Talk:Rhodesian Armoured Corps
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quotation sans attribution?
[edit]Odd that the mass of the article seems to be from page 6 of http://home.wanadoo.nl/rhodesia/quartz.htm
"The Rhodesian T-55 Tanks"
134.67.6.14 (talk) 19:09, 14 August 2008 (UTC)
French freighter lie/myth/distortion
[edit]The person who claims that the T-55 tanks the Rhodesians acquired were being transported on a French freighter cites a source that never mentions the word France or French, indeed the source cited clearly states that the T-55s were being transported on a LIBYAN freighter. Furthermore it makes absolutely no sense that the French would have Warsaw Pact tanks in their possession, let alone eight such tanks, and that they would be attempting to ship them to Mozambique. Furthermore the inaccurate and uncited statement that the tanks were headed for Uganda should be removed, as they were headed for Mozambique. The ship captain mistook Durban for Maputo and that is how the ship was seized by the South African authorities.
- To address this issue for future comments: the ship was a French freighter, the Astor, if I'm not mistaken. The flag and country of register doesn't mean much these days, but that's precisely what it was - a Libyan freighter sailing around the Cape of Good Hope would have likely attracted much more unwelcome attention, given that Gadaffi was selling arms to all of South Africa's perceived enemies in bulk: SWAPO, the ANC, Angola, Mozambique, etc. So the Libyans used a French captain and a French facade. No different from South Africa using Israeli freighters and Israeli captains to get them embargoed parts for their Mirage aircraft.
- The statement that they were headed for Uganda has also been sourced, accordingly. They were originally supposed to be sent via the Suez Canal, but for obvious reasons most of the Libyan traffic of this nature at the time was being diverted. --Katangais (talk) 18:13, 27 April 2014 (UTC)
Mistaken Tiger I attribution in WW2 Italy
[edit]The voice mentions Tiger I tanks with whom, on June 9, 1944 "the South African and Rhodesian Shermans were involved in a particularly vicious battle against Tiger I tanks of the German 352nd Division." Now, the German 352. Infanterie-Division was employed in France and not in Italy (it's possibly a mistyping, as the 362. Infanterie Division was employed in Anzio - Rome - Central Italy area). Furthermore on the Italian front, no German division had integral units of Tiger I. Those heavy tanks, as usual in German doctrine (with some rare exceptions) were employed into independent Heavy Panzer Battalions (schwere Panzer Abteilungen) that were then often attached to bigger units.
All the Tiger I on the italian front - not considering smaller temporary "Kampfgruppe" units like "PanzerKompanie Meyer" or "Tigergruppe Schwebbach" - came from two units, the s.Pz.Abt. 504 and the s.Pz.Abt. 508. By mere recollection, I could bet in this case on tanks from s.Pz.Abt. 508, as could be confirmed from https://mikesresearch.com/2022/06/26/tigers-in-italy-1944-45/ "In early June, s.Pz.Abt. 508 left Rome and moved to Viterbo in the direction of Siena. There followed fighting withdrawals in the direction of Empoli and Florence, where the abteilung arrived at the end of June." s.Pz.Abt. 508 then matches timeframe and locatio. Yet, from the same source, we can see that the Tiger I from s.Pz.ABT. 504 were the one that supported the 362. Infanterie Division.
I will research the matter more specifically and will later correct the voice MC202 zipper (talk) 11:45, 10 March 2026 (UTC)