Can anybody direct me to a site that gives pics and details of many different kinds of permanent gun emplacements using tank turrets? I'd like to see both sides and am interested primarily with those in the E.T.O.. Thanks.

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I know I've got some web-links somewhere but I'm afraid can't find 'em now.

One source of info I'd heartily recommend is Neil Short's recent 'Tank Turret Fortifications' book. Very full coverage of all sorts of temporary and permanent mounts, both officially designed and extemporised around the world, from complete buried tanks to strange wooden constructions(though some German panzers still emplaced on the Bulgarian border seem to have passed his attention). It's a little dry to read but with the lack of other good info it's immediately become a handy standard work.

I'll have another look for those links, I'm sure there's quite good coverage of Panther turret fortifications along the Gothic line.

Here's one emplacement on top of a coastal bunker that I snapped in Jersey last year:

Cheers,
Adam.

That looks like something I'd like to read. I wonder what the factors were for deciding just what kind of tank/panzer turret would be installed where? Also, I wonder if they kept their co-axial mounted machine guns or was that deleted in view of the enemy never being allowed that close in? What's the turret in the picture of? A French Renault by chance?

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They had a similar discussion here:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=14464

and here:

http://sudwall.superforum.fr/viewtopic.forum?t=164

I would like to read the "bottom" site if I could get it translated in English. I retyped the URL into google's search engine and it doesn't even show a return let alone a translation option. Some interesting pics on that one...

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Copy and paste the url into the "translate a web page" in babel - and change the language to "French to English"

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr

Alot of Pz II turrets it seems. Interesting sites!

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Time is only enemy you'll never get rid of.

I got it! Thanks Amrit. That R35 turret in the middle of the city looks peculiar. I wonder what the story is on it...I'll have to go back in a minute and read it again. It seems that of all the different turrets used, the main thing that I notice is that they are armed with low caliber cannons and machine guns. Even German turrets do not go beyond use of the PzKpfw IV though the PzKpfw II seems like the most used. I may be wrong but it looks to me like these turrets are deployed as more anti-infantry weapons than anything. I would have thought that the extremely low target offered by a turret embedded in the ground would be thought of as a superb anti-armor weapon, had bigger, more powerfully gunned turrets like the Panther and Tiger been used.

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An actual photo would be nice...

Just stumbled onto someone's nightmare...
www.somethingawful.com/booklist/FinalBook.pdf

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The following pictures are evidently from the defense of Berlin...





The above caption said that the upper portion of the "bunker" was re-inforced with blocks, so, it's not just a burried Panther. Also, the picture caption below stated that the Panther turret on the right was a "transportable" version. I'm still looking for information on that...

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Another shot of a Panther emplacement...

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Just found this interesting site: www.ospreyfortress.com/articles/tank_turrets.htm

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I knew the Germans used Panther turrets and the Russian's t-34 turrets... anyone got pics of those?

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Time is only enemy you'll never get rid of.

More of the same Panther from the Westwall-Museum...

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Will, it's interesting on that 1st Berlin Panther turret that although it makes such a small target someone managed to give it a wallop. The mantlet is broken in half with a bit dangling from the barrel, the commander's and rear hatch are blown, the turret itself is cracked. It was a nice punch, possibly the ammo inside blew up.

And no, those weren't just buried Panthers, there was more than one design for these casemates with a Panther turret on top. I'll try to find something on them for you.

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Thank you in advance. I'll be on some extended R&R for a few months starting tomorrow, so, if I'm not around a pc for a while don't think I don't appreciate your contribution to this thread. And yeah, it looks like an ISU-152 got the bead on him real good!

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I knew that I was just a "word" away from a good find: Pantherturm

Anyway, a few good images pop up in google image search as well...

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	a_Pantherv.jpg (193.8 KB, 7 views)
	panther2.jpg (48.4 KB, 4 views)
	t_1602.jpg (5.7 KB, 6 views)

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Also found this...
This is a very good website...
www.atlanticwall.net/components_st.htm
This is good too...
Pantherturm in Poland
And, a more better image of the book...

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panzertracts212_jprigent.jpg (66.9 KB, 4 views)

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Is this an embedded Stug? I don't see how this would make an ideal, effective, choice for a static emplacement.

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11101.jpg (60.6 KB, 7 views)

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This is one of the ones embedded on the Bulgarian Border & facing Turkey.
There are also pz.IV's still emplaced there, the vehicles are decommisioned and a bit rotten but technically still in service until 2015...
There is talk of some panthers there too (possibly gifts from the Soviets in '45) though no pictures of them seem to have emerged. This could possibly be due to them still being servicable military installations and thus still classified, but equally possibly down to non-existence.

I've been interested in these Bulgarian relics for a while as they even seem to have slipped through the net for Neil Short's otherwise comprehensive book (edit: sorry, repeating myself)... makes me wonder what else is still out there...




Cheers,
Adam.

Nice pics.

I seem to remember something about Former U.S. M18 Tank Destroyers still being employed by the Serbs as well...

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I guess these are set up to zero? But wouldn't they do that after the hull installation?

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2397_a_1_sm.jpg (16.6 KB, 5 views)

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I confirm that the one in Jersey is a R35 turret. These were captured in June 1940 and many of them were eventually sent to Jersey, I think after 1941. The chassis were often sent to the East front.
.

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These are fixed turrets for gunnery training, 'fraid I can't remember the location.

Skip, Jersey seems to have examples of every French tank turret imaginable. We also were of the opinion that the one on that St. Ouens bunker was an H35 or R35 but the owner seemed to think it was originally fitted to an FT17, having seen his incredible collection we were loath to argue...
(If anyone finds themselves in Jersey the museum he's squeezed into the bunker below the turret is wonderful, I thought much more interesting than the much vaunted underground hospital... he can also sell you quite surprising German militaria from the back of a clothing shop in St. Helier ).

Cheers,
Adam.

M18 turret mounted on the 'Krajina express' armoured train from that period:
Krajina Ekspres,
I've not yet seen any evidence that complete vehicles were used though.

There were definitely M36 Jacksons deployed, Bob Fleming, who imported several ex-yugo ones into the UK (I believe they've mostly ended up back in the US) used to run one with the distinctive supplemental Rubber armour still attached (some T34's received the same treatment):



Cheers,
Adam.