The curious case of Ronson, Part 1.

What is it?


   Practically all people familliar with the history of WWII and tanks in particular are aware of the bad reputation of the M4 Sherman tank for being prone to catching on fire after penetration, to the point it was nick-named "Ronson" by the british tank crews, after a brand of cigarette lighter. People dispute this mainly because the nickname is sometimes joined with the slogan - "Lights first, every time." Origins of this slogan are rather unclear, as none of the interwar slogans seem to display this exact phrase, this one coming closest :


The ad was released in 1927.


But was it really like that?


   Early modifications programmes of applique armor over sponson stowage, and wet ammunition racks suggest that this problem manifested even with early Sherman tanks in North Africa and Italy. And while wet stowage definetly helped, applique armor was deemed ineffective. However, an entirely separate problem surfaced in Italian campaign - 

  "Experience in Italy indicates that 2 round out of every 40 in the stowage bins will separate, creating a very serious fire hazard and making it difficult to remove the rest of the rounds from the stowage bin. When going into combat, the crew invariably puts a full complement of ammunition in the floor of the turret basket becauset hey are anxious to carry a very large quantity of ammunition."[1]

 While casing separation seems to be a new angle of this problem, carrying more than 100% capacity of ammunition will be a consistent problem in later campaigns, which also, in various report, point out that Sherman tends to burn excessively. 

Normandy

Problem with fires reared its head once again in Normandy, where in the study performed between 6th June and 10th July [2], worrying proportion of burned-out tanks was discovered.


  While it does not mean much by itself,  British technicians also studied a sample of knocked-out German tanks in their sector, and their conclusions were worrying.[3]



   While Sherman seems to be safer than Pz IV and even the Tiger, average number of penetrations reveals that Sherman needed far less penetrations to catch on fire than either the Panther or Tiger. Which is alarming, considering that even dry-stowage Shermans had a far more rational ammunition stowage than either german type, when it comes to preventing shells from directly passing through ammunition racks. Study also seemed to lean to the explanation that this great incidence of brew-ups is caused by carrying excess ammunition outside the usual stowage. 1st Battalion Coldstream guards of 5th Guard armored division was used as an example of this, with only 1 brew-up in 20 casualties.[2]

  However, this could hardly excuse the elevated rate of fires, as german crews, atleast according to some sources, also carried ammunition over the usual capacity of their tanks. In Tigers, according to a PoW interrogation, as many as 106 and even 120 shells were carried. [4] 


More in following articles to come.


[1] - Report of the New weapons board, 27th April 1944, pg. 59
[2] - Report No. 12, Analysis of 75 mm Sherman tank casualties suffered between 6th June and 10th July 1944
[3] - Report No. 17, Analysis of German tank casualties in France 6th June to 31st August 1944
[4] - Tiger tanks at War, Michael Green, James D. Brown, pg.72

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bad history weekend No.1 : The case of (not so) one-shot Tiger II

Image
   It always turns out the same when one starts discussing the German tanks. It inevitably turns to Tigers and Panthers, which inevitably turns to either their reliability, or actual quality of their armor. Which will naturally lead to what people consider the holy grail on this subject, the test of Tiger II published on the English speaking side of the internet by the tank archives blog. It can be found here -  http://www.tankarchives.ca/2013/03/is-2-vs-german-big-cats.html  .    What is it about? Well, it is a rather "scathing review" based on a test of various guns performed on a Tiger II hull and turret, along with a different test of a Panther, which is not relevant now. What is relevant, is a rather large number of visual and contextual peculiarities for a comparatively short text. One hit Knock-out?     Author of the blog goes out of his way in setting-up a particular picture about this particular Tiger and this particular test. One can argue whether or not the placeme
Read more

Motorisation in Wehrmacht, Foreign acquisitions and first combat experiences.

Image
Loot Force One begins    In the previous article, I jumped a fair bit ahead, and I nearly forgot about one very interesting aspect of Wehrmacht's procurement - common thievery. Or rather, the use of captured equipment, surely the most extensive in WW II, and perhaps the most extensive ever. Austria: First steps    Anschluss gave Germans a great opportunity to practice mobile operations outside of combat, and they also acquired a modest number of austrian weapons and factories for their own use. Bofors 40 mm AA guns that continued production after the Anschluss in Vienna Arsenal, along with a small number of Oerlikon 20 mm guns, several thousand artillery pieces and small arms . Most important, for the motorpool atleast, was the addition of Steyr company, and several other small companies that provided space and production capacities to manufacture many competitive truck types, like Steyr 640, a 1,5 ton, 6x4 vehicle, which was one of the first foreign truck used by Wehr
Read more

German tank losses on the Eastern front, report from the Inspector of Panzertruppen

Image
"German tank losses on the east between 22.6.41 and 21.12.1944 Russians report 70 366 german tanks destroyed from 22.6.41 to 31.12.1944    For the same time period,  the following actual losses of armored fighting vehicles were reported  by GenStdH/Gen.Qu. :"    Table is organized in collumns for tanks, StuGs, Self-proppeled artillery and Sp. AT-guns, halftracks and armored cars and "other". Panzers include - Pz I - VI, 38(t), command tanks, observation tanks and flamethrower tanks. StuGs include - StuG III, StuH, Sturmpanzer, jagdpanzer IV and 38(t), Jagdpanther and Elefant. Self-proppeled artillery and Sp. AT-guns inc. - AT-guns on Pz II and 38(t), Nashorn, Wespe, Hummel and Sp. guns on 38(t). Other inc. - munnition panzer III and IV, Bergepanzers III, IV and 38(t), flakpanzers on 38(t) and panzer IV chassis and Borgwards .
Read more