how tanks got to Europe in World War 2

can someone please tell me how the tanks got to the European mainland from the U.K., was it just by sea or were there planes to fly them at this time? thanks!

 

from britan to the europe mainland they were shiped by LSTduring the initial invasion later when they manage to stablished a more secure harbour facilities by cargo ships

 

btw, welcome to this forum and hope that you can join us in the trivia section

 

Ships, lots and lots of ships. The Americans called the frieghters they built "Liberty Ships", the Commonwealth called them "Victory Ships".

 

THe majority of aircrafts during WWII didn't have the loading capacity to fly in tanks, and those which did weren't build in significant numbers. Since the channel isn't that wide, it was much more cost efficient to just sail in the vehicles.

 

Actually the only Aircraft I can think of that could fit & carry tanks were the Me232 Gigant, the Hamlicar glider, and the C-54 Commando (which had the tank carried externally!) - if you can think of others please add them!
All of these could only take light tanks, designed to be carried by air, with the result that they were definately not designed to be much good in combat!

 

nop , i think you covered them all

 

good topic though, planes with huge capacity. Any chance...?

 

Actually the liberty and victory ships were two different types of ships. The liberties were larger than the victories, and I think the liberties came first.

 

^^ Sorry accidentaly mixed them up ^^

 

That's all right.

 

Hey, it works. Nice catch!

 

I stand to be corrected on this, but I understand that the victory ship was larger than the liberty?

 

that is true...Victory ships are slightly larger.

http://www.usmm.org/victoryships.html

http://www.usmm.org/libertyships.html

The Liberty was 441 feet long and 56 feet wide.
The Victory ship (officially VC2) was 455 feet long and 62 feet wide.

 

?? i thought it was a C-46 Commando and C-54 Skymaster :roll:

The C-54 was tested to carry M22 Locust light tanks....
Were all tanks carried by WWII Aircraft light tanks?

Finally found a good pic of a C-54 with a M22

from
http://www.geocities.com/armorhistory/infantrytanks.htm

 

1) Yeah, sorry, I do most of my posts when at work, so it's mostly from memory.

2) Yes. No WW2 plane was capable of carrying 30 tons of tank.