Originally posted by humble
It's actually very well documented that they did not have an integrated vehicle recovery doctrine. All US armoured divisions had a maintanence & recovery function integrated directly into each combat command that "harvested" damaged/disabled tanks on a daily basis. There was no such german equivelent doctrine on either front.
Bull sneeze they didn't. 358 recovery tanks were modified from Pz IV, V and VI chassis from '43 to '45 at the factory. Plus every tank had tow rings and hawsers as standard equipment. If a recovery tank wasn't available, and someone was crazy enough, they'd tow the thing away under fire if need be. The Germans were very adept at recovering their tanks, repairing them, and getting them back into the fighting. Although they prefered to use enemy tanks as recovery tractors, or dedicated vehicles, they'd readily use a Panther or Tiger to drag a knocked-out tank back to a repair facility. Panzer Commander (Hans von Luck) and German Tanks of World War II (S & R Hart) are rife with examples of this. If needs be I can quote chapters from both books verbatim. Me thinks you haven't been reading much about German armor. If they left tanks behind it was generally for one of three reasons. Either it was damaged beyond repair (engine or gun hits), there wasn't enough time to grab it before being over-run, or they didn't have the fuel. In Normandy alone too many tanks took hard hits and required abandonment, simply because fixing it meant fighting back through enemy lines to grab the thing and tow it to the rear. The later in the war you go, the more abandoned tanks you'll find due to a lack of fuel. Donctrine had little to do with it. The Allies were advancing rapidly, Germany didn't have much fuel reserves after early '44, and it wasn't worth lives to tow back tanks you couldn't fuel or fix in time for the next attack. If there was a chance at recovering a Pather, PzIV, or Tiger they'd usually take it. If not? They'd abandon it, the same as any other army.
As for the original thread, I'd readily agree to a Firefly or an M4A3 Sherman. I'd also love a Hellcat for drag-racing and an M7B1 (M4 chassis) Priest for manned arty work. More exotic jobs, like the M42, Wirblewind, and IS-2, would be fun too. I just don't see a real need for 'em.
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Flakbait [Delta6]
