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Rivets and Pins

@rivetsandpins.bsky.social

1.4K followers 210 following 1K posts

@peteblanchard.bsky.social 's military history account. I focus primarily on AFV development/warfare 1915-42. Warning: may contain humour. For more detail: https://rivets-and-pins.beehiiv.com/

rivets-and-pins.beehiiv.com

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 1d

Certainly a unique, um, installation!

Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 2d

Looks like a humble 'bench replacement service'!

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Reposted by Rivets and Pins

Ben Skipper @benskipper.bsky.social · 3d

Embracing the new normal I'm now shamelessly using my all-terrain wheelchair to plug my titles from Pen and Sword Books.

The first of these is the Land Rover, available, along with other great titles, from the Pen and Sword Books website;(www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Land-Craft-7...)

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 3d

My guess it the vehicle was abandoned by the Germans after they'd stripped it clean.

Evidence: no tracks on either side, no radio antenna, no turret MG, engine deck open, etc. Even the missing armour plates may have been scavenged to fit to other damaged tanks.

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 8d

PS I love your example 👍

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 8d

Yes, I get the impression this expansion was chucking spanners in many directions!

It was all very well mandating an effectively sudden, rapid expansion of the armed forces, but without the ready materiel, manpower, leadership, expertise & training, they're just paper formations.

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 8d

The independence of these brigades was short-lived as most were used to form new tank divisions in late 1939.

Why? Doctrine changed. The focus now fell on concentrating tanks in tank divisions to maximise the effectiveness of tanks, much to Guderian's satisfaction.

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 8d

Sure. I was talking about organic tank units within infantry divisions which didn't exist.

As you say, in the expansion of tank forces, German doctrine in the late 30s started to allow for independent tank brigades to support the infantry. But these came under the tank arm, & not the infantry.

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 8d

Even if doctrine had allowed the infantry to have tanks, the other inhibitor was production capacity.

At the start of WW2, the Nazis couldn't even produce sufficient tanks for their tank divisions (hence the huge numbers of PzKw I & II tanks used up to 1941), let alone make them for the infantry.

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 8d

The short-lived Light Divisions were not infantry divisions as such, being merely Panzer Divisions Lite™. The concept was judged to have not worked in Poland so they were converted to tank divisions in 1940.

Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 8d

I'm not familiar with the Italians, but the Germans never had infantry support tank units before or at the start of WW2. That's why the Sturmgeschütz was created.

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 8d

However, the infantry realised they needed armoured mobile guns (for exactly the same reasons the British & French had developed tanks in WW1).

So the Sturmgeschütz concept was born.

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 8d

Infantry divisions had a different role to the tank divisions, often following & mopping up after the tanks. They were sometimes motorised but were mostly on foot with heavy weapons, etc mostly horse-drawn.

The slow infantry therefore were judged not to need fast tanks.

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 8d

Doctrine. Tanks were the core weapon of German tank divisions, with supporting service arms such as infantry, artillery, engineers, etc all armoured or motorised.

They were fast, meant to break through & envelop enemy forces.

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 9d

That's superb!

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 10d

German tanks were off doing tank things in tank divisions.

But the infantry said 'what about us when we come up against bunkers, etc? We don't have tanks'.

So the assault gun was invented as an infantry support AFV.

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 10d

The tanks were in tank divisions, used for breakthrough/exploitation.

Infantry divisions had no armour & wanted a mobile armoured gun to deal with bunkers, MGs, etc holding them up.

That's where the Sturmgeschütz came in; an AFV to support the infantry, albeit one that came under the artillery arm

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Reposted by Rivets and Pins

Steve Hayes @sxh.bsky.social · 14d

Buy ICM models

John Lehman 🇨🇦 @johnlehman.bsky.social · 15d

Incredibly maddening.

#histscalemodels

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 14d

I think the thicker armour/more powerful gun arms race of WW2 was inevitable.

In 1939, except for the French, everyone starts with mostly just bulletproof tanks. They then realise that's not enough & add armour.

More powerful guns are needed to beat the thicker armour and so on.

Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 14d

a man from schitts creek is making a funny face and the word yup is above him

Alt: a man from schitts creek is making a funny face and the word yup is above him

media.tenor.com

Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 14d

Nicely put!!

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 14d

Very good!! I'd not spotted those.

Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 14d

Yes, it certainly prevailed *much more* in USA & USSR, though both countries still had dubious AFV projects!

Probably more to do with centralised AFV design\direction & factories being told 'This is what you're going to build' rather than the looser arrangements found in Britain, Germany & Japan.

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 14d

PS Didn't realise the Tortoise was a runner 😲

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Rivets and Pins @rivetsandpins.bsky.social · 14d

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I still ponder why rational thought didn't prevail more during WW2 when it came to AFV design on all sides.

Guess AFV development was emerging from the interwar 'let's suck it & see' approach, plus the intense pressure to come up with timely war-winning weapons.

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