The curious case of Ronson, Part 2.

Normandy, continued


  Propensity to burn brightly, and easily, surfaces in various books and report through the Normandy campaing again, and again. Even the good old Ronson rears its ugly head :

 "Allied crews were also greatly concerned about the unnerving propensity of the Sherman to burst into flames, or ‘brew up’, when penetrated and disabled. With sardonic humour, crews christened their Shermans ‘Ronsons’ after the cigarette lighter, which, according to the advertising slogan, always lit first time. One commander noted that ‘a hit almost inevitably meant a “brew-up” . . . you were in a Ronson and if you were hit it was best to bale out p.d.q.’ Crews in one regiment even went into battle with the driver’s and co-driver’s hatches open to expedite baling out when hit. A series of notes and memos was fed back to the RAC during the Normandy campaign, many claiming that the Sherman brewed up very quickly or that fires too frequently followed penetration, and that alarm and despondency was rising. Even the Germans noted the Sherman’s combustibility, referring to them as ‘Tommy cookers’." [1] While it is not any kind of statistical evidence, this theme, and colourful descriptions, tend to repeat whenever people saw Shermans being penetrated. 

   During the infamous battle where the Worthington force was nearly annihilated, one of the participating soldiers describes flames shooting 20 to 30 feet out of the top of the turrets of Shermans struck by the 88 mm gun fire, followed by several ammunition stowage and fuel tank explosions. [2]

Earlier campaigns


   This was far from rare, and became apparent even in North Africa, where observers claimed 95% of surveyed non-repairable tanks being burned out.[3] This of course, were not only Sherman tanks, but it accentuates the disparity of fire hazard between allied and german tanks, which, on the other hand, caught on fire in less than 20% of penetrations by AP-shot.[4] This was at the time (year 1942) explained by the fact that german tanks had increased internal security consisting of 5-8 mm thick armored bulkheads over fuel tanks and armored stowage bins for their ammunition, and british forces being biased towards a relatively low-velocity 2 pdr. AP-shot, while germans were increasingly adopting 47 mm, 50 mm and 75 mm guns, and as noted by british, APHE ammunition, particularly the 75 mm K.Gr.Rot., which was praised for high destructivity, when fitted to an american casing and fired from 75 mm M2 gun.[5] In a separate test, "disastrous burst effect" was noted.


   
 I believe this also applies to later campaigns, especially Normandy , which was saturated by 88 mm guns and long-barrel 75 mm guns, which either retained the explosive charge and offered higher velocity, or reduced the charge and significantly boosted velocity, which made them, in relation to relatively lower velocity US 75 mm gun, capable of high penetration and ability to travel through the entire tank, and have many more opportunities to pass through flammable objects and liquids. This power was reportedly so high, that it even allowed the KwK 42 to penetrate on ricochets at 3000 yards,[6] and would certainly be capable of penetrating a Sherman frontally, as evidenced by earlier reports of Tigers penetrating a Sherman at 600 meters frontally, and shell tearing a hole at the rear. [7]  This of course gives a Tiger or a Panther an edge over the most used allied gun in this regard, since they retain enough excess velocity after frontally penetrating to possibly penetrate through multiple ammunition stowage bins, and continue into the engine. And although frontal hits/penetrations were only a small proportion (37%) to all hits [8], this seems like another factor in elevated fire hazard in Sherman specifically, and allied tanks broadly.


To be continued in part 3.


[1] - John Buckley, British Armour in Normandy campaign, p. 127
[2] - Mike Bechthold, Lost in Normandy - The Odyssey of Worthington Force, 9 August 1944, p. 14
[3] - Michael Greene, James D. Brown, M4 Sherman at War, p. 92
[4] - Thomas L. Jentz, Tank combat in North Africa - the opening rounds, p. 47
[5] - Thomas L. Jentz, Tank combat in North Africa - the opening rounds, p. 54
[6] - Roman Jarymowycz, Tank tactics: From Normandy to Lorraine, p. 264
[7] - Thomas Anderson, Tiger,p. 81
[8] - ORO-T 117, Survey of allied tank casualties in WW II,  p. 19

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