From: Steve Grammont (islander@midmaine.com)
Date: Fri Jul 12 2002 - 13:52:02 PDT
Hi Jerry,
>I'd previously asked about an armored Weasel, and I received
>quite a few posts, saying that an armored Weasel would have
>done just as I said, been as buoyant as a brick.
Correction... as buoyant as a brick lashed onto a couple of cement blocks :-)
>Well, today the same guy was insisting that there had been
>armed versions.
He is wrong again :-) No version of the Weasel was ever armed. Not
officially and not unofficially (in any quantity). I have seen one
picture of a restored Weasel with a .30 cal mounted on what looks to be a
standard Jeep pedestal mount. This could easily be bolted into place.
Not sure what it would do long term to the vehicle's frame, but of
course GIs in wartime don't care about that at all.
So... was there ever an official or widespread unofficial armament of
some sort on a Weasel? No. Is it possible, maybe even probable, that
some GIs scavenge something and made up their own solution? Yes.
>But no, he's talking something along the line of a 37mm
>mount, ala the PowerWagon (WC-52?) AT Portee.
>Personally, I think he's been looking at some "what-if"
>drawings from some fantasy website or something, or
>one of those "wannabe" knock-togethers, like the "plywood
>tank" that we've seen.
Aberdeen tests were conducted with several different guns on the Weasel.
They were all found to be unsatisfactory and therefore never went beyond
the testing stage. Again, the main purpose of the Weasel was for the
transportation of men, material, and communications equipment into areas
not accessible by other vehicles. It never was intended for a weapons
platform or a fighting vehicle. It was also never adapted for that role
in any way that can be classified as more than field improvisations.
>Any ideas? Maybe he was smoking something really
>strong? ;-)
Could be :-) Either that or he is the type that looks at one picture and
thinks that is all there is to research :-)
Steve
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