From the Vault: Yank Magazine on Axis Vehicles

Lone Sentry.com has a nice photo gallery and transcription of an article from Yank magazine from January 21, 1944.  The article is about captured axis tanks and equipment being examined at Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

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At Aberdeen’s Ordnance Research Center, inquisitive experts finds what makes an Axis vehicle tick, and their tests produce facts worth remembering.

By Sgt. MACK MORRISS and Sgt. RALPH STEIN, YANK Staff Correspondents

Aberdeen, Md. — The first thing you learn at the Foreign Material outfit here is never, ever, to call a Nazi tank a “Mark Six” or a “Mark Four.” The correct designation is PzKW VI or PzKW IV. “Mark” is a British way of saying model, whereas PzKW means what it says: Panzer Kampfwagen, or armored battlewagon.

For more than a year captured enemy vehicles have been arriving here from every battle front on earth. The first was a half-track prime mover that came in sections and required three months of trial-and-error tinkering to be completely reconstructed. Missing parts, which were requisitioned from North Africa, never arrived; mechanics in the Base Shop section made their own.

To read the rest of the article, please click here to go to Lone Sentry.com.