Digging around in some albums I came across some pictures of the T72s Canada received in the mid 1990s for Trial and Evaluations at CFB Gagetown NB and thought they may be of interest. Previously I had posted at Picture of the Day some background info on them and thanks to the folks here learned how to bring it over from Pic of the Day to this loc.
Quote Originally Posted by bellero View Post
No, it's not operational (no engine in it), we got it from CFB Edmonton and it was used as a prop for an exercice here in Wainwright. It's gonna end up as a museum piece in Calgary after it's restored. I'm going to deliver it in January and I get a private museum visit in exchange, can't wait.
The story goes that DND purchased six T-72 from Bosnia in the 90's and when they showed up at the port, this T-34 was included (buy six t-72, get one free T-34! )
The Canadian government/CF received gifts of Ex-East German armour in the 1990s. T34,T54/55 and T72 tanks went to Borden, a BTR152 and BRDM2 went to Gagetown. A second batch of five T72M1 tanks came to Canada afterwards for Trials and Evaluations (Not museum vehicles) I had MUCH experiance with those tanks. These fives tanks where again ex E.German but made in the Czech Rep. I was also the very FIRST Canadian to ever fire the Leopard C1 at a T72 tank. A Battle engagement at 300M, three rounds in five seconds, this took place during the Leopard Mid Life Extension trials. Personally I thought the T72 was a good tank, cramped beyond belief and crude compared to the Leo but it was still a weapon system and did everything asked of it.
^Low slung, big gunned with the 125mm D-81TM gun and ready to give NATO a bloodly nose, Actually no just the driver training "bowling alley" past Range Control.
DREV and DRES each received one tank each and Gagetown had first three then the DREV tank was sent to Gagetown about the time we shot one during the "upgunning" of the Leo C1 so it had the punch of a 120mm but was still a 105mm. The Germans had so much unwanted armour back then and was just giving it away so for the cost of shipping Canada "could" have all the vehicles to put together a super "Ops Force" but being the 1990s the CF was bankrupt and falling apart. The three tanks (we had all three running) where VERY popular as a mini enemy force for stuff like the Squardron Commanders Course (SCC) or high end Dog and Ponys. The Germans after divesting themselves of whatever they could give away ended up crushing and shattering tank armour with a wreaking ball dropped from height. The museum in Borden did something stupid by painting HUGE T72-T34-T54/55 on the ex E.German tanks and a big red Soviet star on the T34. The German embassy went to see their gift and just about had a kitten at that stupid act, the museum in Gagetown painted there T72 in some groovy black and green cam job. Why museums have to do this stuff is beyond me. All the T72M1s where just basic gun tanks except the one that came from DREV which had been a mine roller tank (less roller). Manuals for the tanks where from the Foreign Material Test Group in Aberdeen Proving Grounds and where for the Yugoslav M84AB which is a license built T72. Certainly an interesting job to take on and to do so with a zero budget one became very good at begging fuel to keep things rolling so doing field time with a course allowed me to keep diesel in them. Interestingly they came to Canada with stove oil in them. The T72 also came kitted with a great hand held electric pump. Bare in mind most homes in Europe are heated with stove oil, the doctrine was when the Warsaw Pact crosses the inner German border and makes the dash to the English Channel, tank formations could essentially "live off the land" fuel wise. If I was filthy stinking rich and I owned a HUGE piece of land I would buy a couple Czech T72s (way cheaper then one would think) and have a big rich mans toy or two. I better go buy some 649 tickets if I ever want that to happen.
Here is a T72M on Milweb, heap of fun at a great price http://www.milweb.net/webverts/61877/
^Me filling the role of a Warsaw Pact Tank Platoon Commander, this was the best running tank of the lot we received and to be hoest the things are a total blast to drive. If you like simple, hands on, mechanical vehicles and just have to have some armour in your life, pound for pound these tanks are a screaming deal. Anvil tough and very straight forward tank to run and keep running, the Leopard tanks of C Sqn would be constantly changing derubbered road wheels, never, NEVER, had that issue with the T72. Even years later talking to a couple old C Sqn buds they brought that fact up. I am using the issue Warsaw Pact tanker helmet for comms to the driver and think the throat mike was the cats ass also. You did not get any wind noise and even with the vehicle running you could just about whisper a direction and it went through clearly.
^ When we used the T72 for the filming of the Eyrx interactive gunnery System (EVIGS) I needed to "Mcguyver" up a better way of having comms inside the tank and be able to send and receive outside. So using a 1780 box connected directly to the batteries a 30 foot drop cord and a PRC77 set it all came together. I took the head set that you see in this pic and in the left ear had the 77 set feed and the right ear piece for intercom, it could drive you crazy but it worked.
^ Or if your comms goes down completely one could always do things the "old school" way and go back to flags and hand signals.
^ "Driver training" or more in reality "hey its a nice day and lets go drive the tank around" under that pretext. I am wracking my brain try to remember the fellow in the drivers hole to give credit due.
Hi Beauebon the T72s saw there first use by Trials and Evaluations in Gagetown for the filming of footage to be used in the Eryx Video Gunnery System (EVIGS) and then Tow VIGS. When they came over we did not have a clue what went where or what any of the tools that came did to keep things running. Essentially the Germans had just opened the commanders hatch and dumped in "stuff". Sorting through the "stuff" was interesting and after awhile using the good books and common sense I got a handle on what was tool or a part, or a part of a tool. The T72 dipstick is a hex shaped rod about a metre long that has hash marks and is in cyrillic script, essentially it is one dipstick that checks 12 things, so I called UNB and got in touch with the German/Russian school there. A professor came out one weekend and we translated anything that needed doing such as data plates with warnings or instructions and that cool dipstick. Note all data plates where in cyrillic, even though it was a East German tank.
During the Leopard Mid Life Extension trials (run by Capt Martin of T&E Gagetown) it was my sad duty to prep a T72 for use as a target for the 105/120mm gun upgrade and more so the ammunition brought in by various manufacturers for hoped for sales to Canada. I picked the poorest running tank, defueled it, cut off anything that would contaminate impact data such as lights, bins, smoke grenade dischargers and had it towed to the range. The Leopard would fire through bristol board yaw cards and the manufacturerers would go down and see what their ammunition results where, with great care for them to NOT see what competitors ammo did on target. Watching the super high speed was amazing, but what was more amazing was how well the "Dolly Parton" armour on the turret front was at stopping a 105/120mm, everyone thought so highly that the rounds would just whistle straight through the tank. Lets just say there was some stunned disbelief when everyone went downrange to check damage. When I fired (up to that point all rounds where fired by a computer so the cameras caught the round in flight and impact) I fired center of mass to turret, with the T72 gun barrel at postive elevation I had my "Radley Walters" moment and the round struck the fume extractor and was deflected downwards onto the hull top directly behind the drivers hatch. Had the T72 been ammo loaded the carousel and its ready ammo would have "brewed up". I will backtrack abit here, the interiors spaces of a T72 tank are reserved for fuel and ammo, the space for a crew must have been an afterthough, there are fuel cells/tanks and ammo storage spots EVERYHERE inside the tank, hence a hit on a T72 if it gets inside is a sure kill. The subsequent two rounds I fired center of mass and caught the tank at the upper hull. Anyways the tank is a good vehicle, robust beyond belief, cramped as hell and super workman like. It is also a "low end tank" as the Soviet doctrine was to equip higher end units (like a "Guards" unit) with T80 or T64 and lower end units with older, lower end tanks like T72.
Brad Pitt in Fury?? Naw, just old XRCD. Allan Joyner Productions of Ottawa did the film work for T and E at Gagetown for the EVIGS. Here they are just getting some stock footage, that and its just fun to go drive around the training area with not a care in the world. Actually every time the tanks went out I kept the fingers crossed nothing would break, fail, burst into flames, impale or crush anyone. There was LOTS of "not user safe" things to cause injury or harm. One REALLY neat thing we decovered was how to turn on the smoke generator, the tanks where being used as a mini OpFor for a SCC course and in the down time I am pouring through the translated manual and talked the driver through the procedure. The tank has an injector on the exhaust manifold that sprays diesel on the hot manifold that is VERY effective at cranking out smoke, and lots of it till the manifold cools off. As the tank slobbered a fair amount of oil through the exhaust the first use of the generator shoot flames out the exhaust about six feet till the oil burned off. Then its pumped smoke and lots of it. Soon to be a much requested feature by the SCC staff, good times.
You can see the remains of the East German decal which in time I replaced with a black maple leaf.
^ To give you a sense of how low slung a T72 is I stand 6ft2in tall
^ THE END (for now)
The four digit "call signs" where correct for East Germans that had been painted over before they came to Canada (WP was for three digits) I could easily see the old numbers so repainted them.
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