What's with those logs on tanks?

An overview on the use of logs by tank crews during WW2

Movies Featured:

Fury 2014
Tankers 2018
White Tiger 2012
Panfilov's 28 Men 2016
Kelly's Heroes 1970
Battle of the Bulge 1965
Stalingrad 1993
T-34 (2019)
Saving Private Ryan 1998
The Final Defence 2007
War Thunder (Video Game)

#ww2 #tanks #warthunder

[inductivegrunt]

Getting unstuck, extra layers of armor, ready use firewood, there's many reasons to use logs on tanks. So it's not an issue having a few logs on tanks.

[blitzzkrieg]

During the Battle of Marawi in the Philippines, some armored vehicles of the Philippine Army were covered with planks of wood on the sides to provide protection from RPGs. They did work excellently

[Chopstorm.]

1:50 Just throwing this out there, but until the introduction of the Panther the Sherman had the most armor of any main line medium, especially when accounting for effective thickness. The sides were the only portion of the tank that could be considered thin, but again were comparable to the armor on the PZIV.

[bigblue]

The British WW1 tanks had rails running above the sides of the tank for the unditching beam it carried. If they got stuck the beam was attached to the track by hooks and chains and the movement of the track pulled the beam forward and under the tank. Unlike using a log the beam could be kept moving until the tank cleared itself of the mud. This not only helped unditch the tank but the rails made sure the beam cleared the cab where the driver and commander sat. Unditching was so important that they would forgo a turret on the top of the tank.

[daminox]

I unironically love how you put ridiculous clips from video games in between clips from serious movies 😂

[AuxDub]

I like how you get straight to the point. Most channels would have the first 15 min on the history of logs in warfare.

[guyjperson]

That answers a question I've long pondered. And it was the Kelly's Heroes tank that started it. So I loved that you included that. My guess was to get over slightly wider ditches, but having a tool that did multiple things is certainly preferrable, so thanks for this.

[MaxwellAerialPhotography]

Logs on tanks and other such implements were and are often referred to as unditching beams, as something of a hint to the intention. The British First World War Mark IV tank and many of the Soviet post war tanks are famous for the visually prominent placement unditching beams on their outer hulls.

[KyleAxington]

A clip from Kelly's Heroes! Now I going to have to watch it again!

[paleoph]

1:44-1:55
Since Kelly's Heroes was filmed in former Yugoslavia, we see here an American G.I. checking out his Mosin-Nagant M91/30 rifle with a scope, standing in for an M1903A4 Springfield rifle.

[obsidianjane]

Specifically, the logs are use to get tanks off what is called "high centering", like mud so deep or a ridge in the ground or a rock, where the belly is being held up and the tracks/wheels don't have traction or even touch the ground. So you strap a log across both tracks and then the tank pushes it under and then rides up onto it over the obstacle.

[pendantblade]

The main reason why tanks carry logs is so they can be chopped up into blocks and create a Minecraft house for the tank.

[chris.]

I'd love to see you look at bayonets and bayonet charges. They're a cool piece of military history.

[Perfusionist]

In WW1 the British referred to the timbers as "unditching beams". You are right that the most common use in WW2 was for traction. It is interesting to see how different field armies with the ETOUSA used various modifications. The hull-mounted logs are USUALLY associated with the US 2nd Armored Division and other Ninth US Army armor units. The nice steel or wood "cages" holding sandbags are USUALLY found in the Seventh US Army armor units. Patton forbade the use of sandbags, etc in the Third US Army, but some tankers added stuff anyway. There is a famous photo of LTG Patton walking away from an M4A3E8 after chewing out the crew for having the additional sandbags, but what isn't usually mentioned is that the tank was from the 14th Armored Division, a SEVENTH Army outfit, plus just out of the camera's view was MG Smith, commander of the 14th Armored who stuck up for his men (the 14th Armored Div was operating in the Third Army zone but was usually found in the Seventh Army and followed the Seventh Army practices. First US Army isn't as predictable as the others. By the way, Patton DID authorize the Third Army Ordnance teams to cannibalize wrecked tanks to apply extra steel plate armor to the fronts of some medium tanks.

[klxnone]

You should do a video talking about and ranking all major nations in WW2s helmets.

[SeanDahle]

The reason for that was that they were used for traction in muddy areas and used against magnetic mines. Sherman and T-34 crews used whatever they could find. Sherman also used track extensions called duck bills in muddy areas

[titan_tanic]

Thank you for covering this! I was always confused about what those weird logs were on the tanks, it was such a small thing but I always thought about it, this was perfect! I always thought they were similar to the bundles of logs on the top of ww1 tanks to fill up trenches and go over them but i always thought how weird it was for ww2 because there weren’t as many trenches then.

[jazzcorneille]

I like to think some commanders kept running into the problem of their tanks getting stuck in the mud when they turned to one guy who went "hmmmm Big Stick"

[mhos]

Great video Jhonny! A good example of Murphy's Law. Of Combat#2
If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.

[Xanderviceory]

I love your documentaries on these things. Please keep up the amazing work!!!