FutureWARTHINK 017: Tank Riders on the Storm (TROTS)

TROTS!

Moving troops to the battlefield is never a given. High Explosive (HE) artillery can drop on foot and wheeled truck troops exploding them into pink mists and fuel flames. This is best depicted at the beginning and end of "All Quiet on the Western Front".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTKCg-ufHuM

Russian Tank Riders on The Storm aka TROTSKY (Hehe)

TROTSKY!

The armored tank is a SIEGE ENGINE and a WAR WAGON as we ascertained before:

https://1sttac.blogspot.com/2020/03/woodgavins-genius-hussite-armored.html
https://1sttac.blogspot.com/2020/04/alexander-great-won-by-tanks-we-need.html
https://1sttac.blogspot.com/2020/05/retrowarthink-005-alexander-great-won.html

Riding on the top of armored tracks (armored farm tractors) that can keep going in the face of enemy HE artillery TFS--Tank Riders--is an option as long as their tank is not directly hit throwing them like rag dolls into the air. Wearing Hard Body Armor (HBA) is a must. 

Russian Tank Rider with HBA: Bullet Dents Show his Man-Hood and Life has been saved!

You can fight from the back of a suitable vehicle, too. The best illustration to date is the ending of the fantastic 1967 WW2 movie, The Dirty Dozen firing SMGs from an open-top German half-track. 

The Russians were the 1st to do TROTS (ky)  to create tank-MOBILE INFANTRY aka DRAGOONS pun intended. Hehehe. 

American DRAGOONS Needed

https://1sttac.blogspot.com/2020/05/futurewarthink-007-simon-says-do-it.html

The Russians were also the 1st to DO--not just talk about it like our General Mitchell in WW1---Aircraft-MOBILE INFANTRY--as well as with tanks aka PARATROOPERS.

http://www.combatreform.org/concepttoc.htm

The Russians tinkered with tanks underslung their 4-engined, TB-3 bombers that would airland on farm fields and lower them to the ground to move under their own power/tracks for 30 mph/100 miles range-reach armored, cross-country mobility--Para-infantry riding on back would be TROTSKY then, entire concept PARATROTSKY. If DRAGOONS or PARADRAGOONS isn't sexy enough, then TANK COMMANDOs or "MECHANDOs", yes? No? Maybe?  

https://1sttac.blogspot.com/2020/05/futurewarthink-007-simon-says-do-it.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgBj66JYuMs

10:39 / 10:40
War Dept Film Bulletin 3: Tests Of Gun Carriers Etc 1942 (full)

Freely downloadable at the Internet Archive, where I first uploaded it. National Archives description: "Part 1, a Christie tank-type carrier is driven over a test course at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md. A 75-mm gun is fired from an experimental half-track carrier. Part 2, incendiary bombs are tested on the roof and porch of a wooden building. Part 3, a hole driller is tested at Ft. Belvoir. Va. Charges are exploded in the holes and tanks try to pass through the resulting craters. " National Archives Identifier: 24414

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The ironies shown are tragic; instead of the ineffective 37mm gun imagine a 40mm (2-pounder) gun shooting the awesome Bofors 40x311mm cannon shell....the wheeled 4x4 Jeep and tracked Christie light tank with 40mm Bofors cannon would have been able to knock-out enemy tanks and hardened positions--ditto the same for 76mm, 196mm Recoilless Rifles when available. Had we kept upgrading 40mm on trailers and light tanks, a 360 degree swiveling mounting connected to radar would offer anti-aircraft capabilities; air bursting shells could explode drones out of the sky. However, you can't do anything if you have NOTHING to work with. 

The key things is to have the light tracked tank mobility platform with which to work with that our current L-IBCTs lack. If the L-IBCTs had light tanks, their infantry could ride on back if there were no room inside. The U.S. ARMY in many ways was better weaponized than we are TODAY--and there is no excuse for this!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bofors_40_mm_gun

In 1938 the United States Army introduced a 37 mm gun of their own design, but found it to be of limited performance. In early World War II, six British Bofors were imported for testing, along with Kerrison Predictor directors, and they proved to be superior in all areas. By the middle part of the war, most of the 37 mm guns had been replaced by the 40 mm.

In U.S. Army and marine corps service, the [towed] single mount Bofors was known as the 40 mm Automatic Gun M1.[14] The U.S. version of the gun fired three variants of the British Mk. II high-explosive shell as well as the M81A1 armor-piercing round, which was capable of penetrating some 50 mm of homogeneous armor plate at a range of 500 yards.

Shell Complete round:

L/43 40×311mmR
L/60 40×311mmR
L/70 40×365mmR

Shell weight 0.9 kg (2 lb 0 oz)
Caliber 40 mm L/60–70 (actual length varies from 56 to 70 calibers, based on model)
Barrels 1 or 2[3]
Carriage 522 kg (1,151 lb)

Elevation

L/60: −5°/+90° (55°/s)
L/70: −20°/+80° (57°/s)

Traverse Full 360°
L/60: 50°/s
L/70: 92°/s

Rate of fire

L/60: 120 round/min[1]
L/70: 240[1]-330 round/min

Muzzle velocity

L/60: 881 m/s (2,890 ft/s) 
L/70: 1,021 m/s (3,350 ft/s)

Maximum firing range 

L/60: 7,160 m (23,490 ft) 
L/70: 12,500 m (41,000 ft)

****

The last time Americans did PARATROTS was in 1991 Operation DESERT STORM on the back of M551 Sheridan light tanks that a few years later were taken away from them out of immature spite--and not replaced as promised.

combatreform.org/lighttanks.htm
combatreform/armored.htm

The sexual attraction of TROTS is the infantry narcissist can claim he is NOT fat & out-of-shape mech-infantry (curse word) who has optimizied, infantry-carrying tanks aka WAR WAGONS and is only TEMPORARILY getting a ride on back for Point A to B transportation. Sheesh. Whatever works to get military progress. This stupidity results in them not getting light tanks at all and in practice gets them needlessly killed when they could have been in back protected under armor. 

MOBILE INFANTRY Must be Able to Fight En Route 

The enemy has a "vote" in what happens in war--he may not let your infantry get to the fight as befell the Germans described at the outset. 

There is no reason why light tanks--even with large turrets or better hull-mounted guns aka STUGS couldn't have armored, covered room in back for at least a 4-man FIRETeam like the Israeli Merkava heavy tank has. The mistake they make is the infantry is mere passengers and can't fight from there like a quote "Infantry Fighting Vehicle" with firing ports like the German Marders.

https://1sttac.blogspot.com/2020/03/terminator-1-uzi-9-millimeter-is-that.html

What's not understood in the American military because it doesn't give-a-shit about winning wars aka VICTORY to get enemies to stop but instead PROLONGED INDECISIVE OPERATIONS that gives foes a learning curve to figure out eventually how to overcome whatever military advantages we have is how to BEST have infantry fight from the best vehicles which are tracked tanks. Half-ass isn't strong enough a condemnation--ZERO ASS is accurately descriptive. 

There are 2x main ways to have mobile infantry fight mounted from inside tanks and not be TROTSKYites (insult reference to Communist Trotsky intended):

Hatches Open
Hatches Closed

Fight from hatches open is best done behind bullet-protective gunshields as the fabulous M113 Gavin light tracked tank armored cavalry (ACAVs) did in Vietnam. A modern form of Protestant genius, Zizka's war wagons. These gunshields should FOLD-DOWN like the IDF Zeldas do for compactability for air transport as well as for fighting with hatches closed. 

With hatches closed, infantry should fire from firing ports in a raised top cargo hatch instead of weakening hull armor protection by firing ports there. This has yet to be done--though it was conceived in the 1960s.  

Russian TankCrewWomanSky: Want To Fight Mounted?

2x infantrymen can stand and fire through offset top cargo hatch firing ports--the others would fire 1x the Remote Weapons Station (RWS) if the crew doesn't hae a dedicated Gunner, and a firing port in the rear troop door in the rear ramp. Those not fighting should pass PRE-Loaded Magazines (PRELMs) to those firing carbines through firing ports--or God forbid SLEEP on at least 1x if not 2x fold-down bunk and be rested. Imagine that! 

Semper Airborne!

James Bond is REAL.