nothing to do with Road Haulage, I’m looking forward to going to the cinema this week to see the new Brad Pitt film Fury.
Set in Germany in the final weeks of WW2 it’s the story of a Sherman tank crew and their determination to survive the war.
It has some no holds barred scenes of the savagery of this conflict and underlines the shocking inferiority of the Sherman against German tanks, in particular the fearsome Tiger.
I read a book called “Death Traps” by Belton Y Cooper who was a maintenance officer attached to the Third Armoured Division from D Day until the end of the war in Europe and he recalls the shocking number of casualties and tanks destroyed by German armour, how the tank crews had been deceived by the U.S. Army into believing they had a tank that could take on and defeat the enemy tanks and protect them from enemy fire.
The one big advantage the Sherman did have is that it was available in large numbers and losses could be quickly replaced within 48 hours, the German tanks once knocked out or as was more usually the case broke down, could not be replaced so easily.
The Sherman was referred to by the Germans as a ‘Tommy Cooker’.
Best way to knock out a Tiger was to take out the fuel suppy convoys.
It’s worth the money being that it’s probably the first time that a genuine Tiger has ever been used in a film.As for realism of the idiotic idea of the generals and bean counters of putting Shermans up against Tigers ( or even Panthers and P IV’s ) however horrific they manage make it look multiply by 10 and it still won’t be close and that’s just the German side let alone ours.Yes the Sherman defeated the Tigers by numbers but every time a Sherman got hit it usually took the five people in it with it ( Ronson lights first time every time ) which is the bit the bean counters usually forget.
There was a good drama documentary concerning D Day in which a reference was made to the reason why it was a good idea to keep a pistol at hand when fighting in tanks and it wasn’t for use in shooting anyone else. 
Carryfast:
There was a good drama documentary concerning D Day in which a reference was made to the reason why it was a good idea to keep a pistol at hand when fighting in tanks and it wasn’t for use in shooting anyone else.
I saw that. The pistol was for use in Panzers, I think it took X number of seconds to get out once one was hit and burning, which was longer than it did to be overcome by heat and fumes. I had a Great Uncle who was a tank driver and he’d told some relatives that if a Panzer was hit you could count so many seconds and then drive off as by then if the crew hadn’t climbed out, they weren’t going to.
Muckaway:
Carryfast:
There was a good drama documentary concerning D Day in which a reference was made to the reason why it was a good idea to keep a pistol at hand when fighting in tanks and it wasn’t for use in shooting anyone else.I saw that. The pistol was for use in Panzers, I think it took X number of seconds to get out once one was hit and burning, which was longer than it did to be overcome by heat and fumes. I had a Great Uncle who was a tank driver and he’d told some relatives that if a Panzer was hit you could count so many seconds and then drive off as by then if the crew hadn’t climbed out, they weren’t going to.
My dad was employed on combat recovery of tanks and I think anyone who’d seen it never forgot it.There were a number of issues for tank crews starting with 88 mm shells fired from unbelievable ranges not even needing to get through but just knocking off chunks of hot razor sharp metal inside which if they were lucky acted like a chain saw and got it over with quick.If not broke a or took off limbs in which case there was no way of opening hatches and climbing out when it then often all went up in the fires in the ammunition etc started by the hot metal splinters.Then up to around a a mile and a half no chance it went through like a knife through butter in which case similar to the above but the effects were even worse.I think the idea of using a pistol to get it over with assuming they couldn’t bale out quick in that case was an open secret on all sides.
What I found particularly disturbing was the fact that the Sherman was so vulnerable but continued to churn them out in large numbers even though they had the M26 Pershing tank on the drawing board.
The development of the Pershing was stalled, starved of funds and generally obstructed, it didn’t see action until the final weeks of the war in Germany.
It could take on the Panther and the Tiger (not head on) and provide far greater protection with thicker armour
bigdave789:
What I found particularly disturbing was the fact that the Sherman was so vulnerable but continued to churn them out in large numbers even though they had the M26 Pershing tank on the drawing board.
The development of the Pershing was stalled, starved of funds and generally obstructed, it didn’t see action until the final weeks of the war in Germany.
It could take on the Panther and the Tiger (not head on) and provide far greater protection with thicker armour
The Sherman Firefly at least stood a better chance in being able to stand further away and be able to kill a Panther or a Tiger with its massively improved gun but even they were stalled by the bean counters and rationed to stupid numbers in service.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Firefly
As for the Pershing the final modified Super version was more than capable of killing even the King Tiger let alone the Tiger.
3ad.com/history/news/super.pershing.1.htm
In addition the Comet and possibly even the Centurion both could have been made available in sufficient numbers in time to have saved loads of lives lost in the Sherman ‘if’ the money had been put into the job sooner.It was simply a case of trading lives to save money.Luckily the same attitude didn’t apply in the case of allied air power or even more lives would have been lost,on the western front at least,to defeat Germany.