Re: [MV] USMC Armor Question

From: Steve Grammont (islander@midmaine.com)
Date: Wed Jan 08 2003 - 11:46:11 PST


Hi Fred,

It could be any number of different vehicles:

M40 (155mm) of WWII vintage. Basically a big gun mounted unenclosed on a
Sherman suspension.

M43 (8 inch) of WWII vintage. Similar to above.

M44 (155mm) made in early 1950s. Gun mounted in big box turret at rear.
 Suspension same as M41 light tank.

M53 (155mm) made in early 1950s. Basically bigger version of above.

M55 (8 inch) made in late 1950s?. Escentially an upscaled version of the
above.

I was not aware that any of these could fire nuke shells, but I suppose
it was possible for the 8 inchers to do it. I know they made Atomic
Annie for firing nuke shells, but this was a huge monster and the project
was scrapped as being impractical.

Hope the brief descriptions help!

Steve

>While attached to a dock landing ship and in the far east in the 59/60
>era....we loaded a marine outfit at Buckner Bay, Okinawa and hauled them
>to Yokosuka, Japan for R&R. When arriving there we were informed by the
>Japanese government that we couldn't bring them into Japan because the
>(2?) tanks in the welldeck were capable of firing an atomic round.
>(probably treaty stuff) I personally went up on deck and looked at what
>we were carrying. I seen a tank that had a (what looked like a dozer
>blade on the back) and a main gun that looked to be in the range of 8 or
>9" bore. Also, I noticed that on one barrel it said "Terrible Tony".
>Does anyone know anything about these? We took the marine outfit to
>Subic Bay, Phillipines....way better liberty....plus San Miguel beer.
>grin While underway...I heard two marines talking about if the ship
>went down and they were in a lifeboat....what would you wish for? One
>spoke up and said "Make the ocean turn into beer". The other one said
>"you dumba$$....we'd have to pee in the boat!" Fred
>
>
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