Alex.
Following is a copy of an email I sent to Hanno earlier this morning. Thought I should post it here as well.
The more I look at the photos posted, the more questions I have and the more I start to see.
The hub of that flail is really banged up. Perhaps enough to have put it out of balance? Some of the control arms on the right side for the Flail also appear to be broken, missing or disconnected? Again, I wonder if all is connected to having hit a mine.
I think I have seen tall boxes like the one on the left side of the Crab, on both sides of a Crab on display at Borden. They might be Chalk Boxes used to mark either side of the trail being cleared.
In a couple of the photos you posted showing the left side of the Crab, just forward of this tall box, there is a dark rectangular mark. Hard to tell if it is where something was fitted to the hull at one time or possibly a marking in a dark paint like a four or five letter word. Part of a WD number in white can be seen further aft on the left side.
A long storage box appears on the front of the Crab behind the flail assembly in some photos and then appears to be on the ground in front of the Crab, and then disappears. Storage for spare flail chains perhaps?
The turret is always in the same position. I cannot imagine at least one person in all these years not having tried to move it. Any indications it still works and it is just being kept ‘as found’, or is it jammed?
I wonder if war diaries for COOKIE might explain why it was abandoned and shed any light on the Crab? Both seem to be facing opposite directions. At Overloon, what would have been the general direction flow of the battle and how does that fit in with the orientation of the Crab and COOKIE? Both vehicles may not have been lost at the same time, but that, sadly is how my mind wanders at times. Sigh!
David
Hello Hanno.
This was the first article I found on the Panzerfausts and I ended up branching out from it and its references.
https://warspot.net/132-the-tank-s-hidden-foe
My thoughts on the Overloon Crab at this point are that based on what appears to be its original location, with the front right corner sitting so low, it hit a mine that may have damaged the Flail Drive in some way, putting it out of action. I am not certain how, or if, the Flail Drive interfaces with the Shermans main propulsion system, but perhaps damage to the Flail Drive jammed the Sherman power train and the Crab crew had to hunker down and wait it out, abandoning the Crab as soon as able to do so,
The record of this Crab has to be in one of the diaries of the Regiments using Crabs at Overloon. That is not the type of equipment you lose in combat and fail to log. We probably just have not yet found the right diaries.
And from the German side, Overloon was a very important battle. As chaotic as it might have been from their perspective, knocking out a Crab would warrant mention by them in their war diaries when time permitted. The risk with this, however, is whether or not any or all war diaries from their side survived the war.
Alex mentioned the hits on the right side of the Crab showed a low angle of elevation. This would certainly be consistent with any single, or multi-gunned 20mm cannon the Germans were using in vehicle mounted equipments. Be also interesting to map out the hits to see if any linearity of the overall hits can be identified. Easy for a single barrelled, or twin barrelled weapon but gets more difficult with a general burst from a Quad.
I wonder what the landscape was like to the right of the Crab where it came to rest? Would it have been open enough for a large vehicle with 20mm weapons on board to have had a clear field of fire at the flank of the Crab?
Funny how one vehicle can raise sooo many questions?
David