17-3-16 Garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

M4 Sherman (US Army 3099276) of 'A' Company 763rd Tank Battalion and troops from the 96th Infantry Division in battle at Okinawa, April 1945

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Flying10uk]

When you see images of the bitter fighting on the islands approaching Japan it does make you realise the nightmare of a fight that would have been necessary to carry out a full scale invasion of the Japanese mainland had the Atomic Bomb not been used.

[browningautorifle]

That pic illustrates why one doesn't want to be forward of the sprockets when the major fires...

[#1oilman]

Great photo, I look forward to these every day!

[Flying10uk]

In some of the WW2 films, I've seen externally mounted telephones mounted on the hulls of U.S. tanks so that infantry could speak to the crew inside. How common/normal was/is it to have an externally mounted telephone on a U.S. or allied tank hull to enable infantry to speak to the tank crew inside or is it something that has been thought up for films?

[Ovidio]

"Great photo, I look forward to these every day!"

Me too!

[Bob Seijas]

Colorized... nice job. There is a guy in England who is a real artist with coloring WWII photos.

[Mark in Rochester]

In some of the WW2 films, I've seen externally mounted telephones mounted on the hulls of U.S. tanks so that infantry could speak to the crew inside. How common/normal was/is it to have an externally mounted telephone on a U.S. or allied tank hull to enable infantry to speak to the tank crew inside or is it something that has been thought up for films?

Found this post

Originally, US tanks were not built with external telephones. According to doctrine, tanks supporting infantry were coordinated by armor command officers installed in infantry battalion HQ. This was made necessary not only by doctrine (tanks were coordinated by tank officers and infantry by infantry officers), but also by the fact that the radios used by the infantry were not compatible with those used by tanks.

However, once in the field, it quickly became obvious to tank battalion personnel that they needed a way to communicate directly with the infantry they were supporting, be it only to avoid shooting at them! Some units managed to procure and install an infantry radio in one of their vehicles, and others even went as far as to have an infantryman with a portable radio ride in place of a crewman in one of their tanks. The most innovative solution was to mount field telephones on the rear of the tanks. Such telephones were usually stored in .30 cal MG ammunition boxed welded to the rear of the tank and wired through the engine compartment all the way to the fighting compartment.

The solution proved successful enough that field telephones were eventually made a standard feature of US tanks, although I don't know if the improvement was implemented before the war ended.

To learn more about the problems of communication between tanks and infantry during WWII, I suggest reading "Steel Victory" by Harry Yiede, which covers the experiences of the US Army's independant tank battalions in the ETO.

[Flying10uk]

Thanks for that Mark. It seems like a simple yet brilliant solution to fit a field telephone to the rear of the hull in order to enable infantry to speak to the tank crew.