German Hetzer

My co-blogger Klumzey Keith is down with the flu. So to cheer him up I'd thought I'd post this picture of Keith's favorite AFV, the German Hetzer, which was a jadgpanzer adapted from the Czech T38 tank. This left side is open so you can look inside and see exactly how "cozy" it must have been for the crew of four. You can even see the remote control mechanism for the MG up on top. Now I ask you, who else but the Germans could have come up with something like that in those days?
My son Andy took this picture just this past Saturday up in Aberdeen. Maryland that is.

Italian M13/40

Keith has also been painting up a 15mm force of Italian Areite Division tanks, guns, and troops. So, in order to inspire him to get off his sick bed and back to working on them, I am posting this new and improved picture of the M13/40. This is the "mystery tank" I posted a few days ago under "Stump the Blogmeister." Since nobody ventured a guess; I win! Anyway this is a much better picture. To begin with the sun was shining, and my son Andy used his camera which actually takes better pictures than mine! How did I let that situation occur?

British Mark IV and Whippet from WWI

Okay everybody, as I said before, I drove back to Aberdeen to get some better pictures. My son Andrew and I both had our cameras going and between the two of us we got about 120 shots. It's a lot to go through. In the first round of looking through the pictures, these two that Andrew took stood out for me. These close ups of the British Mark IV and the Whippet were just so clear and detailed that I just had to post them. I hope you not tired of looking at pictures of tanks because its about all we have right now. Keith and I have been so preoccupied with things lately that neither of us has been able to do hardly anything gaming-wise. That will be rectified soon because I am going to the Cold Wars convention in Lancaster, Pennsylvania this weekend! If any of you have a chance to go, I highly recommend it. Check out our "Historical Miniature Gaming Society, East" link under "Gamer Resources" if you want to learn more about it.

Blogmeister Keith and a Panzer I

Here's another interesting picture for you. This is our very own Klumzey Keith standing next to a Panzer I on a cold, misty, rainy day. You can't get a good feel for how small those things are until you stand someone next to one. Keith is not a short man, he is about 6 feet tall.

Incidently, I drove back to Aberdeen this past Saturday to get better pictures. I'll be posting some of them soon.
So, more later,
Bwana Bill

Stump the Blogmeister, Again

Alright everybody, I don't know about you but we had so much fun with our Stump the Blogmeister games (see below) that we just have to do it again. This time we know the answer to the question, but lets see how many of you can get it. Here it is; can you identify this particular tank? Leave a comment if you can!

The Ever-Impressive and Imposing Jagdtiger

Here are a few more armor pictures I thought you might like. This Jagdtiger is on display at the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen, Maryland. It is certainly one of the more spectacular things up there due to its imposing size. This vehicle is the tank destroyer(or what the Germans called, the "jagdpanzer") version of the infamous Tiger II, or King Tiger. There is one interesting tidbit about this particular vehicle. The main gun appears to be smaller than it actually is because this vehicle was "scuttled" by its crew. They drained the hydraulic fluid out of the main gun's recoil damper and fired the gun; for the last time. They say that the breech remains impacted to the rear wall of the gun compartment. So, even though the gun still looks quite huge, it is the 128mm Pak 80, it is actually bigger than it appears to the observer today. I'm sure there are some other interesting stories that could be told about this particular Jagdtiger. If you look carefully at the closeup shot of the glacis plate you will see scars from projectiles that impacted and were deflected. You can also see a big gouge that was taken out of the recoil sleeve surrounding the main gun.

Reader Response to "Stump the Blogmeister"

Reader Jay very kindly responded to our query on the unusual tanks here and here:

"About your tanks...

The second tank is the M6 heavy tank. It was developed but never put into production because the Army ground forces calculated that they could ship 1.5 M-4 shermans for every M-6 heavy. By the time we got into combat in France, the M-6 design was obsolete. The M-26 pershing was developed and shipped instead, arriving a few weeks before the war endded.

Your first tank is either a "stretched" M-26 or a a "stretched" M-46. The rear drive sprocket which is out of your photo will tell which is which.

The M-26 has a rear drive sprocket lower than the line of return rollers for the upper line of track.

The M-46 has the rear drive sprocket in line with the upper return rollers.

There were a number of these "stretched" experimental tanks. This one looks like it has been lengthened about 4 feet, having an extra pair of road wheels, and a much larger turrret carrying the 120mm AA gun instead of the normal 90mm gun. The enlarged turret also had 2 loaders, one for the shot and one for the powder charge. There was even one of these things built, carrying the 155mm gun (that is a BIG gun guys!)

This philosphy of "stretched" hulls was actually put in to production about 1959 or 60 with the M-103 heavy tank. This was a stretched M-48 tank, again carrying the 120mm AA gun. About 50 were built and they were fielded in Germany as independent companies, held at corps level. The philosphy was they they would loiter at the rear of the battle area, picking off the JSIII Russian tanks, while the M-48 mediums mixed it up with the T-34 and T-44 tanks at shorter ranges.

You can see info about the M-6 in Chamberlain and Ellis' wonderful book "British and American Tanks and AFVs of WWII"."

If anyone can find a link to that book, I'd love to publish it here! I searched Amazon and Google, but no luck.

Thanks so much for your time and the great information Jay! We're not tankers, but we love our tanks!

A New Game - to Your Blogmeisters!

Bwana Bill and I have been talking about Legends of the Old West by Warhammer Historicals.

After reading the rules, I feel that they are full of fun fluff and they are completely playable. Apparently this ruleset is somewhat like of Games Workshops Lord of the Rings - mixed with Mordheim - which are both games I love to play!

Basically, you start with $200.00 and use that to build a "posse". You have to have at least 3 members to start, though it's probably better to have a lot of members. More figures mean you can make your opponent roll more die!

With Bwana Bill's Whitewash City buildings and a bit of home-baked terrain we'll be all set!

Figures are another topic entirely. I have a few that I've collected, but so far my favorite are by Shadowforge Miniatures which I purchased through Brigade Games - the "Earp Sisters" set! I actually bought them for my wife, however they are such great minis that I recon I'll have to mosey on down to my paintin' room and slap a dab o' paint on them thar critters!

The figures I have were purchased, cleaned, and painted are from the Desperado line by Monday Knight Productions. I am happy with the quality, however they are true 25mm, which makes them a tad small compared to the Shadowforge minis.

Still, I look forward to my gang of banditos riding into town, guns blazing, taking hostages, robbing banks, and being generally bad hombres! I have a 'gunslinger' looking figure with two pistols, a former Southern Army Scout with a Winchester rifle, a buffalo hunter/trapper/trader with a buffalo gun, and a gunslingin' gambler, as well as a Mexican bandito and a renegade deputy.

Bwana will have to come up with a band of cowpokes or lawmen to counter the threat of my dastardly gunslingers!

Stump the Blogmeister

Hello again all you tankmeisters! Today we want to return to discussing our recent trip to the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen, Maryland. Our tour guide took us to a remote lot were a lot of old prototype stuff is parked. This was a great opportunity because these vehicles are not considered to be on public display.

We saw two enormous U.S. heavy tank prototypes from the WWII era. They were never put into production because the logistics of getting them to the overseas war zones was just too hard. Here's the problem, I was so busy taking pictures that I was only half listening to what our guide was saying, so I can't remember the names of these beasts. He called one "the M6" and the other I don't know at all. If anyone knows, please leave a comment. I could always send an E-mail question to the kind gent who showed us around, but that would spoil all the fun, don't you think?

Anyway, I was kind of shocked when I saw these. I had never seen or heard of them before. I might be exaggerating, but it seemed to me that these things were comparable in size to the German Tiger tanks of WWII. If you think I'm wrong, please tell me!

Here is a photo of the first one:

Stump the Blogmeister (continued)

Here is the second one, unfortunately it is not a very good picture, the weather was really bad that day:

It looks to me that this one is the M6. It had a 3 inch gun (which is equivalent to about 75mm)AND a 37mm gun side-by-side in the turret. It also had twin .50 cal. MGs in the bow and it weighed 63 tons! That would make it comparable in size to a Tiger II wouldn't it?

More Shots From Aberdeen

Today we will get back to looking at photos from our recent trip to the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen, Maryland. In the workshop/warehouse that we were allowed to see there was a British Crusader Mark III tank and an Italian Semovente Assault Gun. The Crusader Mark III can be identified by the large muzzle brake. The Mark III had a 57mm gun (called 6 pounder by the Brits) whereas its two predecessors had 37mm guns (2 pounder). Both of these vehicles were very common sights during the epic struggle between the British 8th Army and the German Afrika Korps during World War II. Both of them had very recently been restored and they look like they just rolled off the assembly line!

More Shots From Aberdeen (continued)

Here is the Italian Semovente. It looks good, doesn't it? These vehicles carried a 75mm gun and during the North Africa campaign anything with a gun that large commanded a lot of respect. I can not identify the unit markings on this vehicle. If anybody knows please leave a comment.

Russian T34 cutaway

As I mentioned on Feb 6th, we visited the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum a few days ago. (See Below) Here are a few more pictures from that visit. This is a Soviet T34/76 that has been cut away on the left side so you can see the entire interior. We were lucky to be able to see this, it is in a building that is not open to the public.

T34 close up

Here you can see both the turret and hull a bit better.

T34: views of turret interior and hull interior

Here is a view of both the turret and hull close up.

A Visit to the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum

This past Saturday your blog hosts, Bwana Bill and El Bandito, drove up to the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen, Maryland. We received an invitation through the Flames of War Northern Virginia Yahoo Web Group. Bob Smart, who is a regular volunteer at the museum invited everyone in the group to Aberdeen for a special tour. About a dozen of us dedicated gamers braved a bad rain storm and took Bob up on his generous invitation. We got to see things that are not normally open to the public. It was a really great opportunity even though the weather was really bad. If you scroll down you will see photos of three tanks that we saw. We saw a lot more of course, and we will post those pictures later. Hopefully all you Tabletop Gamers out there will find them useful in terms of the colors used and the markings.

U.S./British M3 Stuart (Honey)

The M3 Stuart was a speedy and reliable U.S. built tank that was used by both the U.S. and British armies in WWII. The British nicknamed it the "Honey," because they thought it ran like, "a Honey"! This one bears the paint scheme of the British 7th Armored Divison, the "Desert Rats."

German Panzer IV F1

This Panzer IV F1 bears the paint scheme of the German 15th Panzer Divison which was part of Rommel's Afrika Korps.

U.S. M-10 Tank Destroyer