Comments for A brain-cleaning post for you

A brain-cleaning post for you

2008-09-07T13:29:51Z

Well, some of us, anyway. After clicking through on the links at Patterico's place in the post Dusty put up, I need something like a nice clean tank to clear the images.

So, some of you fellas were whining about the size of the pic in yesterday's post on the M48.

Fine - here's a bigger one.

And for those who are going to whine the picture is still too small - click here.

Update: After reading Olaf's comment below, I'm moved to add this.

This vehicle has been a non-active/junked vehicle for a long time, as in decades. She may well have spent some time on a range, too, as a target. She may have had parts salvaged for other vehicles - but that's not the sort of thing that catches my eye with tanksicles. I expect that, frankly. Especially here in the US.

No, things that catch my eye would be unusual features and such, about which more later, in tomorrow's wrap-up post.

It's a display vehicle, and units tend to just dump paint on them periodically - so things like proper stencils, red handles for fire extinguishers, and ancillary gear, like the handsets of external troop phones, etc, may well be missing or damaged.  Units may periodically have a commander like me, (or heck, even when I was an Adjutant) who takes an interest in a vehicle, and works to restore them to a more accurate look and better condition. They're inevitably followed by commanders who don't care.

I recall the the negotiations to bring an italian field gun that sat at Gibbs Kaserne in Nuremburg, home of the 1st AD engineer battalion.  The earth pigs just dumped paint on it periodically. LTC (later LTG) Dubia secured the gun for us and we put it in front of the 1-22 FA HQ at Pinder Barracks.

Why? For me, as an artilleryman and history junkie, I just hated seeing that gun rotting over at Gibbs. For the boss? The 6-14 FA, the other artillery battalion on post, had a Skoda howitzer and 1st AD DIVARTY had a 105mm (later swapped for an M1 155mm) as well. The Skoda having been brought to Pinder back when Pinder was better known as Flak Kaserne Zirndorf, and the gun was a WWI war trophy of the German Army.  The One-Two-Zoo didn't have anything... and now we did.

I researched how the Italian guns were painted, got the right color paint (which meant varnish for the wood wheels, the wood was not painted) and myself and some like-minded soldiers (all volunteers) got to work cleaning that gun up. I don't remember how many coats of paint were on her, but we stripped many layers, and at one time or another she'd been painted all red and all orange.

We restored her to her fighting look and fighting trim - freeing up her frozen breech block, recoil mechanism and other moving parts. She could safely fire 75mm salute rounds.

Then I got reassigned to DIVARTY HQ, LTC Dubia left, and the new battalion commander didn't like a grey gun with a black muzzle and blonde wood wheels.  So she promptly got painted... green. And then, a few months later, she got the standard US camouflage pattern painted on her. Heh.

When I last saw her, right before Pinder lost the artillery units and shortly before they closed the installation, she was painted brown, and they hadn't been taking care of her wheels, and the wood was rotting. Sigh.

Since we've been fighting our wars overseas for the last 100 years, 9/11 notwithstanding, much of our famous "combat experienced" gear sits on plinths or in museums in other countries, was given to other countries to rehab their militaries in the immediate post-war, or got scrapped and made into Volkswagens, Peugeots, and Ferraris...  some sit forgotten, slowly rotting in a lagoon of a quiet archipelago that once was a deadly maelstrom of violence during a clash of titans.

We 'Murican's oft times don't take very good care of artifacts like this. It's kind of a disease, but it also reflects our cultural focus on the future, not the past. That's why our equivalents of Bovington, Kubinka, and St. Cyr are an embarassment in comparison. We just don't spend the money on that stuff.

Comment from jsallison on 2008-09-08

2008-09-08T16:50:29Z

Back in the mid-80's our sqdn motor sgt 'rescued' an M47 from the clutches of range control at Graf, towed it back to Warner II in Bamberg and commenced to fiddling. After about a year of after hours work by lots of folk we had a functional M47 as our centerpiece on the parade field across the street from our gym. For the 150th anniversary of the Regt it was hauled to Nuremburg in an ill-advised swat at all the squadrons that didn't have one and was promptly 'requisitioned' by the RCO. Coupla months later it magically reappeared within days following the departure of said RCO and kept our restored M24 of the Circle C Cowboys days company. Never were able to locate a source of 90mm ammo, probably just as well as I was likely the only person to know what a stereoscopic rangefinder was and they weren't going to let me near it...

Comment from HomefrontSix on 2008-09-08

2008-09-08T16:42:53Z

huh. Works now for me. Musta just been a glitch. Or yet another opportunity for the cosmos to make me look silly.

Comment from RetRsvMike on 2008-09-08

2008-09-08T13:03:54Z

muzzle brake evidently got a wee dose of "Oval-tine".

#1 Left torsion bar does really appear to be sprung.

..and it may just be the angle/shadows, but all those return rollers do appear to be somewhat low compared to the tops of the roadwheels...

Comment from BillT on 2008-09-08

2008-09-08T10:14:38Z

The driver's viewports are definitely gone -- so, there's either a chunk of metal welded over his hatch access, or there's a large, gaping sullivan in the glacis...

Comment from BillT on 2008-09-08

2008-09-08T10:09:46Z

The part that says "Forbidden" when I try to click on it.

You're supposed to click the link to the *M-48*, HF6 -- not to the *Number 82*...

Comment from Casey on 2008-09-08

2008-09-08T06:52:41Z

Original y-shaped muzzle brake. I don't see any kind of cupola machine gun, and the cupola itself looks like an Israeli refit, but it's hard to tell from that angle.

Also, the tread surfaces look odd, although that may be something they did when preserving the tank.

Comment from V5 on 2008-09-07

2008-09-08T04:42:50Z

Hmmm, maybe it's me, or just the angle that the picture is taken from...

The collar at the end of the barrel (I guess it's a bore evacuator) doesn't seem long enough. Nor does the barrel. It seems to me that the barrel has been shortened by at least a couple of feet. Other than that I have no clue. I'm no expert on tanks and other things that go boom like some of you guys here.

V5

Comment from HomefrontSix on 2008-09-07

2008-09-08T01:25:34Z

What part of "click here' for the larger picture is confusing you yahoos?

The part that says "Forbidden" when I try to click on it. ;~P

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2008-09-07

2008-09-08T00:21:40Z

What part of "click here' for the larger picture is confusing you yahoos?

Comment from BillT on 2008-09-07

2008-09-07T21:36:54Z

Rod -- Nope. It says "Sledgehammer" on the tube. And it may be Marine Green, but it's not a USMC tank. No bayonet stud on the barrel...

Comment from Rod Thorsen on 2008-09-07

2008-09-07T20:58:03Z

A "lot" of end connectors are missing.

Comment from Rod Thorsen on 2008-09-07

2008-09-07T20:55:57Z

The markings are certainatly weird. The crooked star as BillT mentions, lack of tactical markings, and I can't quite read it, but is that "U.S. Army" on the side of the gun tube? The colour also looks more "Marine Green".

Comment from Neffi on 2008-09-07

2008-09-07T20:46:34Z

Sheesh... it's so obvious. This is one of the *very* few M48s modified to promote physical fitness and agility by having climbing-rope stands affixed to the rear deck. Field trials were deemed successful, so long as the driver was moving forward. In reverse, not so much...
Glad I could help.

Comment from BillT on 2008-09-07

2008-09-07T19:30:21Z

Muzzle brake is definitely off-kilter and the national insignia is just plain bollixed. And don't most tanks have some sort of way for the driver to see where he's going?

Comment from Olaf The Tanker on 2008-09-07

2008-09-07T13:45:17Z

Based on the larger pic you put up this AM -

#1 road wheels on left hull side missing?

What's the deal with the flash suppressor, looks like it's got a bit of material missing around the bore, unless the angle is playing tricks on the camera.

Air Filter assemblies behind sponson boxes missing?

Headlamps aren't the wrong ones, they're just busted out.
Heater exhaust pipe missing
Fire ext. handles not painted red or just plain missing

And I also concur, the sponson box handles are all in no-go mode