Best Tank in Normandy

I do believe this has been covered elsewhere and research suggests the fly boys shot a lot and actually hit remarkably little with their unguided rockets

There effect was probably more pyschological and annoying in that the Germans tried to avoid moving troops in the open and daylight

FNG

 

...one hell of a psycholgical and incredibly annoying effect though - planes screaming in and firing rocket and cannon at you all day long ! :roll:

... for psychological read imaginary - a bit more to it than that I feel - the Germans thought so too.

Yes - there was a psychological effect but only because the Germans knew they were genuinely dangerous - that's not psyops: that's just common sense.

 

I agree. Imagine what it would be like to be in a tank, with very low visibility, and hearing the planes with their rockets come screeching down, and not knowing if it was your last few minutes to be alive.

 

Why not? :lol:

 

Just because...

(Because the subject of (Apparently US) aircraft pilots deliberately bouncing .50 calibre bullets off the ground into the weak under armour of German tanks in order to destroy them crops up not infrequently on various internet forums, that obliges me to point out the huge impracticalities of this idea and even though it crops up semi-regularly I still foolishly forget to save my posts from the previous time. Want to suggest it? Then go ahead... :lol: )

If you want a cheaper method of disabling a tank you can always throw an apple in through a hatch, over to Merlin... :roll:

 

Apple Corps.

Sorry Simon but the War Diaries of the 3rd.Bramleys say that the 'Apple Corps' was disbanded in 1952, their insignia along with the 'Cox's Orange' (a Dutch Regiment) are very desirable on Ebay; unfortunately the 'French Delicious' are considered rather camp and not rated so highly.

 

What is the "apple in the turret" myth?

 

It stems from a story that some soldier threw an apple into the turret of a tank, and the crew thought it was a grenade and bailed out.

 

Whatever!

 

Here's a funny one. The crew of a Sherman fired at a Panzer V, with a normal shell, which ricocheted off the front armor plate. It so frightened the German crew that they bailed out and went running. While the Sherman crew were getting some armor piercing shell, which were stored on the outside of the tank the German crew got back in their tank and started firing at the Americans. The Sherman won the contest however.

 

commando:
It's those "ab-normal" shells that get you.


Tim

 

Yep!

 

They also fought the V1 Flying Bomb didn't they?

 

It was mainly the later marks of Spitfire and the Tempest that worked on the V1's as they had a better speed to do the job. The Typhoon by that time was more or less solely used in the tactical ground attack role.

 

I see. Thanks.

 

i read a very convincing argument ( here? ) that typhoon rocket attacks were virtually harmless to panzers in reality .however i think they would be rather effective in removing grenediers and support trucks ,fuel tankers ect which would pretty much shut down the panzers by default

iirc ,i read of at least one sherman crew that bailed out in panic when a german bounced a big brick off the roof of the turret , the germans started it up and drove it away , i guess a loud enough clang could make a green crew think they were hit and about to go all ronsen

also remember that to most GI s all german tranks were panzers and all artillery incomeing was 88s and in the pacific all jap fighter planes with radials were zeros . and when a typhoon pilot salvoed his rockets at tigers and saw them dissapear in a cloud of dust and orange flashes he prolly said yup i killed em all ,when actually he just ruined their hearing abillity for days and wreaked their paint job .

 

oops i ment ... to GI s all german tanks were TIGERS .

 

Big bad terrifying tigers!!

 

Hey! How many Tigers were produced during the course of the war, and about how many of them were destroyed?

 

Interesting read on the Tigers used in Villers-Bocage.

http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=501