How to---odd ways to kill a tiger.. ?

I suppose it depends on what you think happened. If you are talking about a fight with fisticuffs or martial arts or a bit of fancy sword play then no. You wouldn't have space to swing a rat.

But I bet you could reach in from the top and thrust a sword into an occupant

FNG

 

The original post did state that it was a Sherman though...

 

The story Skua quoted involved a Lee. Assuming that these stories are the same, we don't know for sure which tank it was. I was merely pointing out how the situation would have been different if Skua's version were indeed true, which seems more likely since in that one at least there is no hand-to-hand fighting inside the tank.

 

Does a Lee-tank have a turret gunner? I don't think so...

 

Personally I'm leaning toward the opinion that this is one of those rumours that became accepted truth by nature of the retelling.

 

Comet Fan - you're from Denmark, right?

Christian

 

Correct Christian

Not very far from Vangede (Birkeroed)

 

Nice

Christian

 

How to Kill A Tiger

Take away its fuel sources, destroy the manufactuirng plants like ball bearings etc etc. Hmm, I think I crossed a line hear and started a debate on the economics of waging war.

 

Well I just found this description on page 181 in 'Death by design' by Peter Beale :

' An incident as such as happened to capt. Cornaby of A section, 3nd Carabiniers on 2 March 1945 just south west of Mandalay :
He had halted his tank to engage a party of Japanese, his guns were in action. Suddenly a Japanese officer broke out of the scrub and climbed on to the back of the tank. The Japanese officer used his sword to kill the Cornaby, kicked his body down into the tank, and followed him down and killed the gunner. The loader, Tpr. Jenkins, had just time to draw his pistol, and fire all six chambers, The Jpanese stabbing and slashing (?) at the same tim. Jenkins finally managed to use Cornaby's pisto to end the Japanese officers life.'

This sounds perfectly credible to me, we got Date and place of the incident, the the names of the tank crew, and a credible story (no hand to hand fighting in the bottom of the tan).
Whats missing is infomation about the type of tank and source of story however

But this story is much more credible than :
'SturmTiger wrote:
I heard a bunch of American Rangers perfected the technique of slipping in through an open hatch unnoticed and just started brawling with the Tiger crew.'
In which bar was this story told and by whom ?

 

Well, I would pick up on a detail or 2:

1) it is not easy to stuff a dead body down a tank hatch, given things like the size of the hatch, the unresponsive nature of dead bodies...
And if/when the corpse goes down, where is there room for the Japanese officer to follow it?

2) again, stabbing & slashing with a Japanese officer's sword inside a tank is not terribly practical.

Does the book mention what type of tank was involved?

 

If this is aid before I kick myself in the head...

Put 2 grenades at either end of a rope, hide at the side of a road, when a tank passes you trow the tank around the canon and the cannon explodes don't know if it where handgrenades though, could be TNT or something else that explodes when hitting something hard enough.

 

I agree on your first point, not easy but not entirely impossible.
And I defenitely believe its nearly impossible to slash an opponent inside a tank wth a sword, but stabbing should be prefectly possible, we shouldn't believe every word in a tale like this !

The book doesnt mention anything about what type of tank, I would gues a Sherman rather than a M3.
I have tried Google, but haven't found any further information.
But overall its a more likely story

 

254th Indian Tank Brigade[7]: Brig R.L. Scoones

3rd Carabiniers [Lee tanks]

150th Regt RAC [Lee tanks]

7th Light Cavalry [less one sqn to 255th Tank Brigade Apr 45] [Stuart tanks]

3rd/4th Bombay Grenadiers

401st Field Sqn IE

2nd Independent Bridging Troop RAC

troop, 400th Independent Scorpion Sqn [flamethrowers][8]

 

Hee hee - had a vision of a sword-fight inside a Stuart!

 

Are we STILL argueing about the leet skillz of Japanese ninjas vs. tanks?

 

I'm afraid so.

 

Then I just have to ask again: Have any of you here seen the inside of a Sherman turret? Honestly? Or a Grant/Lee turret, which is even less likely?

 

Hey, don't ask me, I know they're small.

On the Lee / Grant, was there a top hatch over the hull-mounted 75mm gun?
Could that be the hatch the Japanese officer went down?

 

Well lets start argueing about american super heros against nazi beasts of steel for a change !

Why has nobody questioned the topic :
''
I heard a bunch of American Rangers perfected the technique of slipping in through an open hatch unnoticed and just started brawling with the Tiger crew.'

Because it is simply too incredible ? Or is american macho heroism better than the Japanese Samurai tradition ?

I'll go look for more hard facts, maybe the story is untrue, but it is quite entertaining and deserves to be treated seriously until the opposite is PROVEN !