US Army

Side skirt myth

FBbrummbar

The myth and the photo/caption that helped it get started: a few years ago while doing research at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds museum, I scanned this image of a Panzer IV equipped with "Thoma Shield" side skirts, captured in late 1944. The caption "New pattern anti bazooka shield of heavy wire mesh" was most likely typed in by Colonel GB Jarrett. George Burling Jarrett, for those of you who don't know, was the original world-class collector of vintage military vehicles, amassing more than 70 tons of Great War weapons (including tanks and aircraft) for his display on the steel pier in Atlantic City during the 1920s. During WWII, although an older man, he was brought back to the US Army and given the assignment of collecting and assessing enemy weapons. He managed to make his way to North Africa and secured many excellent examples of German AFV, artillery and small arms technology. His finds and research/testing helped US ordnance develop better weapons as the war progressed. After the war, Jarrett created and maintained the Army ordnance museum at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. As per Jarrett's caption of the "new style anti-bazooka" shields, this was based on an assumption he made about the German's reason for using the prevalent "side skirts" on many PZIII and PZIV tanks and their variants. Since the western Allies had abandoned the concept of the anti-tank rifle by 1942, adopting "hollow-charge" weapons instead, Jarrett made a reasonable assumption that the side skirts were intended as spaced armor to defend against the US Bazooka or British PIAT. This was not the case however, as the armored "skirts" (solid metal or heavy wire mesh) were only added for protection against Soviet 14.5mm anti-tank rifles and large caliber artillery high-explosive rounds. Jarrett produced this bit of "intel", based on a reasonable (although incorrect) assumption, and researchers repeated the inaccurate statement for decades afterwards. In the 1990s, Tom Jentz brought forth German testing and production documents about the need for side skirts, that finally set the record straight. Jarrett was an American hero, and became the greatest ally that WWII tank modelers and researchers ever had, building and fighting to preserve most of the collection of captured enemy vehicles now held in the USA. FB/Justin deMier