This is another pic of it while the monument was being built. The white facing was taken from the Reichschancelry.
Posted on 08/11/2013 1:35:55 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
Not JS. It is T34/85.85mm barrel.
This is another pic of it while the monument was being built. The white facing was taken from the Reichschancelry.
My mistake..indeed JS2(josef stalin,2nd model).
“Only a few days after this picture was made, the tank and monument was blown up during the night. “
Werwolf!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werwolf
Nice photo.JS-2 had 122mm gun with 2 piece ammunition. Low rate of fire.
There is an interesting story about that monument.
My Father lived to be 90 but his last year was in a nursing home. At times he would be fairly normal and at other times he did not recognize his children.
Thinking it might jog his memory, I brought a bunch of his WWII pictures and was showing them to him. When he saw that tank he definitely seemed to have a lucid moment. He sort of laughed and said that it was blown up by the combat engineers.
Of course that might not mean a thing and I had never heard him say that before.
“He sort of laughed and said that it was blown up by the combat engineers.”
When was he in Berlin?
I am not sure when they got into Berlin but it must have not been too long after the Russians captured it. There was still rare fighting going on. I remember Daddy saying he once saw Russian soldiers throw a German boy from a rooftop.
I have noticed that in a lot of the photos they were still wearing their helmets and also were still carrying their rifles in a few. I also have one photo of their first meeting with Russians just outside Berlin. I do know their outfit was disbanded in Berlin and they were sent home in November of 1945.
Its a T-34/85 (85MM main gun)
“Man, I just ride ‘em. I don’t know what makes ‘em go.” - Oddball from KELLY’S HEROES.
Wow, that must have been an interesting time to be in Berlin! I’m sure SS-Werwolf (and their ilk) was still operating into 1946 and later, so they’re the most likely culprits.
Although it would be fun to think some renegade US Combat Engineers did the job...
Dad told me about he Sherman Zippos in the pacific.
Would burn up the snipers like no tomorrow.
He said they would receive sniper fire for hours, and foxhole it, when the Sherman would roll in, the japs would hear the squeaking tracks rolling along and run like hell. Then they would pick them off as they stood up from the brush.
I guess no one wants to be lit up like torch.
Another interesting fact.... kind of gruesome: he said burning bodies smell like pork, or a pig roast. But it still made him sick as hell.
The Panther had a long barreled 75 that was better than ours plus it had sloped armor(copied from the T34)which made it harder for our gun to penetrate. The Tiger, of course, had the much vaunted 88MM which could shoot through anything. The British took our M4 and put a 76MM into it and called it the firefly, they loved the M4 and even had kind things to say about the M3 since their tanks were woefully under gunned.
The M4 was a marvel of mechanical reliability, where as the German tanks were over engineered and prone to break downs(the newer tanks, the Panther and the Tiger, not the older MarkIII and MarkIV). Sorry if I repeated anything you said, most likely I did but I started typing before I noticed how detailed your article was. The M4 was a fine tank, it was prone to being shot to he** when up against Panthers and Tigers and had a hard time, in particular, knocking out Tigers. Rumor was it took 4 M4s to take down one Tiger. Since I wasn't there at the time I can't say for sure but when I was in the army,1959 to 1962, I had the opportunity to talk to many troopers who were there, I was in a Tank unit and there were still a lot of old timers who had fought the M4 during the war, they all said the 88MM of the Tiger and the long barreled 75MM of the Panther would take them out at a very long range, whereas the 75 of the M4 bounced off of the German tanks. The newer 76MM solved some of those problems as well as the new M26(IRC)with a 90MM gun, which came along late in the war.
I was a tank gunnery instructor at FT. Knox after my return from Vietnam as a tank commander on an M48A3 MBT, Tanks and M113 ACAVs provided excellent service as infantry support on the DMZ.
I spent much spare time in the Patton museum and was fascinated by the M4 cotroversy vis a vis German armor in WWII in NW Europe. You are mostly quite correct in your assesments, but the Brits installed their 17 pounder high velocity anti-tank gun into the M4. The bore diameter is close to the US 76MM, but the shot is heavier and delivers much more kinetic energy than did the US gun which fired the M93 HVAP shot anti tank round (APCR-T) The Sherman crews had to be within 300 yds of a Panther to assure frontal armor penetration with that gun.
The 17 pounder firing the SVDS round would penetrate over 6” of armor at 30 degrees of obliquity at 2000 yards, 7” at 1500 yards and over 8” at 500 yards, sufficient to crack the frontal glacis plate of a Mark V Panther most of the time.
The US put off plans to regun their inventory of M4s due to the M36 Tank Destroyers and the M26 Pershings coming on line with 90MM guns with even better performance than the 17 pounder.
BTW, the 3 diffent versions of the Firefly were the Sherman IIC, Sherman IVC and the Sherman VC.
I was stationed at Ayers Kaserne in Germany, 13th Cavalry, later changed to the 32nd Armor. we had M48A1s, they had the cupola but still had the gas engine. In the summer of 1961 I helped take delivery of some of the first M60s, very similar to the M48, better range finder, nicer gun.
We had a company of M103s and another of M41 Bulldog light tanks on our post also.The infantry had VTRs built on the M4 chassis . Our infantry companies received the new PCs before I left there and we got one of the new VTRs when we got the M60s. Our old VTR was an M51 but I can't recall what the new one was named. We didn't like it, the engine placement made it a bitch to drive on snow and ice, it kept wanting to spin out.
I was a Turret Mechanic.
My Father actually told me about Werewolves tho maybe not the same ones you are thinking about. He said the Germans would howl at night and there were stories going around of two American soldiers sleeping together in their shelter halves.
When one would awake to find his buddy dead and his throat slit. I am not sure that really happened but it is the kind of rumor which will spread.
I’m a little confused after reading the article. The headline refers to a 75mm gun. But the article writes about a 76mm gun. Are they the same, were there two separate guns, one 75mm and one 76mm?
Bookmark
Also limited ammo capacity, around 22 or 24 rounds is all that an JS-2 could carry.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.