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Stevo985

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The tanks (M4 Shermans, for those interested) were probably carried on LCTs (Landing Craft, Tank) or LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank) and sunk accidentally in a pre- D-Day training exercise, or (more likely) deliberately tipped overboard at the end of the war as an easy way to get rid of them. 

 

Those waters also contain most of the German U-boat fleet, scuttled. 

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Anybody ever been to Overloon in the Netherlands?

 

Incredible place, many of the tanks were simply left in the forest at the end of the battle so you get some little sense of how the final stages unfolded. You line up your eye with the gun (canon?) on one tank, and a way through the trees will be an opposing tank with shell damage.

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Anybody ever been to Overloon in the Netherlands?

 

Incredible place, many of the tanks were simply left in the forest at the end of the battle so you get some little sense of how the final stages unfolded. You line up your eye with the gun (canon?) on one tank, and a way through the trees will be an opposing tank with shell damage.

 

Now a tank museum, apparently. I'd love to go to that. 

 

Mind you, their website is unreliable - has the one below labelled as a Tiger. It's a Panther. 

 

c9d44269-2356-4544-aecf-71578522fba9.jpg

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The tanks (M4 Shermans, for those interested) were probably carried on LCTs (Landing Craft, Tank) or LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank) and sunk accidentally in a pre- D-Day training exercise, or (more likely) deliberately tipped overboard at the end of the war as an easy way to get rid of them.

Those waters also contain most of the German U-boat fleet, scuttled.

Have you seen the documentary with the D day landing and tanks that were adapted to amphibious so they could make it to shore

They all sunk and the documentary tried to work out why

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2016280.stm

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The tanks (M4 Shermans, for those interested) were probably carried on LCTs (Landing Craft, Tank) or LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank) and sunk accidentally in a pre- D-Day training exercise, or (more likely) deliberately tipped overboard at the end of the war as an easy way to get rid of them.

Those waters also contain most of the German U-boat fleet, scuttled.

Have you seen the documentary with the D day landing and tanks that were adapted to amphibious so they could make it to shore

They all sunk and the documentary tried to work out why

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2016280.stm

 

 

Just one documentary? I've got shelves full of that stuff ! The DD (Duplex Drive) tanks sort of worked, provided the sea was calm. Any sort of swell though, and they could - and did - get into big trouble. 

 

DD-Tank.jpg

 

This book

 

2686120.jpg

 

has a very good first hand account of the author's Sherman sinking on D-Day. 

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Lucky enough to have been to Overloon a couple of times. First time was as a young teen, whilst staying for free on an RAF base for the summer with relatives that taught how to fly and maintain German Starfighters. I also got work locally picking crops and with days to go on my 4 week trip got to snog a real German girl. That was quite a holiday!

 

I remember that when deep within Germany you always knew which way was east, because when you passed a field of missiles, that's the direction all the warheads were aiming at. I remember being told they were nuclear bombs, on reflection, a tad unlikely.

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