Facebook: Friends of the Tank Museum

[Techno II]

Stroll on !

I certainly wouldn't want to be the mechanic trying to remove that.

Cheers - Phil.

[Ace of Spades]

Perhaps it's a booster rocket?

Cheers,
Rob

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Shows how tough those old Toyotas are!

[Raider4]

Shows how tough those old Toyotas are!

Well, if it does not detonate toughness doesn't really come into it

[Orcs]

Hope you feel Better Nobby.

[Orcs]

It does look as though they captured, and brewed up the tank.

They only did that just in time, and a little poignant, as PAN AM- brewed up (Collapsed in 1991).

[fsn]

INDIAN ARMOURED CORPS IN THE MIDDLE EAST, 1944.
Sherman tank crews of the Scinde Horse Regiment, part of the Indian 31st Armoured Division in Iraq.
In the foreground, a party of Sikhs is being given instruction on stripping and cleaning a Browning gun, by a Viceroy's Commissioned Officer.
Part of: MINISTRY OF INFORMATION SECOND WORLD WAR OFFICIAL COLLECTION.
Source: © IWM K 6692

[fsn]

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and the last decade of wars and insurgencies across the middle east has certainly produced some unexpected conversions.  This is one of the more unusual – a humvee fitted with the turret from an old BMP-1 IFV seen in Yemen

[Orcs]

INDIAN ARMOURED CORPS IN THE MIDDLE EAST, 1944.
Sherman tank crews of the Scinde Horse Regiment, part of the Indian 31st Armoured Division in Iraq.
In the foreground, a party of Sikhs is being given instruction on stripping and cleaning a Browning gun, by a Viceroy's Commissioned Officer.
Part of: MINISTRY OF INFORMATION SECOND WORLD WAR OFFICIAL COLLECTION.
Source: © IWM K 6692

Interestingly, the tanks all have uniform camouflage

[fsn]

I hadn't noticed that!

What intrigued me was their uniforms.

[Steve J]

IIRC the British had camo patterns to follow, as I've seen the same on early war tanks where they all have the same pattern, near as damnit.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Thats true Steve. You see Grants, Shermans and Crusaders with the white outline to the brown because the crew had not painted over the full area outlined by the engineers. Most armies do have standard patterns - even for MERDEC, one of the reasons it was withdrawn is that the crew painted vehicles were none standard.

[fsn]

Char B1 in German hands.

For some reason I imagine the chap sat there sounds like this ....

[Raider4]

Obviously the inspiration for all those "woman in bikini lying on the bonnet" pictures you used to get at car launches/motor shows.

[sultanbev]

I've spent most of today failing to find an armour schematic for the Char B1bis showing the actual plate thicknesses for each part of the tank.
Sources don't even agree on the flat plate thickness of the hull side (it's either 55mm or 60mm).
The turret sides and rear are apparently 56mm thick, but it's the various parts of the turret front and hull front with their varying angles that I'm after.

This pic here shows the turret varies, but not the actual values
https://warspot.net/68-char-b1-bis-general-estienne-s-legacy/images?name=%2F000%2F000%2F887%2Fcontent%2Fcharbp3s01-0ca88fa558e13ea670e15271cd54d15b-89e0ff6185b7c27b4d13e9c972bb4912.jpg

For instance the MG mantlet is actually spaced armour, but the plates are considerably thinner than the 56mm turret side plates. Normally this wouldn't matter but the MG port mantlet is so a huge part of the turret front that plenty of shots aimed at the turret are gonna hit the thing.

I've managed to find the equivalent data for the Somua S-35 and it's quite startling how the Line of Sight thicknesses vary when facing frontally.
Mark