VoV’s Blog  

That’ll do nicely for starters.

Wonder why I can’t find this database to back it up!

No 5 MkII Jungle Carbine, made for shortened Enfield with large flash
hider. MkI has only a single screw in the pommel. A similar blade with a
small muzzle ring is the No8

z

Ideas for Fear Naught 2011.

Monday, the 7th of August ’44

The Guards armored squadrons moved towards their daily
positions in the villages of Les Grands Bonfaits and Le Busq. The
Squadron 2 of the 2nd Armored Battalion Irish Guards was in position on
the ridge, when they were engaged by three panzers IV and a Flak-88 gun
which attacked the flank of the position. The Sherman FireFly of Sgt Mc
Manus was hit and abandoned with only one wounded.

At Chenedolle, 6 miles east of Vire, elements of the 1st
Company of the Schwere SS Panzer Abteilung 102 waited for an attack
order. The Tigers were supported by the 1st Company of the
Pionier-Batallion 600. Out of the village, in front of the church,
sergeant Fey in his Tiger 134 stood on alert. A column of 15 Shermans
of the 23rd Hussars and tracked carriers was spotted. Sgt Fey called
his commander who gave him the order to withdraw. But the Sgt Fey told
his radio operator to turn off the radio reception.

The allied tanks advanced in a narrow path between the
hedges. At 800 meters an AP shell was loaded into the gun. The first
target was at 600 meters. Suddenly, the sergeant Fey ordered : “Panzer
granate-600-Feuer Frei” and began his tanks slaughter. At 1200, 14
Shermans and some carriers have been destroyed covering the valley with
a dark smoke. The Tiger 134 is nearly out of ammo. Sergeant Fey left
his panzer and he crawled to the nearest panzers. He came back later
with a 88 AP shell. A Few minutes later, a heavy bombing began. One
track was hit, immobilizing the tank. He called to be towed. They were
waiting, jabbos over their head. Suddenly, they heard tracks on their
right, at 1400. Two shells left. The hatches were opened, ready for
evacuation. The Sherman gun was spotted, the first shell misses. But
the second does not. A 15th victory ! In the evening, two Tigers of the
Schwab Section (S1) came and towed the Tiger 134 to the company PC.

In 1942 it had been planned to create a British tank destroyer but with the availability of the M10 these projects were put on hold. The M10 was first made available a the end of 1942, these vehicles were open topped and mounted a 3″ American gun, this weapon was significantly more powerful than the 6 Pounder that mounted British tanks of the period and slightly better than the 75mm guns used by the Panzer IV. These M10s were given the name “Wolverine”.

The M10 was light, relatively fast and had decent armament but the turret was poorly balanced which lead to very slow turret rotation speeds, later versions had counterweights added to help with this issue. The armour on the M10 was very thin, thinner than that of the Sherman’s and thus offered little protection against the newer German guns but the open top, despite the additional vulnerability offered excellent visibility for the crew.

The British made several modifications to the M10, additional 17mm thick armour plates were welded to the front and sides of the M10, also a 20mm thick shield was fitted to the top of the turret to give extra protection to the crew. The biggest change to the M10 was the removal of the American 3″ gun and replacing it with a British 17pdr, the 17pdr had vastly superior anti-tank performance to the 3″ gun and virtually all M10s received by the British mounted a 17pdr by the end of the war - these were known as the Achilles.

The first conversions to carry a 17pdr were carried out in April 1944, by June 124 M10s had been converted, by the end of the year this had been increased to 816 with 152 vehicles being converted in November alone. Around 1,650 M10 tank destroyers were received by the British, of these 1,100 were converted by the end of the war.