KENNY X HAS A TANK

[jkim]

Mine was caught while I was wading in a creek with a net. Used to do that all the time, scooping up fish and other critters, putting them in my bucket and taking them home to check out in my aquarium. I had to pull out the snapper right away and release him cuz he was just too ornery to keep in a small tank.

About five years ago, we made a trip out to the East Coast. I went to check out the house in Sterling Virginia that I grew up in. I used to raise praying mantises in the bushes along the front of our house.


Based on memory, which was very foggy, I negotiated our rental car to where I thought that creek was and I found it. I took my girls down to it and explained that I had spent a lot of my childhood trouncing around in that very stream.


Sorry for the threadjack... this discussion made me reminisce.

[KennyX]

No apologies necessary John! I appreciate the glimpse into your life, that was a cool side trip to go on and I appreciate you letting me come along!

[Stikpusher]

John that is awesome that you were able to visit your childhood home and find the creek where you used to play. Most such places around where I grew up have been developed and are no longer in their natural state.

Kenny, that looks like one ornery critter. Certainly good inspiration for an AFV.

[KennyX]

Kenny, that looks like one ornery critter. Certainly good inspiration for an AFV.

Carlos,

Thank you! And say, can I ask your advice?

I wanted to customize this one a little bit, to make it look meaner. More snapping turtle like. And I’ve seen historical photos of Panzers with field modifications like this:



The tread isn’t currently glued on.

Anyhow, I like the look of it, I cut out a piece of old Tamiya treads to make it. What I’m wondering is, is it accurate to portray a modification like this on a Tauchpanzer? I know they weren’t used in Operation Sea Lion as-planned but they did use the Tauchpanzer in Poland shortly thereafter. The variant I’m doing is from 2./Pz.Rgt.35, 4. Panzer Division, 1941.

Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.

[Stikpusher]

Spare track links on the front for added protection was a common field modification. The main issue was attaching them. They later came up with a fitting on the lower hull front plate for just that purpose. But for the 1941 periods, there was sometimes a bar welded across those two upper plate housings to hold one length of tracks. Another would often be suspended from the towing points on the lower front hull plate. Once Barbarossa commenced, and the Germans ran into the heavier caliber Russian guns more and more frequently, they rapidly adapted such measures. I’ll see if I can find some photo examples for you.
The Tauchpanzer was pretty much only used in it’s designed role in the opening stage of Barbarossa to cross the Bug River dividing the German and Russian areas of occupied Poland. Who needs a bridge or ferry, when your tanks can drive across the River bottom? Afterwards they operated as standard gun tanks, just like the surviving DD tanks after D-Day.

[Stikpusher]

Here’s a nice Tauchpanzer III with lots of spare tracks later in 1941, showing the more extreme amounts used



another with not quite as many added



another detail shot with a bar added, but not welded to the upper glacis plate housing



A different Tauchpanzer with a good view of the added bars for spare tracks on the lower and upper glacis plates

[KennyX]

Here’s a nice Tauchpanzer III with lots of spare tracks later in 1941, showing the more extreme amounts used

Carlos! That is awesome! Thank you for the great photo as well as the lesson on the history behind it. Very good! I’ll outfit this bad boy with some extra, field-installed track armor then! This is cool, this is what I’m after- putting my inspiration which I found in nature into a historically-accurate context! Thank you for the help on this, I really appreciate it!

Speaking of installations, these tanks had cool little platforms installed on both sides of the upper central deck. At first I was puzzled by them when I saw them listed in the instructions but after a few cups of coffee and some pondering their purpose became blatantly evident:

That cool-looking inflatable rubber waterproofing seal under the turret probably needs some extra space to rest on to allow for it to move around unfettered when the turret moves to keep it from getting caught up or shredded.

I assembled both halves today during a teleconference. I left them on the sprue until after the individual legs were attached, as this made the process of attaching the legs easier for me:



And here they are after installation:







Alligator Snapper is looking plenty mean!!!

[Stikpusher]

Kenny, you’re quite welcome. Doing this little bit of digging has brought them to,life in my mind now. I knew of the Tauchpanzer for years, but never really thought about them. When I made the analogy to DD tanks, it suddenly clicked in my head. Now I want to build a couple, both a III and IV.
Especially after reading this little tidbit... here is some historical inspiration

At Pratulin, where 17th and 18th Panzer Divisions were to cross the Bug, there was no bridge. At 04:15 hours, the advance detachments leaped into their rubber dinghies and assault boats, and swiftly crossed to the other side. The infantrymen and motor-cycle troops had with them light anti-tank guns and heavy machine-guns. The Russian pickets by the river opened up with automatic rifles and light machine-guns. They were quickly silenced. Units of the motor-cycle battalion dug in. Then everything that could be pumped into the bridgehead was ferried across. The sappers at once got down to building a pontoon bridge.
But what would happen if the Russians attacked the bridgehead with armour? How would the Germans oppose them? Tanks and heavy equipment could have been brought across only with the greatest difficulties in barges or over emergency bridges.
That was why an interesting new secret weapon was employed here for the first time….
…In the sector of 18th Panzer Division fifty batteries of all calibers opened fire at 0315 in order to clear the way to the other bank for the diving tanks, General Nehring, the divisional commander, has since described this as “a magnificent spectacle, but rather pointless since the Russians had been clever enough to withdraw their troops from the border area, leaving behind only weak frontier detachments, which subsequently fought very bravely.”
At 0445 hours Sergeant Wierschin advance into the Bug with diving tank No.1. The infantrymen watched him in amazement. The water closed over the tank. ”Playing at U-boats!” Only the slim steel tube which supplied fresh air to the crews and engine showed above the surface, indicating Wierschin’s progress under water. There were also the exhaust bubbles, but these were quickly obliterated by the current.
Tank after tank – the whole of 1st Battalion, 18th Panzer Regiment, under the battalion commander, Manfred Graf Strachwitz – dived into the river.
And now the first ones were crawling up the far bank like mysterious amphibians. A soft plop and the rubber caps were blown off the gun muzzles. The gun-loaders let the air our of the bicycle inner tubes round the turrets. Turret hatches were flung open and the skippers wriggled out. An arm thrust into the air three times: the signal “Tanks forward.”
Eighty tanks had crossed the frontier river under water. Eighty tanks were moving into action.
Their presence was more than welcome in the bridgehead. Enemy armoured scout cars were approaching. At once came the firing orders for the leading tanks: “Turret – One O’clock – armour piercing – 800 yards – group of armoured scout cars – fire at will.” From Hitler moves east. Paul Carell

[Stikpusher]

Here is a Panzer III/IV track link so you can get a better idea of how to shape the ends

[KennyX]

Carlos, that was a great read! Amazing stuff, man, WOW! Insofar as eclectic, interesting subjects go, this sure seems to be a fantastic one. Man what a great story!

Heh, it’s funny how this works sometimes. I saw the kit, and something in my head told me it looked cool. Later on during building it occurred to me that I liked how it looked because it reminded me of snapping turtles. And today I learned about the story behind them, and their operational history.

Amazing.