Hitler's Third Reich and World War II in the News is a daily edited review of WWII news, providing thought- provoking collection of hand-picked WW2 information.

Category: American Tanks  -- See latest WWII news here.

How do you lose a 15-ton battle tank - American Legion searching M3A1 light tank
U.S. Department of Defense donated an Army tank to the American Legion Post in Sussex Borough to pay tribute to the World War Two veterans. Now Uncle Sam wants its 15-ton tank back, but no one knows where it is. In a letter to American Legion Post 213 Commander Herman Terpstra, the Department of Defense requested that the group return an M3A1 light tank. The letter states that the Legion post is expected to send back either a color photo of the tank or evidence of its whereabouts or bear responsibility for the cost of the vehicle. Since the letter, Cherkas has been busy researching what happened to the so-called "Stuart" or "Honey" tank.     [ strausnews.com :: 2008-08-02 :: American Tanks ]

World War II US D-Day invasion tank M5 unearthed under a street in France
French bomb disposal experts were called in to make sure the military vehicle posed no danger before it was dug out from its muddy grave in near perfect condition. Council workers came upon the M5 tank as they went through routine repairs to the road in Chartres. It is thought the battle tank from the 31st Tank Battalion formed part of the invasion force that liberated France from the Nazis. Residents recalled the tank entering the cathedral city where it had been performing reconnaissance when it either ran out of fuel or broke down. When France was freed it was pushed down a hole and entombed.     [ telegraph :: 2008-06-05 :: American Tanks ]

Firm delivers US Sherman M4 E9 tank to a military vehicle collector
A huge US Sherman M4 E9 tank was transported from Boroughbridge by Sowerby Bridge firm Stoneywood Motors. "...this was something we don't do every day," said Steve Fielding. The tank, used as a climbing frame in a children's park in California, was bought by Ken Pugh, a collector of military vehicles. Pugh said it was built during the war and was used as a static tank in the war film Flags of our Fathers. "There are only about half-a-dozen of these tanks left in the world." He has a collection of World War II military vehicles including jeeps and troop carriers and plans opening a museum.     [ halifaxcourier :: 2008-04-05 :: American Tanks ]

Tank veteran's memories
Louis Baczewski keeps his faded WWII tank driver's license with him all the time. His memories are tied to it. On Veterans Day, he dons his U.S. Army dog tags and wears them proudly, remembering a younger man who achieved the rank of sergeant and drove a tank with the 3rd Armored Division, 33rd Armored Regiment, D Company. He survived the Battle of the Bulge when many others didn't, including his tank commander - and his assistant driver got killed by a German sniper. During the Battle of the Bulge his unit lost 15 battle tanks. The entire 3rd Armored Division lost 163 light and medium tanks. He saw a tank in front of his explode, burning the men inside to death.     [ bnd :: 2007-11-12 :: Panzers & Armored Divisions & Tank War ]

Veteran recalls the Normandy Invasion - Amphibious Sherman tank
On June 6, 1944, D-Day, Stanley Maher was in a life and death struggle. He was an Intelligence Regimental Non Commissioned Officer for the Fort Garry Horse 10th Canadian Armed Regiment during the amphibious phase of the Normandy invasion. "I was put into a Sherman tank that had been rigged with a snorkel, so ... it could roll along the bottom and still breathe, but it could only go in 8 feet of water." The Allied ships pulled as close to the beaches as possible, opened up their bellies to let dozens of tanks roll into enemy waters. "The ramp opened up, we hit the bottom of the ocean and the next thing I knew water was pouring into the tank from everywhere..."     [ lookoutnewspaper :: 2007-11-07 :: American Tanks ]

World War II Sherman tank gunner
Ross Parsons operated both the 17-lb big gun and a 300 Browning machine gun - and he was one of the fortunate ones. Many of his army comrades lie in military cemeteries, victims of World War II tank and infantry battles of 1945. His battle tank, a Sherman, never got hit. "We were very lucky." The push into Nazi Germany started in Feb. of 1945. The German resistance stiffened as they pushed for the Rhine River. They fought through two forests, the Reichswald and the Hochwald, facing artillery and even naval guns mounted on rail cars. "That Hochwald was a dirty business. They shelled us with 10 inch naval guns. It was pretty hard on the infantry."     [ lakesideleader :: 2007-11-07 :: American Tanks ]

Neville Smith, wargames with radio controlled WWII battle tank models
Neville Smith has spent $11,000 on 11 radio-controlled tanks to use in scaled-down World War II themed battles. His tanks range from the famous German Tiger 1 to the American Sherman. Each 1/16 scale model costs $1000-$2000 and takes weeks to assemble. "I guess the fact you can shoot one another and play games with the tanks won me over." When he isn't assembling tanks Smith spends hours fashioning toy soldiers and artificial trees to use on the battlefield. Those come in handy at gatherings of radio-control tank lovers. The group was formed by Smith and has 20 members throughout New Zealand. Auckland enthusiasts meet regularly to battle their tanks in wargames.     [ stuff :: 2007-10-06 :: Military Scale Model: Aircrafts, Vehicles ]

Belgians to restore historic American M4 Sherman tank at Bastogne
An American tank got blasted, though not by one of the usual suspects. Of all people, it was a group of Belgians, and they sprayed the armored vehicle hard enough to peel paint. One of the participants, a soldier, even called the experience a privilege. "I never thought that one day I would work on that tank," said Adjutant Daniel Libert, a maintenance chief at a Belgian military arsenal in Rocourt. If all goes as planned, the Sherman M4 tank, that has been absent from McAuliffe Square in Bastogne, will return by Memorial Day. Bastogne is linked to the largest land battle in U.S. military history: the Battle of the Bulge.     [ estripes :: 2007-04-07 :: American Tanks ]

Sherman tank gunner during WWII in 7th Armored Division
Lloyd Hull has no idea if he ever killed anyone while firing the big gun on his Sherman tank during World War II. He was a member of the 7th Armored Division, landing well after D-Day, and taking part in the Battle of the Bulge. He was member of the 736th Tank Battalion and a gunner for an M4 Sherman tank: "It was a 76 mm, but nowhere as good as that German 88. Now there was a weapon." Hull noted that infantrymen would always be happy to ride the tanks or shelter behind their armor. "But when fighting started, they'd jump off and move away. They never wanted to be inside a tank while the fighting was going on and I would have jumped off too if I could have."     [ mansfieldnewsjournal :: 2006-07-24 :: American Tanks ]

M-5 Stuart Light Tank put together collected pieces
Johnny Jay and his friend George DeBonis supplied the military heavyweights for the Memorial Day parade. The two have been collecting military vehicles for about 20-25 years. Their M-24s, Jeeps and 7-ton reconnaissance Scout trucks are a few of the rare objects in the universe not readily available on the Internet. "The M-5 (Stuart Light Tank) we put together from pieces we collected from here, there, and everywhere." DeBonis purchased the M-24 WWII tank 15 years ago from a collector in Indianapolis.     [ townonline :: 2006-06-03 :: American Tanks ]

Combat hero Dietz : Sherman tanks and panzerfaust squads
Elements of the 38th Infantry Battalion, spearheading the 7th Armored Division, approached the town of Kirchain. GI Jankowski in Dietz's 12-man squad was aboard the third Sherman tank in a line when a German soldier "stood up and fired a bazooka at the lead tank. We all scrambled off the tanks. Then I saw Dietz running and firing into the foxholes. He was grabbing the mines and throwing them off the bridge. As he stood up to signal that the route was clear he was killed by an shot from the left flank." Medal of Honor citation credits Dietz with wiping out 3 two-man panzerfaust (bazooka) squads and leaping into the water to disconnect explosives wired to the bridge.     [ zwire :: 2006-05-29 :: Panzers & Armored Divisions & Tank War ]

Classic vehicles - Ferrets and Lynxes and Sherman tanks
Ferrets and a black-smoke-belching diesel-powered vintage Sherman make up part of the 72 vehicle collection of the Oshawa Aeronautical, Military and Industrial Museum located at the municipal airport, which served as a Second World War Commonwealth air-training base. One of the goals of the museum volunteers is to have all the vehicles actually run, and more than 40 currently do. A tour begins with the artifact section before moving out to the machinery hanger. This is tightly packed with a Sherman and Chaffee tank, Bren gun carrier, Chevy staff car, a Willys Jeep, a M37 Dodge Power Wagon...     [ theglobeandmail :: 2006-05-26 :: Memorials and Museums ]

WWII tank killer to be honored later this month
Back in 1942, John "Jack" Francis III was just another young soldier enlisted in the Army tank corps. A year after he found himself in Sicily where Allied troops were fighting the Axis powers. During a patrol Cpl. Francis single-handedly wiped out two heavy German 88-mm cannons with his own 37-mm tank-mounted gun. Cpl. Francis, once handy with a tractor on farm, was "a wizard with the light tank." Having shipped out of Italy, Cpl. Francis participated in the invasion of Normandy, and was seriously wounded after his tank suffered a direct hit by a German bomb. Incorrectly assuming he had been killed, other crewmen in the tank left him behind to make their escape...     [ eastbayri :: 2006-04-21 :: American Tanks ]

Museum acquired a rare M-36 Jackson tank destroyer
Tank destroyers were meant to combat the big-gunned, heavily armored German Tigers and Panthers that "badly outclassed" the American Sherman tanks during the war. They were basically fast, lightly protected gun platforms firing shells that could penetrate the German armor. Their survival - and that of their crews - depended on speed and elusiveness, rather than heavy armor. Only about 1,500 M-36s were manufactured, and they reached the front in 1944, replacing older, smaller tank destroyers like the M-10 Wolverine and M-18 Bearcat.     [ newstimeslive :: 2006-03-07 :: WWII Anti-tank crews, guns & weapons ]

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