"How many times have tanks atacked enemy warplanes?" Topic

As in overrunning an airstrip where the planes were parked?
It must take a really asleep-at-the-wheel squadron commander.

I am NOT talking about an AA MG on the tank shooting down attackers, of course. I am talking about the Tankers' revenge.

I have been reading Atkinson's Tunisia and Italy books. Oddly, the Krauts got caught twice, once in Tunisia, and at Salerno. Are there any other situations?

I'm pretty sure it happened numerous times during Barbarosa

Your Atkinson references are the only two I know about in the west.

We gamed the raid on the airfield in Tunisia one time. To make it more of a game we added a couple of Italian platoon defending, some AAA, and I think a platoon of German engineers. The game was a hoot. The Axis crews were mostly in their barracks and so had to scurry across the field to their guns while Stuarts were driving around merrily running over Stuka tails. In the end the US players got bogged down in smushing things and took higher than acceptable losses for the raid. It was a really fun game (done by the way using FOW, which can make a fine scenario vehicle if you are willing to do the leg work)

The other theater I can think that this situation may have occurred was in the Blitz across France in 1940. Certainly the RAF (and French air force) were frequently retreating from advancing German armored units. IIRC some of those squadrons did not get their planes out in time, although in most of those cases the airfield was abaondoned wioth the planes on the runway

Scenario sounds fun…

How about shooting down a plane with the main gun? I've read of three instances of that – two German and one Russian. At least that's what they claim.

Interesting question!

John
Look at some of the Pacific battles. Saipan, Iwo Jima, Philipines, Tarawa, Okinawa, and some of the other island battles. Not surprise battles but they still overran airfields.

For tanks shooting down aircraft. There is one that I know about. An Israeli Centurian is supposed to have shot down a Syrian Hellecopter with its 105mm tank gun. This would have been on the Golan heights in 1973.

God Bless you

John
Look at some of the Pacific battles. Saipan, Iwo Jima, Philipines, Tarawa, Okinawa, and some of the other island battles. Not surprise battles but they still overran airfields.

But did they overrun airfields with operating airplanes on them?

I recall one incident in North Africa in which a (captured?) Afrika Korps Sherman chased a damaged US P-40 that could only scoot around on its undercarriage. (Spoiler: It didn't end well for the tank.)

The full story was recounted in the excellent 1973 made-for-TV documentary "Death Race": imdb.com/title/tt0069953

105mm (canister?) versus aircraft?

"Pull!"

Wasn't there another old movie where an immobilized Grant shot down a German plane with its 37mm?

Well, it does not "really" count, but the USMC overran the occupied Kuwait airport PDQ in Desert Storm. It was one of our main objectives and a rally point for organizing the return convoy once combat operations were over.

But the Iraqis were not flying anything by a long turn anyways.

The full story was recounted in the excellent 1973 made-for-TV documentary "Death Race":

Documentary? Hardly, its a fictional story. The tank wasn't a captured Sherman, they painted an Israeli Sherman as a German tank because they couldn't get a German tank. I remember seeing this thing when I was in the 8th grade and thinking frankly how stupid it was. A P-40, taxiing though deep sand, not running on a road but across sand dunes, and out performing a tank in doing it.

It certainly happened in Russia, both Germans over-running Sov airfields and vice versa (during e.g. The Soviet drive on Rostov).

Often the flyable planes managed to evacuate first, but sometimes they weren't due to fuel shortages, bad weather etc and even if the weren't, loads of planes under short term repair with minor faults were left behind.

Sometimes the airfield staff just didn't realise the enemy were so close and were caught on the hop. When 6th Panzer crossed the Dvina one enterprising tank company commander just went on a big swan shooting up Soviet airfields in the vicinity, whcih cuased a degree of alarm and confusion:)

psst: I don't think jpattern was being entirely serious when he called "Death Race" a documentary. What's that rule about sarcasm and facetiousness inevitably being misunderstood on the internet?

I believe you will find that the Afrika Korps tank featured in the impressively authentic documentary "Death Race" is in fact a Panther.

Although it may, visually, resemble a Sherman, Doug McClure clearly and repeatedly identifies it as a "Panther".

And if Doug McClure says so, that's good enough for me.

Not sure how many tanks were involved but there were airfields on just about every island the Marines took – some with planes still on them. In at least one case (Yonton, Okinawa comes to mind) Japanese planes landed AFTER the Marines captured the airfield.

Sort of like how those T-34s in Battle of the Buldge were "King Tigers"?

I believe there was at least one instance of the Germans overrunning an American observation plane airstrip during the Bulge.

Bob Crisp's book, author of 'Brazen Chariots' also wrote, 'The Gods Were Neutral' about the Greek campaign.

A broken down A9 or A10 stuck at the peak of a mountaintop using the 2lbr to shoot down a german aircraft!

"1973 made-for-TV documentary "Death Race"

I've been trying to remember the name of that movie for almost 30 years! I could never find it!

Thank You

In the movie Sahara with Humphry Bogart, his tank (an M3 Lee)shot down a German Messerschmitt with its 37mm cannon and 30.cal.

"Sort of like how those T-34s in Battle of the Buldge were "King Tigers"?"
Funny, they looked like Pershings to me…

"Funny, they looked like Pershings to me…"

No, couldn't have been Pershings. They had big Iron Crosses painted on them.

M47 Pattons. Robert

One thing is for sure, there are *lots* of satire-challenged folks on this thread. :)

The Haunted Tank, in its several incarnations, shot down many enemy planes with its main gun. Now somebody will be telling me that those comics are not valid historical documents. :(

I thought in Operation Uranus or Operation Saturn some German planes were caught on the ground. I think because of the cold or snow they couldn't take off.

I believe you will find that the Afrika Korps tank featured in the impressively authentic documentary "Death Race" is in fact a Panther. Although it may, visually, resemble a Sherman, Doug McClure clearly and repeatedly identifies it as a "Panther". And if Doug McClure says so, that's good enough for me.

I stand corrected. :)

I've been trying to remember the name of that movie for almost 30 years! I could never find it!

Glad to help. I just wish the DVD was available on Netflix or Amazon.

yep, the Haunted Tank shot down lots of axis aircraft, when it wasnt blowing up tigers with that 37mm.
cover of issue 114 shows it taking out a FW190. ;-)
link

Jeeps, not tanks, but the SAS used to have fun shooting up German airfields in the desert. I believe that they finished with a high tally of 'kills' than any fighter squadron.