With the estimated number of tanks used in World War II well into the hundreds of thousands, it’s no surprise the Allies experimented with some crazy Army tank ideas. This fun World War II video gives us a sense of what it looked like when the US Army tried to drive some of its most common tank designs on some of the world’s worst roads.
Watching tanks crash, get stuck, and crash again is endlessly entertaining. With this in mind, let’s look at some of the images from the video to get a strong sense of how outlandish Army engineers could be during the war.
Model Tanks
In this first image, the tank engineers mocked up the types of experiments they wanted to try. Whether they were crashing directly into a bunch of wood logs or running over wood logs, the engineers allowed themselves plenty of creativity with their mockups.
Preparing the Logs
To get started, the engineers had to get plenty of logs, which was manual labor. This image shows some elbow grease required to make the engineers’ planned mockups come to life. There is no question they would need plenty of logs to experiment and destroy.
Setting Up Logs
As a follow-up to the previous image, in this photo, the engineers are now setting up the logs as their mockup showed. You can see the road they plan to drive the tank on, where these soldiers erected their wooden barriers.
Go Tank Go
This is the first image from the video showing the tank starting to drive. On a flat road, the tank would have been able to get up to or close to its maximum speed, so these experiments were as effective as possible. What a tank can do at maximum speed often differs from how it operates at reduced speeds.
The Logs Win
The first experiment comes to life with this image as the tank crashes directly into a wooden barrier that stops it in its tracks. As the video shows, the tank abruptly stops when it hits the wooden log barrier. So, logs 1, tanks 0.
The Log Wins Again
In another attempt to push past a wooden log barrier, the logs win their second battle with the tank. Even though the tank attempted to jump like a whale breaching the water in this shot, it could not make it past the wooden barrier.
Poor Tank
The tank and its driver attempt to plow through a wooden barrier for the third time, but they fail. In this case, not only does the tank get stopped, but it’s also stuck. In other instances, the tank might have been able to back up and move around the logs, but not in this scenario as it is completely stuck.
Fourth Time Around
The tank fails in the fourth attempt to move around a log barrier covering the entire road and flips onto its side. At this point, it is effectively a sitting duck and completely exposed to the enemy.
Tank Driver
Even though the tank driver lost the day, he still smiles, as if it was fun to experiment with his fellow soldiers and engineers. There is no question the elements will likely always beat the machine, but it was still good learning for all.
Wavy Road
While tanks were the focus, Army engineers also experimented with Jeeps on wavy roads. To best simulate driving conditions in Europe, engineers created a wavy road to ensure the Jeeps could handle the road stress.
Jumping Out of Cars
In this final shot from the video, you can see multiple Jeeps attempting to pass the wavy road. While it doesn’t look like anyone in the Jeeps fell out, the road conditions were difficult and made it challenging for everyone to stay seated.
Watch the Final Video
You must watch the full video to understand what it’s like to watch a tank crash into wooden logs. It’s a great throwback to some of the more interesting moments of World War II that were not filled with carnage and misery.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©zaphad1 / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
