The FReeper Foxhole's TreadHead Tuesday - PanzerKampfwagen VIB - King Tiger - Mar. 16th, 2004

www.wargamer.com ^

[SAMWolf]

There's a Jody Harmon print I hadn't seen. and of my favorite tank!!

The German Mark V door maker?

[SAMWolf]

It was in poor shape whenm I was ther in 1971. The main gun barrel had been spiked by Peiper's men and it was a OD green. For the 50th Anniversary they fixed the gun and gave it a camo paint job and fixed up the area it was sitting. Looks good nowadays.

[SAMWolf]

That would have been a project I would have loved to be on! I saw some film of the KingTiger that Bovington has being cranked up, a big bang and a cloud of smoke. I don't know how long they got it to run but they didi get it started. I've heard that they're rebuilding a Tiger into running condition. Lots of treadheads waiting for that one to get done.

[SAMWolf]

That'll teach me.

LOL. No it won't.

You're right. :-)

[SAMWolf]

She's probably waiting for the Leopard 2A5's to be profiled.

She's gonna have to wait until May 11th. ;-)

[P.O.E.]

Story in the news about soldiers who took part in the real-life "Great Escape"

[PhilDragoo]

What an amazing feat.

Obviously carefully planned, engineered, and executed.

1400 lbs, armed with 12 ga shotgun and .22 pistol.

Here's the Japaneze Jagdzilla:

Der Jagdpanther in 1 : 6

Videoclip Panther Schlamm ~ Das ist ein Standard Panther 1:8 mit allen Antrieben 1999,-- Besitzer Stefan Grundler ....

archy, is this your game room or SAM's?

[PsyOp]

To bad we can't rig some of those and train them to chase democrats...

[Iris7]

The frontal aspect of the "serien turm" production turret is flawless for welded rolled homogeneous armor, non-spaced, non-cast, non-forged (except for the front piece, pretty much has to be cast) structure. Not to say the machine is the stripped down essence of function that it appears. In the details you find the expected cuckoo clock elaborations requiring much skilled hand work and condemning the design to hopelessly small production runs. One of your sites says the peak production was less than 90 per month, an absurdly low figure considering what was needed.

The 71 calibers 88 mm was very influential in post war design. Actually the 122 mm Russian designs had more potential.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the link to the story, P.O.E.

Your name have anything to do with Dr. Strangelove. ;-)

[SAMWolf]

I'm drooling over that model! A thing of beauty.

[SAMWolf]

I saved that video of the Panther. Gonna be watching and daydreaming over that one. Siiiiigh

[Iris7]

Any technical details available? Original transmissions? (Pretty much have to be with six months.) Maybe not, maybe something more drastic with eight machines.

Don't know what engines of that era would fit, cooling, etc., the engine bay might need replacement, so cut the whole back end off and start over. Something like cutting the back off of a Leopard I and welding the whole thing on.

Son of a gun, you've got me looking for engineering drawings. Fun project, you should have given me a call and supplied transport back to '65!!! Too bad it was forty years ago, I wouldn't have been much use when I was 18.

[archy]

Any technical details available? Original transmissions? (Pretty much have to be with six months.) Maybe not, maybe something more drastic with eight machines.

Oh man, it was 40 years back. Cat 390 series Diesels, as I recall, though Cummins had some big power in that range in that period was then being used for repowerings. I recall the price tag [then] of around a quarter million dollars per powerplant, and thinking that for that kind of money, some nice M48s could be put together.

We had Allison cross-drives in our M48s and M60s then, so a replacement transmission was at least a possibility, but the repowering of the radial-engined Shermans with GAF 500 HP engines from Pershings was done with the original transmission, as were the Diesel reengining of Mk50 Shermans by the Israelis and the NAPCO Sherman repower Diesel conversion, which I think used a Volvo engine, though it stuck with the Sherman tranny and final drive.

Don't know what engines of that era would fit, cooling, etc., the engine bay might need replacement, so cut the whole back end off and start over. Something like cutting the back off of a Leopard I and welding the whole thing on.

It wasn't quite that bad- the dimensions of the proposed engine had been checked, though I think some auxiliaries had to be relocated and enhanced cooling installed. The electrical system was reworked to 24 volt for cold weather starting and compatability with the then state-of-the art RT-505/ PRC 125 radios, and there was some concern as to whether the turret electrical slip ring would handle the amperages involved, so the master switch was installed in the hull at the bow gunner-radio operator's position. That crew position was considered for removal and replacement with additional ammo storage, as was done with M26/46s and M47s of the same era, but it was thought that it was worth having the additional forward-firing MG for suppression of Sagger ATGM teams, then just becoming really widespread in the Warsaw Pact armies. I don't know how a Sagger hit on a Tiger's fromtal armor would have worked out, but it seems a thing a crew wouldn't want to try.

I had the opinion the deal was very secret and that the host country was not going to be the end user, but was going to export the nicely deniable, *sterile* armor to somewhere where it wasn't expected. A couple of possibilities from the period come to mind, in at least one of which where 88mm AP, AT and HE ammunitionp wouldn't have been much of a problem.

Interestingly, the MG34S MGs aboard were to be pulled and replaced with MG42s, whether in the original 7,92 caliber or 7,62 NATO, this deponent knoweth not. But somebody obliously had infantry suppression in mind as one of the tasks for the things.

Son of a gun, you've got me looking for engineering drawings. Fun project, you should have given me a call and supplied transport back to '65!!! Too bad it was forty years ago, I wouldn't have been much use when I was 18.

I've really gone over old news news photos of the 1968-70 period and can't find any record of their having been used. And it could be that the work was never meant to be done, that it was some sort of intel operation or sting intended to bluff someone into thinking tanks were going to show up in an unexpected area of operations. But if so, those of us working on the project hadn't a clue, and we were taking it seriously. Eight Tigers, even 25 years after their war had ended, could have made a heck of a force multiplier in some places, then, and even now.

[archy]

archy, is this your game room or SAM's?

Hmmm, gunner's on the portside, as in Soviet armor. That's harder on right-handed loaders....

[archy]

To bad we can't rig some of those and train them to chase democrats...

Since the charge for killing or disabling a tank needed only to be pooch-sized, I expect you could scale down the concept and still achieve acceptable results on unarmored, soft-skinned 'rats. And using animakl that are more naturally attracted to such targets than man's best friend seems a reasonable touch as well.

I figure hungry weasels, trained to find food in the trousers cuffs of beltway and collegiate community 'rats or in their briefcases or bags, using tennis-ball sized saddle charges, would do it. Cry *Havoc* and let slip the weasels of politics continued via other means.

-archy-/-

[P.O.E.]

It's one of those few movies I can watch over and over again (right up there with Airplane and Casablanca).

[PsyOp]

Cry *Havoc* and let slip the weasels of politics continued via other means.

LOL! that would be a good tag line!

[archy]

Cry *Havoc* and let slip the weasels of politics continued via other means.

LOL! that would be a good tag line!

Be my guest. You're welcome to use it yourself, or pass it on to some deserving soul. But I think yours is particularly classy as is, and hope you stick with it.

[PsyOp]

I switch out my tag lines depending on the subject. I'm going to use the weasels one where appropriate, but I'll be sure to attribute it to you. I love it!