TactiSMART 081: U.S. ARMY TURRET STUPIDITY (Persists to today) Caused "Tiger Heavy Tank Phobia" in WW2
“Kelly's Heroes” =
U.S. Army Tank Destroyer Doctrine in WW2!
Ever notice Donald Sutherland's "Oddball" in "Kelly's Heroes" has an avoid-combat-until-needed mentality very close to Tank Destroyer Doctrine in WW2?
"Kelly's Heroes"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CuUzR55N_Y
TD Doctrine in WW2
https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA028974
“Patton”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek4MhvuXa18
Mystery Solved: General Bruce was the Turreted Tank Villain Who FUBARed U.S. Army ARMOR Branch
Ever notice Donald Sutherland's "Oddball" in the black comedy "Kelly's Heroes" has an avoid-combat-until-needed mentality early in the movie very close to Tank Destroyer (TD) Doctrine in WW2?
"Kelly's Heroes", 1970
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CuUzR55N_Y
TD Doctrine in WW2
The Development of American Tank Destroyers in WW II: The impact of Doctrine, Combat Experience and Technology Upon Acquisition
CPT Charles Baily, U.S. Army
U.S. Army Command
& General Staff College
Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas
11 June 1976
https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA028974
"Patton", 1970
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek4MhvuXa18
LTG A.D. Bruce, U.S. Army, was an American WW1 and WW2 combat veteran hero--but he was fatally wrong about tank design making mistakes that damn us to the present day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Davis_Bruce
Its 1940.
German panzers are over-running western Europe in light tanks through terrains not considered passable. Before defeating the Allies, they first prevailed in the Battle Against the Earth (TBATE).
LTG Wesley McNair has created a separate Tank Destroyer (TD) Branch whose large units would mass together as needed to DEFENSIVELY stop the German blitzkrieg. With TD battalions handling the job of defeating enemy tanks, Armor branch's tanks need not to have a high-velocity gun--but could instead use low velocity ones for fire supporting for the infantry after breaking through enemy lines. The first TD expedient is the open-top M3 half-track with 75mm gun which does well in open-terrain, North Africa against German light-to-medium tanks. Rival bureaucracies AGF and Ordnance Branch offer Colonel Bruce fully tracked, open-topped TDs with fixed gun mounts--but the latter doesn't want them. Military intelligence shows German turretless STUGs--fully enclosed TDs--are the most powerful, well-armed and successful tanks in the war both at fire support for infantry as well as destroying enemy tanks. However, Bruce doesn't want them, either--even though they can be heavily armored and have big tank-killing guns overmatching current/future enemies while still being a maximum terrain-mobile platform in the under 20-tons LIGHT TANK range by their design efficiency.
No, Bruce thinks and wants the "IDEAL TD"--WHICH TO HIM--IS SOMEHOW FASTER THAN ENEMY TANKS AND HAS A TURRET with an overmatching gun.
By war's end, Bruce finally gets his superiorly-mobile, M18 Hellcat [defacto LIGHT TANK] but its 76mm gun is already out-matched by German Tiger Mark VI heavy tanks with 88mm guns whose frontal armor still can't be penetrated. We are still losing the Battle Against Man (TBAM). Could a 90mm gun be inserted into the Hellcat? Yes. Its called the Super Hellcat. Could it be armored to withstand any German tank main gun direct hits?
No.
Armor protective weight was squandered (46%) paying for its vulnerable, hull-junction turret in the M18 Hellcat. In contrast, a turretless STUG is very hard-to-hit, low silhouette and can be heavily armored to withstand even direct hits.
LTG McNair claimed however, that towed AT guns are cheaper and could be mass-produced faster than turreted tanks by a factor of 10. However, he chose the wrong design efficiency to capitalize on; a turretless STUG can be made at 1/4th the cost of a turreted tank--but it would not be stuck in closed terrains or stranded if its unarmored motorized prime mover gets destroyed liked towed AT guns. You hug-the-terrain for protection, you might not be able to leave it--as the German, British and Russian towed AT gun crews discovered to their deaths and maimings. A 90mm gun is crammed into the turret of the M26 Pershing medium-to-heavy tank by war's end, so BIG ARMY decides it doesn't need a defensive TD Branch sitting in the rear waiting to mass & repel massed enemy tank attacks that may never come. TD turreted inefficiency and dueling mentality becomes the delusional mindset of U.S. Army ARMOR branch ever since.
Indeed, TD branch worked itself out of a job--and bureaucratic existence--by morphing itself into its own inefficient, turreted tanks offering no overmatch against future enemies.
Or did it? The result being the current 74-ton M1 Abrams which is actually a HEAVY TANK DESTROYER with a high velocity gun and only 44 rounds of ammunition--without worrying about being geomassed together in the right position to meet any enemy tank blitzkriegs--but they are the only big gun tanks the U.S. Army has today. Armor Branch is actually Tank Destroyer Branch by another name that ignores combined-arms, decisive MANEUVER in our heavy Armor Brigade Combat Teams (ABCTs). Today's light "Infantry" BCTs don't even have a single tracked tank of ANY type and have ZERO direct fire support coming from any armored platform capable of advancing against enemy fires resulting in "14 hour firefights" of vulnerable platform firepower exchange warfare (VPFX): WW1 all over again with men turned into bloody corpses or pink mists after being riddled by bullets and/or high exploded by shells.
Now let's consider with 20-20 hindsight, an U.S. Army TD Branch had it been more wisely lead:
German STUG Light
Tanks: Most Successful in War History
https://www.bitchute.com/video/PUsAzPF78IDu/
A 90mm gun would have been placed in a fully-enclosed, heavily-armored chassis with Christie suspension--an "AmeriSTUG" under 20 tons in 1941. The M3 using one engine and/or the M5 Stuart light tank with twin-engines could have housed the 90mm gun in a very well-armored hull--while being extremely mobile (TBATE) by being light and under 20 tons. If/when the need for more speed was decided as WW2 events unfolded, the 400 hp of an aircraft engine of the Hellcat type could have up-graded these already-in-service, American STUGs. Therefore, even if commanders didn't mass TDs as per their doctrine, wherever the AmeriSTUGs were located they'd KICK THE ENEMY's ASS ie; penetrated even the frontal armor of their Panther/Tiger tanks--as well as carry a LOT OF SHELL TYPES to fire support infantry by blasting enemy strong points, bunkers and buildings.
TANK DESTROYER BRANCH WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN DISBANDING BY WW2's END BECAUSE IT WOULD HAVE ESTABLISHED ITSELF AS OFFERING UNIQUE TANK-KILLING and INFANTRY FIRE-SUPPORTING CAPABILITIES.
By the time TF Smith occurs in 1950, Soldiers with 90mm gun AmeriSTUGs delivered by gliders towed by piston-engined, USAF transports from Japan could have stopped the North Korean Army's Russian-made T34/85mm gun-equipped, turreted tanks cold. The AmeriSTUGs of TD branch could have been upgraded to less fire-prone diesel engines by the time the Vietnam unfolded. When turboprop and turbojet engines were applied to USAF transports in the C-130 Hercules and C-141 Starlifters, the U.S. Army Airborne--and all other light units optimized for closed terrain warfare--would be capable of 3D air-mechanized maneuver by airlanding & parachute airdrop--in addition to stealthy, non-metallic assault gliders. Turbofan engines make t-tail, rear ramp-equipped transports even more capable--delivering several AmeriSTUGs at-a-time.
Back down to Earth by what actually happened?
Hardly.
We have the world's best light tank chassis with which to make AmeriSTUGs today: the 10.5 ton M113 Gavin whose A3 model is a high hp-to-weight "hot rod" like a M18 Hellcat. We don't even have to start with a heavily armored body and a big gun; we can have a Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) Gavin variant by attaching applique' passive and Active Protection System (APS) armors to defeat tank main gun shells and ATGMs--while up-gunning with 30mm autocannons in remote weapons stations in addition to the TOW ATGMs already employed on flimsy un-tactically-sound, air-filled rubber-tired, wheeled Humvee (possibly JLTV trucks) in the light IBCTs. Later on, these version 1.0 MPF Interims can be upgraded into version 2.0s AmeriSTUGs.
For the first time in a long time, BIG ARMY would be a well-balanced, combined-arms maneuver force superior in both its heavy and light BCTs.
John 3:16
Semper Airborne!
James Bond is REAL.
.
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