WW2 question

[Ericp351]

Oh, get off me. Starting Diesel engines in cold weather.... wtf difference does it make what they're in?

Difference?-Lots! Brief examples--- Large Marine diesels require heating of (near bunker) fuel, and at least Jacket Water. Locomotive sized, et cetera (often called med speed), like warm jacket water , no fuel pre-heat, warm batteries/ lots of air , as applicable. Seldom either. My little C Series Cummings in my 6X6 was set up for either injection. Also salvable (4) batteries. I added sump htr. Little tractor diesels often like warm oil or coolant, bit of kerosine, either. The krauts are said to have developed syn. oil for their (overly complicated and #s lacking) tanks. With a moniker like "Fritz" , you may know same.

 

[Dingo3]

I don't care how cold it is; if your life depends on getting a motor started you're going to figure out a way to get it going.

The Germans had two big problems with their tanks: They weren't reliable enough or easy enough to repair for their crews to be able to keep them running. And they never had enough of them.

“And they never had enough of them.”

That’s the main reason. Shear numbers from our side did them in.
The German tanks were a head of their time but they were over engineered making them difficult to repair.
The Germans were pretty far a head when it came to innovative weapons. They pioneered Long distance rockets, wire guided missiles, assault rifle, jet aircraft and advanced submarines to name a few. They either came too late in the war or they could not produce enough. Plus they had a drug addicted psycho making all the decisions.

 

[GChief]

De'ja' Vu

 

[Fritz Maurer]

Difference?-Lots! Brief examples--- Large Marine diesels require heating of (near bunker) fuel, and at least Jacket Water. Locomotive sized, et cetera (often called med speed), like warm jacket water , no fuel pre-heat, warm batteries/ lots of air , as applicable. Seldom either. My little C Series Cummings in my 6X6 was set up for either injection. Also salvable (4) batteries. I added sump htr. Little tractor diesels often like warm oil or coolant, bit of kerosine, either. The krauts are said to have developed syn. oil for their (overly complicated and #s lacking) tanks. With a moniker like "Fritz" , you may know same.

Is this a TRACTOR or a FARM statement? Interesting, but out of place. Boats, trains, 6x6's and tanks cannot be discussed here.

Cummings.....

 

[Russ from MN]

Some of the loggers in N MN would use hoses with quick couplers to connect their pickup engine to the skidder engine, then sit in the pickup with the engine idling fast and the warm water would heat the cold engine. Others used propane tank heaters mounted on the side of the engine. The last equipment my BIL owned had automated heaters that used diesel fuel right from the fuel tank, worked verry well.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

Some of the loggers in N MN would use hoses with quick couplers to connect their pickup engine to the skidder engine, then sit in the pickup with the engine idling fast and the warm water would heat the cold engine. Others used propane tank heaters mounted on the side of the engine. The last equipment my BIL owned had automated heaters that used diesel fuel right from the fuel tank, worked verry well.

I remember that system.... it was called Motor Mate and was always advertised in Rock & Dirt in the 70's.

 

[Mule Meat]

Plus they had a drug addicted psycho making all the decisions.

The entire German army ran on methamphetamines. That I believe was a big part of the Germans success at the beginning of WW2. Pervitin was handed out like candy and allowed soldiers to fight for up to three days straight without eating or sleep.

 

[dhermesc]

They would blow the turret off from those cheap poor built Sherman's we had at that time. Sherman was a salmon can compared to the panzer and tigers. In fact if you pay attention to Carl Malden In Patton he tells the operators that managed to live long enough to tell it said that to him the Sherman when hit by a German tank the rivets just bounced around in there a bit like shrapnel.

Actually, the Sherman tank was far superior to the most common German tank, the Panzer III (over 15,000 built) and very comparable to the 2nd most common German tank - Panzer IV (over 13,000 built). Russians using the T34 and the M4 preferred the M4 - especially if it had wet ammo storage. There is a reason the T34 was the most destroyed tank in the history of armored warfare.

German tanks like the Panzer V and Panzer VI required 10 man hours of service to operate 1 hour of engine run time, the Sherman usually required 1 man hour of service for 10 hours of engine run time. Americans would NEVER have put up with that kind of required maintenance.

Getting your information from a Hollywood movie and considering it "factual" is poor research. In "Patton" it is claimed German tanks ran on diesel and didn't catch fire as fast as gas powered Shermans - except the Germans have very few diesel power vehicles. Nearly all of their tanks were powered by Maybach 6- or 12-cylinder gas engines.

Only the very earliest Shermans (very few perhaps 100 - all used in training?) had rivets holding them together, all the production models were built with big casting that were welded together. The older Lee and Grant tanks had some rivets holding the hull together and their hull was a combination of welding and rivets.