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I'll take one, please.

By The Armorer on July 13, 2009 | | Comments (7)
weapons carrier1.jpg

Second Army Tennessee Maneuvers. 3 miles west of Watertown. As an addition to the battalion's defense, HQ Co. of the 5th Armd Maint Bn developed an idea thought up by Ordernance Sgt. Magazine. The 37mm gun is the only field weapon allotted for the battalion's defense. To increase firepower, a 50 cal. Machine gun was mounted on the front of the 37mm gun vehicle. All parts were made and mounted by HQ personnel. (6 Jun 43) Signal Corps Photo: 164-0012-43-204 (Pvt. J. F. Albert)

Though, I gotta admit, my shins hurt just looking at the guy manning the machine gun.  One slip of the foot and you're banging a shin, hard.  Iron men, tin trucks.  It took great brass danglies to go after tanks in one of those trucks.

But it would be a heckuva parade vehicle for the Castle Motor Pool... 

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7 Comments

By wolfwalker on July 13, 2009 9:23 AM
How old is this picture?  It looks like something from around WW2.  It also looks like a makeshift AA gun.  Wouldn't that high-angle mounting make the fifty-cal useless against ground targets?
 
By og on July 13, 2009 9:32 AM
Totally sweet. I want two, one for myself and one for the oglet.

Woulda been a good whatsis, because it woulda been impossible to attribute.
 
By Boquisucio on July 13, 2009 9:33 AM
Ho you mean like THIS?
 
By John of Argghhh! on July 13, 2009 9:37 AM
Wolfwalker - 6 June, 1943 is what the caption says.  And yes, there is little that is practical about that .50 cal mount.

Og - there is a guy who makes repro 37mm with mounts for this installation.  The front end wouldn't have been hard to fabricate, either.

Boq - gee, thanks for that...  not.
 
By Rivrdog on July 13, 2009 10:42 PM
Not a redleg, myself, but were there ANY Panzers which could have been stopped by a 37mm round? Since 1930 or so, that is.
 
By John of Argghhh! on July 14, 2009 7:26 AM
Oh, about any of the Japanese and Italian stuff, and up through the early Pzkw IIIs, anyway.  The 37mm in the Stuart and Lee gave good service against the lighter tanks in the desert.  The uparmored III's, IV's, and beyond, not so good except by being much closer than the gun crew would like, and even then...
 
By BillT on July 14, 2009 8:06 AM
The trick was to mount the 37mm so that it could fire down on the lightly-armored top or into the engine deck of the later models.. As in, putting it in an Il-2 or a Hurricane MkII.

Think of the Il-2 as an anti-tank gun with wings that got shot down a lot...