Originally Posted by
Winemaker
An interesting question. Diesel engines do (generally) have a water separator so you'd have to dump a in lot of water (of course, I'm not sure about Russkie diesels). So what's easily available for troops in the field that they could do to an engine to disable it and not be caught?
One of my uncles was evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940, and I remember him saying they were removing the breeches from all the artillery once they ran out of ammo, and threw them into rivers or the harbours etc., and vehicles all had their sump plugs removed, letting the oil drain out, while someone sat revving the nuts off the engine until the engine seized solid.