Any of you folks remember the old “Our Army at War” comic books? They were published by DC Comics and featured Sgt. Rock and Easy company. The reason I’m asking is because one of the oft repeated tactics this bunch of GIs would employ was to jump on the back of a Tiger or Panther and just blast away at every little opening, crack or portal with small arms with the inevitable total destruction of the beast and all of its occupants. Now this is, I know, comic book stuff for sure, but are there any instances that this might actually have happened in reality? Ol’ Sarge must have blown up up at least as many AFVs as Wittman did. What a diorama that would make.
I don’t know about the reality of it but WHAT A GREAT COMIC BOOK!!! I remember collecting Sgt Rock comics when I was little. THEY WERE GREAT!
Yeah, they used to include a one page “Ask Sgt Rock” section where you could find out about the blast radius of a grenade, the distance between foxholes and junk like that. There was a Marine Corps version called “GI Combat” about a Marine scout dog team. Fun stuff!
they were supposed to make a Sgt Rock movie (with Bruce WIllis I thought) but I guess it never happened
I was in a collectibles shop a while back, and came across a hardcover collection of them. I must admit it took me back. Reading them now, though, they really were cartoonish. Lots of fun, though.
Loved it as well as a kid. I also liked G.I. Combat and ghost of J.E.B. Stuart. I remember one issue they were in a Sherman and sunk a Japanese destroyer. Incredible stuff, but the artwork was good. There was one other comic called O.S.S. or something like that was more relaistic and had some fascinating stories in either Sgt. Rocks or G.I. Combats comic.
I loved Sgt. Rock! when I was a kid my dad buy me a lot of the figures and some jeeps, I still have them…
Gabe
SGT.Rock was good, the art work was mostly done by Joe Kulbert, he did most of different series like gunner $ sarge, and many others. some times the action was hard to take,but it was the comics where everything is possible. thats the one thing of modeling, you can do the same!
Gad, you’re dating me. Sgt Rock, The Phantom, The Blackhawks and all for a dime. TV only broadcast 4 hrs a day and only one tv set in the whole neighborhood - still remember being really P.O.'d because the two political conventions knocked Howdy Doody off the air in 52. At night listening to the Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy and Inner Sanctom on the radio. The free movies every Saturday morning and 12 cents got you into the movies on Saturday afternoon (2 B Westerns or Science Fiction movies, a serial, a cartoon and a 1/2 hr of previews). Later having to be home every Sunday at 6:30 in the evening to watch Victory at Sea. Putting on jeans over pajama bottoms because the whole family was going to a first run movie at the drive-in and my brothers and I would be a sleep long before the movie was over. It had it’s problems but it was a simpler time.
Wish I still had mine! Oh well!
Glenn
i think mine are in a trunk somewhere with my 'NAM comics
NAM was great also
You might be surprised but I was able to get a few copies of those when I was still young. I loved it same as COMBAT! Oh well…I am not sure where my comics are…
While we are all busy dating ourselves back to the Late Paleolithic, is anybody going to answer the question? [(-D]
Yeah, the question… I had to go back to the top to figure out what it was. The bad thing is that I started the topic.
I had a couple of those comics handed down to me from a friend. Never really got into them, found them kinda stupid to be honest. I was into the more well known Marvel and DC stuff.
Somehow, climbing onto a tank and shooting at open crevices…well it just doesn’t seem like a very bright thing to do [:)]
Any young gamers in the forum? if there is then they’ll know what i’m talking about.
Last year there was a game released called Call of Duty. Near the beginning of the game, you see 2 guys jump on a tank, rip opened the hatches and kill the tankers. Now when i was looking for reviews of the game i remember reading somewhere that when they were researching the game they looked at historial documents, combat reports, and even brought in vets to make sure it was all correct. They then stumpbled onto a report of a buch of guys climbing on a tank and using grenades and small arms to kill the guys inside. So it seems that it did happen somewhere.
HAHA! I get nostalgic over GI Joe. I read the SGT Rock comics and COMBAT! stuff too, but GI Joe got me going.
To answer your question. NO! lol I just don’t see it happening. I guess they could have knocked out the vision blocks or maybe if they were lucky gotten some shots at some vital fuel lines in the engine deck but I wouldn’t have just blown the thing all to H#(&!
Makes for some good drama though.
There is a pistol port on the left side of a Tiger’s turret. Is there an interior shutter to allow this port to be shut?
I’ve read references to the Germans using barbed wire on the tank hull as a means to deter Russian infantry from attempting to climb up on tanks to do this sort of thing. I doubt it happened frequently for the simple fact that all the Tanks from the Pz III onward employed periscopes and armored shutters for the driver, commander, and hull gunner. There’s a reason why tanks were equipped with a hull MG and a coax turret MG as a form of close-in support. [:D] I suppose a very lucky shot on an unsuspecting or foolhardy crewman could result in a bullet making it’s way in but as far as destroying the tank itself? This sounds a lot like the old P-47 skipping bullets under the tank type of thing…
It seems as if it is always the Kraut tanks on the receiving end of this shtick. Can you say Nahverteidigungswaffe? Nasty little Sprenggranatpatrone 326 Lp that pops out 7 to 10 meters and scrapes off all the Klingons within a 100 meter radius. And no, you aren’t going to be pulling the plugs out of the pistol ports either, the Germans weren’t that stupid. And yes, the tiger’s turret pistol port has a sliding shutter to close it off from malicious gefingerpoking und granadenaufgesticken. [;)]