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

If you would scroll back a few steps you would see that I found the whole "yanks brawling with Tiger crews" to be little less than retarded as well. Do NOT try to push the nationalism card on me. Believe me, you aren't being origional, you wouldn't be the first.

Thanks, I needed a laugh.

 

You are welcome - we all need a little laugh - I respect your right to disagree.

Regarding nationalism : I was triggered by your remark _
'God, I hate the Katana and all these BS hyped out stories centered around it'

Could say the same thing about the various stories about the feats of the special forces (not only american special forces !)

 

The Media has warped the image of the Katana far more than any sort of special forces. People, at least in the general area where I live, are no longer capable of realizing that a Katana is metal, and has the limitations of metal.

 

'Surely if the officer had a Katana he could have simply sliced through the frontal armour of the tank without needing to use a hatch...'

Is that the kind of stuff you mean?

 

pour bullshit into the tank

sorry somthing about this thread made me think that

16 inch naval guns from the Battleship Texas at Caen..

 

I would imagine against some of the early war light tanks and good quality tin opener and you were in.

 

I like the sarcasm but don't approve of the attitude ' Sorry not possible, BS story !'

And for Danyel Phelps :
'The Media has warped the image of the Katana far more than any sort of special forces. People, at least in the general area where I live, are no longer capable of realizing that a Katana is metal, and has the limitations of metal.'
Maybe most people shouldn't watch so many cartoons and weird martial arts/adventure movies , but read quality books instead ?


Please consider the following :

- The story has been retold by two independent authors, one able to
mention time, place and names.
- Nobody has claimed this story to be an accurate and scientific
description of an encounter between man and tank.
- Everybody agrees it seems, that hand to hand comabt hollywood style
inside a tank is out of the question.
- the same goes for sword slashing inside a tank but thrusting a knife or
sword should be perfectly possible.
- The Katana word : Well this was introduced by Danyel Phelps,
nobody else has mentioned the exact type of weapon used.
Heck I once owned a long sword bayonet from WW1 !

I think the story is about a single immensely brave/insane/desperate japanese officer ( the were not cowards) seeing his opportunity to try to single handeded capture a tank using his sidearms.
Had he used a revolver and grenades from outside the tank he might very well have succeded.
I will try to dertermine the original sources of this story ( and no I never watch History Channel !)
By the way :
I have even heard of an Iraqi guy attacking an M1 Abrams with a pistol, trying to shoot through periscopes and vision blocks, I doubt it but unexpected events are bound to happen in any war !

 

Time for a wake up call!

I especially just love your reluctance and inability to answer a simple question that has been asked no less than twice. Have you ever seen the inside of a Sherman turret? Answer this in your next post, I dare you.

You absolutely have to be kidding me. Do you realize that there are plenty of books which praise the Katana for being able to slice through high-density materials, while European swords apparently can't even cut through a block of cheese?

Books are not the end-all. Sorry, but it's time to wake up. Books are media just like everything else, and anyone can and will be published these days. I could write a book about how the United States likes to implant bombs in its own military buildings and blame the resulting catastrophe on terrorists. Oh, wait, that's already been done hasn’t it?

Oh this should be rich. I'm so petrified in fear at your oncoming rebuttal. No, seriously. Sheer terror is pouring through my veins. I can barely manage to look at the monitor as I type this!

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Billy Whatshisface. He lived in California. One night at 12:37 6/06/98, he couldn't sleep, so he decided to go to the washroom and splash his face with water. Lo and behold! A radioactive fish popped out of his toilet and smacked him in the face with its mighty, toxic-waste tainted fin! Since then, Billy Whatshisface has been granted superpowers!

Oh, let’s see here. I mentioned a name, a place, and a date. This story must be true. Give me a break. Plenty of stories have been told by countless people with the information you require. That doesn't always make them true. Just visit www.snopes.com for a fraction of them.

And I also never claimed it to be a tale of man vs. tank. I claimed it was a tale of over hyped ancient Japanese weaponry being used in such a way to impossibly bypass the defenses of a modern tank to kill its crew in a cartoonish manner.

Really? Then why are we still arguing this if everyone has come to terms this story is a load of BS?

Yeah, you can thrust a sword in a tank. You CANNOT dive into a tank heroically with something like a Katana and proceed to go Jet Lee on everyone's ass.

Japanese officer + Sword = What, then. I don't recall many Japanese officers going into combat with Claymores, I never heard any stories of them leading bayonet charges using Zweihanders. It's common knowledge, guy, that Japanese Officers had and DID use Katanas. If we're talking the Bayonet on the end of a rifle, it's the same deal.

 

Ok Gents, we're getting a little heated here.

Please everybody calm down, and start simply debating the issue at hand without all the extra stuff that turns a debate sour.

Moderator Ricky

 

Ok, recap.

We have 2 similar stories from a few sources, one stating names, dates etc.

Basically, A Japanese officer is said to have got onto the back of a tank (type unknown, probably a Sherman or a Lee) and killed the commander with his sword.

This is eminently possible, though it would require skill / luck and much bravery.

He then stuffed the dead body back down the hatch

This is still possible, but more difficult to do.

He then descended into the tank after the dead commander

Again, becoming more difficult - how did he get past the dead body slumped in the commander's seat? And we have already mentioned the tricky part of bringing a sword with a ~30-inch blade down in through the hatch with you, and then being able to use it in a hurry.

He then kills the gunner

Well, if he can get in and can get his sword in place, sure.

He then 'stabs & slashes' at the loader, who manages to shoot him.

Well, provided he gets down into the commanders position, I'd say that he would be making frantic efforts to get his sword to commect with the last remaining crew member in the turret, which could easily be interpreted as 'slashing & stabbing' by the unfortunate loader. This could also explain why the loader had the time to fire 6 rounds with his gun then pick up a second gun from a dead guy's holster and use that.

My overall view - highly unlikely. Maybe not impossible, given that the account would have come from the loader who would be rather shaken by the experiance...

 

[Edited by Moderator]

I especially just love your reluctance and inability to answer a simple question that has been asked no less than twice. Have you ever seen the inside of a Sherman turret? Answer this in your next post, I dare you.

As I told earlier July 28 :
No I have only seen a Sherman tank from the outside but I have been at all 4 crew stations in a Centurion tank !
This posting contained a typing error ; should have said 'Impossible' not possible.

And I have never claimed this story is 100% true 'Just because I have it from two different sources'.

Forget about the Katana word, stop putting words in the mouth of others, and you could choose to forget about this thread, just as I have chosen to forget about various uninteresting threads !
You are simply a [personal insults removed] person obessed with the Katana myth.
'Ricky' on the otherhand has made a nice analysis of this highly unusual case in his precious posting.

 

:roll:

 

please remember what Ricky said and keep it polite and please no more personal insults

 

Well please accept my apologies for this obviously insulting statement.
This discussion is however getting out of hand in spite of Ricky's wise analysis.

I will drop the discussion until I have more hard evidence !

 

Please guys as a reminder to everyone, please be polite

 

Our very own Merlin decided to settle this, and wrote to the unit involved (3rd.DG.(carabineers)) to ask. He was sent a very nice letter, which basically told him that the incident in question is covered in their Regimental History, called 'I Serve' (by Lieutenant Colonel L B Oatts DSO).
They also kindly sent him a photocopy of page 281 of the book, a scan of which can be seen below, with the relevant section highlighted.



It sounds like they were using Grants, which is what m_kenny said that this unit had...

 

So not impossible after all That officer must have been berserk as well as pretty nimble to manage that. Hats off to Merlin for getting the answer.

 

Anecdotal evidence, that's all.

 

aziz

I apolagize unreservedly for rubbishing this story in its early stages,
I thought it was another ww2 myth, and Trooper Jenkins deserved his
MM. I have no reason to doubt this report and the accompanying letter from Lt.Col.RJ Binks, regimental secretary.
Can we put it to bed now, please?
PS. That jap officer was a persistant little sod wasn't he?

 

YEAH- I ONCE READ ABOUT A TEXAN THAT SPIT AT A TIGER II

He was a Mexican American, yeah, thats it, and he had been eating spicy taco sauce, yeah and well the spicy sauce he spit burned a hole, kinda like that alien movie, yeah, and well it burned hole all the way through yeah, the Tiger..

Then there was this marine , he farted, yeah at a....

LOL

Sorry I just could not resist, the Hungarians burned Soviet tanks with gasoline bombs. So, I would believe those Japanese soldiers were crazy...

Maybe Captain Miller of the 101st AB could make us a sticky bomb..

I once heard a guy took out a Tiger with a cordless electric razor.. and it was dull too... Later he sharpened it and took on a whole division..


WWOOOf Woof- that was my other dawg imatation..

Hey- I started this thread as a joke- so I have a licence to make stupid comments.