Tank AA, 20 mm Quad, Skink

[Grey Havoc]

https://www.reddit.com/r/TankPorn/comments/lodlit

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/TankPorn/comments/lodlit/canadian_skink_quad_mount_20mm_anti_aircraft/

 

[DWG]

It didn't get much use in the anti-aircraft role, but ISTR reading 1st Polish Armoured Division used it to great effect on softskin traffic trying to escape the Falaise Gap during their stand on Hill 262.

 

[EwenS]

Only one Skink (of a total of 3 built) was sent to NWE for trials with 2nd Cdn Armd Brigade from Jan 1945.

The AA tanks used in Normandy were either Crusader or Centaur based. Most had a turret with 2*20mm Polsten Cannon, but there was a Crusader version with 3 and one with 40mm Bofors. Not sure what the 1st Polish Armd Div got but none are listed as being on strength about 30 June 1944.

 

[JohnR]

I've wondered how useful the 20mm AA tanks in the Bocage region as an anti infantry weapon in the hedgerows?

 

[DWG]

Only one Skink (of a total of 3 built) was sent to NWE for trials with 2nd Cdn Armd Brigade from Jan 1945.

The AA tanks used in Normandy were either Crusader or Centaur based. Most had a turret with 2*20mm Polsten Cannon, but there was a Crusader version with 3 and one with 40mm Bofors. Not sure what the 1st Polish Armd Div got but none are listed as being on strength about 30 June 1944.

It's a long time since I read what I was referring* to, so I can't even say if it was wrong or I'm remembering it wrong!

* I strongly suspect it was an Airfix Magazine conversion article, which would put it somewhere in the late '70s, early '80s! And now I think of it I may be conflating that article on the Skink with an article on the battle I read elsewhere.

 

[DWG]

I've wondered how useful the 20mm AA tanks in the Bocage region as an anti infantry weapon in the hedgerows?

There's a difference between what most people picture with 'hedgerows' and actual bocage. The hedge at the front of my garden is about waist height and pokes up from ground level. A pain to climb over, but not much of a bullet stopper.

OTOH Normandy bocage could be 15 feet or higher, half of that an earth bank, possibly with a sunken lane beyond that and its the earth bank you need to penetrate. You could get through it with a 20mm, as long as you remembered to bring plenty of reloads.

 

[JohnR]

That was exactly the point I was making, how effective would the 20mm shell have been against the dense solidly made hedgerows of the bocage as against
allied .303 or .30 small arms ammunition.

 

[Petrus]

It didn't get much use in the anti-aircraft role, but ISTR reading 1st Polish Armoured Division used it to great effect on softskin traffic trying to escape the Falaise Gap during their stand on Hill 262.

Polish publications on equipment of our troops in NWE that I know bring no information at all that 1st PL Armoured Div. had ever any Skink on strenght.

 

[DWG]

It didn't get much use in the anti-aircraft role, but ISTR reading 1st Polish Armoured Division used it to great effect on softskin traffic trying to escape the Falaise Gap during their stand on Hill 262.

Polish publications on equipment of our troops in NWE that I know bring no information at all that 1st PL Armoured Div. had ever any Skink on strenght.

Yeah, I'm perfectly happy to accept I've mixed up at least two separate accounts there.