13 July 2022 Garand Picture of the Day

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...v9q3zpng-1.jpg

Americans Soldiers Guarding a Destroyed Panther Tank During Operation Cobra, July 1944.

Operation Cobra was the codename for an offensive launched by the United States First Army under Lieutenant General Omar Bradley seven weeks after the D-Day landings, during the Normandy campaign of World War II. The intention was to take advantage of the distraction of the Germans by the British and Canadian attacks around Caen in Operation Goodwood, and thereby break through the German defenses that were penning in their forces while the Germans were unbalanced. Once a corridor had been created, the First Army would then be able to advance into Brittany, rolling up the German flanks once free of the constraints of the bocage country.

We have a Panther in Borden On. sitting on a concrete platform. I sat on it's back deck leaning against the turret where that hatch is one sunny afternoon contemplating all the men before me that had dealt with the monster...but the Leopard is still a bigger tank. Hard to believe.

Don't know why anyone would guard a knocked out tank, no one is going to steal it.

One would assume that it is to stop souvenir hunters, especially if there is any new kit on board. Shot down German aircraft in the UK automatically had a sentry put on them for just that reason.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Flying10uk

Shot down German aircraft in the UK automatically had a sentry put on them for just that reason.

---

Too you folk were salvaging out those airframes for material to send back to Germany in flying condition again...or shrapnel.

There was a lot of intelligence potential from any complex vehicle that wasn't picked over.

Bob

Its still smoking the back engine deck is showing signs of bowed upwards so maybe the crew blew it up as per order from above plus the back storage bins have taken a right old hiding.

Similar image for comparison............

My father's solution, on one occasion when a German aircraft was shot down, was to walk up to the sentry and say "Do you think that I could I some bits of that German bomber that you're guarding?" The sentry replied "Sure, not a problem, let's have a walk round and see what we can find." The sentry didn't allow anything to be taken from inside the aircraft but there was plenty of bits and piece scattered on the outside of the wrecked aircraft.