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Tankerace -> Interesting Note on the 37mm Gun M1916 (8/14/2005 8:59:40 PM)
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I was reading through War as I Knew It last night (Patton's Memoirs), and I found this note he had on an experince with a 37mm Gun in 1918:
From Paragraph VII, Section V, Chapter Earning My Pay, P.286 in the 1975 edition:
In the summer of 1918, a group of soldiers of the 301st Tank Brigade, which I commanded, was having 37mm. gun practice which I was observing. One defective round exploded in the muzzle, wounding two or three men. The next round exploded in the breech, blowing the head off the gunner. The men were reluctant to fire the next round, so it was incumbent on me, as the senior officer present, to do so -in fact, I fired three rounds without incident. This restored the confidence of the men in the weapon. I must admit that I have never in my life been more reluctant to pull a trigger.
If "Blood and Guts" Patton was reluctant to use the weapon, that doesn't exactly make me want to use the weapon in a hurry.
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