US Army WWII tank Ace,some interesting reading

[jb]

http://www.3ad.com/history/wwll/pool.lafayette.htm

EXPLODING A FEW MYTHS ABOUT WORLD WAR II ARMOR

Including a Comparison of Lafayette Pool
and Germany's Michael Wittmann

By Stephen 'Cookie' Sewell
Museum Ordnance Magazine
September 1993

Sitting at a table on behalf of The Ordnance Museum Foundation, Inc., here at Aberdeen Proving Ground on Armed Forces Day 1993, I noticed that a great number of people are believers in myths that surround the German Army of World War II. Many of the people who stopped by had a number of negative comments about the perceived "lack of interest" by the museum in their favorite German tanks and the reasons they were so significant. (It must be noted that the charter of the ordnance Museum is to preserve the history of the development of American ordnance and armored vehicles, and to include significant foreign developments where possible.)

I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who is credited with the quote. "It is easy to defeat a lie with the truth; it is much harder to kill a myth." Of the many comments that were made to us about the mythology surrounding the German armored vehicles, I would like to address certain issues from other points of view in this short article.

Myth #1
The Greatest Tank of the Second
World War was the Tiger I.

Oh? Why? Maybe the best KNOWN overall, and the most notorious, but far from the greatest. This tank was designed as a 30-ton tank (later upgraded to 45 tons) but still came in between 56
and 62 tons; it was underpowered and poorly suited for any kind of mobility battle. Tanks are weapons of the offensive; this tank was not equipped for that type of warfare (remember Blitzkrieg?), nor was it well suited for "cornfield meets" at 500 meters or less.

The Russians were very respectful of the Tiger, but they were also under no illusions as to its combat potential. Their tactics - charge until you are inside the 500-meter range where the T-34's 76mm gun could penetrate the sides or rear of the Tiger - were born out of the desperation of having many more tanks than the enemy but with a less powerful cannon (until 1943) that forced them to adapt. Once the T-34/85 and the IS series of tanks appeared, the Tiger was treated as the dinosaur that it was.

Tanks like the Tiger were designed to combat tanks like the Soviet KV series. Were it not for the KV, it is doubtful the Tiger, as we know it, would have ever developed.

Myth #2
The Panther was the Best All Around
Tank of the Second World War.

Strike Two. The Panther only came about because the German leadership suffered a bout of "NIH" syndrome (Not Invented Here) and ignored the pleas of commanders like Guderian to simply reverse-engineer and adapt the T-34 for German production. As a result, it had a higher silhouette than any Soviet tank, a gasoline engine, and a very weak running gear system that plagued the tank during its combat career.

To give the Panther its due, it carried the hardest hitting 75mm gun of the Second World War; this weapon contributed heavily to French thinking after the war and was the basic weapon chosen to be developed into the 75mm autoloader cannon in the EBR 75 and AMX 13. Its armor was thicker than the T-34 and the Sherman, but it was not well designed; D and A models had a marvelous shot-trap beneath the mantlet that was used to ricochet AP shells down into the thin roof where they would kill the driver and bow gunner.

Reliability was poor - the vehicle was not noted for its ability to conduct long road marches, and the Soviets enjoyed the fact that they could not get captured models to make a simple 200-kilometer road march without breakdown. This was partially due to the poor suspension design (interleaved road wheels) and partially to the conditions under which the tank was used. This tank was also over its targeted weight limit and to the Soviets was a joke - a medium tank that weighed only one ton less than their heavy tanks and did not have the mobility, reliability, or overall useful firepower of the IS-2.

Tanks excel based on balance: the Panther had superior firepower, good armor protection, and poor mobility. That's not balance.

Myth #3
The Tiger II was the Most Influential
Tank of the Second World War.

On what and by who? The Tiger II was a desperate design of overkill that combined the design of the Panther with the concept of the Tiger and wound up with a 68-ton tank that had the worst deployability of any tank of the war (one has to keep things like bridges and roads in mind when designing tanks!!).

If the Tiger II was so influential, then what was its legacy? Surely no tanks were designed to copy its features. It used the classic German balanced layout of transmission front-engine rear which all other countries ditched for either cross drive or "guitar" transverse engine and transmission layouts. It used massive weight of armor for protection which only added to its troubles; being "Sherman-proof" from the front does you no good if you can't catch the little devils.

The Tiger II was also a victim of the late war German economy. It had no real reliability due to the fact that its rubber-hubbed wheels tended to flex under load and, placing uneven strain on the tracks, tended to snap links at the hinges. Like the Tiger I before it, this is a desperation defensive weapon that did not give them advantages.

Finally, even the Soviets had no fear of this tank. The first one they encountered in combat during 1944 was immediately knocked out by a T-34/85; the Soviets made capital over the fact that one of Porsche's sons was the commander of the vehicle and was killed instantly by the shell. (They felt at the time he was most responsible for the Tiger series; it was only after the war when the captured the Nibelungenwerke that they found out Edward Anders of Henschel had more to do with heavy tanks design than Ferdinand Porsche.)

A far more influential tank of the war was the Soviet IS-3; this inspired much more Cold War mythos of its own and was directly responsible for a number of US and foreign designs, as well as the US Ml03 and British Conqueror programs to defeat it on postulated European battlefields.

Myth #4
Michael Wittmann was the Greatest Tank
Commander of the Second World War.

This is a subject of even more speculation. Wittmann was no doubt brave and skillful, and he is given credit for a great deal of prowess on the battlefield. His score is listed as 138 tanks and 132 anti-tank guns destroyed in a career stretching from June 1941 to August 1944. While awarded every major German combat award up to the Swords for the Knight's Cross (Germany's second highest combat decoration), it should be pointed out that he was an unrepentant Nazi who had joined the Party in 1937 and was posted to SS units.

Lacking good Information on Soviet tanks aces (which do not appear to be many due to a very short life in many units), my personal counterclaim to the title of greatest tanker of the war would be an American staff sergeant named Lafayette G. Pool who, while operating a 76mm Sherman, managed to destroy 258 enemy vehicles between 27 June 1944 and 15 September 1944. This is a far greater achievement than Wittmann's, and given the relative merits of each man's case puts him in a better position to be the supreme "over-achiever" of the war.

To compare them, they have many things in common and many things that differentiate them. Both chose armor as a branch. Wittmann joining the SS Llebstandarte Adolph Hitler Division in 1939 and Pool the 40th Armored Regiment in 1941. Both men had taken punishment and it showed - Wittmann, a shell explosion that sliced up his face and body, and Pool, a few "souvenirs" as a Golden Gloves champ in Texas. Both were skilled in tactics and use of their respective tanks, and both were excellent at small unit leadership.

Wittmann is best associated as a company commander from the 2nd Company of SS Panzer Abteilung 501. Pool was only associated in combat with the 3rd Platoon, "I" Company, 3rd Battalion, 32nd Armored Regiment, 3rd US Armored Division. Wittmann is best known in his Tiger I number 805 from the 501st. Pool's tank (he went through three in his short career) was always named IN THE MOOD; it was a 76mm M4A1 WSS Sherman. Both men had a personal hold on their crew members and remained close where possible. Wittmann kept the same gunner, SS Oberscharfuehrer Balthasar Woll, through the war. Pool also kept the same crew: CPL Wilbert "Red" Richards, driver; PFC Bert Close, assistant driver/bow gunner; CPL Willis Oiler, gunner; and T/5 Del Boggs, loader.

Both men fought their tanks to their best advantage. For Wittmann, this was using either ambush or a slow advance with the heavy firepower of the Tiger's 88mm gun and its massive frontal armor limiting enemy responses. Pool, on the other hand, was noted for moving right into the enemy and mixing it up. When one considers that his favorite foe appears to have been the Panther - never a good choice to take on with any Sherman at any range - the fact that he only lost three tanks in combat, while racking up the score that he did, seems all the more remarkable.

However, the two men ended their combat careers in different ways. Wittmann with a whimper and Pool with a bang. Wittmann appears to have been killed in a series of Allied air raids called Operation Totalize; he never had a chance to fight back, and his company and his tank were destroyed in the bombing. Pool found out the hard way that "three's the charm" and, while functioning as the "spearhead" of the Spearhead Division south of Aachen, Germany, tried to shoot it out with more Panthers. This time Pool lost and the Sherman backed into a ditch and rolled over after two 75mm shells hit the tank. The four crew members survived with minor wounds, but Pool was blown out of the turret and wounded badly enough to require being medivaced; he was sent home to convalesce and survived the war.

Wittmann was undoubtedly the best that the Germans had, but his time in combat (as a tank commander) was something in excess of 25 months. Pool was only in combat for 80 days (21 engagements). Based on time, equipment, and accomplishment, Lafayette Pool is a better call for the best tanker of the war.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Bibliography:

McLemore, Dwight C.; The Career of SS-Obersturmfuehrer Michel Wittmann. AFV-G2 Vol. 2, No. 5, January 1972.

Spearhead in the West: The 3rd Armored Division 1941-45. Reprinted by Battery Press, 1980.

Popov, N.S. (Editor); Konstruktor Boevykh Mashin (Combat Vehicle Designer). Lenizdat, 1988.

Ibragimov, D.S.; Protivoborstvo (The Opposition). DOSAAF Publishing, 1989.

von Senger und Etterlin, F.M.; German Tanks of World War II. Stackpole Books, 1969.

Zaloga, Steven J. and Grandsen, James; Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two. Arms and Armour Press, 1984.

[dougeagle]

Interesting.

[cbovill]

This Stephen 'Cookie' Sewell seems to have some serious envy issues he needs to sort out. Each point he made could be countered quite convincingly. I don't have time to get into each point but as an example - how can you compare 258 vehicles to 138 TANKS killed. Its apples to oranges, and rather pointless. I used to like debating stuff like this, but now my wife gives me plenty to debate that I'd rather not!

[Mobius]

So is this from a new book coming out some 60 plus years after the conflict?

[Scott Washburn]

Interesting stuff. The tone does seem a bit testy at times, but prolonged exposure to rabid panzerfans can do that to a person

[BattlerBritain]

Wittman was killed by a hit from a British Firefly at about 1200yds by the way.

Took his turret off.

2 other Tigers with him were also taken out by British tanks.

Have a read of Eric Lefevre's "Panzers in Normandy Then and Now".

[Mobius]

="Scott Washburn" Interesting stuff. The tone does seem a bit testy at times, but prolonged exposure to rabid panzerfans can do that to a person

Sounded like panzer-envy to me.

[Ritter]

There is no doubt that there are were great tankers from all nations in WWII - to say one was 'better' than another is really lame. There are stories of courage and bravery that will never be known.

The whole focus of the artical seems a bit on the childish side...

Troy

[Mk 1]

Oops. Edited to remove duplicate post.

[Mobius]

I do seem to remember that name in some book or AAR that I read a while back.

[Mk 1]

Slightly interesting side-note.

One of the principal recreation and training auditoriums at the US Army School of Armor was dedicated to that particular tanker.

Not that it is an uncommon name for a building, but it is an uncommon spelling, and a bit of an odd usage, to hear someone at Ft. Knox say they are going through a training program over at "Poole Hall".

[kgpanzer]

Wittman was killed by a hit from a British Firefly at about 1200yds by the way.

Took his turret off.

2 other Tigers with him were also taken out by British tanks.

Have a read of Eric Lefevre's "Panzers in Normandy Then and Now".

Battler of Britain

I have that book also...it is I would have to say the best book written covering that time frame in history.....btw do you have or know of where I can find the ardennes version of that one and if there are any others written besides those 2?

thanks
Ar

[kgpanzer]

There is no doubt that there are were great tankers from all nations in WWII - to say one was 'better' than another is really lame. There are stories of courage and bravery that will never be known.

The whole focus of the artical seems a bit on the childish side...

Troy

I have to agree with you here also...i read somewhere...ages ago 15 years plus. that a polish armor commander took out around 50 pz1s and pz2's...not bad for a 2 week battle

[jb]

The whole focus of the artical seems a bit on the childish side...

Troy

...and grown men playing with army men isn't?
I only heard of the guy this year,and probably wouldn't have if it weren't for the internet. My salute to any tanker that would go up against any german tank in WWII with a Sherman or less (no matter how many he killed)