Who watches "The Color Of War" on the History Channel

[Motorhead]

How many of you guys have seen "The Color Of War" on the History channel? It amazed me the footage that the camera operators shot. My father fought in WWII and it is interesting to see what our fathers had to go through. The old equipment facinates me. The one thing that General Patton said was that the 2 1/2 ton truck was the most valuable assett of the war. What is the best is that the films are in color.

 

[fbaurley]

The episode last night was about the sherman tank, and tank war fare. It was very interessting.

 

[FATCAT]

Love anything with WWII war footage ... now in color its even better.



The History Channel always has great stuff: Tale of the Gun, the sniper series ... all great stuff I wish most Americans would watch.

 

[WDaniels]

Had seen the colour of war several years ago and a little later went to Germany TDY and went to McCalluf(sp) square in Bastone. There they have a Sherman tank on permanent display where you can see where the Panzers and the 88's blew holes in the armor on the turret. Really brings home the reality of what our fathers went through. I am leaving Sunday going back for another 2 week TDY and I am taking a group of the guys up to the museum and the square so they can see it.

WD

 

[QRTRHRS]

Originally posted by fbaurley

The episode last night was about the sherman tank, and tank war fare. It was very interessting.

That was a good one as they all are. Did you catch the SeeBee one?



If it was not for the History Channel, Discovery, and a few others, I would not even bother.

 

[Motorhead]

Not knowing the whole story... I wonder why our Sherman tanks were so lightly armored? We lost alot of men to that fault!

 

[Seed Guy]

The SeeBee one was the best. Talk about work ethic. I sadly cant remember any of the stats for all that they built but in the pacific we would have been crippled without them.

 

[Motorhead]

"The Duke" did a movie about the Seabees. They were on some south pacific island and like all of John Waynes movies, He did his share of enemy killing.

 

[KL]

I saw something a little while ago on the History Channel about the German Tiger Tanks and some of the tank battles in France. The German tanks had better Armour and larger guns. What must have really been disheartening to the Sherman crews (besides the light amour their tanks had) was that when they would fire on a Tiger tank the shells would bounce off the tiger tank. I think the only place the tiger was vulnerable was from the rear. The main advantage of the Sherman was that it was a lot simpler to fix and maintain and that there were a lot more of them (eventually numbers will win). KL

 

[Motorhead]

It amazed me on how fast the guys could build a Liberty ship... first one was 7 months, I think. When all was going HOT and HEAVY, We were building a ship in 3 weeks!! Same with the airplanes. POOR American Bantam got ACED out on the Jeep contract. They came up with the idea and Ford and Willys got the contract to build Jeeps. The Duce and a half was built by Dodge, GMC, and I believe REO and Studabaker. I just LOVE all of that old equipment. My wife said that I was born abnout 40 years too late. Things were simple then... . I have a old military gas powered Radio generator. It has a small Lausen 4 cycle engine hooked up to one of those "hand crank" radio generators. Like the kind you saw some guy sitting grinding away at while his buddy talked on the radio. It puts out 12volt, 2 amps primary and 580volt at . 5 amp secondary voltage. The radios needed both voltages to run. This thing still runs like new and looks like new. It came with a spare parts kit.

My DREAM is to fly in a WWII piston engined fighter plane. WOW would that be fun and worth whatever it cost me.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Originally posted by Motorhead

Not knowing the whole story... I wonder why our Sherman tanks were so lightly armored? We lost alot of men to that fault!

I think it was due to the tank corps being left go in the early thirties and it took time to rebuild and design tanks. The show spoke of an eccentric inventor who designed a suspension system. Our government could not work with this man so he sold his design to the Germans. Go figure!

 

[RMcCulloch]

Originally posted by QRTRHRS

I think it was due to the tank corps being left go in the early thirties and it took time to rebuild and design tanks. The show spoke of an eccentric inventor who designed a suspension system. Our government could not work with this man so he sold his design to the Germans. Go figure!

Not the Germans, but the Russians.



His last name was Christie.



FWIW, the Sherman was designed before they found out about the German 88 MM.



Previously, the 37 MM was almost universally used for a "heavy" anti-tank round and the Sherman's armor would stop that round.

 

[Kickin Y2K]

The old equipment facinates me. The one thing that General Patton said was that the 2 1/2 ton truck was the most valuable assett of the war.

My eyes are glued to the TV anytime there are military vehicles involved Someday I'm going to paint my house OD and upholster everything in canvas :--)