Shot down by tank?

[DanTepX]

Was there ever an incident in World War 2 where an aircraft was shot down by a tank's main gun?

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

You need to be more specific.

What nation are you asking about.
What time frame.

Remember main arnament means just that, its primary weapon. Just what quailifies as a tank.
The Flak Panzer IV Whirbelwind was a turrent mounted Quad 20 mm Flak mounted on a Panzer IV tank chassis. Does this count? It surely shot down aircraft.

The British and German early war armour had a lot of armour mounting main arnaments that were light weapons at best. Any "tank" that has an MG in its turret could conceivably tank down a plane. And that MG while not an impressive weapon, would still have brought it down through its "main arnament".

Now a Tiger or Sherman or KV1 is not likely going to have the same success with its main gun (unless it is drawn in a Sgt Rock comic I guess).

[Lou]

Originally posted by Les the Sarge 9-1:

Now a Tiger or Sherman or KV1 is not likely going to have the same success with its main gun (unless it is drawn in a Sgt Rock comic I guess).

---

Hey, I remember that Sgt Rock episode...although, I think it was one of the tangent stories they included in each issue. If I remember correctly, a Sherman was trying to make it back to friendly lines and had to go through several adventures along the way. One such adventure was when the tank was being strafed by a German fighter. The tank commander had his driver pull up on a small incline...when the plane came in for another attack it was blasted by the 75mm. Hell, I believed it back when I was ten.

In another Rock story, if I remember correctly, a member of Rock's squad shot down a low flying German bomber with a mortar round. Again, to my 5th grade understanding, this was perfectly reasonable.

Cheers

Lou

[DanTepX]

I thought mortars and Shermans were AA weapons. I was thinking of your typical tank, not any armored vehicles designed to specifically hit aircraft, like the whirbelwind. Does anyone have any info. that suggests that this occured in WW2? I'm wondering if one or two miraculous cases ever occured.

[Wild Bill]

There have been, though I am not sure if it was the main gun or the turret MG. Specifics I don't have at hand. I have read of such a thing. I'll see if I can find something for you.

I remember one Panzer tank that had the emblem of a ship painted on its turret. It took on a British assault boat and sank it.

On Guadalcanal, to fend off submarines that brought in Japanese reinforcements, 75mm pack howitzers would occasionally duel with them on the beach.

One enterprising Marine mortarman, so angry at the Japanese impunity in landing troops put his 81mm tube in an LCVP, convinced its crew to go along with him and went out into the waters around the canal to fire at enemy subs and boats. After nearly ripping out the bottom of the landing craft, he grudgingly gave up the idea.

Wild Bill

[sjohn]

A bit off-topic and the wrong war, but in a similar vein of "non-traditional weapon deployment":

My dad has stories about nightly North Korean "Bed Check Charlie" sorties flying low and slow in old PO-2 bi-planes. These guys were dropping hand grenades on poor old dad! During one of these incidents he was haulin' butt across a pitch-black field to get away, fell into a foxhole that he couldn't see and messed himself up enough that he had to have corrective back surgery late into the '70s. I can only imagine the colorful language he must've used that night!

Also, the first time one of the Night Fighters from his squadron tried to engage one of these bi-planes, the Grumman F7F Tigercat was going so fast that it plowed through the enemy plane at about the same instant the Marine pilot got a bead on it. From then on, they had to fly a only a couple of m.p.h. above the Tigercat's stalling speed in order to just line up a shot!

[tracer]

Originally posted by Lou:


Hey, I remember that Sgt Rock episode...although, I think it was one of the tangent stories they included in each issue. If I remember correctly, a Sherman was trying to make it back to friendly lines and had to go through several adventures along the way. One such adventure was when the tank was being strafed by a German fighter. The tank commander had his driver pull up on a small incline...when the plane came in for another attack it was blasted by the 75mm. Hell, I believed it back when I was ten.

Lou

---

I remember that one too: same age, same time period. I remember the German TC, standing on the hull (smart place to be!) saying something like 'train your guns on the enemy above'. Amazing, the things that stick in your mind.

[jaro]

I read in one book that one german tiger ace has shotdown a sturmovik with 88mm main gun.

[Dogfish]

Hey All:

I was always told to beware of any story that begins with "This is a no-****ter.... but met a guy once who insisted his heavy bomber took out a couple of Jap fighters without firing a shot.

As it goes, the bomber spotted the Japs first and increased speed, they dumped a bunch of fuel and made a pretty fuel cloud. The Jap fighters flew into it and exploded!

[ January 16, 2002: Message edited by: Dogfish ]</p>

[Resisti]

All this makes me come in mind that really hilarious movie of few tens of year ago where commander of the US pink-painted WWII sub, signed on his Diary: "sought a tanker, sinked a truck".
I've seen this movie at least 5/6 times but it makes laugh my ... off everytime <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

[Svennemir]

http://history.vif2.ru/t34_76_3.html

If you scroll down, there is a picture,

"The rare photo of T-34s being prepared for antiaircraft shooting. 1943. (I.Shmelev)"

Looks pretty funny, pointing skywards with the 76mm guns.