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Nope, break track, drag it back onto the road, put track back together on the Stug and get it back in the fight. The 12tonner is just a simple recovery unless it has a gun in tow then it could be kinda weird.
I ued to run grapple yarders with M4 undercarriage and we used to break tracks all the time. Far easier to put a tank track back on than an excavator.
 
Pulling her out of the ditch is a pretty straightforward fix compared to some...

WqDcr9d.jpg

Yikes! Whatever hit the hull - maybe a 17#er? caused it to brew up to the extent it blew the mantlet plate to hell and back. You can clearly see where it was bent then torn completely off under tremendous force. It also looks like at least four hull rivets on the right became projectiles, ironically heading in the direction of the opfor.
 
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I ued to run grapple yarders with M4 undercarriage and we used to break tracks all the time. Far easier to put a tank track back on than an excavator.

Vickers marketed a tractor in the post war years called the Sher - vick. The intended market supposedly were the players in ground nut farming industry in Africa. I haven't got a clue what a ground nut is but that is beside the point. All was going well until it was discovered the biggest buyers of the Sher - vick were shady international armaments dealers. The parts commonality made the She r- vick popular with M4 tank operators around the world.

ITAR or the equivalent flexed its muscles - no more Sher - vicks!

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This had only two bogie assemblies. There are also pics of post war era commercial vehicles with the full M4 chassis.

The Sher - vick and the Groundnut scheme was a typical failed scheme thought up by Atlee's Labour government. The Brits were screwed up in that era thinking they still could keep their colonial possessions as if nothing had happened.

Seems Atlee's priorities were skewed in those days. UK city centres were piles of rubble interspersed with UXO and human remains. All they had were shortages of everything but poverty and misery, there was plenty of that to go around. Still, Atlee found lots of $$$ to fund the UK thermonuclear weapons program.
 
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Yikes! Whatever hit the hull - maybe a 17#er? caused it to brew up to the extent it blew the mantlet plate to hell and back. You can clearly see where it was bent then tore completely off under tremendous force. It also looks like at least four hull rivets on the right became projectiles, ironically heading in the direction of the opfor.

Check out the road wheels in the right side.
 
Check out the road wheels in the right side.

As the Stug did not have a torsion bar suspension the road wheel, swing arm and spring pack are bolted to the hull and easy enough to make correct again. The secondary explosion inside the hull is the game changer.
 
HMS Plym 1943

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The vessel was chosen as the target ship for Operation Hurricane in which a 25 Kiloton device was fired in her hull at the test site in the Monte Bello Islands. As far as I can tell there are no declassified pics of the device. It was an improved implosion device similar to Fat Man.

From spinipedia:

The bomb was successfully detonated at 07:59:24 on 3 October 1952 local time, which was 23:59:24 on 2 October 1952 UTC, 00:59:24 on 3 October in London, and 07:59:24 on 3 October in Perth.[77][95] The explosion occurred 2.7 metres (8 ft 10 in) below the water line, and left a saucer-shaped crater on the seabed 6 metres (20 ft) deep and 300 metres (980 ft) across.[77] The yield was estimated at 25 kilotonnes of TNT (100 TJ).[96] All that was left of Plym was a "gluey black substance" that washed up on the shore of Trimouille Island.[97] Derek Hickman, a Royal Engineer observing the blast aboard Zeebrugge later said of Plym, "all that was left of her were a few fist-sized pieces of metal that fell like rain, and the shape of the frigate scorched on the sea bed."[98] The bomb had performed exactly as expected.[99][100]

In those days it was decided to test the detonation of a thermonuclear weapon in a ship in shallow water - like a harbour. One would assume they thought a device would be too unwieldly for all but the most advanced countries to drop from a bomber a/c reliably and consistently. So it would follow a sneak attack via ship would be more likely. Or they were thinking far ahead to the current age of asymmetric warfare. Perhaps they predicted 9/11/2001 like attacks in the 1940's. . . .
 
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Yikes! Whatever hit the hull - maybe a 17#er? caused it to brew up to the extent it blew the mantlet plate to hell and back. You can clearly see where it was bent then torn completely off under tremendous force. It also looks like at least four hull rivets on the right became projectiles, ironically heading in the direction of the opfor.

Yep, this StuG III ausf G likely fell to a 17 pounder anti-tank gun of the British 64th Anti-Tank (Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry) Regiment, Royal Artillery, as part of 78th Infantry Division. I think the ammunition storage was on the right side, and that lower hull is 80 mm thick but sloped at just 19 degrees.
 
Gawd! but I hope there was nobody IN that poor Stug when it got smacked!

Looks like 4 17-pdr holes. Don't think the poor thing would be running too fast after the first.

I have always like the look of the StG-III, wished I could afford to have one. Without doubt, it was the top tank-killer of the War: even this one is sporting 5 kill rings; surprised nobody commented on those.




PS: Fat Tony: 'ground nuts' sounds so good and exotic, but it's just "peanuts" to you and me!
 
Gawd! but I hope there was nobody IN that poor Stug when it got smacked!

Looks like 4 17-pdr holes. Don't think the poor thing would be running too fast after the first.

I have always like the look of the StG-III, wished I could afford to have one. Without doubt, it was the top tank-killer of the War: even this one is sporting 5 kill rings; surprised nobody commented on those.




PS: Fat Tony: 'ground nuts' sounds so good and exotic, but it's just "peanuts" to you and me!

You're right, 4 holes, and two tight groups of 2 shots each. Not likely to be done during a tank battle.
My guess is target practice on a stationary target.
 
Gawd! but I hope there was nobody IN that poor Stug when it got smacked!

Looks like 4 17-pdr holes. Don't think the poor thing would be running too fast after the first.

I have always like the look of the StG-III, wished I could afford to have one. Without doubt, it was the top tank-killer of the War: even this one is sporting 5 kill rings; surprised nobody commented on those.




PS: Fat Tony: 'ground nuts' sounds so good and exotic, but it's just "peanuts" to you and me!

Nice to hear from you Smellie.
 
I'm guessing the crew of something with a 76mm, T34 or maybe an AT gun put that Stug out of action with 2 hits
Then an ISU152 rumbled by later on and its crew decided to have a little fun for good measure
Can't be anything left of the vehicle interior after that
 
I'm guessing the crew of something with a 76mm, T34 or maybe an AT gun put that Stug out of action with 2 hits
Then an ISU152 rumbled by later on and its crew decided to have a little fun for good measure
Can't be anything left of the vehicle interior after that

The photo in question usually carries the caption:

StuG III of Stg.Brig.907, knocked out by the British 64th anti-tank regiment near Aquino, Italy, May 18, 1944.

The 64th Anti-Tank (Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry) Regiment, Royal Artillery was known to be equipped with the QF 17 pounder anti-tank gun during the Italian campaign.
 
I'm guessing the crew of something with a 76mm, T34 or maybe an AT gun put that Stug out of action with 2 hits
Then an ISU152 rumbled by later on and its crew decided to have a little fun for good measure
Can't be anything left of the vehicle interior after that

Yes. The 152mm HE were said to be able to brute force German tanks out of action even though they were not anti tank rounds. Definitely looked like the fuze set it off really fast rather than penetrating then going off. An authority once told me a 155mm artillery shell is or was unable to knock out an average Western tank if it hit the tank. Such info is hard to come by and an authorized person probably would have access to such intel rather than a squaddie.

But, we know 152 mm rounds had catastrophic effects on WWII Axis tanks so some other factor is at play, whatever that is in this person's opinion.

sB3bMkl.jpg



brummbar-hit-by-ISU-152.jpg


The aftermath of a supposed 152 mm shell hit on a Sturmpanzer 43 Brummbär. Don't know the context of the pic - test, combat, HE round, AP round?

If the Brummbar was destroyed by combat against the Soviet forces it would could have been in Kursk (Sturmpanzer-Abteilung 216), East Prussia (Sturmpanzer-Kompanie z.b.V. 218), or maybe in Hungary where they were trying to help German forces break out to avoid capture by the Soviets ( Sturmpanzer-Abteilung 219). All background info from spinipedia although they gave references for the East Prussia and Hungary claims.

The caption claimed this was a Panther tank turret hit with a 152mm shell. Don't know if it was in combat or a test, HE or AP. The ISU 152 was only a tank destroyer by accident. It was an assault gun mainly. I had heard the ISU was most successful when about three of them set up an ambush for the Axis tanks, or maybe firing from a place where they could appear, shoot, & quickly retire behind cover. They would have been formidable in an urban area where there were no range advantages.
 
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