In Field Marshal Slim's book 'Defeat into Victory' (about his experiences commanding the 14th Army in Burma in WW2), he mentions one Japanese version of the anti-tank mine.

They dug a number of small holes and in each one sat a Japanese soldier with a 250 kg bomb and a large rock. The idea was that as the tank drove over the soldier he whacked the fuse of the bomb with the rock and detonated it.

Their instructions didn't involve what to do if a tank didn't drive over them, and most of them were shot in their holes while waiting for the tank to do so.

Wordsmith.

As an aside, Slim's book is one of the very few by a senior general who admits getting his decisions wrong and explains how he came to make the mistakes. So his chapters on Imphal are titled 'How it was Planned' and 'How it Happened'. A refreshingly honest book.

Originally Posted by tropper66

In an interview by sqt B Bramwell publised in the German Michael Wittmann book "Lt Bill cotten of the Queens took a German gas can and a few blankets and went out to destroy the panzers,Bill opened his umbrella on account of the rain, we must have been crazy.We went from Panzer to panzer( three Tigers and a MkIV) Bill with the open umbrella and blankets , and I with gas can.We soaked the blankets in gasoline and threw it into thr turret, followed by a match. Later we learned that the local fire brigade had come and tried to put the fire out, Probably out of the fear the tank would explode," of the four Tigers in Villeres Bocage all were knocked out by tank or anti tank gun, The other three Tigers in the area had already left under the command of SS-Untersturmfuhrer Hantusch in the direction of Caen

Brave men undoubtedly but those Tigers etc had been abandoned by the Germans so that hardly counts as 'tank-killing' does it?

Originally Posted by Recce19

Originally Posted by Excognito

Originally Posted by angular

See here:
http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/war_...ingle_tank.htm

Not a good idea to share a trench with Ob.Lt. Viezenz!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnther_Viezenz

Anyone able to i.d. the two badges on his right arm, below the five Tank Destruction awards?

I think the photo is from when he got his Knight's Cross, with three gold awards and 4 silver.

OTL Viecenz, that's a Lt Col. Talk about leading by doing.

Originally Posted by saladin

I thought this was a thread about my old MT platoon. Proven to be able to VOR just about anything within minutes :D

...I had a couple of drivers like that as well!



Rodney2q

Please don't forget Robert Henry Cain VC

Originally Posted by Bubbles_Barker

Originally Posted by tropper66

In an interview by sqt B Bramwell publised in the German Michael Wittmann book "Lt Bill cotten of the Queens took a German gas can and a few blankets and went out to destroy the panzers,Bill opened his umbrella on account of the rain, we must have been crazy.We went from Panzer to panzer( three Tigers and a MkIV) Bill with the open umbrella and blankets , and I with gas can.We soaked the blankets in gasoline and threw it into thr turret, followed by a match. Later we learned that the local fire brigade had come and tried to put the fire out, Probably out of the fear the tank would explode," of the four Tigers in Villeres Bocage all were knocked out by tank or anti tank gun, The other three Tigers in the area had already left under the command of SS-Untersturmfuhrer Hantusch in the direction of Caen

Brave men undoubtedly but those Tigers etc had been abandoned by the Germans so that hardly counts as 'tank-killing' does it?

Right, it shows that there was no tank killing that or for some days after that as the three Tigers and the MKIV were the only tanks the Germans lost in that area on the day, by reading the German accounts of these events it is amazing how many Tigers the Allies claimed to have killed ,when in fact the Germans did not have that many Tigers, and in some cases none at all in an area where the Allies claimed they were, A bit like in The Battle of Britain when every German claimed to be shot down by a Spitfire, or in the Phillipines where the Americans claimed that the supiority of the Zero was a major factor in there defeat, but there were few if any Zeros there as it was a naval aircraft and not used by the Army

A fair while ago, I completed the French Commando Course, part of which was 'Close Anti-Tank Combat' involving some rather unconventional tactics for detroying/disabling tanks that had more than a whiff of 'Allo Allo' or 'Dads Army' about them.

One was to tie together two smoke grenades so that they could be thrown 'bola-style', wrapping around the tank's gun barrel. This was intended to make the driver stop or crash with any dismounted crew being finished off with a burst of fire from a Famas or a a commando dagger, followed by a grenade into the open hatch.

Another was to throw petrol bombs onto the back decks of the tank with the aim of sucking burning fuel into the engine, initiating the internal fire extinguishers which allegedly would stop the tank.

Scarier still was to the idea of strapping anti-tank mines to a plank of wood, camouflaged beside the road which would then be pulled across by a rope like a police 'Stinger' when the tank was too close to avoid them.

For the ultimate rush, we were taught to put a grenade into the fuze well of an anti-tank mine with a cord attached to the pin. Then, either sneaking up behind a tank, or wating for one to pass, the mine would then be thrown onto the engine deck and the pin pulled by the cord which was tied around your wrist. This makes the Japanese lunge mine look like a good option!

In order to practice these methods, we had to leap around a moving tank allowing it to drive over us as we laid between the tracks and to pop up from manholes in a sewer system or from ditches armed with our improvised devices. "Vive la resistance!"

How effective any of these ideas would be in real life is anyone's guess. Perhaps a tankie can give us a reality check?

Interesting stories there, Spook. I am not sure what a petrol bomb on the back decks would do, it seems like such a simple way to disable a multi-million pound tank. It could be possible though. Better yet, if you are close enough, pull the externally located fire extinguisher handles!

Originally Posted by Forks

Interesting stories there, Spook. I am not sure what a petrol bomb on the back decks would do, it seems like such a simple way to disable a multi-million pound tank. It could be possible though. Better yet, if you are close enough, pull the externally located fire extinguisher handles!

Didn't the Iraqis' discover a weakness in the Abrams rear deck? I recall reading something about the tank needing some extra protection there after a few had been knocked out by a RPG or similar.