Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Yeah, it was the ammo that caught fire - no consolation - the later variants were not deployed until 1944. In his memoirs Belton Y. Cooper who served in the 3rd Armored Division and was in charge of retrieving destroyed and damaged tanks says that from the nominal strength of 232 Shermans 1348 were lost in combat, a loss rate of 540%. And it is representative, I?m afraid. All the best! Raimo K Personal photography homepage at: http://www.uusikaupunki.fi/~raikorho ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marc James Small" <marcsmall@comcast.net> To: "Leica Users Group" <lug@leica-users.org>; "Leica Users Group" <lug@leica-users.org> Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 10:04 PM Subject: Re: [Leica] There's something about German design ... > At 05:35 AM 1/15/2007, Bill Smith wrote: > >Tragically--the Shermans had the nickname of "Ronson lighters" due to > >their tanks full of gasoline fuel. > > This is an urban myth and has been parsed to death on the WWII Lists and > on H-War. Statistical analysis of losses reveals that fuel fires were a > small problem. Much more of concern was the tendency of the tanks to brew > up from ammo explosions when hull or turret integrity was breached but the > adoption of water-filled ammo storage bins in 1943 eliminated this > problem. > > I have interviewed several WWII Sherman crewmembers who survived turret > penetrations. > > Marc > > > msmall@aya.yale.edu > Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir! > >