Facebook: Friends of the Tank Museum

[pierre the shy]

A13 Cruisers described in the soundtrack as being "remorseless juggernaughts mowing down all before them".....purhaps a tad optimistic?

But they do seem to make good bulldozers......must remember that tactic next time we play a 1940 game with built up areas 

[Steve J]

Great footage but the crews must have been a bit shaken up afterwards!

[fsn]

During the second world war, the German forces made extensive use of captured vehicles to supplement their own production, often using the lighter examples as the basis for conversions to carry more powerful weapons in limited-traverse mounts to give them a new lease of life. This German Geschützwagen Mk VI 736 (e) was based on British Mk VI light tanks abandoned or captured during the 1940 campaign, replacing their original machinegun turrets with German 10.5 cm leFH 16 light howitzers.


Aw! It's like a baby Wespe!

[paulr]

That sums up just how desperate the Germans were for vehicles

[Steve J]

Desperate but I don't know about you, but I love them!

[fsn]

The Scottish soldiers wore a kilt as a part of their uniform and their outfit seems to grab some attention. This Italian woman is curious to know what all those pleats are about.

This picture was captured in 1944 after the liberation of Rome. This news of liberation led to an exciting environment with celebrations around the city. When Hitler passed the orders regarding the military forces to leave Rome, people headed to the streets to throw flowers on vehicles on the roads.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Looks like far too much gun for the chaissis on the Mk Vi.

[fsn]

Is that what she's saying about the kilt?

[Steve J]

Very good

[fsn]

Original wartime caption: The Atherton Jack in operation with a Churchill tank.
Creator: War Office official photographer, Captain Console.
Source: © IWM H 23763


Hang on. That's not a Churchill. Anyone got an explanation?

[fred.]

Looks very much like a Crusader

I guess it just got mis-captioned

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

I agree it's a Crusader not a Churchill

[Raider4]

Photographers/caption writers are not necessarily technical experts?

[John Cook]

Photographers/caption writers are not necessarily technical experts?

No they often aren't.  This is a wartime release so it could be deception I suppose.  Anyway, here is a Churchill also from the IWM.

[Big Insect]

Blimey! You do wonder how much damage was done to the gun barrels and MGs by crashing through all that brick & mortar!
Great bit of archive footage though - stirring stuff - I almost signed-up 

[Steve J]

Very true Mark! Good for the folks back home but not if you're fighting at the front.

[fsn]

The Japanese Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tank is usually thought of purely as a WW2 vehicle, but it had an unexpectedly long afterlife in China.  The Japanese had conquered large areas of China before WW2, and indeed it was the western oil embargoes resulting from these that mostly drew them into the war.  There were still significant Japanese forces in China when the atomic strikes forced the Japanese surrender, and these turned over their vehicles and weapons to whatever forces – Nationalist or Communist – they were opposing.  The result was that both sides gained numbers of these vehicles which they used against each other, and with no more advanced tanks to oppose them, the Chi-Ha's outdated armour and gun were not  as problematic as against US vehicles.  The photograph shows a communist tank unit in 1949, when the Japanese tanks made up most of the 349 tanks the Peoples' Army had in service



They look like they've all been shot by a very proficient sniper

[paulr]

The Japanese had conquered large areas of China before WW2, and indeed it was the western oil embargoes resulting from these that mostly drew them into the war.  

An 'interesting' way of describing Japan's entry into WWII

I'm sure FSN copied and pasted the caption

[fsn]

Indeed. My comments are in italics.

[fsn]

Centurion tanks during a railway move somewhere in Germany.

Why are all the turrets rotated?