"Generals They Should Name a Tank After?" Topic

Well, there's already the Sherman, Grant, Lee, Sheridan, Patton (twice!), and Abrams…. who next?

General Gray

Mad Anthony Wayne.

Hooker.

Since British tanks have to start with 'C'

Caractacus, Caesar, Campbell, Congreve

probably not Cornwallis, Chamberlain or Cox though

None that I can think of in the U.S.

The general for whom I have unfailing admiration, and who, although also subtle and intelligent, bore a distinct resemblance to a tank, has the most inappropriate name to be thus immortalised. But then, a soldier's soldier, he needs no other tribute than the faith his men placed in him.
General "Bill" Slim

British tanks don't HAVE to start with a C. They actually started with names Mother and Little Willie. There have also been names such as Tetrarch, Whippet, Independent.

Stonewall Jackson
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Nobody likes Ike?

James Wolfe?

I guess naming the next one the "Arnold" would be right out.

I like the OFM's suggestion.

Along the lines of cavalry commanders from the American Civil War:

Wheeler.

Jubilation T Cawnpole

True GM, would have been better put as 'now traditional' at least for MBTs. They are 'descended' from Cruisers rather than Infantry tanks.

Light tanks etc appear to be named to appeal to potential export customers, so plenty of scope here!

Jerry,

How about this one?

The "Gen. Pope". It is a tank that trumpets its own greatness and then when it goes into battle it fails miserably.

or…

the "Gen. Fitz Porter". It is a tank in which when ordered to help other tanks takes forever to move one mile, gets to the fight too late and blames others.

or…

the "Gen. McClellan". It always accuses other tanks of trying to sacrifice him. It even threatens the US President! It also claims that there needs to be MORE tanks before going into action because the enemy easily has 10 times more tanks.

Is this poll going to run then ?

General Motors?

Jackson got a tank destroyer (at least I presume it was named after him). Bradley's out for a similar reason – and Eisenhower has a carrier, I don't think you should double dip!

Maybe they should switch to naming them after actors who played American generals (or colonels). The M-2000 Mitchum or M-2001 John Wayne would surely terrify opponents. Maybe not the M-2002 Fonda.

Burnside?

Nobody from the Gulf War?

If Marines are eligible, I'd vote for Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller: link

Puller was the most decorated U.S. Marine in history, receiving the Navy Cross, the Navy's and Marines' second highest decoration, five times. With five Navy Crosses and a Distinguished Service Cross, the Army's second highest decoration, Puller received the nation's second highest military decoration a total of six times.

"McMaster" Armored Reconaissance Vehicle?
"Petraeus" Uparmored Combat Vehicle (with COIN upgrades)?
"Mattis" Amphibious Assault Vehicle?
"Reilly" (not a General) Tank?

How about Schwarzkopf?

Just so that drivers can meet in the garage and say, "I see your Schwarz is as big as mine. Now let's see how well you handle it."

US Tanks have traditionally been named after cavalry and later Armor officers. Some that have been suggested are ground pounders in their early years.
Powell and Schwarzkopf were both Infantry branch commissioned.

Maybe a new APC or GOER.

We do not normally name tanks after enemy Generals which is why Lee and Stuart are unique. Some said the reason they got in was that they were graduates of West Point. Also unique in that Grant and Lee were not cavalrymen.

Pershing and Chaffee are Generals with tanks named after them. As well as the M551 which was the Sheridan.

Of course, naming a new tank type requires building one…

Crazy Horse
Sitting Bull
Gall
Geronimo
Red Cloud
Mangas Colorado

American cav commanders of a sort.

General Mills. His contribution to the cold cereal industry has been criminally overlooked.

Well, if we are just putting names out there then I would suggest Sabotai, one of the finest cavalry generals ever.

If they started naming after actors, my boy says name the one and only model the Norris(after chuck), and then it will singletrackedly(?) win everywar with Roundhouse Missiles or some such.

I think my boy's brilliant. Only need the one, then…

I was going to name Gen Puller…

Could do Tecumseh, Tishomingo, Osceola, Cheif Joseph, or Quanah…

Cochise, Iron Shirt…

Winfield Scott, Mosby, Forrest…

Endless choices.

We do not normally name tanks after enemy Generals which is why Lee and Stuart are unique. Some said the reason they got in was that they were graduates of West Point. Also unique in that Grant and Lee were not cavalrymen.

Pershing (cavalry) and Chaffee (Father of modern US Armor) are Generals with tanks named after them. As well as the M551 which was the Sheridan. Abrams (Armor Bn Cdr in WW2)
W. Scott was a light Artillery officer.

Buford?

"Also unique in that Grant and Lee were not cavalrymen."

Although nowadays we do refer to those tanks by those names, the British named them after those Generals, same as the Stuart and the Sherman.

Nazrat is right. That also explains hoe a Quatermaster and an Engineer got tanks named after them. LOL!

I always thought the Cromwell was a good name for a tank.
I dislike the name 'firefly'.

I like Ike.
How about General Johnston. Obviously not me, but the Marine General commanding operation 'Speed Bump' at the beginning of the first Gulf War.
While I'm not sure about endless chioces, there are quite afew.

A few suggestions for us Brits:-
Boudicca, Hengist, Bloodaxe, Ironside, Lionheart, Bruce, Macsen, Raglan, Wellesley, Gort, & Conqueror.

I suggest Phillip Kearny – a colorful, very dedicated and courageous US officer, perfect as a inspiration for an AFV.

link

The M-8 AGS was supposed to be called the Buford, I think. He is definitely somebody who needs to be remembered with a vehicle name – preferably something light and lethal

It'd be better to swap over to names of mythical creatures, ferocious beasts, stuff like that. What works for sports cars oughta work even better for tanks.

We do not normally name tanks after enemy Generals which is why Lee and Stuart are unique. Some said the reason they got in was that they were graduates of West Point. Also unique in that Grant and Lee were not cavalrymen.

I thought that the first tanks with names got them from the British. IIRC, the US Army just called things by their official nomenclature. It wasn't a Stuart, it was a M3 Light Tank. It wasn't a Sherman, it was a M4 Medium Tank. Also, they weren't P40s Tomahawks or Kittyhawks, they were just P40Bs and P40Es.

The British were the ones who started the whole thing and we Americans liked it so much that the British names stuck. For example take this little blurb from the Wiki on the M3 Medium:

The Medium Tank M3 was an American tank used during World War II. In Britain the tank was called by two names based on the turret configuration. Tanks employing US pattern turrets were called the "General Lee", named after Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Variants using British pattern turrets were known as "General Grant", named after U.S. General Ulysses S. Grant.

Or this about the Stuart:

The name General Stuart or Stuart given by the British comes from the American Civil War Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart and was used for both the M3 and the derivative M5 Light Tank. In British service, it also had the unofficial nickname of Honey after a tank driver remarked "She's a honey".[1] To the United States Army, the tanks were officially known only as "Light Tank M3" and "Light Tank M5".

I have a book written by an American armor officer who fought in the Philippines in one of the National Guard tank battalions there. They were equipped with the M3 Light Tank and that is exactly what the author called it. The M3, light tank, tank, M3 Light, and so on. He never once called it a "Stuart". So it would seem that as late as 1942 that these names just weren't in use… at least with Americans.

The entry on the M4 Medium gives some interesting information:

The M4 Sherman, formally Medium Tank, M4, was the primary tank used by the United States during World War II. Thousands were also distributed to the Allies, including the British Commonwealth and the Soviet Union, via lend-lease. In the United Kingdom, the M4 was named after Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, following the British practice of naming their American-built tanks after famous American Civil War generals. Subsequently, the British name found its way into common use in the U.S.

So the British gave the tanks their names and they just sort of stuck. I guess, to stick with tradition and all, that we should make the Brits name our tanks!

I'm naming my first born Panzerkampfwagen III, so that they can name a tank after him when he becomes general.

Oh, and to stay on task with the thread I would love to see a tank named after Gregory Fontenot. He didn't get his star, to my knowledge, but he was an outstanding CO and a real "hell for leather" tanker. He lead us Dreadnoughts through GWI and is now an awesome writer. It would be great to see a tank named after him and be able to say, "I knew that guy, he was my boss!"

The McClellan. Only two gears: Reverse and Neutral.

I second Quanah (the last free Comanche war chief). I also think Ghengis Khan would make an excellent tank name. Also, Sitting Bull and Geronimo would be appropriate.

I've always seen the M8 AGS as the 'Ridgway' light tank…

I'd love to see a US tank named after Geronimo, Sitting Bull, or Tecumseh.

Did the U.S. have a tank ace in WWII?

The British gave names to the US vehicles and aircraft they received for evaluation. So the names Lee, Grant, Stuart, Sherman, Scott, Staghound, Greyhound, Boarhound, Wolverine, Chaffee, Priest, Mustang, Locust, Harry Hopkins, Lightning, Mitchell, Fortress, Tomahawk, Harvard, Baltimore, Maryland, Boston, Havoc, Mohawk, Apache, Kittyhawk, Vengeance, Buffalo, Catalina, Thunderbolt, etc, for US kit came from Britain. The US Army soon caught on, however and Pershing was (I think) one of the first to be named in the home country.

And British tanks don't HAVE to have 'C' names. There's no reason for it – it just became a habit after the first couple of named tanks that happened to start with a 'C' (the jury is out as to whether this was just coincidence or was a deliberate intention to name Cruiser tanks with 'C' names – soon broken with the Churchill Infantry Tank, however). The habit was broken by tanks such as Matilda, Valentine & Tetrarch.

After the war the British Army decided to stick with 'C' names for tanks, plus 'A' names for SP anti-tank guns, 'S' names for light AFVs (apart from light armoured/scout cars, which got 'F' names) and to continue with eclesiastical names for SP artillery. In more recent years, the British Army has gone back to random animal names for light AFVs.

Firefly was an unofficial nickname, but gained semi-official recognition due to useage. Fireflies were properly 'Sherman Mk Ic', 'Sherman Mk Ic Hybrid' and 'Sherman Mk Vc'.

Anyway, back to the subject: I propose 'Arnold' or 'Tate' ;o)

The Tecumseh Tank, that sounds cool.

Or we could always celebrate an Ally that did most of the fighting in the war against Germany, and nominate Zhukov?

Mollinary

Huscarle wrote:

A few suggestions for us Brits:-
Boudicca, Hengist, Bloodaxe, Ironside, Lionheart, Bruce, Macsen, Raglan, Wellesley, Gort, & Conqueror.

Hengist was a glider, Ironside was a fixed callsign, Lionheart was an exercise, Raglan is a style of sleeve, Wellesley was a bomber and Conqueror was a tank, so most of these have been used one way or another.

As the Brits gave most of the names for American kit in the first place, I suggest that we retrospectively re-name the "Sherman" the "Montgomery". Then we can combine all the silly arguments about whether it/he was a thin-skinned and inflammable disaster or a competent war-winner that did after all beat the Germans.

All the best,

John.