Younger son sends this proto of a bunch of what appear to be Abrams tanks with tank manes. Anyone who folows WWII movies has probably seen the movie Fury, which focuses on one tank crew during the latter stages of the European theater. Tank names, traditionally, are based on the unit that the tank is assigned. Traditionally, tank companies are assigned to Company A, B, C, or D. Whereas cavalry troops are assigned to Troop E, F, G, or H. That tells me that the fictitious tank "Fury" was assigned to a cavalry unit and was in F troop.
I digress. The photo my son sent me is below.
It seems that these tanks are assigned to Company A and B of some unit, and someone has a sense of humor. The tank with the red arrow is "ASVAB WAIVER". That is funny.
My first tank, and M60A1 in 4/37th Armor was "Cap'n Crunch". Naming tanks fell out of favor in the '80s and I didn't see much of that. In my last unit, 1/156 LANG, we could name tanks, but I was in a staff position and didn't have a tank. However, on dark night during gunnery, our Batallón Commander stuck his tank in the pre-dawn hours and got off it to let the Master Gunner retrieve it. When it came out of the ditch sometime around dawn, it had been renamed "Ditch Witch". The old man laughed it off, he had a good sense of humor.
Naming tanks is a morale thing. Good commanders laugh it off.
3 comments:
My uncle was a Tanker in “C” Company, 740th Tank Battalion – “Daredevil Tankers”. I have a photo of him and crew members wearing cold weather bib overalls alongside their Sherman tank, “War Dog”. He and his crew were killed 13 April 1945.
Yes on both counts!
My M1(IP) was Assassin. Guess what company I was in!
We had not named the M1A1(HA) by the time I left, but it was presumed it would also be Assassin. My TC was set in his ways.
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