Very true MR, it was standard practice for example for German crews to continue to fire on knocked out vehicles to deliberately set them on fire. Vehicles that “brewed up” would become unsalvageable due to the armor being ruined by the heat…rendering them a total loss. I’m sure the Russians did the same every chance they got. Given the fluid nature of the battlefield and fronts at times, knocked out tanks could be and often were reclaimed by their original owners in the course of fighting and be repaired and put back into service to fight another day with a new crew.
yup. better to make sure he’s down for good than have him put one in your ass after.
Reminds me of a story Carius (?) had in his book, about the Soviet tank commander who’s tank was KOed and his crew dead. He hid in there for a while until some Germans came by to check the wreckage, at which point he threw a grenade at them and died. Or something like that.
Heremes,
Not trying to hijack your thread, but for all the armchair historians out there…
I understand (or at least I think I do) why the Russians would number the tanks knocked out, but why take the time to circle the battle damage? I must admit it looks very ineresting (I would say cool, but knowing that people where in there when the shells hit, cool doesn’t seem appropriate). I surprised I haven’t seen this pop in in any modeling contests (please keep in mind I don’t attend that many and the modeling pubs only cover the highlights of the big ones).
Any feedback would be welcome.
…they circled them so that when they analyzed the pics later on they could assess the effectiveness of their weapons against various thicknesses of armor (so they wouldn’t have to take the time out to try to find the holes again), and for propaganda purposes…