Battle Stories

[jackson44dday]

Does ayoone have a great battle story to tell. Tell thim right here.

[Jeff Duquette]

Dunno if you mean real or game battle stories. Here is a real one.

From: Belton Cooper Death Traps, The Survival of an American Armored Division in WWII” Cooper was an ordnance officer serving with the 3rd Armored Division.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Following General Rose's death, confusion was rampant among our leading elements. The general was trying to get Task Force Doan to secure our left flank when he was struck down. German groups of tanks and infantry counterattacked our task forces whenever possible. One major engagement just south of the Paderborn airport exemplified the tragic inferiority of our tanks” (sic the German Tank Crews were apparently mostly very young soldiers still in training at the German Tank Training Facilities around Paderborn…kind of the German equivelent to the US ARMY’s Tank Training Facilities at Ft. Knox).

One of our columns proceeded up a slightly inclined straight road. A narrow, winding road met the straight road about half a mile from the point where our column entered it. Heavily wooded, rolling hills lay on the right side of the road, and a level, open field was on the left with woods set back about three hundred yards. The column consisted of a company of M4 Sherman tanks followed by a company of armored infantry in half-tracks. These were followed by several GMC trucks and Jeeps and three M36 tank destroyers. Suddenly, seven King Tiger tanks appeared along the crest of the forward slope on the left side. As the tanks advanced toward our column, they turned to the right into a column formation and opened fire. We had no time or room to maneuver, and the Shermans could not utilize the advantage of our gyrostabilizers. Three more King Tigers emerged from the hilly woods road to the right. Our tankers and infantrymen were faced with their worst fear: to be caught in the open by King Tiger tanks at close range, without the ability to maneuver or seek cover.

The seven King Tiger tanks on the left proceeded down the entire length of the column, then turned around and came back. At extremely close range, a hundred yards or less, they raked the column from stem to stern. Some observers said it was more like a naval

engagement than land warfare. The infantry immediately took cover in the ditches on both sides of the road. One of the Sherman tanks, with a 76mm gun, broke out of the column and took cover behind a small stucco farm building to the left, just off the road in about the middle of the column. As the Tigers came down on their first pass, the Sherman crew swung their 76mm gun 180 degrees to the rear and let go at close range. The Tiger's thinner armor over the engine compartment was penetrated, and the tank started to burn. The victory for this brave crew was short-lived, however, because the Sherman was knocked out by another Tiger on its return pass.

Although the entire column was trapped, some of the veteran crews stayed cool and utilized their advantages. One of the crews of an M4 Sherman with a short-barreled 75mm M2 gun was near the middle of the column when the three King Tigers appeared on the right side. The alert tank commander immediately saw two possibilities. First, he knew that the King Tiger had a manual traverse***, and it would be extremely difficult and time-consuming for him to swing the turret and elevate the gun to zero in on him. Next, our tank commander knew that an armor-piercing shot from his low-velocity 75mm would just bounce off the King Tiger.

In a split second he told his gunner to load a white phosphorus round. It struck the glacis plate right above the driver's compartment with a blaze of flames and smoke. Although there was no possibility of penetration, the shock in the tank must have been terrific. The entire faceplate in front of the turret was covered with burning particles of white phosphorus which stuck to the sides of the tank. The smoke engulfed the tank, and the fan in the engine compartment sucked the smoke inside the fighting compartment. The German crew must have thought the tank was on fire and immediately abandoned it. Although the tank suffered little damage, had the crew stayed inside they would have been overcome by the deadly fumes. The Sherman immediately turned its gun on the second tank in the column and fired white phosphorus, with the same result. Although the ingenious tank commander knocked out two King Tiger tanks (without ever getting a penetration), his tank was then knocked out by another Tiger.

The King Tigers on the left proceeded all the way to the end of the column, where they knocked out one of our M36 tank destroyers, which blocked the rear of the column. The lead tank in the column had already been knocked out and trapped the entire column. As the German tanks returned to the front of the column, they swung their guns around to the other side and picked off the remaining tanks and half-tracks. It was like shooting ducks in a pond. The remaining King Tigers withdrew, leaving our entire column bleeding

and burning.

When our maintenance crews arrived on the scene, we found a catastrophe. The Germans had knocked out seventeen M4 Sherman tanks, seventeen half-tracks, three GMC trucks, two Jeeps, and one M36 tank destroyer. The column had been annihilated. Fortunately, the personnel casualties had not been as high as the appearance of the wrecked column indicated. The German tanks were so close that the machine guns in the turrets would not depress low enough to reach the men in the ditches. We immediately started dragging back those vehicles that had not been totally burned. The burned-out vehicles were pushed off to one side of the road and abandoned.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

***Although the King Tigers turret rotation trended toward the slow to very slow side…traversing I think was actually a hydraulic system similar to the Panthers, in which rotational speed varied with the engines RPMs.

This is from Actung Panzer Web Page http://www.achtungpanzer.com/pz5.htm#tiger2

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>“Porsche turret had a curved mantlet, which created shot trap below the mantlet and Henschel was ordered to design new turret to be used as a standard for future models. Henschel turret featured flush cupola instead of bulged one and saukopf mantlet instead of curved one. Henschel turret was also known as Krupp's (production) turret - Serien Turm. Porsche turret weighted 67500kg, while Henschel turret 68000kg. The turret could be traversed 360 degrees in 19 to 77 seconds, depending on engine's RPMs, which powered the hydraulic turret drive (at 2000rpm - 19 seconds).” <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

From Jentz: Tiger II turret rotation 360 degrees in 19 sec with engine @ 2000 RPM’s

Tiger II turret rotation 360 degrees in 25 sec with engine @ 1500 RPM’s

Tiger II turret rotation 360 degrees in 36 sec with engine @ 1000 RPM’s

If a German crews engine stalled, a seemingly common occurance when a tank was struck by an AP round (armour perforation or not) these fellows would be in a world of hurt due to slow rotational speed from hand cranking. I have cranked an M60A1 turret by hand (dunno the exact rotational speed) but it seemed like it took several minutes to complete a full rotation. Very physically demanding as well inspite of the hand crank gear ratios.