The Brutal Tank Killer that Could Disappear
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- In the face of the crushing onslaught of German Panzer power and their “Big Cats,” the United States took a gamble engineering a new breed of armored combatant - the tank destroyer. This machine sacrificed armor for blistering speed and agility.
The stakes were the lives of American soldiers like Norbert Gerling thrust into war with the pioneering 609th Tank Destroyer Battalion and their revolutionary M18 Hellcat.
Gerling's mission was to test the Hellcat's effectiveness in 'Shoot and Scoot' tactics. This meant proving these nimble, lighter war machines could swiftly outmaneuver and launch precise, damaging strikes against the bulky German tanks. The Hellcats would hit hard and disappear swiftly, leaving the enemy disoriented and unable to strike back.
But hunting down the heaviest, most potent combat vehicles on earth was a task that would push man and machine to their limits. On March 7, 1945, Gerling and his crew faced an impossible mission; rescuing a US tank crew trapped in a ravine, their tank incapacitated, shadowed by the very anti-tank gun under an overpass that had crippled them.
Gerling was acutely aware of the razor’s edge they walked on. If their Hellcat paused momentarily, they’d be sitting ducks for the enemy’s guns. But if they charged at full throttle, obliterated the Overpass’s pillars, and crashed it down on the German gunners before they could react, maybe, just maybe, they could pull off the most audacious Shoot and Scoot of the entire war…
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As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. I do my best to keep it as visually accurate as possible. All content on Dark Docs is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas. -
The hellcat never had a 37,50 and 75 mm guns. It always used a 76mm gun the same as late war shermans
So both are wrong, and right, It never saw service with those guns as they were tested on its prototypes but it did have them, on the several failed prototypes
That was misleading he does do that from time to time
5:22 a war time release photo.
Censors have scratched the negative to remove the unit marker.
This was done to hide which units were in which town/area.
wo wo there my british friend the M18 did was fielded as the T67 variant had a 75mm Gun circa 1942 but the 1943 fielded version the T70 had a long barreled 76mm rifle, and an upgraded powerplant Continental R975-C4 400 hp, this is the monstrosity that reeked havoc on the Panthers at the Battle of the Bulge with the HVAP round it could penetrate Panther frontal armor out to 1000M
Battle of the Bulge and battle of Arracourt in Sept 1944( hellcats and 76mm and even the lowly 75 mm Sherman’s mauled an attacking panzer division) that Belton cooper BS is just that - Army reviewed the complaints and discovered a 75mm Sherman could knock out a Tiger and a Panther at 500m-600m and the 76mm could killed other at 1100 m. Both British and U.S. army reviews showed that basic tank on tank combat in the Western theater occurred at about 800 m and it was always who ever shot first usually got a kill or mobility kill. ( the Germans usually got first shot as they were in a position of ambush against attacking /advancing allied armor)
When US Sherman’s or hellcats or Jackson’s got the drop on German panthers and panzer IVs they took them out.
Ditto the British Comets and UK Sherman fireflies
What's the effective range of the panther?
Nah luckiest shot is Churchill 6pdr not shattering and jamming in and disabling the Tiger turret ring causing the capture of the first tiger ever. A very important moment I’m figuring out how to crack the behemoth
Yes, agree.
And, incidentally, the same Tiger that sits at Bovington... and the ONLY operational TigerI in existence. How about THAT for notoriety?
@ericdavis6874 Possibly that is the luckiest shot, but the one in Africa that enabled the Allies to get a running complete Tiger was the most far reaching.
Tiger 131. Captured after abandonment in Tunisia after a British 6pounder got wedged in the turret ring, preventing the turret from traversing. It also wounded the driver, and gunner, and destroyed the radio. A follow up shot hit a turret lifting lug, disabling the barrel elevation control. A third shot sent shrapnel and sparring inside th crew compartment, leaving the crew with the only choice of abandoning it while under heavy machine gun fire, and taking the wounded crew members with them.
@@leftistsarenotpeoplethe crew never had time to destroy it. The only hope of survival was to quickly abandon while dragging the wounded crew away.
Many of the footage is showing the M10, instead of the M18, when talking about the Hellcat.
Who wrote the script for this hahahahaha. Love the enthusiasm when describing the M-18
4:56 The M18 used a 76mm, not a 75mm
Actually l think they were 75mm it's just that the rounds were different than other 75mm hence the 76mm designation.
@@graham2631 No, they were 76mm. The americans didnt have a High Velocity 75mm like the germans
Did they go metric ?
@graham2631 75mm, 76mm, 3" had common bores, but different ammo.
@@xt6wagon No, they didnt work like that. The 75 and 76 had huge differences in type of ammo, velocity, weight and the size of the bore.
I don’t think the pilot in the hellcat was wearing a medic helmet…LOL
About 75% of the footage of US TDs you show in this video are of an M10, not an M18. You also combine Tiger I and Tiger II footage more or less at random.
Maybe dialing back the cliches and catch phrases in the narrative would be a good idea.
They do that a lot. It's distracting and unprofessional.
As usual pictures don’t correspond to the vehicles described
aaaand Gerling was also a Medic!?
Not a "game changer"- the TD concept was pretty much a disasterous failure. The speed of the things was only useful in that one single engagrment at Arracourt. The whole idea was quickly abandoned after the war.
@1:34 Love your videos, but I nitpick when you show King Tigers instead of Tiger Is in this section.
"...as the war dragged into its third year - 1944"
For the Americans.
That aircraft engine was a neet idea must of sounded pretty good also the army must of loved it!
The engine was a nuisance. They go up like butane lighters when hit. No time for crew to escape
The aircraft engine was readily available for immediate use. The USMC AMTRAK used radial engines to power them in WWII.
Must have, mate. Not must of.
Truly a fascinating video on the Hell Cat. The shoot and scoot method. Truly was a game changer. Such incredibly brave men manned these light fast tanks. Reaking havoc amongst the axis tanks. 💪🏻🙏🏻✨
Did I hear that right? The bridge takedown was July, 1945?
'44 "Think the bridge will be there and it will be there. It's a mother, beautiful bridge, and it's gonna be there."
Another lucky shot was the American 75 mm shot that jammed the left front final drive of the Jagdtiger the US captured in Italyso it could not steer to pivot its 128 mm gun . The jamming fragment of 75 mm shot was found when the tank destroyer was being restored and the final drive was dissassembled...
It was a Ferdinand not a Jagdtiger btw
It is not curtains of earth it is umbrellas of earth.
What's that mean?
@@GazB85 i take it you watched the video ? Read it again, if you can not then ask a teacher
Yeah facts
My favorite vehicles in the WOT games are M10 Wolverine & M36 Jackson. Both can deliver a meaningful punch against the enemy with their good firepower and reconnaissance capacity. The principal is always to discover first and shoot first. So setting up an ambush is usually the best tactic. Try to avoid fighting face to face in close range against an enemy tank in one of those vehicles.
Not a 1 for 1 example but tank battle video games have to cripple and slow down Hellcats in the game due to the complaints from other players. The Hellcats could zip over to a high spot and snipe all of the slow tanks before the other players could even get into position. Then quickly run to the next sniper area to repeat the same thing.
The Hellcat was the light/medium tank with a big gun approach that almost every nation tried during the course of the war with mixed results. The Hellcat was the tank the allies needed in North Africa but by D-Day against the German heavies primarily fighting defensively (except for Battle of the Bulge) it was not much of an improvement over even a Panzer IV. The long 75 mm on the Panzer IV was the equal of the Hellcat, could take out any allied tank at 1000 meters, was more mobile than a Tiger, a smaller target than a Panther, and had a gun of similar power. Hitting an armored column hard and fast and then disappearing, was not an ideal role for armored vehicles when the allies had thousands of P-47 Thunderbolts and Hawker Typhoons flitting about ready to blast anything German that moved.
But those are minor issues compared to the real drawback of diverting resources for a luke-warm solution when you already had the right one ready to go! While by 1944 the Americans had immense resources for weapons of all kinds, the one thing nobody ever felt they had enough of was TIME - and the Hellcat diverted significant manufacturing resources and even more valuable shipping space, that would have been better utilized for sending more M26 Pershings to Europe as fast as possible!
The Sherman was a good reliable tank, easy to manufacture, and in North Africa was the only thing that matched the Panzer IV - but by D-Day the thing it didn't have was armor protection for the crew (The book "Death traps" by Belton Cooper is all about this problem). By 1944 German anti-tank weapons from the Tiger to the panzerfaust were ubiquitous on the battlefield and the Germans soon got good at knocking out Shermans with the puny 75 mm on the Sherman not even being taken seriously by the Panzer crews (who called the Sherman's underpowered 75 mm the "door knocker").
In the meantime, American tankers did not get a single Pershing until well into 1945 - meanwhile all along the M26 was the proper response to the German cats and not another light but mobile tank with a big gun hooked up saeemingly as an after-thought.
Whole lotta fiction in this comment. Cooper was incorrect, focused too narrow. M26 was not fielded because it was not that good.
@@coachhannah2403Even so, suppose in an imaginary scenario you had to pick either a Sherman or an M26 to attack into German defenses with? You already know which one are you gonna choose.
@@robertmaybeth3434 - Yes, I would take what was there, likely the Sherman. This war was not about the toys.
@@coachhannah2403 Honestly knowing what we know now I'd rather be an artilleryman or even a ground-pounder infantry than part of a Sherman crew. Because of there being so many types of anti tank weapons, deployed in huge numbers by 1944-5 being deployed by the Germans (and perfected on the Ostfront) all it took was one 12 year old Hitler youth with a panzerfaust and everybody in that tank was dead.
@@robertmaybeth3434 - Yet crew survival rates were the best of any branch's front-line troops. 🤷♂️
Now, a B-17 is not the place you'd want to be, especially before 1945.
Bradly's Great Gran Pa...
Why if this is about the M18 Hellcat are most of the vehicles show n M10 GMCs?
76.2mm!
The heroes were the American tank crews that had the balls to go in and fight, knowing that they were outgunned and out armored.
I don't understand the problem with the U.S. coming up with a tank that mounts decent fire power, with good armor? We started WW2 with bi planes, and finished with the P-51 Mustang. We are capable of just about any manufacturing task. Why was a tank that could take on Germany's best so insurmountable ?
We went into Washington DC on vacation, and were told when we drove through the ghetto to not roll our windows down for fear of being robbed!
This seems like a spam bot post.
@@GazB85 No it's not. Had the same experience back in early 90's after flying into DC on a business trip and renting a car to do some sight seeing. Got lost just a few blocks away from the White House and stopped at a local corner liquor store to ask directions. Walked in and noticed the counter guy was protected by a barred cage but asked him where the heck I needed to go to get back to my hotel. A cop who'd entered behind me said to follow him and not stop until I was out of that area. Remarkable stuff in the Capital City of the U.S.
👍❤
Hellcat's never had a 37mm or 57mm gun. Only the 76mm gun. Get your facts straight.
Nothing lucky about that shot. He aimed at the target hit it. Brave yes. Lucky yes but skill more than anything
that's badass
The tank destroyer concept was a flawed concept that didn't work. All I ever hear is how great they were. You don't hear about inept they really were. American commanders used them like tanks and they paid the price. They were incapable of engaging infantry. They were typically used as artillery.
Were they not intended as artillery including mobile anti tank artillery?
Love your stuff
and thanks to our dumbass ordinates dept of the USA, they didnt want to mount these german tank killing guns(British 17lb artillery gun that could penetrate Tigers easily) many of our US tankers died needlessly!! The US Govt ordinates dept didnt want to deal with ANOTHER round to supply them with!! Shame on our war dept
I really enjoy your videos, please stop putting red circles with arrows, it's so tacky and it makes me not want to watch the video.
Baseball helmets for the tank crews ?
Yay
Nah they had no tigers in Normandy. They were all fighting the Russians on the eastern front
A quick search shows that they were used in the Normandy campaign, even the King Tiger / Tiger 2 but in very low numbers.
🇺🇸
I watched a guy in Florida walk out of a Walmart with a shopping cart full of full synthetic oil. maybe $1000 in value and no one stopped him.
Clearly this is a spam bot posting stuff unrelated to the video, just made up stuff about crime.
Probably a Russian bot.
Please report it.
I expected to see the film of the German Tiger shooting a Russian fighter out of the sky, this film was nice but no luck rather very well placed shots.
I was thinking that was a more likely luckiest shot too.
76.2mm!
I am reminded of my Boy Scout, Scout Master telling us that he had the fastest tank in the army.
When first speaking of the Tiger 1, too much footage of the King Tiger was used. They were NOT the same tank.
Also when talking about the Battle of the Bulge Russian tanks were shown.
Usual story of terribly inadequate allied tanks , poorly armoured and pea shooter guns with crews used like cannot fodder who had to try and make the best of a raw deal with the powers that be only listening and upgrading when thousands of crews had died in combat . Plus where was the lucky shit mentioned in the caption ?
The best TD was the M36 Jackson it had the 90mm rifle that was easily capable of penetrating any of the cats, the real clown in this whole debacle was General McNair he was imbecilic genius that had the opportunity to place the 90 mm on the Sherman but opted to use a 75mm cannon. The 90mm was developed in the late 30s just in time for the war, but stupidity is a contagion. The M36 had Detroit twin diesel a powerhouse engine of its time with a roots blower , if they had employed this combo earlier things would have been better. And McNair was also responsible for slowing the deployment of the T26, Eisenhower request 400 by D-Day... But you guessed it stupiditu
The US Army decided to develop tank supported infantry tactics while Germany decided to develop infantry supported tank tactics with predictable results...
Please elaborate. What leads you to this conclusion?
The worst part for us Americans throughout the whole war, was poor leadership primarily caused by inexperience! During the battles in France after D-day, the allies had unlimited numbers of Shermans and usually plenty of fuel and ammo - but that was the allies' only advantage. The Americans and British had poorly armed and armored tanks and few men in them had combat experience. The Germans of course had far fewer tanks, plus perpetual shortages of everything - but most of the Germans were combat vets and their Tigers, Panthers, and even the Panzer IV's were far superior to anything the allies had. And not until well into 1945 would the American tankers finally get a comparable tank (the M26 Pershing). In the meantime every American tanker knew it took 4 Shermans to knock out one Tiger or Panther, if they could even knock it out at all, and if their Sherman even got close to one of the German cats they were in big big trouble!
The real answer during 1944 to the Panzers was the P-47's and Hawker Typhoons in the dedicated ground attack role. Tac air power was far more effective than allied armor against the panzers, since they could destroy a German armored column with near impunity. But if that same column met an American armored unit chances were good the yanks were getting chewed up.
Yay,
Hi from Australia best wishes
Panzers are tanks!
The mkv panzer was a PANTHER tank. Get it right!
Panzer Mk V is right too, calm down
Well placed not luck
July 5, 1945?
Who did your research, your 5 year old?
You are WRONG 🤪
Hitler died on April 30, 1945.
V-E Day was May 8, 1945
No war in July, dude.
Great laughs, tanks a lot !
Talks about Tiger I and shows endless footage of Tiger IIs
I noticed that too.
Also shows the m10 countless times when talking about the m18 lol
He can't even get the size of the main gun right; it was 76mm not 75 mm. Dark Docs never fails to post laughable content. Did he get the details right about the "Luckiest Shot?" I don't know.
You stated that the Hellcat was armed with a 75mm gun. NO ! It was armed with a 76mm M1 gun.
Detroit, Michigan / USA
In The House !
Greene, Iowa/USA Semper Fi
What was that giant red pointing out?
Was a 76mm never the 75, where do you get your info lol? Also the last and best development was the 90mm equipped M36!!
300 yards!? That raits a pucker factor.
I wonder how the Hellcat would have fared on the steppes of Russia?Scoot and shoot cover was nt always possible on a great big flat open plain.
we all know how effective hellcats are from war thunder against german tanks 😉
The M18 Hellcat uses a 76mm same as the up gunned M4 Shermans.
The visuals matching the intensity of the narrative made it super engaging to watch till the end. Dark5 never disappoints
A wonderful historical coverage video about M 18 hellcat tank destroyers designed by US military technology... Armored vehicles had powerful firepowers, fast maneuverability - speed, and thin Armory ... thank you🙏 (Dark Docs )channel
where and when so many tanks are shooting everywhere probability of this type of shot is natural
Tiger Phobia . !
76mm not 75mm
Stop calling people by their last names. Call them by their first names.
-gi8ke8er8d,
Nope, i won't ado it. Cain't make me. Nope... ☆
76.2mm!
76.2mm!
🇺🇸
👍🏻🇨🇦👍🏻
By this period, Germany had ineffective tank forces due to declining numbers of panzers, weak crews, fuel shortages, mechanical unreliability, lack of spare parts, ammunition shortages, and defective armor.
👁👁
That Tank Destroyer tactic sounds kind of like something the Russians would have come up with.
🤔But it is interesting it that it forced a slower enemy to add more armor and slow them down even more, giving you (if you upgrade the gun), the same advantage or maybe even more.
Hellcat had not 75 mm gun, but 76 mm cannom M1, much more potent weapon
Glad to see that you are putting more and more blacks in the background, almost like they were always there... A hundred years from now, everyone will know Europe was the same place as Africa, in 1944...
finally tells ya at 11;58
Just so much bullshit.
Great video!
Panther was not a slow tank.
Its kinda was, it bad a very bad transmission that limited its speed.
manual turret rotation ?
The Hellcat turret was not nearly as heavy as the Sherman turret., but those shots were for dramatic effect. The turret could rotate through 360 degrees in 24 seconds using an electro-hydraulic traverse mechanism. The manual system could be used when the E-H system was inoperable or the engines was shut off.
The M1 Abrams can rotate its turret 360 in 6 seconds.
Fortunately Churchill tanks were not 'mass produced' rather they were 'bespoke tailored'!
With a kettle to make oneself tea!!! Sounds like my grandad that was in the 8th Army! Long live 🇬🇧
The only tank that when first issued to the troops came with a letter of apology from the company that produced them.
@@brucenorman8904 how thoughtful & so very 'British'!
Perhaps the modern Post Office could take a lesson?
@@InterGalacticEnglishMan.
Most tankers were killed when outside their tank, often while eating or drinking, being able to deal with tea and food while inside was a lifesaver.
By this time, Allied forces were fighting rookies fresh out of 2-week tank school.
If they had fought the Eastern Front 1942 crew, it would've been a different story.
No armor is best armor.
I love your content! I watch everyone of your videos when they come on! It would be awesome if one of your channels did longer videos where you go into deeper depth and details of the stories! Keep up the amazing work!!