War Times

  The blitzkrieg By Sol Mathews If you have spent any time in history class or around a war buff you might have heart the term "The Blitz" or "Blitzkrieg".  The term Blitzkrieg translates to "Lightning War",  the Blitzkrieg was invented by the Nazi party at the begginging of World War 2 in 1939 when it was first used against the Polish during the invasion. The four key components for a blitzkrieg attack are Concentration of forces, Breakthrough enemy lines, Use of Air support, and Use of radio communications. Operation Fall Weiss (Case White) : The German name for the operation for invading Poland. The plan for the attack was a three pronged attack. One from the North, The attack from the North was the secondary attack from thee main Attack. One From the West, this attack comprised of the main forces of the Wehrmacht. the third direction of the attack came from allied Slovakia. Forces : There were three main forces that comprised the attack. Army group Sou...

  Sherman's By Sol Mathews Tank Recovery Vehicle M32 The M32 Tank recovery Vehicle is a non combat version of the Sherman. Built on the chassis of your standard M4 Sherman the M32 had its turret replaced with a fixed turret and its cannon replaced with a boom a frame jib and thirty ton winch system. These were used to recover damaged and disables armored vehicles. The M32 saw service by the US and Britain in world war 2 and Korea and conflicts in foreign wars up untill 1965 in the Indo-Pakistani war. The M32 had a total of ten variations including the Initial M32 and ending with the M32 Prime mover. These variants included the  M32B2  -  M32B3 - M 32B4 -   M32A1 -   M32A1B1  -  M32A1B2  -  M32A1B3 -  M 34 Prime Mover. The M32 also could be equipped with mine exploding devices. M74 Tank Recovery Vehicle The M74 was the upgrade from the M32, While the M73 was still built off the M4A3 chassis it was constructed for the use during the c...

  Nazi Shermans By Sol Mathews Welcome back to the War Times Blog fellow War heads. Today we are shifting gears a little and talking about the use of M4 Sherman Tanks by the Nazi Panzer divisions. While you would think that the US army would make a point to scuttle their tanks like the Nazis did with the Tiger one tanks. To prevent the enemy from capturing their tech. even then sometimes things happen. For example during the US Army's africa camapign the inexperienced soldiers of the US Army were inexperienced and delivered less than stellar performances wich led to the capture of several M1A1 Shermman tanks to be captured. One such example of a less than stellar performence by the inexperienced soldiers lays in the the Battle of Sidi Bou Zid . After the battle the US army had left a number of tanks behind these ranging from the M3 Stuarts and M3 Lee even the new at the time M4A1 Sherman Tank. The battle was a German victory which is what allowed the 5th Panzer Division to capture ...

 The Skink by Sol Mathews When you think of Sherman platforms you think of this steel beast with a powerful 75-millimeter cannon not a tank with four 20 millimeters. This tank falls into the Obscure Shermans category because only three were ever made. The M4 Skink was created by the Canadians to fill the role of an armored Anti-aircraft role. The Skink was an experimental vehicle which explains why there were only three vehicles made. The Skink was built on the original M4 cast hull with a modified turret to house the four 20-millimeter automatic cannons.

The M4 Sherman Crab By Sol Mathews In my previous blog post M4 Sherman The Work Horse of the US Army , I went over the Development of the well-known M4 Sherman. One of the Most Iconic tanks of World War Two but i left out some of the more obscure variants of the M4 series of Tanks. The next few blogs will be focused on some of the obscure variants of the M4 Sherman. This post will go over a now iconic variant of the M4 Sherman called the M4 Sherman crab. The M4 Sherman crab or Crab Tank as the internet calls it is the Allied answer to clearing minefields in 1944. M4 Sherman crab tank Mine clearing vehicle The Sherman Crab mine clearing tank used a rotating drum with chains bolted and welded to the rotating drum. If you look on either side of the drum, there are spiked disks. These disks were designed to cut through barbed wire on the battlefield although these disks were never used for that purpose. The M4 Sherman Crab tank was the first of the mine clearing tanks to be powered by the ...

 M4 Sherman History By Sol Mathews There are many iterations of the M4 Sherman tank. The M4 Sherman was the work horse of the United States Army during World War 2. The first iteration of the Sherman tank wasn't even called The M4 but the T6. Before the M4 during the beginning of Americas involvement in World War Two the US army lacked a formidable medium main battle vehicle. The main vehicle was the Stuart series light tanks. The M3 Light Stuart and the M5 light Stuart, as the US began its involvement in World War two amped up The US Army realized that they needed a medium battle tank that was capable of facing off against the German PZKPFW three and four series medium tanks. The first iteration of one such tank was the T4 Convertible medium Tank. The T4 medium tank was never actually listed as a Tank but a combat car. In 1939 the first official medium battle tank was born for the United States Army was the M2 medium. M2 medium tank, photo: Tanks-encyclopedia.com Following the M2 ...

Welcome To War Times  By Sol Mathews     Welcome to War Times a historical blog dedicated to researching and educating people on historical War events, systems and People. A lot of this Blog will mostly focus on World War One and World War Two. Though I will still cover events weapons and people from all eras of war and from all over the world. You can also catch me on Spotify in the War Times History podcast. A new blog post is released every Friday and a nep Podcast episode twice every month Generally. One episode should air every first and third week of the month. My name is Sol Mathews the author of War Times and I welcome you to the wonderful world of Military history. M3A1 Stuart III tank at the United States Army Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, MD. {Photo by United states Army ordinance Museum}