Picture of the day

Panzer III, the reliable multi-purpose AFV

The usual crew of a PzIII was five. I've designated #2 in the pic as radio operator. He looks young, but he could be well educated; a technician. This Panzer's job, while important, wasn't really too technical. They would've acted as a relay station to bounce transmissions back and forth from Division to Brigade level. PzIIIs like this one would not have been at the pointy end of the attack, but rather served as this one did, or as command tanks, or in reserve. Many IIIs had already been converted into turretless StuG III SPs
mounting the lethal 75mm gun of the Pz IV. The German's A-team for Kursk comprised the big Tigers, Panthers, and those silly Elefants, but they still relied on the Pz IV for most of their strength. During several engagements the brave little Stuggies were called upon to go in and rescue the big boys that had either been set afire or simply broke down.
 
larrysmith said:
It is hard to believe 5 men could fit in that little tank. I would think most of the time the driver is the only one doing anything. The rest must just sit and pick their nose. I guess the commander gets to look around and give the odd order, turn left or stop.
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Haha! Well, you're partly correct--on long road marches there's not too much to do as long as you're moving, but there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes. At every stop each crew member has his assigned maintenance responsibility. For every hour of travelling time there is at least an hour of maintenance required. Then there's refueling and restocking to do. Being in a tank is like being on a transoceanic sailboat except without the water and the sky--it's always either too hot or too cold, there's the stench of diesel in the air. You get tossed around a lot, and you get seasick. Oh, and it's noisy in there. And, as with sailing, there are long periods of utter boredom spaced between times of sheer terror. As soon as the tank starts into indian territory everything changes--the commander becomes hyper-vigilant, constantly searching for potential danger and looking to acquire targets, as well as overseeing the rest of the crew, navigating, and communicating with other tanks in his unit. The gunner is madly trying to see whatever he can through his periscope and sight, while the loader is tending his weapons to be certain there will be no stoppages of the MG and that the correct ammo is in his ready-rack for the main gun. The driver is clutching and shifting a multispeed transmission, pulling hard on levers to control turning, monitoring the engine's vitals, and hoping nothing breaks. He also has to make sure he doesn't put the tank in jeapardy by keeping it out of bottomless mud and not allowing it to get high-centered on a rock. His worst fear is throwing a track in combat. The radioman is constantly fine-tuning a radio set designed in 1936, being ready to fire the bow MG, and prepared to brew up tea for his mates whenever time permited.
Being assigned to a Panzer meant a hard, stressful (and quite possibly shortened) life, but it still beat having to walk home from the gates of Moscow on frostbitten feet.
 
Pz.III or IV was not a healthy place to be on the Eastern Front (start at about 1:40) :

Interesting how often the bolt fails to completely open on the PTRD in the video. They were supposed to unlock and eject via recoil.
 
Sporting Lad said:
The usual crew of a PzIII was five. I've designated #2 in the pic as radio operator. He looks young, but he could be well educated; a technician. This Panzer's job, while important, wasn't really too technical. They would've acted as a relay station to bounce transmissions back and forth from Division to Brigade level. PzIIIs like this one would not have been at the pointy end of the attack, but rather served as this one did, or as command tanks, or in reserve. Many IIIs had already been converted into turretless StuG III SPs
mounting the lethal 75mm gun of the Pz IV. The German's A-team for Kursk comprised the big Tigers, Panthers, and those silly Elefants, but they still relied on the Pz IV for most of their strength. During several engagements the brave little Stuggies were called upon to go in and rescue the big boys that had either been set afire or simply broke down.
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early in the warm the pz3 was the tank fighting tank mounting a 37mm or long 50mm anti tank gun, like the early cruiser and crusader series for the brits, the pz4 was the anti infantry tank with the short 75mm howitzer, like the matilda or churchill for the brits and the stug was an armoured self propelled artillery piece. later in the war the pz4 mounted the long 75 and became the first real medium tank, intended to be replaced by the panther, and the stug became a tank destroyer. less than 200 pz3 hulls were converted to stug 3s as they were built on a somewhat hybrid 3/4 hull
 
Name the plane, and it's not as easy as you think:

buNXAaR.jpg
 
A 'rifle' that makes a Barrett .50 BMG look like a wimp! Where did they find guys brave enough to get behind one?

I was amused to see the drawings of the horse mounted version. I'd really like to have been there when it was fired from the back of a horse ..... I can see it headed across the steppes at a great rate of knots, taking the gun for a real ride.
 
Ganderite said:
Did those Russian rifles lack a good brake? Recoil looked brutal.
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They had as good a brake as they knew how to make at the time... Which isn't saying much when you realize that even the SVT-40's brake evolved during the course of the war - the later 2 port muzzle brake was a bit better, and easier to machine, win-win. Rifle muzzle brakes were a fairly new fangled thing at the time. They knew a bit about what to do for cannons, but it wasn't exactly a refined art.

Look at how much brakes have evolved in the past 10 years... Now go back 70 years and consider that they were just starting to figure it out.

All things considered, if I had a choice, I'd take the PTRS over the PTRD any day, just for the recoil advantage offered by a cycling action. It wouldn't have been much of a difference, but any advantage you can get.

Also, the allies gave up on the Boys ATR, which was in the same category. Partly because tanks got better, but also because it was so brutal on the guys using it. If they could have gotten the recoil down, it would have stayed in service for going after soft vehicles and pillboxes and all the other uses the Soviets put the PTRS and PTRD to. The Soviets just plain put less value on the long term health of their soldiers, and were much more willing to take casualties just to put firepower downrange.
 
Ganderite said:
Did those Russian rifles lack a good brake? Recoil looked brutal.
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It was basically just a length of rifled 3/4" ID pipe! Quickly outmoded as an anti-tank gun, it didn't have the long-range accuracy, nor were the optics available to make it a viable sniper rifle. It could have filled a role as a weapon to stop half-tracks and armoured cars, but their first round would need to be a good one (at a moving target?) because otherwise they'd be within the effective range of enemy machine guns and HE. As Sharpie said, those gun crews must have been brave (or stupid!).
 
IIRC there was one of these on permanent display in a NE Philadelphia park alongside an ME-262. They were both there from 1950 to at least 1969, which is the last time
I was there. They were just part of the landscape then, but it seems odd today to have those historical relics just sitting out there in the weather. Surely they're
in some museum by now. Maybe even the Franklin Institute.
 
Looks like the Swiss had a couple aircraft in 1945, but Uncle Sam wanted them back.
[youtube]zhEH8v4FPSI[/youtube]
 
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