel des Ardennes in Ligneuville

By Lone_Sentry_Admin, on January 1st, 2011%

Officers of the Ninth Air Force pose with a German Panther tank of Kampfgruppe Peiper knocked out in front of the Hotel des Ardennes in Ligneuville, Belgium on December 17th, 1944. The Panther was commanded by SS Untersturmführer Arndt Fisher who was badly burned in the battle. (U.S. Air Force Photograph.)

Panther Tank at Hotel des Ardennes in Ligneuville

Knocked-out Panther tank at the Hotel des Ardennes in Ligneuville, Belgium

Removing Inner Bogie Wheels on Horizontal-Volute Suspension

By Lone_Sentry_Admin, on December 24th, 2010%

Instructions for removing the inner bogie wheels on the M4 tank with horizontal-volute spring suspension (HVSS) from Army Motors, Vol. 5, No. 11, February 1945.

SPECIAL TOOLS FOR YOUR NEW H.S./M.F.T.
Meaning: Horizontal-Suspension M-Four Tank. If that is your brand, this SOP is your oyster.

If you’re an M4-series medium tankman. with a new-fangled horizontal-volute suspension to nurse, you’ve a break comin’ that’ll help with your chores. A new set of special tools just issued to the 2nd and higher echelons makes a couple of tough jobs a damn sight easier—to wit, removing the volute springs from the suspensions, and taking off an inner bogie-wheel.

As you know if you’ve seen them, these horizontal-volute suspensions come with two types of tracks—the T66 with all-steel track-shoes, and the T80 with rubber-shod track-shoes. If you’ve got a T66, you can use the riser block as originally designed, but if it’s a T80, be sure to use the modified riser block. Any or all volute springs can be removed while the center bogie-assembly is raised up on the jack. We posed the T66 for the revealing photos that follow.

When you go to remove an inner bogie-wheel, be sure to leave the hub-caps on throughout the job or you’ll have the wheel-bearings full of grime and grit before you know it—and we don’t have to remind you that spells woe. Another thing—if the outer bogie-tire is worn, you’ll be wise to change it before you start to change the inner bogie-wheel. Then you’ll have good clearance between the wheel and hull, and between the wheel and track on the inner wheel. Carry on.

Fig. 1—Here’s all the special tools you need to do either of these exercises: (A) Block, riser, bogie-wheel, Fed. Stock No. 41-B-1411-200 (before modification). (B) Block, riser, bogie-wheel, Fed. Stock No. 41-B-1411-200 (after modification). (C) Adapters, volute-spring removing, Fed. Stock No. 41-A-30-650. (D) Lock, riser-block, Ord. No. B-7080204. Any other tools you’ll use are OVM or common tools found on your M1 Heavy Wrecker.

Fig. 2—To remove the volute spring, first loosen one wheel-bolt on each wheel of the bogie assembly involved. Place riser blocks, one in front of each wheel of the center bogie-assembly, and hunch the tank forward until the bogie-wheels center on the blocks as you see them here.

Continue reading Removing Inner Bogie Wheels on Horizontal-Volute Suspension

Sturmgeschütz at Cassino

By Lone_Sentry_Admin, on December 23rd, 2010%

Photographs of German Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III) captured near Cassino, Italy, from Report of the New Weapons Board, Office of the Commanding General, Army Service Forces, Washington, D.C., April 1944.

Italian Fifth Army Area — Ordnance Materiel

Captured German self-propelled gun. Later used as target for bazooka demonstration.

German self-propelled 75-mm PAK 40 AT gun captured near barracks north of Cassino.

Rear view of German self-propelled 75-mm PAK 40 AT gun captured near barracks north of Cassino.

Closeup of German self-propelled 75-mm PAK 40 AT gun captured near barracks north of Cassino.

Destroyed Panther in Normandy

By Lone_Sentry_Admin, on December 21st, 2010%

Destroyed Panther Tank Normandy 1944 Here is an interesting photo of a destroyed Panther in Normandy that was recently posted on Flickr.

• Panther Side View

• Panther Rear View

According to the website, the German Panther tank was destroyed near Val-de-Breuil on August 16-17, 1944. The tank carries two tactical markings, “I02″ over “231″, with some type of unit marking on the turret where the zimmerit is removed.

Jacques Littlefield Collection (MVTF)

By Lone_Sentry_Admin, on December 21st, 2010%

Jacques Littlefield Collection - MVTF The Military Vehicle Technology Foundation (MVTF), founded by Jacques Littlefield, is a large collection of tanks and military vehicles housed in Portola Valley, California. MVTF was established in 1998 to establish and preserve a collection of vehicles to serve the interests of researchers, authors, historians, modellers and the entertainment industry. The MVTF collection includes over 200 armored fighting vehicles from WWII and other eras.

Scott Espin has posted a series of high-resolution photos from the Jacques Littlefield Collection: Jacques Littlefield Collection Photo Set 1 and Jacques Littlefield Collection Photo Set 2 [via Armorama].

Silicon Valley Scale Modelers (SVSM) has also posted a large gallery of photos from the MVTF collection at the SVSM Armor Gallery.

M8 HMC Ammunition Storage

By Lone_Sentry_Admin, on December 15th, 2010%

Diagram of 75-mm and .50 caliber ammunition storage in the 75-mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M8 from TM 9-732B: 75-mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M8, War Department Technical Manual, January 1944.

Panzer Wallpaper for iPad/iPhone

By Lone_Sentry_Admin, on November 17th, 2010%

Panzer wallpaper for use as iPad/iPhone backgrounds — U.S. Air Force photographs from WWII showing destroyed German panzers in Europe.

Click on any wallpaper thumbnail to download the large 1024 x 1024 pixel image.

Instructions to save an image as wallpaper on the iPad:
• Step 1: When browsing the Internet in Safari on the iPad, simply press and hold on an image and a menu will appear to save the image in “Saved Photos” on your iPad.
• Step 2: On your iPad home screen or desktop, open “Settings” and then choose “Brightness & Wallpaper.” Touch that to open it, and a “Wallpaper” box will appear. Click on the “Wallpaper” box to select images from your “Saved Photos”.

Panzerjäger Hornisse/Nashorn

By Lone_Sentry_Admin, on November 13th, 2010%

During WW2, the Germans mounted the powerful 8.8cm PaK43 on a self-propelled mount based on the Panzer III/IV chassis. The tank destroyer was officially designated the 8.8cm PaK43 (L/71) auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampfwagen III/IV (Sf), but the Panzerjäger was nicknamed the Hornisse (hornet) and the Nashorn (rhinoceros). The Panzerjäger Hornisse/Nashorn was issued to the schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilungen (heavy antitank battalions) 88, 93, 519 525, 560 and 655.

Nashorn 8.8 cm PaK 43 (L/71) auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampfwagen III/IV (Sf)

Column on Nashorn tank destroyers advance in Russia in early 1944. (Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-278-0889-11 / Wehmeyer / CC-BY-SA)

Continue reading Panzerjäger Hornisse/Nashorn

Captured sPzAbt. 506 Tiger II at Gereonsweiler

By Lone_Sentry_Admin, on November 10th, 2010%

Video of captured Tiger II of sPzAbt. 506 at Gereonsweiler, Germany in 1945:

Transcript: At Gereonsweiler, a knocked out King Tiger tank is put back into working order. With the help of a wrecker, the turret is forced into line by men of Company B, 129th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion, 7th Armored Division. The King Tiger tank weighs approximately 72 tons. It has 34 inch wide treads which spread the great weight over a large area. Top speed: 20 mph. Armor: up to 6 inches thick. It mounts the vaunted 88mm gun whose barrel is more than 21 feet long. The rebuilt tank will be used to familiarize our troops with the enemy weapon.

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