Crack a Tank!
07-20-2018, 12:22 PM
#3
Thanks Jerry!!!
07-20-2018, 01:34 PM
#4
Great find! Thanks for sharing, Jerry.
07-20-2018, 03:05 PM
#6
Thread Starter
I didn't recall offhand how much explosive was in one of those things but I doubted it was enough to do much beyond making a smudge,
hollow charge or not.
Then I read these:
https://www.militaryfactory.com/smal...allarms_id=906
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M9_rifle_grenade
The first one is telling us that that little thing could defeat up to 2" of armor. That's unexpected for something that small. Even if the performance was half that you could
believe a rear shot to a tank or hit to the drive sprocket could ruin a guy's day. Not a very accurate weapon surely but the rear of a tank is a pretty
large target. If the support infantry wasn't keeping up to cover the tanks' butts well there it is.
The Wiki said we made almost 27 million of them, I doubt we would have if they weren't effective.
Jerry
07-20-2018, 03:54 PM
#7
Thanks for posting this. I love these old training films. There is a lot misinformation (now that we have hindsight).
"They cant hurt you if you stay in your foxhole" - rubbish, the Germans became quite good on Russian front of burying men in foxholes by running over the hole, then turning the tank on top of you. But if you jump up and run in straight line, then you are a dead duck - that is very true. German training films stressed running in zig-zag as the only way to "run".
I question the effectiveness of the rifle grenade too against tanks. Perhaps very close in street fighting. But most german tanks had armor thicker than 2" on front. A bazooka was a much more effective weapon - but still only at very close range.
But some good stuff too:
Make them button up by shooting at periscopes. The Russians actually were quite good at this with antitank rifles. Some tank commanders were wounded or killed by shots to periscopes.
Combined arms team will wipe out enemy - (yep when deployed correctly), tanks, AT guns, infantry, planes and artillery are hard to beat as a team
Molitovs were esp good in street fighting when dropped on engine decks.
The German training tank was comical. Looked more like an A7V from WWI.
Good stuff tho.
Bob.
"They cant hurt you if you stay in your foxhole" - rubbish, the Germans became quite good on Russian front of burying men in foxholes by running over the hole, then turning the tank on top of you. But if you jump up and run in straight line, then you are a dead duck - that is very true. German training films stressed running in zig-zag as the only way to "run".
I question the effectiveness of the rifle grenade too against tanks. Perhaps very close in street fighting. But most german tanks had armor thicker than 2" on front. A bazooka was a much more effective weapon - but still only at very close range.
But some good stuff too:
Make them button up by shooting at periscopes. The Russians actually were quite good at this with antitank rifles. Some tank commanders were wounded or killed by shots to periscopes.
Combined arms team will wipe out enemy - (yep when deployed correctly), tanks, AT guns, infantry, planes and artillery are hard to beat as a team
Molitovs were esp good in street fighting when dropped on engine decks.
The German training tank was comical. Looked more like an A7V from WWI.
Good stuff tho.
Bob.
07-23-2018, 07:50 AM
#10
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Perth, ON, CANADA
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Love the training films from that time attempting to mimic the current Hollywood stuff to get buy-in from the soldiers.
A guy trying hard to be Humphrey Bogart, and an M3 trying harder to be a panzer of some sort--what's not to like?!
Mike.
A guy trying hard to be Humphrey Bogart, and an M3 trying harder to be a panzer of some sort--what's not to like?!
Mike.
