WW2 tank damage

You're kidding, right?

no dude. I'm serious. Are there shards of metal or just a big hole? What did those russian tanks look like when they met all those tigers and visa versa when russia introduced their new tank? What does a sherman look like after it was taken out by an 88 or slain on the beach of Normandy? Maybe I haven't looked enough but I've looked in a lot of places. I've got books about armour, and movies but hollywood lies, i've been there. I've seen a lot of tanks with their tracks blown off and an upside down panther but thats it. What does a tank look like that has really had it's butt kicked?

Try this link for a tank that is in fairly poor shape.
http://www.hoskinson.net/gulfwar/tank.html

Or this one:
http://www.d-day.org.uk/articles/tiger.html

I'm sure there are others out there but someone else will have to find them for you.

Thanks, Man. But it's not like I haven't looked you know. I even slowed down the tiger getting dusted on Saving Private Ryan. It's usually just a quick shot then a cut to another scene. That's it. No after damage. Same with Band of brothers and A bridge too far. What does one put into a seach engine? Blown up tank? try it and see what you get. Alot of the books I've got, and I have a few just have picture perfect tanks rollin or posin. I'll keep looking though.
Jaysun

Try "damaged tank photo" or "destroyed tank photo".

I've always had this site bookmarked http://www.battlefield.ru/ and use it as a reference for both German and Russian destroyed vehicles. Depending on the vehicle and what it was hit with, the results could be very catastrophic.

Google searches are pretty cranky with trying to get pics depending on how you enter your search words and generally return a lot of text about "damaged" or "knocked-out" vehicles but very few actual photos. I stumbled across the russian link above while looking for something totally different a few months back, sometimes the Internet can drown you in a sea of margnially relevant returns if you aren't careful.

That link wbill76 dropped is an excellent site for wrecks. One should be able to find just about any kind of damage you're looking for.

From all I've seen and heard from soldiers over there in the Iraqi War(s). Apparently no matter where on of those Iraqi (translation: Russian) tanks were hit, everything inside would explode and the turrets would pop off almost every time.

The site wbill76 gave is great. Saw a panther that had its front hull CRACKED from the heat or concussion.Allen

well, here's an M4A2(76)W that's looking like she's seen better days...

-http://www.combatmission.com/articles/usmedtanks/pics/M4A1(76)W2.JPG- (you'll have to copy and paste this address, because the parentheses screw up linking)


and here's a rather small picture of a Panzer that won't be kicking up dust with the rest of her unit:

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/jul1943/f29jul43.htm

Quite a few images of banged-up, knocked-out armor on this site about Panzer ace Michael Wittmann, including the Tiger I in which he made his single-tank charge on Villers-Bocage...

http://www.panzerace.net/main/normandy.asp?page=3

Next, a T-54 of the NVA after an anti-tank encounter:

http://vhpamuseum.org/badguys/images/VN326a_72.jpg

A spanked Sherman:

http://www.combatmission.com/articles/usmedtanks/pics/M4-5.jpg

A Sherman after its ammo stores were hit (ouch):

http://www.combatmission.com/articles/usmedtanks/pics/M4-6.jpg

That's 'bout all I have time to look for tonight, will try to remember to look further tomorrow.

Anything was possible. I have seen a small hole through the armor with no additional visable damage.The hit penetrated but did not set off any ammunition. On the opposite end of the scale, I saw a T72 that the turret was 50 feet infront of the hull with the gun tube stuck in the ground. The top of the entire hull was missing along with the rear armor plate. The hull interior looked as if a back hoe had excavated everything down to the tortion bars. The engine block was laying over 100 feet behind the hull. It had been twisted in half and some of the pistons stuck out in the open. The entire site had about a thousand small pieces of metal scattered about.

thanks to everyone, and now a new model is on the way.

heres a pic of a direct hit of a stug III

Two observations of mine are thus: I've seen Shermans with multiple hits to their flanks and the only damage I saw was the smooth hole made by the projectile. (Of course, the hatches were blown open with smoke damage from the internal fire.)
I've also got pics of a Jagdpanzer that took three hits to the front armor and the holes were visible and smooth with cracks radiating out from them. Good luck.

Okieboy

Two observations of mine are thus: I've seen Shermans with multiple hits to their flanks and the only damage I saw was the smooth hole made by the projectile. (Of course, the hatches were blown open with smoke damage from the internal fire.)
I've also got pics of a Jagdpanzer that took three hits to the front armor and the holes were visible and smooth with cracks radiating out from them. Good luck.

Okieboy