Two WWII veterans are reunited after six decades, and History is richer as a result!
Truth and History is often much more interesting than fiction! This is one of those stories, that is so stunning, that you need to see this video!
Tank killer rebuild, with a twist:
At a tank museum by Salt Lake City, A Veteran brought pictures of his former command, for the museum to use as part of their display. There were 1800+ of these M-18 hellcats built, and this museum wanted one to display. They found a wreaked M-18 in the Middle East that was mostly intact; and grabbed it up! He bought a large heap of scrap metal, and shipped it home!
This Museum honors veterans with an armor parade, so their tanks are functional, in order to be able to do this! They began repairing the Hellcat to add to this parade. BUT when they got the rust and stacked layers of paint blasted off, they found out that THIS Hellcat was the Exact same Hellcat in the pictures that Don, her 87 year old Commander, had donated for their display! They found HIS Hellcat, half a world away in a scrap heap!
This Hellcat had been one of four that engaged a German armor column during the Battle of the Bulge. These four tank destroyers had a ridge, and would pop up, and kill a Panzer, and back down. One of his buddies would then run up somewhere else, and do it again! They killed up towards 20 Panzers, before the German column was forced to retire. The advance was stopped, and the Panzers never reached the gasoline dump they had to reach to be sucessful, and they began running out of fuel! These four Hellcats were Pivotal in the defense during to the Battle of the Bulge, and truned the tide, in point of Fact! And this M-18 Hellcat was one of these four that stood in the gap, at a critical time! This is a very special piece of History!
They told his Family, but NOT the Veteran; that they had located HIS Hellcat! They totally surprised him, when it paraded past! He couldn't believe it was his old friend, had come back to see him again!
After the parade, they let him drive her again! They asked him if they could help him up into the Hellcat; and he answered by swinging himself up into the commander's seat he had vacated 60 years before! The driver took off, and was flying over their yard, and was going as fast as he wanted to go. The Commander tapped him on the shoulder with his foot, and yelled to him to open her up! He was stunned at how fast this pile of scrap really is! This is STILL one of the fastest tracked vehicle on Earth!
The real World reunited this Hero, with his best friend; over six decades later! I had read about this Hellcat engagement years ago, but I Never would have guessed the rest of the story! Watch the entire video, it is truly amazing!
It is only fitting that Don got to Command her one more time, and we are blessed with a rich piece of History as a result!
How awesome is that 👍
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I love stories like this one, reality can be amazing!
I read a great book, written by a Japanese suicide pilot that was frustrated to not be used; where he said that the atom bomb saved Japan....
There are strange things sometimes....
:)>Yes strange things for sure.
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This kind of stuff, makes History interesting. It is a window into people's souls!
:)>sir smithlabs! I thought the Panzers were so superior that shells just bounced off of them?
Plus, you are saying that the old rust bucket that got restored has feelings and was glad to see his old commander again???
These tank destroyers had first generation shaped charge AP rounds. They also had a long (high velocity) barrel to push it. They could kill any tank they could hit.
Ask and person that has crewed a ship, plane, or tank; and they will tell you that machine has a soul. So who am I to disagree?
:)>Well I just always heard that the Panzers made mincemeat out of our old, junky tanks, that we were no match for them. But it's good to hear if that isn't true.
Machines have souls....that's a new one on me. Does that mean they have personalities too?
The Panzers were junk (open turret light armor), but the Tigers were Bad news! They are the one you are thinking about. Our Sherman tanks were a medium tank, with a short low velocity gun, and they were a poor match for a Tiger. BUT we made a LOT of Sherman tanks, and they went after the tigers in mass.
The Abrams tank was named for a WWII tank ace Creighton Abrams who had 50 tank kills in a Sherman, so it was not a dogs fall or the German tanks. Late in the war, we came out with a heavy tank, that ATE Tigers for lunch. The problem with building a heavy tank was casting the turret, we could only cast the Sherman turret size at the start of the war.
There was a Sherman they called the firefly that had a 76 mm gun that was high velocity, that could penetrate a Tiger's skin, but we had limited quantities of them.
Mt Father used to recover and repair dead Shermans off of the battlefield in the Pacific.
:'(oh! That's right sir smithlabs, I was thinking of the Tiger! They were almost unbeatable until we came out with heavier ones at the end of the war. Did you ever see the Brad Pitt movie called Fury? About tanks and tank battles in WWII?
I have a copy, LOL!
The biggest challenge to the Tiger was the T-34 the Russians made. They copied the Bogey system from a US design, ans added a big gun ans sloping armor; and a star was born!
:)>