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Tank Hack Ensured Farmland Didn't Thwart the Invasion of Europe
szczys writes: Ingenuity reigns supreme when trying to overcome obstacles standing in your way. So was the case during the Allied invasion of Europe during WWII. Land features in the Normandy bocage region were especially difficult for tanks to navigate. The obstacles were earthen dikes topped with mature trees originally put in place to contain livestock. The solution was to reuse materials from the Axis' own anti-tank measures to build a tank attachment to cut through the obstacles. The Allies were able to take the Axis by surprise as it was assumed the armored divisions wouldn't be able to break through this area.
Stuff that mattered 70 years ago, and is mildly interesting today :)
William George
" The Allies were able to take the Axis by surprise as it was assumed the armored divisions wouldn't be able to break through this area.: ...which is funny because the French didn't expect the tanks of the Germans to be able to pass through the Ardennes. The moment they realized what the plan was, it was too late and France had no option but to surrender, even if possessing a superior force.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
And next: brave Soviet soldiers welcomed in Washington DC in what is sure to be the beginning of a long-lasting warm relationship between the USA and the USSR.
Reminds me a little of the proboscis they bolt to the front of some heavy armament today to deal with land mines and such, and in a slightly different way, the cages they build around Strikers to deal with RPGs...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
they'll need it to thwart the invasion of Europe 2015 (happening now).
There is a great push for the world and especially Europe to accept without question waves of refugees. This, however, will not solve the problem of why these people are fleeing their countries. Indeed, it will only allow the political / religious forces that are the cause of this mass exodus to take permanent root.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Military engineering is now a "hack"?
Here's a neat lifehack OP: Blow your fucking brains out.
Let's keep things in perspective. Progress in Normandy was one (or more) order(s) of magnitude slower than planned.
...to show everyone that you're a hack writer.
Sure, it's old technology, old engineering. But so is ENIAC...
Not "engineering" in the sense that engineers at a company came up with the device. The phrase "hack" is entirely appropriate. This modification came from a Sergeant at Normandy who thought he could cut up some of the i-beam based beach obstacles and make "teeth" for the tanks. So the solution came from the blacksmith/welder types, an actual Army MOS, improvising something on the spot not the engineers designing something to meet a requirement.
One of the best ones I have heard about is the hacking of the Dutch telephone system by the insiders. They had special "area codes" that bypassed main trunk exchanges but allowed the resistance fighters to communicate using the regular telephone system. If Gen Montgomery knew about it or had used it, his Operation Market Garden (movie: A Bridge Too Far) might have gone differently, they last bridge group might have learned the the German General Model and his panzer divisions were being held in that area as reserve and for refitting and they were in a position to cut off the lines of communication. Need to look it up.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Someone explain this to me. I don't understand from looking at the pictures.
1) You have a tank with no Hedgehog add-on. It rolls up to a hedge. it is a heavy tank. Because it's heavy, it pushes forward and crushes the hedges underneath it. or not.
2) You have a tank with the hedgehog add-on. It rolls up to a hedge. it is a heavy tank. Because it's heavy, it pushes forward and crushes the hedges underneath it. or not. I don't see what benefit the comb-like structure does to allow for easier crushing or rolling over the hedges. Is there a saw in there somewhere? Like a giant hair-clipper? I actually don't understand what physical advantage the add-on gives to the tank. What am I missing?
The D-Day plan included the capture of Caen on D-Day itself. If you ever visit Normandy, it is obvious that the river valley around Caen is the only good way out. The German's realized this too, and sent every possible unit there to keep the British from seizing the exit from the beaches. Battle after battle erupted in front of Caen to keep the Allies in. The Allied plan took the bocage hedgerows into account. They were protection from German counter-attack while the American Army took the port of Cherbourg and the Cotentin peninsula to serve as the staging area for incoming units to prepare for the breakout. With the main German force facing the British at Caen, the only other way to break out from the beachhead was through the bocage. This had never been part of the Allied plan, so it took some improvisation to develop tactics to break out.
The US has already taken permanent root.
You are welcome on my lawn.
When you assume you make an ass out of you and Hitler.
Oh now that's original!
The hedges were generally at ground level but the roads were often sunken. Traveling along these roads was dangerous. That was expected, that was where all the weapons were pointed. To maneuver freely, off-road, one had to get through the hedgerows.
With respect to German 88mm guns it didn't matter where the US tank was hit, they didn't need to hit the thinly armored bottom. Those guns were exceptionally deadly and were waiting for tanks to drive down the road. I recall reading a US veteran's recollection. The US soldier was annoyed at the smug look of a captured German officer. He asked the German if they were such supermen why was he a prisoner. The German responded in English: I commanded an 88mm gun battery. Every time an American tank came down the road we destroyed it. Eventually we ran out of ammunition, you did not run out of tanks.
Being a US tanker in the European theatre was extremely hazardous. You really didn't want to be seen or travel where expected. Roads, at ground level or sunken, were dangerous.
Every War Has Hacking, if you want to survive. You learn from the moment you start fighting.
In France, there were hedgerows, and you needed a way to deal with them.
In Korea, there were lots of jeeps but limited alcohol, so you figured out how to make a still from the parts of a jeep.
In Iraq, the army learned it needed MRAPs right away and that the military procurement system was so terrible it would never get them, so SECDEF basically overrode the whole damn procurement apparatus.
These hedgerows were not what people in the US and UK think of when someone says hedges. That was part of the problem, people in the US and UK were not used to seeing vegetation that tanks could not knock down or plow through so it was a blind spot of sorts.
These hedgerows were incredibly large and dense with branches, vines and roots interlocking. When they took a hit from a tank the energy of impact would get distributed, its a little bit like the special fibers and weaves that help to distribute impact energy over a large area in some bullet resistant vests. They needed something to cut these branches and vines to interfere with this energy distribution.
Or maybe think of a net, one wants to cut a slot in the net to pass through.
From the article:
When demonstrated for General Omar Bradley, he was impressed enough to order them built in quantity for the tanks. Eventually the prototype became an engineered product (dubbed the “Culin Rhino Device”) that was fitted to many tanks before being shipped over from England.
I wonder how long it took, from the demo for Gen. Bradley, until the device was fitted on tanks sent over from England. Hopefully not too long. Imagine the tanks being made in the US today. How long would it take before they were outfitted with the "tusks"? Senator #1: "I demand that the tusks be made in my state." Senator #2: "No - make them in my state, or I'll vote against them being made at all!"
In related news, U.S. Air Force instructs airmen on exactly how to praise the F-35. The Air Force should reject the F-35 for its many flaws, and demand their money back. Sigh. Some things really were better back in the past.
Um, who is getting shot at in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere? Dumbass.
If I remember correctly, the annual death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan is roughly the same as... one day on Omaha Beach, or about six hours on the Eastern Front.
I grew up around a WW2 paratrooper, Normandy, Holland, Bastogne (frostbite), Germany (shot). According to him it didn't matter if the war is big or small, popular or unpopular. Bullets and shrapnel do the same thing to a soldier. Getting shot at is getting shot at, whether you are alone, one of ten, or one of a thousand. If you went into harms way for your country you deserve respect, period. That was his lesson during the Vietnam war. Can't imagine him having a different opinion for Iraq or Afghanistan. Especially since I've seen videos of troops from his unit, then 502 PIR now 502 INF, doing room clearing in an urban settings. Something he did in Europe and disliked very much.
Hmm, have they tried welding large metal tusks to the front of these refugees?
Oh now that's original!
There's nothing original about the USA, either. It's just repetitions of old stories. We're repeating what we learned from other empires.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The only reason anglo-americans were able to advance was that 3/4rd of the Reich's efforts went to combat the moscovite on the Eastern Front. Joe Stalim himself said USSR contributed 80% to the victory over Hitler and the allies just 20%. Had Rudel and his cannoneer Stuka fought on the atlantic front, no anglo-saxon armour would have reached the Elbe ever.
If I add a shelf in my garage, it's not a hack,,,, why is adding a cutting blade to a tank any different,, I can design and build the shelf myself, but it is still not a hack
Hedgerow Tripel
I think it was the hedge rows and not trees that were so difficult for tanks. Tanks can deal with trees rather easily but the hedge rows would snarl the tracks and everything else on a tank. If you think about it trees will make a poor cattle fence as cows can simply walk between the trees as there has to be a gap for trees to grow. Generally trees do not grow well, shoulder to shoulder. A hedge row can make a great fence. As I recall it was a farm boy from a rural state that showed the staff how to attach an item to the front of a tank that would rip through a hedge row. Once the tanks had that attachment they went through rather easily. Regardless of all of that a landing at Normandy was like an invitation to hell on Earth. It's a wonder anyone came back sane or alive.
Invasion? There is no invasion.
Learn to love Alaska
I always thought it was intersection, not union. Perhaps I should submit a story about Roman manipular tactics during the late republican period?
Man did that sarcastic remark backfire. I am in fact both a computer nerd and a history nerd, happy to read classics like Bjarne Stroustrup's "The C++ Programming Language" and Titus Livius' "The History of Rome". Well, the 2,000 pages of Livy's work that has been discovered. So feel free, submit your work.
Without Sgt. Culin’s battlefield hack, and his inspiration by a hillbilly named Roberts whom history otherwise forgets, the invasion of Europe might have taken a very different course.
Others say, not so much.
Military historian Steven Zaloga claims that the devices "were not as widely used as the legend would suggest", nor were they as effective as is often believed.[13] But Max Hastings and Chester Wilmot credit the invention with restoring battlefield maneuverability to the Allied force.[6][19] Martin Blumenson states that while the device restored mobility in hedgerow country, it "was of little tactical value in the breakout, except possibly as a morale factor to the troops, since the tanks advanced on the roads, not cross-country."[20]
Perhaps you should include reading comprehension & logic in your awesomely broad range of studies, because nothing that you say invalidates my point that it isn't news.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Sure. But it's not really news, is it?
Good thing we have the stuff that matters category too.
Perhaps you should include reading comprehension & logic in your awesomely broad range of studies, because nothing that you say invalidates my point that it isn't news.
Sorry, the reading comprehension and logic fails are entirely yours. That "stuff that matters" comment I made earlier. Guess where it comes from? Slashdot's self description: "Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters". Slashdot is widely characterized as a "science and technology" site. You are wrong that posts need to be news and you are wrong that its an intersection not a union.
As I mentioned elsewhere, its useful to point out to impressionable youth that the concept of "hacking" does not solely apply to computers and computer controlled devices. That elegant improvised solutions with materials at hand applies to a broad set of areas. So, this story is something that matters to nerds with respect to this notion and others.
See subject & "read em' & weep" Dave420 http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
APK
P.S.=> How'd they taste, Dave420? Flavored with the "bitter taste of SELF-defeat", & washed down with your FOOT IN YOUR MOUTH ramming them down?? LMAO @ U, fool... apk