"Sherman's Bane" - PanzerGranate 39

[Saaismail]

Sure thing - the CNC is made from a set of plans by a company call solsylva. It's got a 24"x48" table. I use Mach 3 software to drive it and Vectric's excellent Vcarve pro software to create the designs. This was my first foray into CNC and it's been a bit of a learning curve but lots of fun. i would like to get a "real" one one day, but they are quite expensive for a guy playing around with it as a hobby. Overall I've been very surprised how accurate this home made one is, but certainly the professional ones are much faster and have better features.

In regards to the aiming circle, my concept was to go find a picture of what the aiming reticule/sights looked like for the Tiger's KWK 36 main gun and then overlay them on a photo of a Sherman tank to give a sense for what the German gunner would see a he lined up a shot. I hope it's fairly accurate since I've never been inside a tank before let alone aimed the main cannon at anything!

I also just put up a new facebook page with some of my other WW2 display projects if anyone is interested in that sort of stuff - Thanks

https://www.facebook.com/CustomHistoricalDisplays/?ref=hl

 

[BMG50]

Nice box to store and display a 88mm tank round. I have made a smaller similar box to store a EZ44 anti lifting device. I would be careful to show it to veterans especially with the picture on the side of the box, watch this YouTube video 'French tank crew remove body of dead soldier's from tank' filmed two hours after it was hit in August 1944 a Free French Sherman crew. Does make you think of the destructive nature of the things we collect. I can see why some vet's don't talk about parts of the war they took part in. It's a reminder of the sacrifice they had to endure.

 

[Saaismail]

Understood and good point BMG50. I certainly wouldn't mean to make light of any of the horrors these men lived through.

Just watched the video and it's amazing any of the guys (on either side) could keep their wits after having to witness things like that on a daily basis. I remain in awe of their courage.

 

[HAZORD]

Wow, all of your displays are really nice! I like the plaques for the Tiger and Panther, and the Pyramid. The Egyptian Gods you chose are very nice, along with the other Hieroglyphs. I've never seen a cat with wings before though. Very precise fine woodwork!

 

[917601]

Nice work. I would like to own an 88 artillery shell more so than the tank round ( Flak 88?). My father, a WW2 infantryman, told me stories after I got out of the Army, said I would not understand until then. He entered France late in the war, Feb 1945, was moved quickly to the Rhine at Cologne,then south and across to cut the Ruhr pocket in half, then was shot by MG April 1945. I remember two subjects he spoke about, the first being the many times the 88's opened up on them, almost daily. Flak AA 88's no doubt? Which led to the subject of Tiger tanks. He recalls seeing only two decimated Tiger hulks, crossing France, presumably destroyed by air or artillery. Their practice at that time was to call in artillery and/or air or attached TD units on all spotted German armor....seems there were not to many Tigers in the US sector. He did say the day he was shot, they were attacking a farmhouse at some crossroads near Bilstein, Bigge River? ..artillery was first called in to blanket the area and a Tiger covered by a haystack received a direct artillery round blowing it to pieces...an SS unit he was told, ( maybe a war " story"), the rest is family history....their platoon charged down the hill into the valley, he was hit 7 times ( with AP, small clean holes went clean through his hand, legs, stomach and removed a testicle- ouch) and he laid in a cow path for two days with his also shot Lt....he said the rest of the day he tried to get his two pairs of long johns off to see his wounds but finally gave up. All day he heard aircraft flying over head with non stop bombing. He later learned in good old Patton strategy, when resistance was met, they as a unit bypassed and kept moving, artillery and air pounded the area until rear units arrived to clean up the mess-injured and dead. He did not like Patton, his opinion, he was there, I was not. He feared most the 88 artillery, he was always on the move, and was irate about being left behind for two days. He always said it was rotten luck to attack that crossroad, they were the only Germans that were not surrendering, up till then all he every saw were thousands of surrendering Germans. In fact, he threw away his Pearl handled Luger he took from a captured German officer on the Rhine while in that cow path, he thought he might be captured. He had three of us, he died in 1993.

A footnote, the 86th went on to Hitlers Eagles Nest in Bavaria, then was immediately shipped to the Phillipines. They were one of only two Army divisions that were awarded both the European and Pacific
Theatre Campaign ribbons.

 

[jeff w]

When you read through US veteran memoirs and even unit histories you quickly see a pattern of referring to any German AFV as a "tiger" tank, and every exploding artillery shell as an "88". Usually these statements cannot be taken literally - it's just the jargon of the period. I've probably seen a dozen GI photos with the caption written on the back of "me and tiger tank" when it was actually a panther. Like it was stated above, after D-day in the ETO there were few American encounters with Tigers, and German field artillery units were not equipped with 88's.

 

[M8owner]

Reading the histories of Russian tankers and tank destroyer crewmen also demonstrates that all German tanks were Tigers to them also.

 

[917601]

When you read through US veteran memoirs and even unit histories you quickly see a pattern of referring to any German AFV as a "tiger" tank, and every exploding artillery shell as an "88". Usually these statements cannot be taken literally - it's just the jargon of the period. I've probably seen a dozen GI photos with the caption written on the back of "me and tiger tank" when it was actually a panther. Like it was stated above, after D-day in the ETO there were few American encounters with Tigers, and German field artillery units were not equipped with 88's.

It appears you are correct. I pulled out my father's huge hardback of the official US Army ETO Operations Volume 9 ( Published 1973) thousand pages packed with maps, details, units etc...and found after much searching, the 86th and 99th was up against the Panzer Lehr Division and the Fifteenth Army who surrendered 15 April to the US 99th Infantry Divison on the 86th's right flank. The Panzer Lehr Division was equipped with Panthers and Mk 4's. Sources state as of March end they had only a dozen Mk4s, a dozen Jagpanzers, and 25 Panthers left...so, the tank blown up in " the haystack" must have been either a Panther or a MK 4.