Random Cool Photo Thread

[Smithy]

With the tanks- the Germans outdid us completely- it then became a war of numbers where the Germans were simply swamped- superior or not.

German armour was just so much more superior than US or British (the Russians fared better after '43/'44) armour.

I remember watching a doco where they were talking to a Canadian tanker and he said (and I paraphrase) "the German armour was terrifiying good and ours was for the most part hopeless".

 

[Shanghai-Mayne]

It is as simple as Japanese aviator not as good as German ‘s, by all means.

 

[Shanghai-Mayne]

German armour was just so much more superior than US or British (the Russians fared better after '43/'44) armour.

I remember watching a doco where they were talking to a Canadian tanker and he said (and I paraphrase) "the German armour was terrifiying good and ours was for the most part hopeless".

Many after war techniques reports can prove that. I.E. German Alloy formula and welding.

 

[Smithy]

With the tanks- the Germans outdid us completely- it then became a war of numbers where the Germans were simply swamped- superior or not.

Allied movement on the Western front was stalled on numerous occasions because of waiting for air support to tackle German armour because Allied armour was ineffective. If the weather was bad and aircraft couldn't be used they'd often wait for the weather to clear as there was no point on trying to pour Shermans et al against German armour.

 

[ZuZu]

German armour was just so much more superior than US or British (the Russians fared better after '43/'44) armour.

I remember watching a doco where they were talking to a Canadian tanker and he said (and I paraphrase) "the German armour was terrifiying good and ours was for the most part hopeless".

With the tanks, there was a concerted effort in the mid 2000s to revise the history of the Sherman and somehow make it a great tank. The T-34 was the great German killing tank- definitely not the Sherman.

 

[Shanghai-Mayne]

With the tanks, there was a concerted effort in the mid 2000s to revise the history of the Sherman and somehow make it a great tank. The T-34 was the great German killing tank- definitely not the Sherman.

Only good Soviet WW2 era tank is T44, you may occasionally seen them (or one) in some Soviet movie.

 

[Smithy]

With the tanks, there was a concerted effort in the mid 2000s to revise the history of the Sherman and somehow make it a great tank. The T-34 was the great German killing tank- definitely not the Sherman.

I'd revise that a wee bit Jeff, the 34 was great when it got the 85mm gun before that it wasn't nearly as good.

The Sherman if we're honest was rubbish. It's fondly thought of because of the sheer numbers that were used. It was outgunned and out-armoured. It only succeeded on battlefields where it enjoyed superior numbers and had room to manouevre. It suffered horrifically against German armour and anti-tank guns.

 

[Shanghai-Mayne]

I'd revise that a wee bit Jeff, the 34 was great when it got the 85mm gun before that it wasn't nearly as good.

The Sherman if we're honest was rubbish. It's fondly thought of because of the sheer numbers that were used. It was outgunned and out-armoured. It only succeeded on battlefields where it enjoyed superior numbers and had room to manouevre. It suffered horrifically against German armour and anti-tank guns.

Discussing need to defined usage of certain tank.
Sherman with 76mm gun ,is a good break through weapon.
German tanks, especially Panther , it’s a long range anti tank weapon.
Simply compare Sherman with Panther without any context , it won’t going anywhere.

 

[Shanghai-Mayne]

Museum display at Nanjing, about AVG and 10thAF 14thAF . That museum is attached to a ROCAF cemetery, starting building at 1932 ,

for ROC Soviet and US airmen who get killed during the war with Japanese.

 

[Shanghai-Mayne]

The cemetery was destroyed by Japanese, after they occupied Nanjing at 1937. ROC government rebuild it after Japanese surrendered.

 

[Shanghai-Mayne]

Current status of the cemetery, there is one American airman still rest there.

 

[ZuZu]

Current status of the cemetery, there is one American airman still rest there.

View attachment 159791

Wow. Cool stuff!

 

[ZuZu]

I'd revise that a wee bit Jeff, the 34 was great when it got the 85mm gun before that it wasn't nearly as good.

The Sherman if we're honest was rubbish. It's fondly thought of because of the sheer numbers that were used. It was outgunned and out-armoured. It only succeeded on battlefields where it enjoyed superior numbers and had room to manouevre. It suffered horrifically against German armour and anti-tank guns.

But the design was great. The German Panther was based on it a bit. Low, wide track, sloping armor etc.- the opposite of the shell attracting high bodied Sherman.

 

[Enigma1938]

Just a terrific weapon Burt. No machine-gun us Allies had came even remotely close to it.

It's true German small arms were streets ahead in terms of design than what we had.

What's also in those photos;
- The famous german helmets were the best in ww2. The design (USA copied it in their PASGT helmets) and the lining were great engineered.
- The Waffen SS camouflage technology was extremely good for its time, while the allied wore mostly khaki, brown or OD. That patterns would still work fine today.

 

[Enigma1938]

So it’s pretty easy to see from the video that the only issue with this weapon was carrying the amount of ammo that was needed to sustain it, in a lengthy combat encounter . It consumed boxes of ammo at a crazy rate and if you ever carried one you’d see that humping two or three ammo boxes around was definitely a chore do to their weight.
Tim
Would you happen to know how many men comprised a crew for each gun?
I’m thinking that it had to be 4 or 5 .
One for the gun , one for the stand , and two or three others for the ammo .

Not only the ammo but also spare barrels and other spare parts...

 

[Shanghai-Mayne]

 

[B-Man2]

View attachment 159893

If there was ever a look of suspicion and mistrust …. The look on the Russian officers face says it all…

 

[Smithy]

What's also in those photos;
- The famous german helmets were the best in ww2. The design (USA copied it in their PASGT helmets) and the lining were great engineered.
- The Waffen SS camouflage technology was extremely good for its time, while the allied wore mostly khaki, brown or OD. That patterns would still work fine today.

I think I've mentioned it here but I studied 20th century camouflage development at the museum I worked at (it was a pet project of mine).

What's fascinating was just how far ahead the Waffen-SS camouflage patterns were for their time. After decades of playing around and trying different things, many militaries have returned to the "dot and splotch" camouflage pattern like MultiCam which is a direct descendant of the dot, pea, plane, oak leaf, etc patterns used by the Waffen-SS.

 

[B-Man2]

I think I've mentioned it here but I studied 20th century camouflage development at the museum I worked at (it was a pet project of mine).

What's fascinating was just how far ahead the Waffen-SS camouflage patterns were for their time. After decades of playing around and trying different things, many militaries have returned to the "dot and splotch" camouflage pattern like MultiCam which is a direct descendant of the dot, pea, plane, oak leaf, etc patterns used by the Waffen-SS.

Tim
Sadly the US military was always trailing in their camouflage uniform development process. For some reason it just never seemed like a priority to the U.S. Military during WWII. For instance the airborne path finders of WWII used to paint their own m-42 jump jackets and pants with OD , Brown and black paint to try and camouflage themselves, because they had nothing better.
The same with equipment . Germans used tree branches and foliage that was indigenous to the area they were fighting in to camouflage tanks and trucks . Americans hardly ever used camouflage foliage on their vehicles, but would hind behind hedgerows and mounds of dirt to hide vehicles . The Japanese were masters at camouflage and so were the north Vietnamese troops.

 

[Smithy]

Tim
Sadly the US military was always trailing in their camouflage uniform development process. For some reason it just never seemed like a priority to the U.S. Military during WWII. For instance the airborne path finders of WWII used to paint their own m-42 jump jackets and pants with OD , Brown and black paint to try and camouflage themselves, because they had nothing better.
The same with equipment . Germans used tree branches and foliage that was indigenous to the area they were fighting in to camouflage tanks and trucks . Americans hardly ever used camouflage foliage on their vehicles, but would hind behind hedgerows and mounds of dirt to hide vehicles . The Japanese were masters at camouflage and so were the north Vietnamese troops.


View attachment 159933

I find the development of camouflage from the 20th century to now fascinating Burt.

One US pattern which was highly regarded was the ERDL but it never gained long term traction, probably because it was very theatre-specific.

MultiCam has become a go-to in recent years because it works well/adequately in a range of environments. But the pattern configuration can be directly traced to those Waffen-SS patterns which is testament to just how advanced German camouflage development was.

Interestingly, the French Foreign Legion used captured Waffen-SS fabric for uniform articles during the Indo-China War. Although it had been developed for use in continental Europe, it was so successful as a disruptive pattern that it worked in the jungles of Vietnam.