British Airborne Tanks

[redcoat2]

I’d like to make a small suggestion regarding British airborne tanks: add smoke dischargers.

The units involved are spob07, Units 066 (Tetrarch), 734 (Tetrarch with Little John adaptor) and 297 (M22 Locust).

Armour in Profile Number 11: Light Tank Tetrarch says that Tetrarchs were fitted with smoke dischargers when they were used operationally - one on each side of the turret. Each tank was issued with eight smoke bombs to use with them.

Photos of Tetrarchs with smoke dischargers from the Imperial War Museum Collection:

Tetrarch

Tetrarch with Little John

I believe that British airborne Locusts were equipped in the same way. A photo of such a Locust with smoke dischargers.

[montieth]

Yep, those are the usual 4" Smoke dischargers. Pretty much standard on British AFVs once they were over the "OMG the germans are invading" hump.

My Humber will have two. One of the partners in the restoration picked up a bunch from the old Navy Arm's C&R dealer. They're essentially a 4" pipe with a threaded base and a cut down SMLE action and barrel on the back end. On the Humber LRCs and Armoured Cars they're fitted firing through the front armor. On most other vehicles they're fitted to the side of the turret. Firing is either by a crewman reaching up and pulling the SMLE action's trigger OR if external, pulling on a trigger that's attached via a bicycle brake type cable fitting that runs outside the turret armor to the trigger guard of the SMLE action. They're fired from inside but re-loaded from outside.

The 4" smoke bomb is a pretty good sized smoke generator and makes a very large volume of smoke.

There was another kind of action that had a similar setup, was 4" but was a pressed sheet steel affair and wasn't as pretty as the SMLE action was.

Shermans in British service had a breech loading 2" Mortar bomb thrower. Basically it'd take the British 2" Mortar Smoke bombs up a break action type affair and throw them. It couldn't be aimed for elevation so was largely useless for throwing regular 2" mortar bombs.

There's a video on Youtube showing the 4" SMoke discharger being fried from a MK3 Humber AC. It also shows off the Humber Armoured Car and british Recce doctrine quite nicely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJC2dWdCGGc

Note, the 15mm Besa and 8mm Besa are both seen and heard firing in this old film.

[DRG]

Originally Posted by redcoat2

I’d like to make a small suggestion regarding British airborne tanks: add smoke dischargers.

On the list.....


Don

[redcoat2]

Thanks Don.

Great video montieth. Part II is interesting as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0geaZytiFLk

I’ll have to search through YouTube to look for other old ‘War Office’ approved films.

Thanks also for your comments about the smoke discharger. I’ve wondered how the 'smoke mortar' on Humber LRCs was used.

[montieth]

On the Humber the advantage is that you can load the single ballistite cartridge from inside. You have to load the action on the other vehicles from the outside. On the humber however, you STILL have to insert the 4" smoke bomb from the inside.

[redcoat2]

I’d like to suggest another possible unit for the British OOB: the Tetrarch ICS. Like the other Tetrarchs it was an airborne light tank. Unlike the others its main armament was a 3 in. infantry support howitzer rather than a 2 pdr.

Tetrarch ICS.



The Tetrarch in Bovington Tank Museum is a Tetrarch ICS. There are some photos of it here:

http://www.d-daytanks.org.uk/exhibits/tetrarch.html

Like the other Tetrarchs the ICS variant had smoke dischargers and a commander’s Bren gun – which was stowed on the turret. I’m not sure whether the Bren should be added as a weapon in the game though. It was used by the commander who in combat acted as a loader for the main armament. He would not have been able to use both weapons at the same time.

I do not know how many rounds of 3 inch ammunition the Tetrarch ICS could carry. It would have been less than the 50 rounds carried by other Tetrarchs. Note: the Tetrarchs (including the Light Tank Mk VII) in the game only have 40 rounds for their main armament.

A new Tetrarch ICS unit would not need a new pic/LBM. The LBM already being used for Tetrarchs is probably a pic of a Tetrarch ICS in any case.

Sources:

Armour in Profile Number 11: Light Tank Mk. VII Tetrarch
Allied-Axis: The Photo Journal of the Second World War, Issue 1
British and American Tanks of World War II: The complete illustrated history of British, American and Commonwealth tanks, 1939-1945

[DRG]

Originally Posted by redcoat2

I do not know how many rounds of 3 inch ammunition the Tetrarch ICS could carry. It would have been less than the 50 rounds carried by other Tetrarchs. Note: the Tetrarchs (including the Light Tank Mk VII) in the game only have 40 rounds for their main armament.

"30 rounds carried"

http://www.wwiitanks.co.uk/tankdata/...trarchICS.html


2 pounder versions now carry 50 rounds

Don

[JohnHale]

Originally Posted by montieth

Note, the 15mm Besa and 8mm Besa are both seen and heard firing in this old film.

So that's how you pronounce Besa: always wondered.....