The Tank for 1945: A Tale of Demand, Supply and Capacity.

"We need a tank that's heavier and lighter, bigger and smaller, taller and shorter, more powerful and more fuel efficient, with a bigger gun and more rounds of ammunition storage. Make sure it's better engineered and more thoroughly tested, and deliver it to the front lines sooner." Simple.

By 1944 every American AFV, whatever its gun or armor thickness, had the one design feature most German TCs could only dream of: A full tank of Gas!

"you can't have a 90mm gun on a sherman" M51 Super Sherman: "Hold my beer"

The perfect tank for 1945 is a fusion of the Maus turret and the Bob semple hull. Gods and titans shudder at the name of such a vehicle: the Shirley semple

Listening to all this "what do you want?", "yeah no." Reminds me of how an E-7 can hold a 6 hour training session on "Proper Time Management".

It just occured to me that metal TD models with a folding can opener would be the ultimate meme Christmas present.

My father served on a DE escorting convoys to Liverpool and I remember he told me that sometimes a ship waited two weeks or more before it could be off loaded because of problems off loading, like lack of man power, docks and cranes. I had two uncles who served in the army, both were transferred from the African campaign to England prior to D-day. Both said there was so much "stuff" stored there that they joked the island was starting to sink! Tanks and trucks were stored in fields everywhere and equipment was stored where ever space could be found. So in addition to their training they were sometimes employed moving stuff around and looking for the stuff they needed. "Guns win battles, logistics win wars", but only if you can find the stuff you need!

Nothing better than sitting, drinking a nice whisky, and listening to The Chieftain talk about armor and various reports. This is the pinnacle of informative entertainment.

yay, Sgt shillelagh got his own T-Shirt

"Dougal, this Tiger is close, that Tiger is far away.. too far for the 76mm" "Sorry Ted, I still don't get it"

Panther replica mentioned. WG: American Panther it is Stonks

My tank caught fire once. It is a nice story. No one was hurt and they towed the tank in to get rebuilt. It was an old M60A3.

The talk about shipping existing tanks and also conversion/update kits and overloading in-Theater maintenance made me think of similar problems the Army (yes, it was called the Army Air Corps and Army Air Forces in WWII) had with aircraft, especially heavy bombers. My grandfather's B-17 crew flew a mid-production B-17F across the Atlantic in summer of '43 only to have to immediately turn it into a modification depot. The modifications were mainly for updated gun mounts in the nose and navigation equipment).

11:15 - Never underestimate the amount of political posturing that goes into the public and official statements of general officers.

This was good stuff. Having been in procurement in the Air Force, I am glad to see that things were just as screwed up in the past as they were in the present. Guys on the front lines could never get their point across to the guys in the rear with the gear.

A lot of these documents pretty much mirror my own emails to management when I am procuring equipment at work. Especially the part about needing vast improvements in something and then stating the such improvements are doubtful.

I love the digressions. To me, a historian by trade, it proves to me you are called to pass on this historical data in the time honored manner. With digressions a plenty!

We got the hat trick. You, Mark Felton and Drachinifel all in the same day 👍

Can openers is great! A worthy addition to any armour hobbyists collection

Thanks for another interesting & informative talk Nicholas.