Having good boats to get your forces across rivers and lakes matters more than you d think.
Here s What You Need To Know: The Mike boat, an all-metal vessel that displaced 30 tons, was developed to carry a single armored fighting vehicle the size of a Sherman tank. Some times called a “tank lighter,” it had twin diesel engines that made it quite maneuverable and therefore required a skilled coxswain such as Birkler to “drive” it. The craft’s 130-mile range also meant that it could sail across the English Channel on its own.
On March 22, 1945, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.’s U.S. Third Army made a surprise hasty crossing of the German Rhine River in the vicinity of Oppenheim at the village of Nierstein. The assault was conducted without prior artillery or air preparation and without any formal plan. It was made in moonlit waters “on the run” by the fast-moving divisions of Maj. Gen. Manton S. Eddy’s XII Corps.
Crossing Over Hell: The Rhine River Was Hitler s Last Defense
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A Second World War amphibious vehicle that was buried 30 feet beneath the Cambridgeshire Fens has been excavated by a team of volunteers.
The 26ft-long LVT-4 tank, which was one of 16 brought in to act as a flood defence in the village of Crowland, during the 1947 floods, was uncovered by residents who spent five days digging the lands beneath the Cambridgeshire Fens.
The Buffalo military tank, which weighs 20 tons, had been underground for 74 years but appears to be well-preserved because it was buried in a mixture of peat and clay.
Daniel Abbott, chairman of Crowland Buffalo LVT, said his team had to carry out a lot of digging by hand as well as using a machine from the North Level Drainage Board in order to uncover the vehicle.
An American Infantry Division s Baptism of Fire in Nazi Germany
In their first combat experience, a handful of American soldiers accomplished its objective and held against powerful German counter-attacks.
Here s What You Need to Know: In November 1944, an American infantry division underwent its baptism of fire in the worst conditions imaginable and acquitted itself with honor beyond anyone’s expectation. The final outcome of the campaign, however, was determined by the heroic action of only 100 men who found themselves in a hopeless situation and simply would not give up.
The men of the 84th Division the Railsplitters were, to use the GIs’ own language, “green as grass,” fresh off the boat from the States, and they were not going to a quiet sector to get combat experience on the cheap. Their first combat mission was to assault and reduce the Geilenkirchen Salient, a chunk of the German Siegfried Line that featured dragon’s teeth, minefields, and layer after layer of c
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