Another pic to pick apart.

Seems legit, but with Photoshop capabilities these days who knows. Anyway, let the games begin!

 

Yeah so few of these are real...the photographer usually in a ditch when the shite hits the fan...I'll say set up as the front guy seems a little too casual and the gunners are looking in different directions. But...the angle of barrels are fairly uniform...soooo...

 

It's hard to say......I work with photoshop a lot, and it's easy to make things seem authentic. Because I've never seen this particular photo before, it makes me all the more skeptical.

 

They kind of look Rooskie to me. The high boots, the smock w/belt, the numbering on the tank on the right makes me think that way. They are definitely on US Stuart tanks, courtesy of lend-lease of course, and the Tommy gun the guy in the forefront is shooting looks as if it is drum fed, not clip fed. The tanker's helmet looks GI issue, but there is definitely something about this pic.

 

Definitely Russian...I can remember a red star on one of the tanks...cant find it now!

 

Yes like A-58 said, the numbering on the side of the Stuart to the right is reminiscent of other Soviet armored vehicles. The crew of course is wearing all U.S gear so that makes it seem like it's American in nature.

 

Only the helmets are US gear, the rest soviet. The weapons and tanks are US, not unusual; we were the "arsenal of Democracy." I've seen this picture before, staged yes, photoshopped probably not.

 

They're just trying to cut out in the middle man and get into the distillery business on their own.

Americanski M3 tank?

Nyet, tovarich..... this corn plant for make vodka.​

 

Only when a photographer is present and aircraft are not...Then, suddenly they are all John Rambo.

 

Yeah, getting shot at while on a Stuart (which has very little armor) would not be a pleasant experience. I would imagine that they would be pretty easy to take out with something as small as the Japanese 7.7mm rounds could penetrate it's exposed top armor from above.

 

Over 1.5k M3 Lights to the Sovs.

Another shot of same event:


Widely captioned as the Kuban bridgehead in 1943, but christ knows. I do not have the knowledge of RKKA tank deployments to be sure of anything.
Alex's site is always worth a browse for such things:
RKKA in World War II

 

13mm top armour on even the earliest M3s. Rising to 51mm on other areas.
Where does that Japanese 7.7 claim come from?
Even if AP, 'taking out' seems unlikely.
Given that Japan was short enough of man-portable AT stuff they resorted to iron bars and assorted terrifying 'Mano a Tanko' tactics, I'd have thought an M3 light was almost as good protection as heavier machines in most encounters with them.

 

If you're dealing with an A6M Zero with 20mm cannons, then you're in trouble. In the Eastern Front most German aircraft had 20mm's as well which makes life a little difficult for the poor Stuart crews

 

What?
Was just wondering about the 7.7 claim, but now we have Zero tankbusters.
Are they a thing? No, not really...

Stuart did okay wherever it went.
Not an especially flimsy machine at all really.
Could handle Ha-Gos on a reasonably level pegging (not that it had to do so all that often), and perfectly robust against infantry.

 

The Japanese 7.7mm was simply a direct copy of the British .303 and was nothing special. The 20mm in the A6M was a near direct copy of the Oerlikon FF and was nothing special either. It had a muzzle velocity of just 600 meters/second. At the extreme angles it would impact on the top of a Light Tank M3 it is unlikely to do much damage and the small magazine capacity would make it difficult to get hits in the first place.

 

I'm not implying the zero did much if any tank busting at all, I thought (apparently wrongly) that they had the capability to do so. I don't know much about muzzle velocity and effectiveness of British and German aircraft armament against tanks....my bad.

 

"My bad", don't apologize, your statement got an informed reply from RichTO90, which led to anyone reading this thread gaining additional knowledge, which is (should be) the goal of any discussion. This has turned into a decent little thread. Thanks to ALL the participants.

 

The Japanese zero,was always a navy plane...having said that...they did straffe the Darwin CBD....if there were any tanks around they may have had a crack at it...same for Pearl I’d imagine...

 

Thanks for bringing my gaffe into a better light, and putting a positive spin on it Price , you're right, being wrong helps us learn what's right.

I would be surprised if a Zero ever participated in any strafing of armored vehicles. The only times I think they would have a chance is in China, and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in 45'. This is only me guessing, but i'd be curious if such an event took place. Going back to the Stuart, as Von Poop said, it could take on the lightly armored Japanese tanks, but I would assume (from my short time playing the Stuart on World of Tanks) it didn't fair well against German Panzers at all.