Category Archives: Tanks & AFV

Echoes of Anschluss in the Lowlands

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The Federal State of Austria was swallowed up without a shot by the German Reich in March 1938, with the Wehrmacht’s 8th Army marching over the border in the so-called Blumenkrieg (“Flower War”). Of course, the way was paved via a multi-year subversion campaign and the efforts of the original Quisling, Austrian Chancellor Arthur Seyss-Inquart.

However, just a year prior, it would have been much less of a walkover, as the Austrian Army (Bundesheer) had a decent plan (Kriegsfall DR) in place to resist the Germans at every turn. This unraveled when its boss, Feldmarschalleutnant Alfred Johann Theophil Jansa von Tannenau, was ushered out in February 1938, and the Bundesheer was ordered to remain in their barracks.

The Austrians had a decent little force under Jansa, who painstakingly rearmed it from the ashes of the old Hapsburg military machine. In 1938, it included some 60,000 regulars, 67,000 Reservisten (reservists), and 100,000 men of the Frontmiliz (front militia).

The below shows it on maneuvers in 1937, including CV-33 and CV-35 tankettes running around and an assemblage of some of the Bundesheer’s 900 pieces of artillery, including the excellent 4,7 cm M.35 Infanteriekanone von Böhler, seen firing at the 36-second mark.

Fast forward to Holland, May 1940

Heer Böhler’s 47mm L/35.8 was one of the best anti-tank guns in the world when it was adopted in 1935, far outclassing the smaller caliber guns used around the globe at the time.

With its road wheels and carriage, it weighed just under 700 pounds, so it was fairly mobile and could be moved by just about any motor vehicle or even a mule or halflinger if needed.

A Böhler 4.7 cm anti-tank gun coupled to a wheeled/tracked tractor built by the Austrian Steyr factories. 1936 NIMH 2155_007335

Capable of penetrating 43mm of armor at 500 yards (the German Panzer I Ausf. A had 13mm of front plate, and the Panzers II and III had 30mm), it was deadly, especially to the tanks of its day.

The Germans liked it so much in 1938 that they adopted it themselves, as the 4.7 cm Pak 35 (ö), and later gave hundreds of them as military aid to Finland and Romania.

Camouflaged Romanian 47 mm Böhler anti-tank gun on the Eastern Front, circa 1941-43

Tested by several countries in the late 1930s, it was adopted by Italy (as the Cannone anticarro e d’accompagnamento 47/32), Latvia (M35B), Switzerland (PstK 35), and the Netherlands (as the pantser afweergeschut Böhler 4,7 cm), while evaluation guns had been sent to China and Estonia before 1938.

It is seen below in Dutch use, where the PAG Bohler’s lightweight and low silhouette, when emplaced, made it ideal for defending points against incoming panzers (or Japanese tanks, as they were also deployed to the Dutch East Indies).

Een Böhler 4,7 cm pantserafweerkanon, aangehaakt achter een personenauto. Over het sluitstuk is een beschermhoes geplaatst. NIMH 2155_007334

Een drietal militairen bedient een Böhler pantserafweerkanon 4,7 cm, een vierde militair neemt waar met een verrekijker. Het kanon is in opstelling, de wielen zijn van de affuit verwijderd. NIMH 2155_007329

Mobilisatie 1939-1940. De bediening van een Böhler 4,7 cm antitankkanon in een gecamoufleerde verdedigende opstelling tijdens een oefening, waarbij een aanval van pantserwagens tegen een munitieopslagpunt wordt uitgevoerd. NIMH 2155_007333

Oefeningen met pantser afweergeschut (PAG) Böhler 4,7 cm. 1939-1940 in the Dutch East Indies. NIMH 2155_022701

Engelse Vickers-Carden-Lloyd Utility Tractor, gepantserde rupstrekker (Trekker 71, D 9947), met een Oostenrijks 47 mm Böhler anti-tankkanon. NIMH 2155_022655

As such, the Bohler proved a nasty surprise to German armored columns of the 9. Panzerdivision in May 1940, some 85 years ago this week, which reportedly lost about 25 tanks (about a third of its tracks) to these guns in the Rotterdam and Dordrecht area during the sweep through the Low Countries in May 1940.

They proved particularly effective on the Barendrecht bridge near Dordrecht, where three PzKpfw IIIs were destroyed, all reportedly ventilated by the same PAG Bohler of the 3e Grensbataljon.

Further, the Soviets used captured Bohlers against the Germans on the Eastern Front while the Brits pressed Italian Bohlers they captured in North Africa against Rommel.

Jansa was no doubt tickled.

Chopping it up along the Verde Trail

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It happened 80 years ago.

8 May 1945. Caballero Mountains, Luzon. While peace of a sort had come to Europe, WWII continued to roar in the Pacific.

Here we see a M15 Combination Gun Motor Carriage “Special” that, in lieu of the standard M1 37mm gun/. 50 cal combination normally seen, was modified with a 40mm Bofors. It is also shown with an M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage, which is essentially an M3 half-track chassis carrying an M45 Maxon “Meat Chopper” quad .50 cal.

A closer look at the M15. During Korea, this modification was solidified in the M34 with 102 M15s converted in Japan in 1951. The M34 mounted a single 40 mm Bofors gun in place of the M15’s combination gun mount. This was due primarily to a shortage of 37 mm ammunition, which was no longer manufactured. M34s served with at least two AAA (automatic weapons) battalions (the 26th and 140th) in the Korean War.

And a close-up of the M16/50 Quad.

M16 firing on Japanese position on the Villa Verde Trail in the Caballero Mountains, Luzon, PI, May 8, 1945

All of the above tracks are assigned to A Co, 209 AAA (Aw) Battalion of the 32nd “Red Arrow” Infantry Division, and are being used on Yamashita Ridge during the Battle of Villa Verde Trail.

As noted by the Army’s CMH, “In brief, the battle for the Villa Verde Trail became a knock-down, drag-out slug fest.”

The 32nd– which logged 654 days of combat during WWII, more than any other U.S. Army division– suffered 4,961 casualties in the Luzon Campaign.

Army’s (Don’t Call it a) Light Tank Albatross Reappears

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The U.S. Army has had problems with not wanting, but still needing, a decent light tank for generations.

World War II showed the lesson of having a decent light track in the form of the 15-ton M3/M5 Stuart, which, armed with a 37mm gun, swathed in 50mm of armor, and capable of hitting 35 mph, still proved effective if used correctly (i.e. not in fights with Tigers) in Europe and excelled in the Pacific.

A Marine M3 Stuart on Guadalcanal, 1942 “MOP UP UNIT– Two alert U.S. Marines stand beside their small tank, which helped blast the Japanese in the battle of the Tenaru River during the early stages of fighting on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Those well-manned, sturdy machines readily mopped up strong points of enemy resistance.”

This was true enough for the Army to order the M24 Chaffee, which was a 20-ton light tank with a 75mm gun and 38mm of armor that could hit 35 mph on the road, in 1944 and then replaced it post-Korea with the M41 Walker Bulldog (23 ton, 76mm gun, 31mm of armor, 45 mph) which was replaced by the M551 Sheridan, an air-droppable 16 ton track with a weird 152mm gun/Shillelagh missile launcher tube, enough armor to stop small arms rounds, and a 40+ mph road speed.

A soldier from Co. A, 3rd Bn., 73rd Airborne Armor Regt., 82nd Airborne Div., lays out equipment for an M-551 Sheridan light tank prior to the 82nd Airborne Division live-fire exercise during Operation Desert Shield.

Sheridan, which entered service in 1969, was an oddball, but at least it gave the 82nd Airborne a battalion of tanks (err, “Armored Reconnaissance Airborne Assault Vehicles”) that could be Fed-Ex-ed overseas in a hurry.

Well, Sheridan grew obsolete and needed replacement, which led to the canceled M8 “Buford” armored gun system (AGS), the Stryker M1128 mobile gun system (MGS) of which 142 were build and quickly withdrawn from service, and now the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) program which fielded the M10 Booker “combat vehicle.”

PD1 – Delivery of First Production Vehicle M10 Booker Combat Vehicle

Booker is a big boy, at some 37 tons, and mounts a 105mm M35 low-recoil tank gun (designed for and formerly carried by the M1128). Actually, it reminds me of the size and capability of the old M60 tank.

And with that, Booker, too heavy and too expensive, is out. The last of three (so far) vehicles that were going to replace the Sheridan, which itself was a cranky platform that nobody really liked.

But still, at least folks got paid…

Can we just pay Rheinmetall for the data set to make a modernized Wiesel here in America?

Bachi caps and light armor

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It happened 80 years ago.

May 1945, the Alpes-Maritimes region of France near the German-occupied Italian border. A U.S.-built Lend-Leased M5A1 light tank, White 135, of the 1er Regiment de Fusiliers Marins (1er RFM), pushes from Peira-Cava towards the 6,800-foot Authion massif, where one of the last Axis hold-outs in the region had fought hard until withdrawing into Austria. During that fight, the regiment’s 1st squadron lost five of its six officers and half of its men. Wehrmacht Generalleutnant Theobald Lieb, leading the rump of the German-Italian XXXXII. Armeekorps, had expressed surprise at seeing tanks at such altitudes– before ceding the battlefield.

Note the bachi caps, M1 Carbine, tanker’s helmet on the front running light, and mounted M1919 LMG. Ref. : MARINE 433-9488 ECPAD/Defense

The Marine tankers had been organized as a scratch battalion from some 400 French navy volunteers in England in the summer of 1940, who cast their lot with De Gaulle. Organized as an AAA unit and sent to Eritrea, they were soon fighting in Syria with the British (against their countrymen) and in North Africa, where they served with particular distinction at Bir Hakeim.

In September 1943, following a surge in recruits from the French fleet in Algeria, the battalion was expanded to a full regiment and organized as a mechanized force with Stuarts, M8 Scott 75mm self-propelled howitzers, M3 scout cars, M5 halftracks, and Willys MB jeeps.

A sister unit of tank-bound Free French sailors in exile, the Régiment Blindé de Fusilier Marins, helped liberate Paris, including the old Admiralty headquarters. It was equipped as a tank destroyer unit with M10 Wolverines. In the case of both regiments, the conversion from manning battleships and cruisers to operating armored vehicles was surprisingly simple, as the men involved included high proportions of engineering, gunnery, and radio ratings.

After fighting up the Italian “boot,” 1er RFM was pulled out of the 5th Army’s organization and joined the Dragoon Landings in Southern France in August 1944. They were on hand for the liberation of Toulon and Hyères, then went up the Rhone valley, entered Lyon, and moved into the Vosges before ending their war in the Alps.

Des chars Stuart du 1er RFM (Régiment de fusiliers-marins) de la 1re DMI (Division de marche d’infanterie) ex 1re DFL, sont stationnés sur la place Bellecour à Lyon.

1er RFM lost no less than 195 personnel, including two commanders, in combat, with another 600 men wounded. In return, they earned over 200 croix de guerre, 70 médailles militaires, 32 Légion d’honneur, and 31 croix de la Libération, with roughly a third of those decorations being issued posthumously. In total, it was enough for the regiment to earn the rare Ordre de la Libération designation.

The regiment was disbanded in August 1945, but its lineage is preserved in the training battalion at the École des fusiliers marins de Lorient.

One of the regiment’s knocked-out Stuarts remains near the crest of Mt. Authion, on eternal vigil.

Swiss Panzers in…Austria?

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For the first time in over 30 years, a sizable number of Swiss troops are headed “abroad” for Kampfübungen (war games).

Some 1,000 Swiss soldiers, primarily personnel on their mandatory service period, are from Mechanisierten Bataillon 14 and Mechanisierten Brigade 11 under Brigadier Christoph Roduner. Key to the country’s restrictions on the use of conscripts, all have volunteered to serve outside the country.

They will be running around the 40,000-acre Allentsteig Truppenübungsplatz training area in Lower Austria, northwest of Vienna.

Importantly, the large Austrian maneuver area at Allentsteig is six times larger than the Swiss Army’s two combat training centers (GAZ East and GAZ West) combined, so their Leopard 2A4s (Pz 87 WE) and CV9030 CH (Spz 2000) IFVs get to stretch their legs for the first time.

The heavy equipment was moved by train from Thun to Allentsteig while the personnel convoyed for 12 hours over roads in light vehicles.

The exercise, Trias 25 (Triad 25), will also see 120 Austrian Bundesheer and 160 German Bundeswehr troops participate.

City of Music at the foot of Uncle Joe, courtesy of Lend Lease

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The 6th Guards (Order of Red Banner) Tank Army of Colonel General of Tank Troops Andrei Grigorievich Kravchenko– who had earned a Hero of the Soviet Union title after Kursk as head of the 5th Guards Tank Corps– was formed in Ukraine in early 1944 and, earning its “Guards” title after suppressing the the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket and smashing West during the follow-on Iassy-Kishinev Offensive, entered Hungary on the Debrecen Offensive on the 2nd Ukrainian Front by the end of that year. Still pushing as part of Stalin’s steamroller, it helped smash the last German offensive in the East (Frühlingserwachen under Sepp Dietrich’s 6th SS Panzer Army) along the shores of Lake Balaton in March 1945 and, after brutal street-to-street fighting, by 11 April had outflanked and entered Vienna, which was fully captured by the 15th.

There, in all its majesty, the great 6th Tank Army showed off all of its fine Detroit muscle, courtesy of Lend Lease, M4A2(76)W Shermans in the lead.

Going on to capture Prague by 12 May, the 6th Tank Army was pulled from Central Europe and shipped 11,000 km across Siberia to the Transbaikal. There, the 1,100 armored vehicles of the 6th Tank Army were ready to take on the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria by 9 August 1945 and would fight the last armored battle of WWII, famously racing 150km across the Gobi Desert in the first day of the offensive against the Japanese, seizing the passes of the Greater Khingan mountains and effectively bottling up toughest remaining Japanese units in its wake on the Manchurian plain.

Soviet Japanese Defeat of the Kwantung Army, 1945

Kravchenko was made a Twice Hero of the Soviet Union and, surviving Stalin, would retire from the military in 1955 and pass in 1963.

Rolling Bones

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80 years ago. Awaiting removal of a roadblock on the road to Eisfeld, Germany, a 90mm GMC M36 tank destroyer crew whiles away the time shooting craps. 28th Infantry Division (“Keystone”), U.S. Third Army, 12 April 1945.

Signal Corps Photo 111-SC-204555, National Archives Identifier 6927819

The men are likely “Cossacks” of the 630th TD Battalion, Battle of the Bulge vets who passed from temporary XVIII Airborne Corps control back to the 28th near Wolfstein around this time.
Among the camp gear accumulated on the back of the M36 is a case of “10-in-1” rations, Menu 3, which would include bulk-packed K rations in two 5-serving packs, the first in packages and the second in cans. Of key importance, a 10-in-1 also held ten packages of cigarettes– each holding 10 Chesterfields, Luckies, or Pall Malls– along with ten GI matchbooks and 250 sheets of GI toilet paper. Tough but fair.

2d Amtrac Battalion Hangs Up its Tracks

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Earlier this year, the Marines’ 2d Assault Amphibian Battalion received its first new 32-ton Amphibious Combat Vehicles. Based on the Italian Iveco SuperAV, the Marines plan to buy 632 of these big 8x8s to replace the Corps’ 1,300-odd remaining circa 1970s tracked AAVP-7 variants.

The new ACV. This is the P transport variant. About a half of the ACVs will carry either a stabilized dual-mount M2/Mark 19 grenade launcher turret in a support role or a 30mm Mk44 Bushmaster II (XM813) chain gun in a fighting role (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Leo Amaro)

The legacy AAVP7. “AAV7A1 assault amphibious vehicles transport Marines with 2d Assault Amphibian Battalion and 1st Battalion, 2d Marine Regiment, both with 2d Marine Division, for a wet-gap amphibious crossing as part of a company-sized infiltration on Camp Lejeune, N.C., Aug. 10, 2021. The infiltration focused on maneuvering across complex terrain and picket lines with near-peer capabilities in an unscripted force-on-force scenario. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Jacqueline C. Arre)

While the AAV is as tall as a house and can carry two dozen uncomfortably, it also does it slowly and with a terrible safety record, giving the ACV, which can only carry 13 passengers but make 65 mph on roadways, a bright shining ray of hope.

The 2d AABn just completed the first amphibious combat vehicle crewmember course on Camp Lejeune, making the redesigation official this week. 

U.S. Marines and instructors with 2d Assault Amphibian Battalion, 2d Marine Division, pose for a photo upon completion of the first amphibious combat vehicle crewmember course on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, March 28, 2025. The crewmembers are tasked with the operation and maintenance of the Marine Corps next-generation amphibious combat vehicle platform in support of 2d MARDIV. (U.S. Marine Corps photo illustration by Lance Cpl. Frank Sepulveda Torres)

The Double Edge of Simple Weapons

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One of the most oft-retold tales of military equipment is that the spear used by the Roman Legions, the two-part composite pilum, was easy for a legionnaire to master as a thrusting weapon and, if thrown, the soft iron shank would warp and deform on impact, preventing its further use by the enemy.

Panzerfausts were no pila.

Easy to make in quantity and even easier to use, the Germans dutifully included with each crate a two-page instruction sheet that you didn’t need to know German to grasp.

They even distilled the knowledge to a simpler pictograph on the side of the Fausts themselves.

Vorsicht!

This allowed last-ditch Volkssturm to field the disposable anti-tank rocket with about five minutes of instruction.

“The Volkssturm” Painting by Franz Kleinmayer, showing the typical make up and arms of the doomed militia.

And, as seen in these images from recently Soviet-occupied Danzig in March 1945, it was just as easily translated to Red Army inheritors.

Hat Trick

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80 years ago this week. At the tail end of Operation Varsity near Wesel, Germany, the British 2nd Army and American 9th Army links up with Allied paras and glider troops that had been airmailed to the area three days prior.

Official wartime caption: “Airborne force leap the Rhine. The link-up is complete. 26 March 1945. An Achilles tank destroyer [a U.S. M10 with a QF 17-pounder] on the east bank of the Rhine moves up to link with airborne forces whose abandoned gliders can be seen in the background.”

The glider appears to be a British Hadrian model while the barbed wire could be for an EPOW bullpen, which makes sense as the British 6th Airborne bagged something like 1,500 “Jerries” during the operation. Photo by Christie (Sergeant), No. 5 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit, IWM BU 2396

Early in the morning of 24 March 1945, 1,500 American aircraft and gliders carrying two Airborne divisions, one American (9,650 men of the 17th Airborne) and one British (7,220 men of the 6th Airborne including the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion), flew over the Rhine River, completing the hattrick started by the Market Garden and Overlord/Tonga drops in 1944.

17th Airborne Glider Troops wait to board their glider on 24 March 1945 for Operation VARSITY, note the M1919, M1 Garand, and Carbine

Operation Varsity glider troops, note bandage on helmet

Operation Varsity 1945 M1A1 paratrooper folding stocked carbine. Note the bayonet on his leg

As the Normandy and Market Garden drops had been spaced out across several geographic locations, while the Varsity drop was more tightly focused at Hamminkeln-Wesel, it is considered the largest airborne operation ever conducted on a single day and in one location.

It was no walkover, with 49 C-46/47 transports, many packed with men of the 17th, lost to German flak and other casualties across a three-day fight which left 1,346 casualties among the American Sky soldiers while the Brits and Canadians logged at least 1,078.

Sadly, except for a one-minute mention in Band of Brothers, the jump is largely forgotten.

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