Pop quiz

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Fri Apr 03, 2020 8:14 pm

Correct. You typo'd Davy. Take a shot at the other three.

If you kept your copy of "Armor Operations" 1966 version, I think it will tell you how to employ it. I am looking for mine now.

Cav Dog · Post by **Cav Dog** » Fri Apr 03, 2020 8:44 pm

Auto correct frequently doesn't LOL.

Post VN, the battalion scout platoon would've had 1 M113 and 9 M114s.

redleg · Post by **redleg** » Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:14 pm

Legend has it that the Victoria Cross medals were made from 2 Russian cannons from Sevastopol, captured during the Crimean War, but modern medals appear to be made from some old Chinese cannons.

redleg · Post by **redleg** » Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:25 pm

I have a copy of FM 17-15 (Tank Units - Platoon, Company, and Battalion) from 1961 that lists the tank battalion reconnaissance platoon as having a tank section of 2 tanks, a rifle squad in an APC, a scout section with 4 APCs, and a HQ section with 1 APC.

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:12 pm

You are fortunate to have a copy of that edition. I believe that copy will have silhouettes of M 59s for APCs. That isn't the'73 version of the bn scout platoon, however. At the moment, I am trying to determine when the M41s were taken out of the battalion scout platoon around '61 and if they were replaced by M48s more scouts, or not replaced. At some point, cavalry platoons had 2 M48s in divisional platoons and ACR platoons had three. 11th ACR reconfigured prior to deploying to Vietnam.

redleg · Post by **redleg** » Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:41 pm

Oh, those are M59s! I could tell from the silhouette that it was some kind of APC, but I didn't know what kind it was!

I also have a digital copy of FM 17-35 Armored Cavalry Platoon, Troop, an Squadron dated 1960 that says scout platoons for armor and armored infantry battalions consists of just 1/4 ton trucks. Same with scout sections from armored division combat commands.

Not what you're looking for, but interesting to see how the scout platoons have changed over time.

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:55 pm

Yes, there was a lot of fluctuation. The scouts at first had jeeps and 2 M41s, then got M114s,p, retaining their tanks.p, then traded M41s for M48s, then, at some point, lost the tanks. The infantry squad, when there was one, was in an M59. I have been looking for the proper sequence of changes. I have 17-95 and 17-15 from 57 and 61. I am currently looking for when M41 was withdrawn from US service Hunnicutt does not say in his Light Tanks Vol II, nor do my other references. I have a copy from m dad's days as an instructor at the intelligence school at Holabird in the late 50s, it can't find it.

Donald M. Scheef · Post by **Donald M. Scheef** » Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:06 pm

The question about non-radioactive steel hits home with me because my academic specialty was experimental nuclear physics. I can't remember specifically which ships, but for several pre-1945 warships that were scrapped, the armor was salvaged and used for shielding around experimental equipment at Oak Ridge and Los Alamos (and probably other scientific lab locations). Any steel cast after mid-1945 would have higher levels of intrinsic radiation that would interfere with the sensitive instrumentation.

Don S.

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:15 pm

Donald, the article I read a looong time ago was that the steel came from the WWI German Imperial Fleet at the bottom of Scapa Flow.

Cav Dog · Post by **Cav Dog** » Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:14 am

TO&E 17-35H Nov1970 lists the 10 vehicle Battalion Scout Plts with 9 M114s and a single M113 as above.

In 77 the M114s were replaced by M113s, including 4 with TOW launchers.

Keep in mind, the maneuver battalion scout platoons were organized quite differently than the DivCav and ACRs scout platoons.

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:49 am

Agree, Cav Dog. By '75, divcav had a 3-Sheridan armor section and ACR s in USAREUR had six Sheridans and two scout M113s, along with a 4.2 mortar track. And 3rd ACR platoons Stateside had the 3-Sheridan, 4-scout track, 1mortar, and plt ldr's track. And then there was the separate brigade cavalry troop's platoon of 4 tracks, 4tanks, 1 mortar. You have to talk about the air stuff. We must have changed configurations every year and a half to three years.I

By '78 p, the scout plt was three M113s and 3 M901s. From there, we go to the J series. You just have to pick a year...

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Sat Apr 04, 2020 8:46 am

Well, we still don't have an answer for what the plume of a British Life Guard dress helmet is made from. Any ideas?

Guroburov · Post by **Guroburov** » Sat Apr 04, 2020 9:27 am

Had to dig to find this one. It's horse hair.

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Sat Apr 04, 2020 9:48 am

Nnnnnope. I must admit that I was very surprised when I found out and I never would have guessed.

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Sat Apr 04, 2020 6:12 pm

Likely that is because most people think it is from horsetail.

In 1984, my wife and I were stationed in Germany. We drove to England, taking the ferry across the channel (no "chunnel" yet). Took a room in a small hote!. After settling in and discovering the TP was WAX PAPER, I strapped on a backpack with the recording unit of our brand new vid camera and four 9x3x2 batteries, shouldered the large camera, and set off for Horse Guards Palace. There, my wife, with the patience of Job, stood with me for three hours, while I taped, basically, the "south ends of north-bound" horses, waiting for some action, which, by the way, never came, unless you count the occasional plop of road apples smacking into the ground. During that interminable event, however, an announcer treated us to some history and other details of the two regiments involved, which included the fact that the plumes were made of strips of whalebone. We still have that videotape, by the way. I hope to convert it to DVD soon.