About that Korean tank.

[gsvol]

Had a long told with my old friend tonight that
almost nailed the Russian naval officer with his
tank back during the Korean conflict.

He was assigned to tank #31, 7th division, 73rd
battalion, C company.

The equipment was a Patton M-46 with a 90mm
rifled cannon.

Normally that would have a crew of five but he
was there nine months and they only had three
men on the tank, he was commander AND gunner.

He said it would lob a shell up to 13 miles.

In one 19 day stretch they fought a 9 day battle,
a 4 day battle and two 2 day battles, not much
time to sleep and he said he took his boots off
for about thirty seconds one time before having
to put them back on.

Even when you weren't in an actual battle
someone had be on watch. He didn't get one
good night's sleep in nine months, even then
you had to sleep in the tank or maybe in the
snow under the tank. During January he said
he couldn't remember how many days in a row
that it was 40 below in the mornings.

Who am I to doubt the accuracy of what he says.

BTW he said we furnished insulated boots for
the South Koreans but many of our guys,
including him had non-insulated ones.

Here is what an M-46 Patton looks like from that era:

 

[Daddy Gee]

that would be like firing a shell from gay st to around pellissippi parkway ... wow

 

[gsvol]

that would be like firing a shell from gay st to around pellissippi parkway ... wow

He said occasionally he would raise up the barrel and fire a few rounds over the hills to shake up their reserves.

 

[IPorange]

He said occasionally he would raise up the barrel and fire a few rounds over the hills to shake up their reserves.

Wonder if he killed any random civilians?

 

[BigPapaVol]

Wonder if he killed any random civilians?

No.
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[DC Vol]

The Korean War was unbelievably brutal and would last about 1 year in a modern climate.

 

[orangeblooded2]

My Father was in those tanks in that war as a tank commander. Sgt First Class, 3 over two under as he used to say. I think though while he was in the tanks he was just a Sargent. He was awarded the Bronze Star along with a couple of Purple Hearts. I have his Military records somewhere. He used to talk of the cold and the rigors involved, along with some talk of the friendships he had made. But when it came to the gory details he was less than forthcoming with any great detail.

As a side note. As a reward for his service in Korea. He was aloud to participate in numerous Nuclear test in and around Los Alamos, New Mexico. His stories about that where detailed. Which later he developed Colon Cancer From. It did not kill him but I thought it made an interesting side note.

 

[hndog609]

He said it would lob a shell up to 13 miles.

Is this a typo? Are you sure it's not 3 miles? 13 miles is nearly 23,000 yards.

Edit: I thought 3 miles sounded awfully short so I looked around a bit and found where the 90mm HVAP was stated to have a max range of 15,700 yards. (8.9 miles)

 

[gsvol]

Is this a typo? Are you sure it's not 3 miles? 13 miles is nearly 23,000 yards.

Edit: I thought 3 miles sounded awfully short so I looked around a bit and found where the 90mm HVAP was stated to have a max range of 15,700 yards. (8.9 miles)

Congrats, I never could find the specifics on that weapon.

I believe that is about 9 miles 'with a reasonable degree of accuracy' not the max it could throw one out there.

The only reason I brought this up was in the discussion about the British sniper who took out two talibanis at two miles with his 8.6 mm rifle, (isn't that equal to a .344 calibre, that's why I refered to it as a .35 cal.) I told this man's story about almost killing a Russian.

They were dug in and sand bagged up to the turret on a hill top and at the break of day one Sunday morning he started glassing the valley below and the hill on the other side of a valley.

He noticed something white and then looked through his spotting scope and found it to be a Soviet naval officer in his dressed whites observing the front from about ten miles away.

He banged the turret with a wrench to wake his guys up and said load up we are about to fire.

He had a grid worked out and was deadly accurate anywhere in the valley below but had not fired any rounds up on that hill, so he guestimated and fired.

While the round was still in the air he said reload and watched through the spotting scope.

The round hit about twenty yards to the right of the Russian officer, his jeep and Korean driver. (could have been windage.)

He corrected a tad and fired again saying reload.

He hit exactly where the jeep had been but by then the Russian and Korean had jumped into vehicle and sped away in retreat.

The road wound around the hill and disappeared through a notch and so he tried to hit the jeep at that point but the round fell just behind and put a bunch of Korean mud into the jeep, ruining those dress whites.

He said he never saw another Russian at the front, none so bold as to be wearing a dress uniform at any rate.

I was fairly well rebuffed at the time by those here who said we didn't even have such a weapon then.

ps; Look IP, I am probably ten times as anti-war as you, there were no civilians on the other side of the hill, but there were staging areas for food, ammunition, other supplies and reinforcing troops.

Sometimes it makes me nauseous to hear what some younger people say today, if not for men such as him, who endured the worst war has to offer, shed blood, held life long memories of things they had just as soon never experienced, even gave their lives, people such as you couldn't be running around doing and saying whatever the ef they please, those men, including me, are not the bad guys in the equation.

Furthermore it makes me ill when I hear all that leftist garbage about this that and the other, not so much about ignorance of history but about the future, I have grandchildren and I certainly don't want to think that all that has been done to keep this a free country will all have been done in vain! :salute:

 

[hndog609]

Congrats, I never could find the specifics on that weapon.

I believe that is about 9 miles 'with a reasonable degree of accuracy' not the max it could throw one out there.

The only reason I brought this up was in the discussion about the British sniper who took out two talibanis at two miles with his 8.6 mm rifle, (isn't that equal to a .344 calibre, that's why I refered to it as a .35 cal.) I told this man's story about almost killing a Russian.

Actually the 8.6x70mm is just the metric designation for the .338 Lapua Magnum. For simple comparison it's very close to a beltless .340 Weatherby. (I have one of the latter myself)

Good tank story.