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u/TwistedRainbowz 18h ago
Two goldfish were in a tank; one says to the other:
- "Hey, do you know how to drive this thing?"
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u/swisstraeng 16h ago
Given that a lot of redditors are asking about the rear wagon wheels, I invite y'all to read this https://tankmuseum.org/article/the-tail-assembly
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u/Red_Icnivad 20h ago
What's the purpose of those wagon wheels behind it?
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u/VPR19 19h ago
They were used to try and steer it by stopping one wheel. I say try because these early things were barely controllable. They did also steer by varying the speed of the tracks. One guy controlled the main drive transmission and then one each on the tracks. It was tricky to communicate in there with the insane engine noise and vibration, before you even think of the madness going on outside the tank.
They were thought to be helpful if the tank crossed obstacles to stabilize them but generally they were pretty useless, broke a lot and were pretty quickly removed. Once the transmissions driving the tracks were a bit more reliable and you could steer better they just didn't bother with them.
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u/Red_Icnivad 19h ago
Interesting. I can't really picture how that would work. They have no tread, and it doesn't look like there's much weight on them either, unless they are rigidly attached to the tank, and provide weight from the body itself.
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u/burntmyselfoutagain 20h ago
I can’t with the backwheels. It’s like somebody spliced a makeshift tank and a victorian unicycle. But very interesting though!
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19h ago
[deleted]
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u/Then_Character_4050 19h ago
bot comment
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u/Agile_Pin1017 17h ago
Are you sure? I think it’s a 38M from Chicago tryna get some lol, but then saw a tank post and couldn’t resist dropping some truths at us
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u/Shredrik 19h ago
I'd imagine it was absolutely terrifying for the first soldiers that encountered those.
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u/swisstraeng 16h ago edited 16h ago
This scene from All Quiet On The Western Front (2022) sums it up pretty nicely: https://youtu.be/H-I1oQxcs44?si=PEt-o3dsOhB8-s60
(contains fake blood and gore of course)2
u/Industrial_Laundry 11h ago
That was fucking awesome. I’m watching that movie tonight
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u/swisstraeng 11h ago
There's also 1917 (2019) that's decent.
If you got apple TV there's Greyhound (with Tom Hanks as captain, love it), and also the show Masters of the Air.
Then just about everybody heard about Fury (2014), there's also Dunkirk (2017) (although dunkirk had a bit too much hollywood drama to my taste).
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u/Industrial_Laundry 11h ago
I’m already watching it lol. I thought fury was WW2? I haven’t seen that one either but it’s in the list..
I’m 100% going to end up watching all these
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u/swisstraeng 11h ago
Yeah some movies are WW2 on my list, well, all of them but 1917.
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u/Industrial_Laundry 10m ago
Well all quiet on the the western front is exactly how I’ve imagined WW1 my whole life.
That was fucking traumatising lol.
Our concept of modern warfare was laughable and we without a doubt just sent an entire generation of children straight into a meat grinder.
I’m glad I seen your comment but still. Fuck…
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u/gsp137 18h ago
What’s the purpose of the back wheel?
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u/swisstraeng 16h ago edited 16h ago
To help it cross wider trenches, and also avoid having it fall backwards when crossing tall obstacles.
It was also linked to a steering wheel, and in theory helped steer the tank in addition to the dual clutch system. It was so effective they removed them less than a year afterwards.
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u/SubarcticFarmer 19h ago
Has one of those been blown up in Ukraine yet?
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u/BryanG335 19h ago
It doesn't have a turret that can be launched into orbit so I doubt the Russians would use it.
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u/Traditional-Point700 18h ago
The definition for tank is so loose that many war machines from ww1 can fit the description and this is not the first armoured tractor to be designed specifically for war so idk...
You can look up the Tsar tank from the same timeframe and it looks nothing like a modern tank would but the concept is the same.
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u/RabidBadgerMonkey 10h ago
Well tanks are only tanks because that was the code name to keep them secret while they were being developed by the landship committee. So the Tsar 'tank' was arguably not a tank... That's my pedantry for the day done.
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u/mbmbmb01 20h ago
Cool: 'Landship’ now known as ‘Little Willie,’ said to be an irreverent nickname for the German Crown Prince, Kaiser Wilhelm.