A Military Marine Menagerie

If You Are Not Interested In TANK -
You might want to skip this item.  I don't apologise for this concentration, because, once again, whose blog is it?  Besides, who can fail to like TANK?
     Anyway, the first thing I want to mention is Listy's FGAT book (see today's earlier post), which has revealed some gems to Your Humble Scribe.  Conrad - Your Humble Scribe's blog pseudonym for those who have lost track* - considers himself to be pretty big on tanks.  I can guarantee that I know more about tanks than 99.99% of you out there, yet Listy came up with something I'd never heard of - Art?

The Amphibious Tank 1

     This is the AT1, an amphibious tank, so no kudos to the designers in imaginative nomenclature.  It was indeed amphibious, which is a good thing as sitting in the crew compartment as it slowly sank would have been - upsetting.  It had surprisingly good cross-country performance, which is more than you'd expect with a whale of a vehicle like this.
     "Why do we not see oodles of them crawling out of the sea on D-Day, Conrad?" I hear you querying.  "Tell us, for we crave to know, O White-Haired Wonder!"
     Pausing only to note that my hair is, indeed, white with wisdom, I shall explicate.
     First problem: when at sea, the AT1 could not steer to save it's life.  It didn't have a rudder, and as you can see the tracks are merely tracks - we shall come back to this.
     Second problem: it was freaking enormous.  Tanks survive best when they can find cover to hide behind, thus becoming "hull-down".  This beast would have needed a small house to hide effectively.
     Third problem: Nicholas Straussler's DD-drive amphibious Shermans could do the same job better, and cheaper, two things that always take trumps.

Still, it does look pretty cool*.

     I salute Listy, as he goes into depth* about this particular tank, with a lot more detail that I'm not going to plagiarise here.  Go buy his book!
     Okay, motley, shall we go for a bracing walk along the dunes?  

From Ruffia With Glove
Because it's so cold over there, the Ruffians are the only people on the planet to welcome global warming - sincerely, and I may come back to this.
     Anyway, let us now look at the Vickers Amphibious Tank, dreamt up in the Thirties so that Perfidious Albion could invade the Continent more easily.  Or something.  Art?

The beast in question

     The British Army refused to bite, but - who's this in the wings, developing amphibious tanks of their own, to little effect?  Why, nobody but the Sinister Union.  They were definitely interested in these tanks, and promptly bought eight of them, which were then taken to bits and analysed.
     Thus was born the T37a, a Sinister swimming design, which, bless their evil little hearts, bears pretty much no resemblance to the Vickers model.  Art?

Except maybe - only maybe - the suspension

Okay, Back To The Buffalo
I suppose this is a case of form following function.  "Buffalo" was the British name for a South Canadian amphibious vehicle that the South Canadians, with absolutely no romance in their souls, called an "LVT" (Landing Vehicle Tracked).  Art?

Very buff

     No doubt the similarity with the AT1 is apparent.  The difference here is that I think the LVT had a pair of propellers, and it's tracks had prominent cleats that meant you could steer by reducing power to one track.  Art?

Thus

      I came across this particular swimmer in George Blackburn's "The Guns Of War" where he mentioned these vehicles being used, along with Alligators -

Reminiscent of the AT1, and more an amphibious tank than a Landing Vehicle

     - and Weasels, in an amphibious assault on the Teuton-held shores of the northern Scheldt.  If Art will put down his plate of coal -

You can guess what the guys in the bogged-down Jeep are thinking

     This gives you a good view of the Weasel's rudders, and how it sneered dismissively at incredibly swampy conditions.
     When looking for other stuff in teh interwebz to do with this particular assault, I happened to come across a relevant map that also encouraged the Coincidence Hydra to reappear and apply it's fangs to my poor punctured nethers again.


     This shows the Canuckistanians and British armies advancing.  See that arrow pointing north-east from Temeuzen?  Well, on the northern shore where they landed is a plaque, recording how the British Americans landed here in an amphibious assault that completely wrong-footed the Teutons.  I know because I was on that dike, attempting to outrun a thunderstorm back in 1983.  This was very stupid indeed, since the dikes are the highest points of land around for miles, and are where lightning strikes always take place.  Fortunately for future generations Conrad was not turned into charcoal, and has subsequently survived to compose words of wit and wonder**.
     But stay!  For the amphibious menagerie is not yet done.  Enter the dragon Terrapin.  Art?

A Terrapin full to the brim

     This particular swimming truck was built by Perfidious Albion because, at the time, South Canada couldn't supply us with enough DUKWs.  The "Duck", as it was unimaginatively nicknamed, was a swimming truck that revolutionised logistics in Normandy, because it could swim out to waiting ships, take on a load of freight, swim back to shore and then drive inland to supply dumps, completely negating the need for a port or harbour***.
     The Terrapin is another late-war vehicle I'd never heard of, and I think we need another picture of same.  Art?

Very dynamic

     The first time they were used was during the Scheldt operations as in the map above, and although they were adequate, and did the job, they weren't as good as the DUKW.  Kind of the bridesmaid of amphibious trucks.

     And with all those tenuous links to amphibian kit, I think we are done!


*  Do you see what - O you do.
**  BOOJUM! just to be clear.
***  Hah!  Take that, you Teuton curs.  That'll teach you to plan and plot about blowing up ports and harbours and think "Problem Solved".