Picture of the day

Controversy over Iraqi blogger's film of Abrams tanks in rough shape. . .

The comments are an education. . .


Melted barrel of Type 97 (?) tank in a cave on the coast of Saipan.

5775581098_341e39fcbd_z.jpg


Most of the rest of the tank was a solidified puddle of steel melted into the bedrock that made up the cave walls, floor, and ceiling.

I hope the fellow does not mind me posting it here for educational purposes, he seems like a really nice guy risking his life to repatriate human remains found in remote caves etc. to their respective countries.
 
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Knowing and having long convos with many Calgary Tank vets over the years, I can vouche that this is a common survivor story for the Dieppe boys. One of the crazier stories I was told was the crew commander and crew of one of the B Squadron tanks was hit so hard and so often by German rounds that couldn't penetrate (once they had lined abreast to protect the infantry) that the paint was melting and the entire crew was throwing up from the paint fumes. Once their last round was expended, they were pumped to be able to climb out and surrender just for the fresh air.
fingers284 said:
In the mid seventies I worked with a Dieppe veteran. He was a driver in the Calgary Tanks. He was the only survivor in his tank and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp (I saw pics. of when he was liberated, not pretty). He claimed that not one round that he knew of fully entered his tank, the other members of his crew were all killed by hot spalling that peeled off inside the tank. I've never looked inside a tank (I think he was in a Churchill but not sure) and from what he said , he was somewhat protected from the metal shrapnel in his drivers compartment, he said he will never forget the sound of the rounds hitting and the instant blast furnace heat that was generated inside the tank. RIP Bob
Click to expand...
 
I spent several months in the Sinai after the Israli-Egyption war. The tanks I looked in to often had only one penetration. That was all it took to light up the inside. There were some scars from other hits. Picked up an RPG that had glanced off something and not exploded. ####loads of ammo and stacks of land mines around.Sadly all the small arms had been picked up or scavenged by the Beaudoins.
 
Here's a proper "brew-up", who the guy with his coat over his head is I have no idea:


Story is they were hit by an RPG29 which can penetrate 750mm of armour.
 
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fat tony said:
Controversy over Iraqi blogger's film of Abrams tanks in rough shape. . .

The comments are an education. . .


Melted barrel of Type 97 (?) tank in a cave on the coast of Saipan.

5775581098_341e39fcbd_z.jpg


Most of the rest of the tank was a solidified puddle of steel melted into the bedrock that made up the cave walls, floor, and ceiling.

I hope the fellow does not mind me posting it here for educational purposes, he seems like a really nice guy risking his health to repatriate human remains to their respective countries.
Click to expand...

There are many images in the video of the same tanks also of Bradleys. Most of the Abrams are blown up with IEDs and are stuck in muck! it is all propaganda!
 
RRCo. said:
Here's a proper "brew-up", who the guy with his coat over his head is I have no idea:


Story is they were hit by an RPG29 which can penetrate 750mm of armour.
Click to expand...

Here's a question for all you tankers,current or "has bin". Am I right in assuming that s.o.p. for these tanks (obviously deployed in a combat situation) would have a round chambered in the main gun ready to fire. I ask this because ,after watching the vid a few times, it apears that the main gun fires and recoils a split second before the tank shudders and shakes. I think an argument could be made, just from watching the video alone and not inspecting the hull, that the gun had a major malfunction inside the turret causing the cook-off.
The only other scenario that would allow for that amount of muzzle blast escaping from the main gun is if it was sitting with the breech block open inside the turret.
Your thoughts?
 
fingers284, you're right. I suspect it was reflex action by the gunner or commander, but who knows.

Tank is a late model T72.

There are a couple of vids on youtube of some Russian journalist interviewing a Syrian Army tank commander asking all sort of questions about "how do you like the tank?" "How do you find it for city fighting?" "Is the engine powerful enough?"

Generally "how did you find the test drive?", sort of stuff. How's that for customer service?:rolleyes:
 
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Standard SOP for fighting in a Built Up Area, is having an HE round loaded. Every electrical system ,including the Fire Control System would of been having massive short's and failing. Having the main gun fire is totaly normal. When watching to longer vid, it shows all the small arms (Co-AX) ammo cooking off a bit later.

Ken
 
The T72 has an automatic loader.

Great for keeping crew numbers down and reducing tank size, not so great for ammo storage because the ammo pretty much has to be in the open for the automatic loader to get to it.

IIRC Soviet tanks with automatic loaders have the ammo stored in the floor of the tank on a carousel, and when it comes time to reload, the auto loader rises with the shell in line with the open breech and the shell is rammed into the breech - 7.5 second cycle time.
 
One drawback to the auto loader system(other then no one to make the gunner ( ME) something to eat) was the gun HAD to be returned to the 12 O clock position and Max Elevation for the loader to operate. Thats why you will seldom see one beyond the 10 or 2 O clock position. A good canadian Gunner/Loader team pride's our self's in being able to get 3 HESH (HE) rounds in the air at the same time.

Ken
 
The auto loading system on the T72 is known for eating the arms of the gunners. And they are slow. Like Skylark said, most manually loaded guns can have up to 3 rounds headed downrange in the time that a T72 can load one.
 
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