Comments for ANOTHER FIRST!!

ANOTHER FIRST!!

2007-01-26T06:03:41Z

Remember when I predicted we'd be Number 1 in Google for "T-128 Anti-Tank Gun"?

So much for self-aggrandizement. Back to ~~keeping John flummoxed~~ your online source for winning at "Trivial Pursuit 2007." Yesterday's Whatziss guesses were close (as in, Screw/Auger, Mud, 1 each), but the stogie stays in the wrapper. You drill a hole with an auger and then remove it to insert something.

In this case, the thing stays put. It's a screw anchor for a Scruple Lighthouse.

Oooops. Make that "Screw Pile" Lighthouse. Dang quadrifocals...

Oh-kayyy, so far the Great Rolling Whatziss Contest has served to amuse the artillerists and the yachting crowd (Hiya, Lex!), so I guess this one will be for the 50-ton self-propelled radio grognards.

*sigh*

Poor Sanger McGee's going all insomniacal because he can't figure out what this rattletrap is.

When I first saw it parked on the pad out back, I thought, "Holy Riveted Armor!" I knew what it was because I'd seen an article about it in ~~Playboy~~ one of the flash-in-the-pan Soldier of Fortune clones that proliferated in the 1980s. Never dreamed any of 'em had escaped the scrap heap. This one almost didn't -- it was rescued by a tank collector (hey, if you've got more money than you know what to do with, you can collect *any*thing -- take a look at the waterfront in Philly or Sandy Egg-O sometime and see what the Navy's got pack-ratted).

I think the Museum swapped ~~a truckload of main gun rounds for his M48A5~~ some spare parts for his heavy metal melange to get the beast, but I wouldn't swear to it. I'm in an expansive mood, so here's another view for you--

-- and, just to help Sanger off to the Land of Nod, here's a closeup...

Heh...UPDATE: While I was busily cobbling this, Sanger was busily slapping links into the comments for yesterday's Whatziss. He gets credit for industry, but never mentioned the nomenclature of this thing! And to keep the rest of yez honest, I fiddled his links. Saved the originals for later, cuz they're cool, but fiddled 'em for now...

Comment from SangerM on 2007-01-29

2007-01-29T08:55:54Z

True... But I could put a 105mm on a dunebuggy and it still wouldn't be a tank (hints of a whatzis I have in mind...) But heck, I don't know. I never heard of one of these things before this, so you can call it whatever you want, I'll go for it... ;-)

Comment from BillT on 2007-01-27

2007-01-28T03:18:00Z

Dunno if you could call it a tankette -- that breed were usually beefed-up machinegun carriers, and the CTMS-1TBI *does* have a main gun.

Comment from SangerM on 2007-01-27

2007-01-27T21:25:02Z

Chris, Well, you're better at this than me. I never heard of the M22 before, but it was that tank that led me to a website with pics of the Marmon-Herrington CTMS-1TB1. If BillT ever gives them back you'll see where I ended up. I just googled the heck out of the M22 an found one site with the Marmon-Herrington name, and voila, there it was. To be honest until this week, I thought I was pretty sharp re: US tanks, WWII and later, but seemingly not. I'd never heard of the CTMS either. But I agree about it being a "tankette." I just called it what i saw it listed as, though.

Comment from Chris Denny on 2007-01-27

2007-01-27T07:29:33Z

Sanger, I didn't forget about the M-22 Locust airborne tank. In army nomenclature of the time it was asuper light tank. Personally I think even that is somewhat generous, it is really a tankette, the army just didn't want to own up to that fact.

Comment from Rod Thorsen on 2007-01-26

2007-01-27T04:29:02Z

Ok you all kept takling google which really messed me up, so according to Stuart A History of the American Light Tank Volume 1 by R. P. Hunnicutt published by Presidio Press 1992 page 217, this it the Marmon-Herrington CTMS-1TB1 produced for the Netherlands Purchasing Commission. Cant fool me.

Comment from Rod Thorsen on 2007-01-26

2007-01-27T04:22:37Z

Looks something like one of the Marmon-Herrington USMC eval tanks, but some details are puzzling.

Comment from SangerM on 2007-01-26

2007-01-27T03:59:33Z

Chris, if it helps: You missed at least one of the M-series light tanks, and the one you missed will give you a clue to the one in the picture. I'd never heard of it before, but this week has shown me there's a lot I don't know about army stuff... [/abiding shame]

Comment from Justthisguy on 2007-01-26

2007-01-27T02:16:25Z

Dang! As a Florida person I shoulda caught the Screw-Pile notion! George Meade, the old goggle-eyed snappin' turtle Engineer, and builder of lighthouses in the Keys, (most still standing) and victor at Gettysburg, and all!

Comment from Chris Denny on 2007-01-26

2007-01-27T01:23:44Z

Me thinks it my be Light Tank T-4E something or other. Remember US light Tanks go M-1, M-2, M-3, M-5, M-24, M-41, M-551, M-8. That last one never being adopted but its' gun and autoloader finding their way onto the Stryker AGS variant. The autoloader being an out growth of the FMC jobber used on the Navy's MK 45 mount.

Comment from SangerM on 2007-01-26

2007-01-27T00:37:27Z

AW1 Tim, Not an M2, I called that one days ago, for the same reason, then realized I was wrong. The spacing between the two roadwheel pairs is too narrow for an M2, and there was never an M2/M3/M-anything that had that forward and upper hull design. I found it eventually, but it took time... too much time, actually... [sigh]

Comment from Toluca Nole on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T22:50:21Z

I was in the 3rd row for Screwpile Lighthouse's bantamweight title shot.

Comment from ry on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T20:40:38Z

Actually, I was thinking it looked like one of the one's the NAzi's used to bulldoze Poland.

Comment from Gwedd on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T20:33:50Z

Comrades, It's an M-2 Light Tank, 1930's vintage, and a precursor to the M-3 and later M-5 lt tanks of WWII fame. The suspension is the give-a-way, with the rivited construction. See here for more details: http://www.wwiivehicles.com/usa/tanks-light/m2.asp Respects,

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T19:44:20Z

Are none of the rest of you slackers even trying? Hmmm, mebbe it's time for a hint, Bill.

Comment from wolfwalker on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T19:21:51Z

AFSis's mention of the mouseover titles drove me to scratch a techie-itch, and thereby make a discovery. My regular browser is Firefox. Firefox, it so happens, doesn't display mouseover-titles created using the [alt] attribute of the [img] HTML tag. (This was the aforementioned techie-itch: I've used Firefox for years and endured its lack of [alt]ing in silent annoyance.) However, a quick search discovered that: a) Firefox _does_ display mouseover-titles if you define them with the [title] attribute; and b) Firefox does this because Firefox hews strictly to the HTML standards, and this is the way HTML is supposed to work. Displaying the [alt] tag contents as mouseovers is a rotten dirty nonstandard HTML trick played on web-developers and web-users everywhere by MS Internet Destroyer. O joy! Now I know how to make my own webpage images display mouseover-titles in all browsers. And I can pass on the word, so that (hopefully) others can make their image-labels readable by non-MS browsers. Thanks, AFSis.

Comment from SangerM on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T17:50:54Z

> the color of Ozzie boots. I thought Ozzie boots were black, like the tanks and pants... Now that would be a Kiwi color, right? And yeah, too, I missed the mouseover titles (thanks AFS) "Hi, I'm a cruel, sadistic Aviator(ret.)" (but velly funny)

Comment from AFSister on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T16:53:07Z

Bill... love the mouse-over picture titles. LMAO

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T16:12:03Z

Yer right, Sanger - that's more the color of Ozzie boots. (Red Herring Alert!)

Comment from SangerM on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T15:05:58Z

> I don't suppose it's Polish? No, I don't think it's Kiwi brand. And I've never seen it that color. :-D

Comment from SangerM on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T15:03:26Z

>'n for the record and bragging rights - I id'd *with* nomenclature *before* Sanger did. Yeah, I already *graciously* acknowledged that. An I think I spell just fine, TYVM. (I need an emoticon for mope) > It's important to me to beat Sanger at things like this. I dunno why, it just is. 8^D I think you've had google-envy since I first ID'd that "Ballisticlean" bullet in Jan 05. :-> But I do get credit for having half a clue about the screw-jobbie. "Sand-anchor for something, not so much an augur (not really cut to move dirt) as something meant to stay stuck where it was put..." Ha, I knew it! The shallow spiral reminded me of one type of anchors we used to use for our DF antennas guy wires.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T13:38:49Z

That would be because it *is* a Duster. The only vehicle specifically exempted from the tank trail speed limits at Fort Sill. Because that mogas engine ran hot, they were allowed to zip along the tank trails so they wouldn't overheat. I wouldn't suggest that the National Guard Duck Hunters driving them while I was in OBC abused the privilege... but they sure whipped by pretty fast!

Comment from wolfwalker on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T12:52:28Z

First reaction: looks like a WW2-period tank. Alas, a scan through a book on WW2 armored vehicles doesn't find any exact match. Best I can find is a vague resemblance to an Italian light tank. However, I believe I was able to identify the second vehicle visible in the left background: it looks an awful lot like an M42 Duster twin 40mm AA vehicle from the Korean War.

Comment from BillT on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T12:25:49Z

Trias - Polish? Hardly -- no bayonet stud on the main gun...

Comment from BillT on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T12:22:54Z

Shush! They're supposed to think you're flummoxed!

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T11:45:58Z

'n for the record and bragging rights - I id'd *with* nomenclature *before* Sanger did. So I can't play this round, either. It's important to me to beat Sanger at things like this. I dunno why, it just is. 8^D

Comment from Trias on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T08:00:58Z

I don't suppose it's Polish?

Comment from SangerM on 2007-01-26

2007-01-26T07:39:33Z

z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z *snort* -z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z