This video appeared on youtube a few days ago. We are going to guess that this is not a driving technique found in the manual.
Lester Tenney, WWII tank commander and survivor of Bataan Death March, passes away at 96
March 7, 2017 by Leave a Comment
On Feb 24, 2017, US tank commander and survivor of the Bataan Death March Lester Tenney passed away in California at age 96. A member of the 192nd Tank Battalion National Guard at the beginning of WWII, Tenney served as a radio operator and later a tank commander during the fighting on Bataan in the Philippines in December of 1941. After being taken prisoner, Tenney survived the Bataan Death March as well as over three years as a POW forced to labor in a coal mine. Following the war, Tenney was released and made a new home in California. He would go on to obtain a doctorate in finance from the University of Southern California, taught at San Diego State and Arizona State Universities and founded a company providing financial advice to corporations. He authored a book based on his experiences titled My Hitch in Hell (Memories of War)
For more about Lester Tenney, check out the following links.
New York Times 3/5/2017 – Lester Tenney, 96, Dies; Faced Japan’s Brutality and Won Its Apologies
LA Times 2/27/2017 – Lester Tenney, Army tank commander who survived Bataan Death March during World War II, dies at 96
CNN 4/9/2017 – ‘Dying was easy: It’s the living that’s hard’
Voices of Manhattan Project (2013) – Lester Tenney’s Interview
Simon Wiesenthal Center – Letter from Lester Tenney in response to Yukie Sasa article “The Bataan Death March: Fact or Fiction”
Photo of the Day: Sherman farm tractor
March 7, 2017 by Leave a Comment
It’s been a while since we posted a photo of the day. We bring this feature back today with this rather amusing photo taken in the late 1940’s in Chelyabinsk oblast.
Book Alert: Rolls-Royce Armoured Car: 1915-44 (Haynes)
March 7, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Haynes has released another of their “Owners’ Workshop Manual” titles focused on armored vehicles. This latest one examines the Rolls-Royce Armoured Car: 1915-44
Publisher’s Description:
The Rolls-Royce Armoured Car is almost a legend: introduced by the Royal Naval Air Service the First World War for shore patrols, modified versions were still in service during the Second World War in 1940–41 with the British Army’s 11th Hussars in the North African desert. Between the wars they were used for policing duties by the Royal Air Force in Iraq, Egypt and India. Centrepiece of this manual is the Irish Army’s 1920 Rolls-Royce Armoured car ‘Sliabh na mBan’, restored jointly by the Irish Defence Forces and specialist historic Rolls-Royce restorer James Black Restorations between 2012 and 2015.
Author: David Fletcher MBE is the former Librarian at the Tank Museum and a respected world authority on armoured fighting vehicles. He is also a prolific author, including the Haynes Great War Tank Manual (2013) and co-author of the Haynes Tiger Tank Manual (2011). He lives in Dorset.
Video: CNN visits DriveTanks.com
March 7, 2017 by Leave a Comment
CNN recently sent one of their reporters down to Texas to visit DriveTanks.com to drive and shoot a M4 Sherman tank. While the video is a little silly, it does give a pretty good idea what one would expect in case they ever pony up the (rather substantial) fee to operate the Sherman tank at Drivetanks.com.
Publishing News: SABOT purchases Verlinden
March 7, 2017 by Leave a Comment
According to a post on their facebook page, SABOT publications says that they have purchased Verlinden Publishing and plans to relaunch the Verlinden Warmachine Series.
Statement from SABOT:
SABOT Publications is relaunching the Warmachines series of photo reference books initially created by Verlinden Publications. SABOT Publications recently purchased Verlinden Publications, including all of its photographs, slides, books, and other intellectual property. We hope to continue the success and variety of titles that the Warmachines series offered. With a couple of new 1/35 scale kits expected to come out on the M1 ABV, this vehicle will be our first book in the new series. The second book will focus on the Stryker MGS in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Warmachines series will be smaller and more focused on a particular topic. The books will be 64 pages in length, with all full color, large high quality photographs, 8.5×11 inches, with minimal text, and retail for US$24.99. These books will really focus on the photos as references. The first two Warmachines will be available by the end of March. They will be available for preorder on the website very soon. Look for more new titles coming out throughout the year!
Sabot also publishes a photo series titled “In Detail”, which we posted about last July. Since that time, they have released two new entries in that series, M60A2 MBT Volume 2 and M1A2 MBT Volume 2.
For those interested in WWII Armor history, be sure to check out Kampfgruppe Walther and Panzerbrigade 107 by Jack Didden and Maarten Swarts. This 440 page book features over 450 photos and provides a day to day narrative for the month long period that this unit existed. The authors have unearthed many new sources and photographs, from both sides and as a consequence the book contains images of nearly every knocked out fighting vehicle and illustrations showing the composition of the Kampfgruppe, Panzer-Brigade 107, US Task Forces and all the other units involved.
Here is a brief review from the facebook page of Steven Zaloga.
I just got in the second Jack Didden book on German units during Operation Market Garden covering Panzerbrigade 107 in September 1944. This is a massive book, about 430 pages. It is very well printed on gloss stock and very heavily illustrated. The photographic coverage of Panzer Brigade 107 is surprisingly good. There are numerous maps, in color with considerable tactical detail. In spite of the German focus of the title, for anyone interested in the British XXX Corps attack towards Nijmegen, there is very extensive coverage including the most thorough photo of British AFVs in this campaign that I have seen. Overall, a most impressive effort. Not inexpensive. I got mine from RZM Imports in Connecticut to avoid the European postal fees.
New Issue of ARMOR available
March 7, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The Winter 2017 issue of ARMOR is available for download. Features in this issue include:
Making Reconnaissance Guidance Say What You Think by CPT Luke Bowers
The Role of Reconnaissance Forces in the Counterattack by LTC Scott Pence
Looking Toward the Future: the U.S. Cavalry’s Role in Multi-Domain Battle by MAJ Amos C. Fox
Trends in Defensive Operations by COL Esli Pitts
Tough Vehicles Require Tougher Crews: Why We Must Re-establish a ‘Gunnery Culture’ … and How to Do It by SSG David D. Lunebach and SSG Sean M. Leytham
The Battle of Debal’tseve: the Conventional Line of Effort In Russia’s Hybrid War in Ukraine by MAJ Amos C. Fox
TRADOC Big 6+1 Capabilities by LTC Corey B. Chasse
Enhancing Shared Understanding within the Brigade’s Operations Process by MAJ Rich Groen
Applied Combined-Arms Maneuver at Company Level by 1LT James Casey
Saving Future Gallons: Overview of New Field Manual 7-0 by James L. Young Jr.
Vintage News: So what happened to the 450 Argentine Shermans? 40 images may just tell the story
March 4, 2017 by Leave a Comment
This article was published in September of last year at the Vintage News website. We didn’t notice it at the time, but it came to our attention today when the Tank Museum shared it on their facebook page. It’s a fun article and should prove entertaining to anyone with an interest in post-war Sherman tank history. Those familiar with the Surviving Panzers website will recognize a good many of these photos.
So what happened to the 450 Argentine Shermans? 40 images may just tell the story
In the late 1940’s, Argentina bought nearly 450 M4 Sherman’s from Belgium in many British variants, over 250 of them were the Firefly version, with the long barrelled 17pdr gun that could take on the Tiger 1.
In the late 1970’s, the Argentinian Army needed to modernize their armoured units. The TAM project was under way, but the border crisis with Chile required an urgent reinforcement until the TAM was operational and the Army ordered the modernization of 250 Shermans, mainly the Firefly version then in service.
This program included a new engine and a new armament. Many versions of M4 in the Argentinian service were used, and the Repotenciado (Lit; Upgraded) was born. Most of the Sherman Repotenciado are the British Sherman Hybrid Firefly IC, but it`s not the only version. The principal advantage in using the Firefly was the easy adaptation of the internal configuration to the new 105mm ammunition storage.
The Tank Museum: Tank 100
March 4, 2017 by Leave a Comment
It’s been a few months since we visited the Tank Museums Tank 100 website, celebrating 100 years since the first use of tanks in 1916. There is quite a bit of interesting new content there, including more installments of the Tank Men series looking at WWI British tank crewmen and Training and Combat section. Quite a few of the posts are written by Tank Museum researcher and prolific author David Fletcher. We have provided some links to some of posts written by Fletcher below. This is not a complete list and we highly recommend that people spend some time browsing the content at the Tank 100 site, it’s well worth the time.
Recruiting for the Heavy Section – Mr. Fletcher describes the formation of the first tank units
Part I – Lieutenant-Colonel Ernest Swinton was one of the leading men in the development of the Tank Corps, going on to recruit hundreds of tank men who served in the First World War. Read his story in the first of a three part series on the creation of the Heavy Section of the Royal Machine-Gun Corps.
Part 2 – It can’t be easy recruiting for a new branch of the Army, especially if you’re not supposed to say in the first place exactly what it does. This seems to have been the main problem in the early days facing Lieutenant-Colonel Ernest Swinton, Royal Engineers, when he tried to recruit men for the new war machines, the ‘tanks’.
Part 3 – Part 3 goes into more detail regarding exactly how Swinton, first commander of the Heavy Section, managed to swell the numbers up to 184 officers and 1610 men of other ranks.
A Tank in Your Town – A list of some of the WWI British tanks that survived the war
Ypres – Ypres, in Belgium, on the edge of the Salient of evil memory, is another location that acquired a tank, selecting one from those about to be destroyed at the end of the war which had significant local associations.
Tonbridge – It would be nice to say that I remembered the Tonbridge tank but it was long gone by the time I was there, I knew the Castle well enough, and the river Medway that runs by it, but the tank was scrapped in 1938, even before I was born.
Barnsley – Barnsley, in Yorkshire, received its tank on 27 June 1919. It was delivered to the goods yard and driven from there by a Tank Corps crew, to a temporary resting place in the town centre, two weeks later the men returned and drove the tank to its permanent site in Locke Park where it was displayed along with a German 77mm field gun.
Aberdeen – Scotland ran its own National War Savings Scheme and since we don’t have their version of the Silver Bullet we don’t yet know how many tanks were distributed. We can only rely on postcards, such as the one above from Aberdeen, but we’re slowly building up a picture.
Colchester – At Colchester, in Essex, the gifted tank was set up on a plinth alongside the ancient castle walls. It was a Mark IV female although its number is not recorded. However we do know that it sported unditching beam rails and the white/red/white markings which indicate that it served in France and was not a mere training machine from Bovington.
Toward the Tank – The first 8 of a 12 part series looking at the predecessors of the tank over the centuries.
Part 4: Valturio’s War Chariot
Part 6: Steven’s Landship 1599
Tanks in the Middle East – A very interesting series of articles about the little known use of WWI armor in Palestine and Egypt.
Tanks in Palestine in the First World War
Mark I & Mark II Tanks in Gaza
The Matilda Diaries, Parts 9, 10 and 11
March 4, 2017 by Leave a Comment
It’s time we caught up on the Matilda Diaries series from the Tank Museum at Bovington. This video series examines the Museums efforts to restore their Matilda II infantry tank. These episodes look at restoration of the turret, the gun and the gearbox.
Tank and AFV News 