Quote:
Originally Posted by Cochise
I was watching some program the other night where a Canadian soldier was taken back to the Channel where they had located the ship he was on, which sank during the invasion of Normandy after striking a mine. The story was just incredible, being blown across the deck of the ship, trying to decide if he should just jump or wait for the bow to sink and swim for it, having to shed his gear in order to swim, and getting hold of a capsized lifeboat by happenstance and then still going ashore.
They also described this method someone had come up with to try to make tanks float by surrounding them with this inflatable air bladder, which didn't really work well because it wasn't tall enough and the middle part filled with water from the waves. What must it have been like to be crew of the the second tank, after you see the first one push off the front edge of the boat and seeing it sink?
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Yes, those didn't work well, at all. We lost alot of tanks that way, and tank crews.
Everyone wants to paint every single human being fighting for us in that war as a stellar example of heroism, but they were human like in any other war. I've read accounts of some pilots on D-Day who were basically forced at gunpoint by the troops on their own ships to get in ****ing CLOSER to the shore. When you see the ship next to you discharge troops/tanks that sink and die, and then your "captain" (really a scared kid who is maybe 25 years old at best, and like an Ensign in rank) tells you it's time to get off the boat and charge because the bullets are hitting his boat --- well, you can imagine what will happen, given that the boat has, whatever, 200+ soldiers and like 20 sailors.
("boat", means an LST or similar landing ship).
Pictures of a tank with its bladder.
