Posted on 10/19/2014 4:56:29 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
The point blank tactic was probably the result of some artilty accidentally (or pissed off) firing a shot close in and seeing its effectiveness. Don’t think it was designed and perfected on the testing grounds in the US.
“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
"Natzweiler-Struthof was located in the Alsace region of France.
Physically notable for stone and slate quarries, as well as subterranean factories built by inmates, Natzweiler was a concentration camp at which prisoners were worked to death.
The camp's activities were expansive enough, in fact, to support numerous satellite camps; the whole complex exploited at least 20,000 people.
The document seen here was found at Natzweiler in the autumn of 1944.
Ledger-style, it subdivides male prisoners by age and type, and shows a complex mix: socialists, priests, criminals, Gypsies, POWs, anarchists, foreign civil workers, Spaniards, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, soldiers, 'Aryans,' and, inevitably, Jews."
“AMERICANS FORBIDDEN TO DATE REICH GIRLS”
OK, we’ll see how that works out!
I thought the article said that Americans were forbidden from dating RICH girls. I know I was definitely forbidden from dating rich girls, usually by thier fathers.
For direct fire support, this weapon was particularly favored by the infantry:
It's the M12 155mm self-propelled gun. They were quite effective at neutralizing German pillboxes at safe ranges. They were pretty scarce, though. We didn't make very many of them.
“Our soldiers are used to friendly relations with the locals ...”.
I’m sure things went swimmingly with the Reich girls. That’s the backstory of “Witness For the Prosecution,” starring Marlene Dietrich (with unflattering makeup, unfortunately).
So that’s not a tank, just an artillery piece? What is its crew like? Do they ride along, or hike?
“M12 155mm self-propelled gun”
Is is a robot? I think it needs a driver to get it from place to place. And yes, I know this is what they called them, just an incorrect description.
I looked it up a couple of weeks ago on Wikipedia. It’s a tank chassis with an open top, where the driver, loader, and shooter ride along, stop, aim, and fire. Of course, without a traversing turret, aiming depends upon the tank’s direction. But because it’s self-propelled, it’s not dependent on being towed, making it more mobile; and it does have protective armor, which towed howitzers lack.
Russia was pressing from the East. I don't think it would have mattered that much. It's hard to say. Stalin would accelerate or slow down his forces depending on how it would or could benefit Russia. Warsaw is a perfect example.
I think what finally allowed the Allies to finish the drive on Germany was Antwerp.
Just my thoughts.
Just an Artillery piece? Just an Artillery piece? Artillery is the King of Battle!
St. Barbara will not be kind to you.
Crew of 10. Half ride in the Howitzer, the other half ride in the ammo carrier.
Artillerymen believe the world consist of two types of people; other Artillerymen and targets.
"The artillery was my strongest tool. Often it was my only reserve .... I repeatedly said it was more a matter of the infantry supporting the artillery than the artillery supporting the infantry.... I wish I knew the countless times that positions were taken or held due solely to TOT's ...." Major General R. 0. Barton Commanding US 4th Infantry Division World War II (Reminiscing with his division artillery commander)
Do not forget your dogs of war, your big guns, which are the most-to- be respected arguments of the rights of kings. Frederick the Great
"The Guns, Thank God, The Guns. . . - Rudyard Kipling
"Artillerymen have a love for their guns which is perhaps stronger than the feeling of any soldier for his weapon or any part of his equipment." Brigadier General S. L. A. Marshall
"Leave the Artillerymen alone, they are an obstinate lot. . ." Napoleon Bonaparte
"Our artillery . . . The Germans feared it almost more than anything we had." - Ernie Pyle "Brave Men", 1944Artillery is the god of war. Stalin
The work for giants...to serve well the guns! Walt Whitman
.....I get carried away sometimes.
Thanks.
Or, to paraphrase Oddball: “a 155 mm self-propelled howitzer can give you a very nice . . . edge.”
Yea, a hundred lb projectile traveling at 2700 ft/s can definitely give you an edge.
Especially when the high explosives go BOOM.
It sounds logical. I do know that "going through the wall" became very common practice in taking towns. If an infantry unit had an M12 at hand, they'd no doubt use it to do a lot of things that might increase their odds of staying alive.
Mr. niteowl77
The best analysis I saw about German late war strategy and the Ardennes Offensive is in one of the books in my library; it might be DePuy’s “Hitler’s Last Gamble” or MacDonald’s “Time For Trumpets.” I’m not sure which because I’m at the beach with Mrs. Henkster and my library is many miles away. :-)
Anyway, the author’s conclusion was that the operational pause that commenced in late September, coupled Speer squeezing the last spasm of production from Germany’s dying industry and the final comb out of manpower enabled Hitler to assemble his last strategic reserve. The question was: “What to do with it?”
There were a number of options:
Spread the troops out to make operational reserves on both the western and eastern fronts. These reserves would intervene in local counterstrokes to thwart an enemy attack.
Concentrate the reserve in Central Poland to fight a mobile defense in depth against what everyone knows and expects to be the main Soviet axis of attack against the Reich.
Commit the reserve in Hungary to defeat Malinovsky’s 3rd Ukrainian Front.
Conduct the Ardennes Offensive, seize Antwerp, destroy 21st Army Groups and 1st Army. The British would be effectively removed from combat in Europe for a second time in the war, and the Americans would take months to recover. In the meantime, Germany shifts forces east to fight some kind of stalemate with the Soviets.
Admittedly, the last option, the Ardennes Offensive, had no real chance of succeeding. But it was the only option that offered a chance of surviving the war. All of the others might have prolonged the defeat for a few months, but led to the same result: defeat. Despite the fact that German military production will hit its peak in November, Speer has already told Hitler that he is squeezing the last effort from his war economy. The final stocks of vital and necessary raw materials like Chromium, Manganese and Tungsten are being dumped into Krupp’s blast furnaces and Germany has no hope of obtaining more. Hitler knows the economy will cease production of new weapons in a few months.
So it’s use it or lose it. Might as well use it and go down swinging.
The uncle of mine who was in a truck company had German POWs working for him in Rouen and he also transported prisoners; some of the conversations he had were quite interesting. One of the things that he recalled with amusement was an insistence that the Americans had developed semiautomatic heavy artillery. Apparently some batteries of 155s had reached a level of proficiency that caused many rank and file Germans to believe that we had some sort of super weapon that could put that many shells into one spot so quickly.
Mr. niteowl77
350 pound projectile to be exact.
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