Posted on 02/27/2016 2:37:22 PM PST by marvel5
1970s technology fails to penetrate 2015 technology is surprising?
“If it failed to penetrate, why did the crew member bail out?”
You gotta get out of the tank to take a dump. He must have felt a sudden “urge.”
Tow crew: Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!
T90 crew response [in Russian, FR script Cyrillics don't work: Coax; Antitank! Troops in open....
Do you have a source for that?
I don’t doubt it, given what I’ve read of KV-1 action during the opening phases of Barbarossa. But I’d love to have a source, it’s probably something I haven’t read, and would like to.
Most books that cover the Battle Of Raseiniai in what is now Lithuania will mention it. But among others:
Steven J. Zaloga, Jim Kinnear, and Peter Sarson (1995). KV-1 & 2 Heavy Tanks 19391945. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-85532-496-2.
Another version later told much later by General Raus, commander of the 6th Panzer, was largely the same except that the KV-2’s turret armor was finally holed not by antitank charges but by shots from a towed 88mm antitank gun from close range into the back of the turret while the turret was indexing around to bear on some Panzer 35(t)s. The 88mm hit the turret a total of seven or eight times at near point blank range and even from the rear only two penetrated. The rest of the story is the same - the tank held up the 6th Panzer for the entire day, the crew were still firing back after the turret was holed, the crew was finally killed by grenades thrown in those same holes and the Germans took the time to bury the fallen but unknown crew near their finally destroyed tank with full military honors.
Steve Newton, Panzer Operations on the Eastern Front - The Memoirs of General Raus, 2003, p33
Several tank games give a nod to these brave men - most recently in World of Tanks, which has the Raseiniai Heroes award for standing alone against five or more tanks and successfully killing them.
Thanks.
And on that last, in World of Tanks Blitz, Raseiniai’s Heroes Medal is for destroying 7 tanks (and WOTB is 7v7). I’ve done it a time or three.
;-)
FWLIW, the Tiger II that the Imperial War Museum has, has holes in the side big enough to toss a grenade through.
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.