what tank is this?

hello, this is my first post

i got a photo from ebay the other day and i cant find out what tank it is, the ppl on the tank appear to be german, but the tank does not look german, with the tracks it looks a lot like a soviet tank to me, i dont know for sure however. does anyone know what tank this is?

this is my guess :-s -> File:IS-2-44.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

thanks guys

View attachment 13062

I also have a way way bigger scan of it, i cant attach it because of the limits, but i can upload it to my blog if you are interested in seeing the big version of the photo.

 

I believe it is an M26 Pershing, the Us heavy tank from the last few months of the war;

M26 Pershing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

oh your right! thanks! can you tell if the troops are german or US? the rafts look german thats why i thought they were german.

 

At risk of being slapped by the Americans on the site, the hats look American, and most of the troops are rather fat

also here are other similar American pontoon bridges of the period, made from the same gear as the ferries in your picture;

 

thanks for your help. the photo is actually printed on german paper and on the back of the photo it says "Nicht zur Veröffentlichung!"... and under that it says "hubmann münchen 13 georgenstraße 30 gths." which translates into "Hubmann Munich 13 george road 30 gths" i think..... so i have no clue what that is about, maybe the germans stole the image or maybe its a fake i have no clue. but the photo is of the tank crossing a river, and so from what i read in wiki i could have a photo of one of the 20 tanks that saw battle? it looks like they were sent around the Rur river and/or Bridge at Remagen. but there is no way to tell. thanks again for the help.

 

Well if you look carefully at the deflection of the pontoon bridge, subtract the weight of the well fed soldiers, fuel and ammunition it appears the tan would weigh in at 92,594 pounds +- 3 pounds for socks, rations, cigarettes, etc.. that eliminates all WW2 tanks except for the M-26 Pershing.....or maybe a Tetrarch full of Big Macs .

 

I think without a date you most probably have a photo of US army operations soon after the end of the war - it's just a feeling rather than any actual facts, but even in morning mist like that, (which incidentally is most common on the Rhine, in spring and autumn, but not limited to there), and even at the very end of the war, the sense that they weren't worried about enemy activity seems clear - especially the lack of helmets.

- could still be before the actual surrender, but I think not much at all - the fact that it was probably a Munich photographer called Hubmann (common Munich name) who took the pic ( i stand to be corrected by Ulrich, but I think Gths stands for Ganztagshauptschule which is like a college) it seems unlikely he would be allowed to take that photo until well after the war finished - albeit with the security message - in 1945 why would any German be able to take a photo like that? of course it's possible the GIs used German photography labs to develop their snapshots, but this seems more than that.

edit - it could of course be a later printing on the back from a german collector, shop or office, but that would suggest they were interested in the subject, in which case you would think they would try to add details. Someone else on the forum more knowledgeable about ww2 photos will probably give better info I hope, and I'm sure a few might covet it

 

If I wasn't eating a fried twinkie right now I'd come over there and slap you silly

On a more serious note. the photo may have been processed after the war by a civilian photoshop. or of course a captured photo that went to the monkey's in military intell before the surrender.

 

Korea?

~A

 

Could be Korea;

Popular Mechanics - Google Books

page 134

same equipment for sure, but I couldn't find any definite references to pontoon ferries there - pontoon ferries are more an 'almost' assault measure rather than a logistic support issue, although they can be for really wide rivers, you can see the far bank in the OPs photo.

also;

"Even the M26 Pershing caused mobility problems. During the crossing of the Rhine, the Pershing wasn't able to use standard US bridging equipment, they had to build pontoon ferries to float them across the river. ..."

suggests that by Korea they might have figured a solution out.

 

I scanned the back of the photo:

It says "agfa-brovira" in fine print on the back, and i looked it up and it the way its written appears to be "wartime" like this site says; LW Collectibles: Agfa Photopaper im looking into that somemore now

thanks again for your help

 

Just a thought Waraas - any chance you could do a scan of the back? - might trigger something in someone's mind

edit sorry - simultaneous post. thanks.

I wouldn't get too hung up on the Agfa-Brovira - "Agfa Brovira.may also be seen just as brovira.a lot of photos exist from the 50,s on agfa brovira paper from left over warstocks."

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=39406

good info here

and oh - sorry I missed it earlier, but welcome to the forum