Wheels & Tracks: #11

Red Army photographer Yevgeny Khaldei (center) in Berlin with Soviet forces, near the Brandenburg Gate in May 1945.

On August 9, 1945, the Soviet Union invaded Manchuria, sending more than a million soldiers to attack Japan’s Kwantung Army. The Soviets quickly defeated the poorly-prepared Japanese, putting further pressure on them to surrender to the Allies. Here, T-34 tanks appear on the streets of the Chinese city of Dalian.

Aleksandra Samusenko, Battle of Kursk, 1943. Seen here with a T-34 medium tank. Aleksandra Samusenko, born in 1922, was a member of the Soviet armed forces who fought during Winter War in Finland and during the Great Patriotic War. After successfully finished the tank academy, Samusenko received her Order of the Red Star when her tank crew defeated three German Tiger I tanks. Her true fame came in the last years of the World War II. As the only female tank officer in the 1st Guards Tank Army, Samusenko performed heroically during the Battle of Kursk, earning the Order of the Red Star. When her battalion commander fell in a later battle, Samusenko took charge and led her forces out of an ambush. She would serve as a tank commander throughout 1943 and 1944. Samusenko died from wounds in the German village of Zülzefirz (70 km from Berlin), during the East Pomeranian Offensive. One source reports that Samusenko died during the Soviet assault of Berlin (not verified), while another says that she died after a Soviet tank became lost in the dark and crushed her under its tracks.  According to World War II veteran Pyotr Demidov, she was crushed under the caterpillar tracks of a tank, which did not notice the accompanying people in the darkness. She was buried in Lobez, Poland, near the monument to William I.


Soviet soldiers duck under passing tanks during an intensive training before the Battle of Kursk. The goal was to desensitize them to this experience and also to teach them the importance of digging trenches and holes strong enough to resist being driven over by tanks. Russian soldiers called this training “ironing.” The Germans actually developed a technique called “milling” to squish enemy troops to death who are hiding in foxholes or trenches, which is essentially wiggling the tank side to side to dig down and crush the occupant of the hole. Part of infantry training was focused overcoming the soldiers’ fear of tanks and on the ability to control antitank rifles, grenades and Molotov cocktails to perfections in order to boldly enter battle against enemy.

Soviet IS-2 heavy tank, 4th Heavy Tank Battalion, firing at close range against German positions in the town of Miroslawiec, in March 1945.

Soviet trucks brought supplies across the winter ice of Lake Ladoga after the Germans blocked all land routes to Leningrad.

ZIS-43 anti-aircraft half-track. The ZIS-43 was an armed variant of the ZIS-42 half-track, itself a variant of the famous Soviet ZIS-5 truck. The driver's compartment and engine housing has been heavily modified and armored. The front of the truck looks more like a Soviet BA armored car. The half-track mounted a single 37 mm AA M1939.

ZiS-33 early half-track (a revised version was introduced designated ZiS-35).

A platoon of Soviet BA-64 armored cars during the attack on Krasnoarmeysk, Donetsk region, September-November 1943.

A member of the 8th SS Panzer Division “Florian Geyer” holds a Tellermine 43 , standing next to a knocked out T-34 medium tank. These were designed to be buried, but aggressive Wehrmacht troops used them as improvised anti-tank weapons. One imagines that a Soviet tank is approaching from the right. If you timed it just right and hit a tank’s treads, you could disable it and maybe even turn it on its side, depending on where it landed. Of course, if your timing wasn’t just right...
 
Renault R35, an abbreviation of Char léger Modèle 1935 R or R 35.

Crowds gather on Paris' Champs Elysees as French vehicles, including an M8 howitzer motor carriage on the left and several half-tracks, roll past in celebration of the liberation of France on August 26, 1944.
 
Marines of the 1st Marine Division on the Peleliu airfield standing next to smashed Japanese Type 97 Ha-Go light tank, September 1944. Wreckage of other Japanese light tanks are visible in the background.
 
British soldiers shake hands from atop their vehicles in Tobruk, Libya, October 1942. Matilda on the right and Marmon-Herrington armored car on the left.

Churchill tank WD number T32203R with an American soldier. This vehicle was assigned to the 555th Heavy Ponton Battalion, and was one of several assorted vehicles (note the M3 light tank at left) to be used by the unit to test their bridging. From 11 January to 27 August 1944 the unit was in Arizona on the Arizona-California border testing their M1 floating bridge on the Colorado River. The "R" at the end of the WD (War Department) number indicates the tank has been "reworked", which was a major rework program to correct some of the major faults of the tank. The rework program on the Churchill tank production line at Vauxhall Motors was begun on 1 March 1942 and at Luton and Broom & Wade on 1 April 1942.

Churchill tank WD number T32203R with the same American soldier clowning for the camera. The vehicle is parked with the rear towards the camera and the turret facing rear. The M3 light tank is also present at left, also now with the rear towards the camera.

Churchill tank WD number T32203R on the trailer of a M25 tank transporter, known as the "Dragon Wagon," comprised of the M26 tractor and M15 trailer, being used by the engineers who built the bridge to test the bridge's weight limits. The man standing on the plank sticking out from the bridge is taking a sounding to see how much the load caused the bridge to sink.

A battery of Priest (American M7) 105mm self-propelled guns from one of 3rd Division’s Royal Artillery Field Regiments near Hermanville-Sur-Mer, France, 6 June 1944.

Valentine, Stuart, Crusader and Covenanter tanks, Abbasia, Egypt. 1942.
 
A Greek soldier of the 8th Infantry Division on an Italian tankette Carro Veloce CV33. This is at the Battle of Elaia-Kalamas, North Epirus, Greece, November 1940, when the Greeks successfully stopped the Italians and began pushing them back into Albania.

U.S. Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), Iowa, 1942, with M3 Medium Tank. 

George S. Patton, then a lieutenant general, in North Africa during World War II, 1943. Note his modified M3 Scout Car in the background.

American soldier loading ammo boxes on side rails of half-track vehicle.

M4 medium tanks of the 784th Tank Battalion depart Venlo, Holland, for the drive into Germany.

M18 Gun Motor Carriage "Hellcat".

M31 tank recovery vehicle. Initially designated T2 TRV.

M31 tank recovery vehicle.

M31 TRV with M10 gun motor carriage.

M31 TRV with DUKW.

Army nurses with amphibious Jeep.

U.S. soldiers in HBT camouflage uniforms in a Half-track M2, Pont Brocard, July 28, 1944, 41st Armored Inf. Regiment, 2nd Armored Division.

Soldiers of the 104th Infantry Division take cover behind  the walls of the post office in Cologne, while a M4 Sherman opens the way to the center of the city.

A company of M3 GMC armed with 75 mm cannons provides fire support in Sicily in the summer of 1943.

M10 GMC moving from the devastated streets of Munchen-Gladbach on March 1, 1945, during Operation Granada, the assault on the Roer River.

M4 Sherman tanks of the 745th Tank Battalion support infantry of the 1st Infantry Division in their battle for Aachen in October 1944.

M4 Sherman tanks of the 745th Tank Battalion support infantry of the 1st Infantry Division in their battle for Aachen in October 1944.

A M4A3 medium tank and an M10 GMC of the 774th Tank Battalion advancing past an abandoned StuG III destroyed in the town of Gürzenich, December 17, 1944.

American infantry and tanks of the 14th Armored Division in the town of Gemeuenden, April 5, 1945.

Aubencheul-Au-Bac, France, September 1944. French civil transport move away from the road to make way for the tanks of the US 2nd Armored Division.



M4A3 Sherman passing a knocked out Panther in the northern salient of the Bulge, circa January 1945.


Marines landed in LVTs assaulting Peleliu. The smoke is from destroyed landing craft.

LVT-4(A) in front of an LST. Peleliu.

A member of the 2107th Ordnance-Ammo Battalion inspecting a store of 4000-pound bombs, some under camouflage netting, along the roadside at the Sharnbrook Ordnance Depot, Bedfordshire, England, UK. July 1943.

During the fighting in Normandy armored vehicles found the hedgerows a serious obstacle which they could neither cross over nor break through. An enlisted man of an Ordnance unit in Normandy devised the method of attaching to the front of tanks rake-like cutters improvised from heavy angle-iron salvaged from the underwater beach obstacles which the Germans had placed to wreck landing craft. Ordnance men cutting angle-iron with acetylene torches.

M5 light tank.

U.S.O.X. No 8707, New Hope Valley Railway, North Carolina, Wake County. She was built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1942 and was used as a kitchen car for World War II troops. The end doors allowed railroad and military personnel to pass to and from the kitchen car as the troop train moved. The “USOX” reporting marks indicate the car was operated by the United Service Organization (USO). In 1946 the car was retired and placed in storage by the U. S. Army. Later it was moved to Fort Eustis, Virginia and converted to a tool car for maintenance trains. In 2017, the car was at the New Hope Valley Railway.

Captured Schwimmwagen.

105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage T19 (W-403610), “Cathy.”

LVT(A)-4 (Landing Vehicle, Tracked) with 37mm gun turret, Okinawa, 1945.

Two French boys watched from a hilltop as American vehicles pass through the badly damaged city of Saint-Lô, France, summer 1944.

US troops in 2-1/2-ton truck pulling trailer.

DUKWs come ashore on beach "Alpha Red" near Cavalaire, France, 18 August 1944.

Semi-trailer, 100 ton, 24 Wheel Cargo, T67, loaded with Tank, T95, No. 1, September 3, 1947.

Captured Sd.Kfz. 251 halftrack used as a battlefield ambulance by US forces in Germany.

Light Tank T2E1.

Light Tank T2 (Modified).

Light Tank T2.

Light Tank T2.

M40 Gun Motor Carriage.

M40 Gun Motor Carriage.

T1E4 Light Tank.

M40 155mm Gun Motor Carriage.

155mm Gun Motor Carriage M40.

T19 Howitzer Motor Carriage.

August 29, 1942: After landing in force, U.S. Marines pause on the beach of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands before advancing inland against the Japanese during World War II.

LVT helping LCVP off the beach.

105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage T19.

105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage T19. The howitzer mount T2 was standardized as the mount M3.

105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage T19. Crew positions are shown here mounted (left) and ready for action (right).

Rear view of mount with gun installed in 105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage T19 pilot, Aberdeen Proving Ground, 27 November 1941.

105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage T19. This view shows the rearward placement of the half-track's fuel tanks. Details of the howitzer mount can be seen, along with the .50 cal. pedestal mount in the rear of the vehicle. The right-angled corners of the fighting compartment are also obvious.

105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage T19.

T19 105mm Howitzer Motor Carriages passing the reviewing stand during a combined French and American parade on the occasion of Moslem Holiday Festival. General Nogues and Major General George S. Patton, Jr., reviewing officers, Rabat, French Morocco 18 December 1942.

From launching platforms mounted on IH M-2-4 1-ton 4x4 trucks, Marine crews fire a hail of rockets at Japanese positions on a Saipan ridge, 24 June 1944. Note the Leathernecks crouched over the release controls at the forward end of the trucks. The accuracy of this weapon has been greatly improved and it is now used in all war theaters. These were the first pictures to be released showing Marines using land based rockets in the Pacific theater.

T45 Multiple Rocket Launcher mounted on the Truck, 1-ton, 4x4 (International) manned by Marines on Iwo Jima.

USMC rocket launchers pound the Japanese on Saipan, circa mid-1944. The trucks are IH M-2-4 one-ton 4x4 vehicles.

M43 Howitzer Motor Carriage.

M43 Howitzer Motor Carriage.

M43 Howitzer Motor Carriage.

M41 Howitzer Motor Carriage.

T55E1 3-inch Gun Motor Carriage.

Multiple Gun Mount T60.

M31 Tank Recovery Vehicle.

M31 Tank Recovery Vehicle.

T2 tank recovery vehicle.

T2 tank recovery vehicle.

T27 Armored Car.

T27 Armored Car.

T27 Armored Car.

T27 Armored Car.

Production T23 Heavy Tank with cast turret for 76mm M1A1 gun, electrical transmission, and vertical volute spring suspension. The T23 turret was designed to be interchangeable with the turret ring of the M4 Medium Tank.

Heavy Tank T26E1.

Heavy Tank T26E3.

Medium Tank T23.

Chevy built 3,800 T-17 Staghound armored cars in Flint, Michigan, most with the 37mm cannons shown here, between October 1942 and April 1944.

T19 Howitzer Motor Carriage with trailer.

A line-up of T19 HMCs of the 9th Field Artillery at Newport News, Virginia, 20 October 1942. These units were part of Task Force A, en route to North Africa.

Front view of 105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage T19.

Rear view of 105mm Howitzer Motor Carriage T19.

Medium Tank T25E1.

U.S. 10th Mountain Division medical unit, Italy, 1944. Photo taken from a vehicle towing a 57mm anti-tank gun.

One of the M26 Pershing tanks from the 14th Tank Battalion that supported the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine on March 7, 1945.

Jeeps, Dodge WC54 ¾-ton field ambulances, and U.S. troops on a street in the heavily damaged town of Foy, Belgium, 16 January 1945.

8-inch howitzers and their prime mover tractors move along a snow-covered road in Belgium, December 1944.

American engineers unloading barbed wire which was used in defensive measures against counterattacks. December 1944.

A party in an M29 Weasel and DUKW set out to repair telephone lines on the main road in Kranenburg on February 22, 1945, amid four-foot deep floods caused by the bursting of Dikes by the retreating Germans. During the floods, British troops further into Germany have had their supplies brought by amphibious vehicles.

Marmon-Herrington MTLS (right) next to the M22 Locust.

Marmon-Herrington T16 light tank in U.S. service in Alaska, 1943.

Original Marmon-Herrington CTL-3 light tank in use by the Marines around 1939.

M24 light tank of the 20th Armored Division, Seventh Army, near Salzburg in Austria, 4 May 1945 just a few days before the end of the war.

M24 light tanks of the 38th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 102nd Cavalry Group, taking part in the victory parade in Prague, Czechoslovakia, July 1945. The Allied stars on the front were only painted on after the war for the parade.

M24 light tank of D Company, 27th Tank Battalion, 20th Armored Division, driving down the streets of Munich, 30 April 1945.

T77E1 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage anti-aircraft on an M24 Chaffee chassis.

M24 sits at a cross road in Augsberg while supporting the 3rd Infantry Division. The city surrendered 27 April 1945.

M24 light tank, 1st Infantry Division, advances towards Scharfenberg, Germany, 2 April 1945.

M24 light tank, 1st Armored Division, Bologna, Italy, late April 1945.

M24 light tank, 18th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, February 1945.

A M10 GMC of the 804th Tank Destroyer Battalion as indirect artillery support near the German border at the end of 1944.

Chevrolet Model G506 field lighting truck.

No comments:

Post a Comment