>From: GP-UK [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Pasola
>Sent: 23 December 2005 08:36
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: The few
>
>A old soldier patient of mine, who died a short time after his 100th
>birthday recalled sitting in an amphibious tank just off the Normandy
>Coast, waiting for the order to roll up onto the beaches. A quick
>Google reveals that these were probably American Sherman DD tanks. The
>technology didn't work. A lot of his mates ended up on the sea bed.
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_DD
Mark,
I think you're being a little unkind.
The DD tanks seem to have prevented a significant number of infantry
casualties except at Omaha. There, the sea and the currents caused
horrendous losses.
Wikipaedia says: "The DD Tanks were designed to withstand waves up to
1 foot (0.3 m) high; however, on that day the waves were up to 6 feet
(2 m) high. These were much worse conditions than they had trained in
and they were swamped with water." However many of the DDs actually
coped with waves much higher than 1 foot. The Normandy weather that
June 5/6 nearly resulted in cancellation, and is a good example of
luck playing a significant role in whether men lived or died.
There's a good picture of a DD here:
http://www.d-daytanks.org.uk/tanks/sherman-dd.html
The screen was raised by air filled tubes and was held in place by
steel struts all to give it a roughly boat shape. The system was
cooked up by a Hungarian engineer, Nicholas Straussler, and adopted
by the British General Sir Percy Hobart and his team. They were the
only "funnies" the American's used, and are essentially a bit of
British adopted Hungarian wizadry and eccentricty with an American
tank inside. Finally while many crew died - both in the water and on
the beaches, the loss of the tank to rough seas didn't always result
in the loss of the crew.
Julian
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