The Centurion, the famous Cold War tank, was actually developed to take on the dreaded German Tiger in WW2. Find out whether they ever met on the battlefield in 1945.
Dr. Mark Felton is a well-known British historian, the author of 22 non-fiction books, including bestsellers Zero Night and Castle of the Eagles, both currently being developed into movies in Hollywood. In addition to writing, Mark also appears regularly in television documentaries around the world, including on The History Channel, Netflix, National Geographic, Quest, American Heroes Channel and RMC Decouverte. His books have formed the background to several TV and radio documentaries. More information about Mark can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Fe…
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Credits: David Holt; Simon Q.; Tony Hisgett; Danie van der Merwe; Oliver Gottlob.
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David Fletcher takes a look at the mighty M74 Armoured Recovery Vehicle (ARV), built on a Sherman M4A3 chassis.
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Tank Museum Historian David Fletcher presents a Tank Chat on the Carrier, Tracked, CT20, otherwise known as the Oxford Carrier. This unusual vehicle was an early post-Second World War British Armoured Personnel Carrier and Gun Tractor, which saw service in the Korean War. David also touches upon the Cambridge Carrier, built by Rolls-Royce as an updated and improved version of the Oxford, which never got out of the prototype stage.
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The M3 (and its followup improved M3A1 model) was the United States’ answer to the high cost and manufacturing complexity of the Thompson submachine gun. The M3 “Grease Gun” (because really, that is what it looks like) was a very inexpensive weapon with a stamped and welded receiver and only a few milled parts. It also had the slowest rate of fire of any World War 2 submachine gun at about 450 rounds/minute. Its weight, compactness, and controllability made it almost universally preferred over the Thompson, at least by soldiers who had to carry and fight with either of them.
The Grease Gun is reputedly extremely controllable because of its low rate of fire, but this is my first time to actually try shooting one. Will it live up to that reputation?
The US began looking for a cost-effective replacement for the Thompson submachine gun in 1942, and the “Grease Gun” was the result. Designed by George Hyde (a noted firearms designer at the time) and Frederick Sampson (GM/Inland chief engineer), it was a very simple and almost entirely stamped firearm. Chambered for the .45ACP cartridge, it is notable for its very low rate of fire — 350-400 rpm, which made it quite controllable and easy to shoot for relatively inexperienced troops.
The M3 was a quite reliable gun (and what problems it did have were mostly due to its single-feed magazine and not the gun itself), but a revision program was begun in April 1944. This would produce the M3A1, which further simplified the design by removing the charging handle (which had been the one mechanical trouble point of the M3 anyway) and replacing it simply with a notch in the bolt to cock the gun with a finger.
While the M3 and M3A1 were replaced in front-line service in 1957, they would remain in military inventory as armament for tank crews and truck drivers until 1992 — quite the legacy for such a crude looking weapon!
The M2 Carbine was a mechanically simple modification of the M1 Carbine to allow fully automatic fire. The fire prototypes of the M1 Carbine had actually been selective-fire guns, but that requirement had been dropped by the time the Winchester design was officially adopted as the M1. It was a feature quickly requested by troops once the Carbine entered active service, though.
In 1944 the US Army acknowledged this, and introduced the M2. A total of 217,000 were manufactured at the end of WW2, and did see limited service on Okinawa — and then extensive use in the Korean War and Vietnam War.
The M1 Carbine has long generated controversy among those attempting to rigidly define its role, as it falls awkwardly between the notion of submachine gun and assault rifle, firing a cartridge that is clearly more powerful than a pistol round but equally clearly less powerful than an intermediate rifle round. Its originally intended role was as a personal defense weapon more effective than the 1911 pistol, and in service it always scored high marks for handiness and poor marks for combat effectiveness. The opinion of soldiers using the Carbine in either its M1 or M2 form was very much dependent on what role they expected it to serve.
In my opinion, its light weight and stock design make it a sub-optimal submachine gun, and its light cartridge makes it a sub-optimal assault rifle. But if you need a light and handy carbine to carry a lot and only use in emergencies, it is hard to beat for its time.
A Remembrance Day slideshow using Mark Knopfler’s wonderful “Remembrance Day” song from the album Get Lucky (2009). The early part of the song conveys many British images, but I have added some very Canadian images also which fit with many of the lyrics. The theme and message is universal… “we will remember them”.
During World War Two, Canada supplied some 73,000 Sten guns (made by the Long Branch arsenal) to Chinese Nationalist forces in an effort to help them fight the Japanese. These Stens were standard MkII pattern guns, chambered for the 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge. However, many of these were eventually converted to 7.62mm Tokarev ammunition, especially after the victory of the Communist forces over the Nationalists. The conversion involved a new barrel and new magazine and magazine well. The 7.62mm barrels were typically longer than the original ones, and the magazine of choice was that of the PPS-43. Some were done by installed a magazine adapter into the original magazine well, and some (like this one) were done by cutting off the original magazine well and replacing it with a new one. In addition, some Sten guns were made domestically in China, both in 9mm and 7.62mm. The 7.62mm Tokarev cartridge was popular both from Russian pistols and submachine guns and also from China’s long military use of the dimensionally-identical 7.63mm Mauser cartridge in C96 pistols.
Many thanks to the Royal Armouries for allowing me to film and disassemble this interesting submachine gun! The NFC collection there — perhaps the best military small arms collection in Western Europe — is available by appointment to researchers:
After a dismal first attempt at designing a flamethrower (the M1) in 1941, the US Chemical Corps along with several universities and industrial partners put in a lot of research to develop a more usable and effective flamethrower. The result was the M2, which went into production in early 1944. It would prove to be an exceptionally effective weapon in the island-hopping campaign towards the end of the war.
The M2 was arguably the best flamethrower fielded by any military during the war, with a number of excellent design features. These included:
* A constant-pressure regulator to ensure that the range stayed the same from the first to the last shot of a tank of fuel
* An on/off main valve easily accessible to the operator
* A supremely waterproof and reliable pyrotechnic cartridge ignition system
* An auto-shutoff valve which sealed at the nozzle, preventing dribble (and cutting off fuel flow should the operator lose control of the weapon)
The M2 would see service into the Vietnam War even as its successor the M9 was being issued. It was a truly outstanding design, and remains viable to this day.
Thanks to Charlie Hobson for showing us the unit and teaching me to fire it, and also thanks to Adaptive Firearms for letting us use their range facilities!
You can find Charlie Hobson’s book, US Portable Flamethrowers here: http://amzn.to/1SP9yc5
The M40 was the final and largest iteration of the recoilless rifle in American military service. Designed to fix the shortcomings of the 105mm M27 that preceded it, the M40 was light and powerful, and added a .50 caliber spotting rifle to assist in being able to make first-round hits. The massive backblast of a recoilless rifle dictates that a crew generally only has one chance to make a hit before they must relocate to avoid retaliatory fire.
Thanks to Hamilton & Sons Firearms for permission to film their M40 and bring it to you!
Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
6281 N. Oracle #36270
Tucson, AZ 85740
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Confusingly, the tank shown in the thumbnail isn’t a Cromwell, and many later tanks are shown in footage that is supposed to be from the Dunkirk evacuation during the Battle of France in 1940 (including wrecked Churchill tanks on the beach at Dieppe in August 1942). The video covers the genesis of the tank in WW1 and the British interwar neglect of tanks, but almost completely ignores light tanks and infantry tanks to concentrate on “cruiser” tank development. Wikipedia has a useful summary of the Cromwell family of tanks:
The Cromwell tank, officially Tank, Cruiser, Mk VIII, Cromwell (A27M), was one of the series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in the Second World War. Named after the English Civil War leader Oliver Cromwell, the Cromwell was the first tank put into service by the British to combine high speed from a powerful and reliable engine (the Rolls-Royce Meteor), and reasonable armour. The intended dual-purpose high velocity gun could not be fitted in the turret and the medium velocity dual purpose gun fitted proved inadequate. An improved version with a high velocity gun became the Comet tank.
The name “Cromwell” was initially applied to three vehicles during development. Early Cromwell development led to the creation of the A24 Cavalier. Later Cromwell development led to the creation of the competing Tank, Cruiser, Mk VIII, Centaur (A27L) design. The Centaur tank was closely related to the Cromwell, both vehicles being externally similar. The Cromwell and Centaur tanks differed in the engine used; the Centaur had the 410 hp Liberty engine, the Cromwell had the significantly more powerful 600 hp Meteor.
The Cromwell first saw action in the Battle of Normandy in June 1944. The tank equipped the armoured reconnaissance regiments of the Royal Armoured Corps, in the 7th Armoured Division, 11th Armoured Division and the Guards Armoured Division. While the armoured regiments of the latter two divisions were equipped with M4 Shermans, the armoured regiments of the 7th Armoured Division were equipped with Cromwells. The Centaurs were not used in combat except for those fitted with a 95 mm howitzer, which were used in support of the Royal Marines during the amphibious invasion of Normandy.
[…]
Post war
After the war, the Cromwell remained in British service, and saw service in the Korean War with the 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars.
Cromwell Tanks were used by Czechoslovakia and Israel.
Fifty-two Centaur I tanks were donated in early 1946 to the Greek Army, during the opening stages of the Greek Civil War but they were kept in storage due to the lack of trained personnel. In 1947, the first Greek officers returned from training courses in the United Kingdom and training of tank crews began. In April 1948, the Centaurs were organised in three Centaur tank companies initially numbered II, IX and XI, but a year later were renumbered 381, 382, 383 and temporarily attached to Reconnaissance Regiments 391, 392, and 393. The Centaurs saw limited service in the war because battles were fought mainly on mountainous areas, but proved useful in supporting infantry units and in defence of inhabited areas. After the end of the war, in October 1949, the three Centaur companies were organised into the 391 Tank Regiment. The Centaurs were replaced by US built M47s and in 1962 were sold and scrapped. One Centaur is preserved in the Greek Army Tank Museum.
The British army, Austria and Jordan used the upgraded Charioteer version of the Cromwell post-war. Jordanian vehicles saw action in conflicts in the Middle-East.
The United States developed the M1 carbine very quickly at the beginning of World War Two, once the German “blitzkrieg” made it clear that highly mobile enemy forces could threaten rear echelon troops in a modern war. The M1911 pistol was seen as a difficult weapon to use well, and a light carbine would offer much greater effectiveness with less training. It was estimated that 500,000 would be needed, and more than 6 million were eventually produced during the war. The M1 Carbine would equip drivers, artillery crews, mortar men, headquarters staff, paratroops, and many more.
The M1 Carbine was developed by Winchester, but they were not participants in the first round of trials, Instead, their design came about when Rene Studler (head of the Ordnance Department) saw Winchester’s “M2” rifle prototype, a lightweight .30-06 intended to compete with the M1 Garand. He urged them to scale it down for the light rifle trials then ongoing in 1941, and Winchester complied. The design used a Garand-like rotating bolt and a gas tappet system designed by David Marshall Williams for the .30-06 rifle. The new carbine was cobbled together in less than two weeks, and is a truly fantastic achievement.
Thanks to InterOrdnance / Royal Tiger Imports for providing this M1 Carbine for filming!
Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
6281 N. Oracle #36270
Tucson, AZ 85740
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The Bazooka — or rather the Launcher, Rocket, 2.36″, M1 — was introduced by the United States in 1942, the result of a fast development by two Army officers, Captain Leslie Skinner and Lt. Edward Uhl. The US had no infantry antitank weapon at that point, and it had become quite clear that such a thing was needed. The Bazooka offered a theoretical effective range of 300 yards, throwing a 1 pound hollow-charge projectile capable of penetrating 4 inches of armor plate. The 2.36 inch bore measurement, incidentally, was chosen as the inch equivalent of 60mm, to match the common mortar size.
In October of 1943, an improved M9 version was introduced, using a magnet firing system instead of the unreliable batteries of the original. A followup M9A1 variant was adopted in June of 1944, which broke down into two parts for easier transportation, and the T90 optical sight was added in September of 1944. These were effective weapons against armor early in the war, but the heavier tanks introduced late in the war were too heavily armored for the Bazooka to be very effective — although it remained a valuable tool for attacking pillboxes and other fortified positions. It would continue to see extensive service in the Korean War, although its limited armor penetration was particularly acute in that conflict.
Note that the inert M6 rocket in the video is not being sold with the Bazooka.
