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Ma Deuce on CM Shermans--My Cognitive Dissonance


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1 hour ago, c3k said:

 

What if you're Audie Murphy...fighting in Hollywood???

;)

(Because that's him in the screenshot, for those that didn't know. He played himself in the Hollywood movie about his actions.)

They changed the vehicle to a M4 from a TD.  But otherwise spot on.  ;)

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4 hours ago, John Kettler said:

Someone else will need to tell us the exact model/s used in this Battle of Bloody Gulch (had forgotten how intense that was) scene from "Band of Brothers," but note well how the .50s are mounted and employed at 7:05, 7:39, and continuing. If the Ma Deuces can be simply rotated forward while staying in the turret and engaging that way, then why are there crewmen outside of the turrets and behind them? I haven't read the book, but so can't comment on what's said there about this. Also, from what I recall reading, the film had top period experts involved throughout. Seems to me that putting the Ma Deuce operators on the engine decks would be about as counterintuitive as it gets if all that had to be done was rotate the mount forward and fight while ensconced inside the turret but unbuttoned. Audie Murphy did the same thing in his MoH action at Holtzwihr, Belgium. He had no choice but to fight from there, for the M10 was dead and the .50 mount was to the turret rear.


Regards,

John Kettler

 

They show the commander firing the .50 from his hatch at least once in you clip. 

 

They also mounted extra M1919 machine guns on a mount in front of the Commanders hatch late in the war. 

 

Check out this video for more info on how the early rotation copula mounts work. 

 

 

army.mil-2007-04-20-164942-1.jpg

 

Einheiten_der_11_US-Panzerdivision_ueber

Edited by JeepsGunsTanks
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This is the caption info.

An M4A3 76w HVSS tank is climbing up a muddy road in this HUGE image. Note the commander has an M1919 mounted in front of him. The caption says 11th US Armored Division Einheiten Der Germany 1945. You can see a Jumbo and another A3 76 tank, this one VVSS in the background.

 

There is a really nicely done colorised version I'm having trouble finding, it's a great pic though, just os much going on. 

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It says that they are crossing the Muehl, there is a Little Muehl and a Great Muehl. They are tributaries of the Donau/Danube not far from the Austrian border.  So this picture might show one of those. Exits stage right, singing "Jeeps and Guns and Tanks" to the tune of "Trains and Boats and Planes"   ------------------>

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On ‎13‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 2:34 AM, JeepsGunsTanks said:

There is a really nicely done colorised version I'm having trouble finding, it's a great pic though, just os much going on. 

Cheers fella.....Looks to me like they've fitted a .30cal to the commander's all round vision cupola somehow, so presumably it rotates, looks kinda cramped up there though, worse than the .50cal on the older cupola. 

PS - Aren't the tracks on the lead tank kind of unusual for WW2.....I thought it was pretty much all T-66 on wartime HVSS Shermans?  :o

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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7 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

PS - Aren't the tracks on the lead tank kind of unusual for WW2.....I thought it was pretty much all T-66 on wartime HVSS Shermans?  :o

The "U-Shaped" T - 80 steel track (23-inch double-pin) was one of the options tested in 1943.
According to "Sherman", OCM 21500 recommended the T - 80 track replacing the T - 66 track because it had a longer wear life.
So, the T - 80 track would become more and more common as the war went on.

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4 hours ago, SLIM said:

The "U-Shaped" T - 80 steel track (23-inch double-pin) was one of the options tested in 1943.
According to "Sherman", OCM 21500 recommended the T - 80 track replacing the T - 66 track because it had a longer wear life.
So, the T - 80 track would become more and more common as the war went on.

Was aware of the general facts/dates, but I didn't realise it made it to the front before the war ended.....Every day's a school day, as they say.  ;)

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  • 3 weeks later...

A different picture of this rather unusual arrangement came up once before in another thread about Sherman AA MGs (there have been so many).....Turns out the Bren guns really are attached to the Canadian Sherman:

Sherman-V-tank-armed-with-a-75-mm-Gun--5

Sherman V tank armed with a 75-mm Gun, 5th Canadian Armour Regiment, 8th Princess Louise (New Brunswick) Hussars, Italy, 2 Mar 1944.  (Library and Archives Canada  Photo, MIKAN No. 3599666 and 3599664)

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