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posted by janrinok on Wednesday June 08 2016, @08:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the if-it's-silly-but-it-works,-it's-not-silly dept.

Here's a story of the interestingly designed tanks that helped the Allies win on the D-day beaches of Dieppe. Tanks designed by an unconventional thinker (but who wants to think conventionally?). This is the story of 'Hobart's Funnies'. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160603-the-strange-tanks-that-helped-win-d-day

On 19 August 1942, Allied armies put their plan for an invasion of Occupied Europe to the ultimate test – by landing troops on the beaches and trying to capture a French port [Dieppe].

The landings were a disaster.

In less than 10 hours, more than 60% of the 6,000 British, Canadian and American troops who landed on the beach were either killed, wounded or captured. All of of the 28 tanks which came ashore alongside them – essential if the troops were going to be able break through the German strongpoints – were knocked out. Many were stranded, unable to move on the loose shingle, and picked off by anti-tank guns.

The failure of the Dieppe landings provided many lessons. Trying to capture a heavily defended port was likely to fail, commanders realised. Troops would have to land on sandy beaches, and their tanks would have to be able to make their way across these beaches and punch holes through the seawalls or other concrete obstacles the Germans had built up.

One man, it turned out, had a solution. And two years later, his fleet of highly specialised – and often bizarre-looking tanks – would be one of the major reasons why the D-Day landings were a success.

My personal favourite: the Sherman DD swimming tank. Or as the Americans discovered, the Sherman submarine.


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  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday June 08 2016, @11:53PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday June 08 2016, @11:53PM (#357075)

    Great, SoylentNews is actually infected by neo-nazis, and I mean in the plural too since someone modded this guy up. Nice group of people here. Maybe I should just go back to the green site.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @12:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @12:15AM (#357082)

    They are just a vocal minority, it bothers me too but then the lurkers pop up and you realize its not so dire. Probably half of them are trolls anyway, and its best to point out such crazy Inst ad of letting it sit there on its own.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @02:05AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @02:05AM (#357123)

      They are just a vocal minority, it bothers me too

      Does it now?

      Are you comfortable with Jews on the forum constantly telling you how you are responsible for their "manufactured" holocaust, and that you should keep paying them big money (perpetually) to keep them from telling you of how horrible the holocaust was?

      Do you like being fed lies? Are you comfortable with them? Do they taste good?

      ...

      Or do you want to wake up?

  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @01:54AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @01:54AM (#357117)

    neo-nazis

    As if the term means something. As if there is something negative connected to that. As if National Socialism is something bad. As if the writer is retarded.

    Maybe I should just go back to

    Yes, you should go to forums where members of the Jewish Internet Defense Force are present in large numbers who can tell you what to think. Reality is so hard and thinking is even harder.

    They will show you who the enemy is and you will carry out their orders like attack dogs, shredding each other to bits until there is no one left to defend you and your future from the Jewish vermin.

    But there is also a chance that your children will be smarter than you and someday think you were a loser who worked for the enemy and harmed his own kind.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @05:57PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @05:57PM (#357428)

    As if the old site didn't have trolls... and probably it's one guy to begin with.