It’s Tanker Tuesday
I have to say that I admire anyone who can drive anywhere while looking through what amounts to a one-eyed periscope, and not create too much property damage. Some videos are presented for your consideration. Many of these tanks are Russian in origin.
I was thinking that there is really no bar to owning a tank. It would be a nice piece of sculpture to put in the front yard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63WcAKYxyfU
Here’s a nice video of a heavy equipment exhibition at Tankfest 2018 in the UK:
Category: Army, Support the troops
Dig that A7V!
If you’re interested, this one could be had for cheap! Adult kids and their toys…
“If I had a million dollars…”
Hmm… that, or…
https://youtu.be/4lmW2tZP2kU
That second vid no MBT until 2:30, still cool though.
I grew up as a Light Infantryman so I have a well honed distain for the ‘mech mentality’, tbs I too have a professional respect for the operators of these lumbering beasts.
You don’t have to break track on your ruck and it never runs out of fuel!
On the other hand if you are mech you don’t need to hump that ruck. And you can carry all the water you want!
Once I get done with work, I gotta put more time in on that Red Dawn project.
I worked out a mount for the halftrack’s TOW launcher. Not sure how believable it is to experts, but it’s the best I could come up with. Haven’t actually put it in yet, still have to weather and dirty up the bed first. Still have to rig up the DIY spaced armor as well.
The M60’s hull/chassis has its base coat and all of the sprockets, roadwheels, and return rollers mounted, but I really can’t put the upper hull or tracks on until the suspension looks suitably dirty. On the upside, I figured out a better way to replace the M85 .50-cal in the cupola with a regular M2, via a photo of a similar conversion done to an M48 in Vietnam: remove the M85, plate over the front of the cupola, add a post to the top of the cupola, and stick a .50 on it.
Also need to carve, surface, and paint the diorama base.
Tanks Matey, that thar is some funny stuff. Track toads having fun? On the wrong track? The tracks of my tears?
Armored Cavalry, or as we like to say, highly mobile, short range Artillery, is a good thing! Some of them crews looked like they needed to call The Stranger aka “Pappy” to Essayon them a Bailey Bridge thru the water hole. Or maybe build them a wider low boy.
King of Battle story in the pipeline? The linky that ninja stuck in on the 32FIRST Glider FA had some good stuff, plus other linkys. Just saying. Lub you! I have cookies.
Cookies? You got ice cream, too?
yes ma’am! Caramel Brownie Overload, Butter Pecan, Napoleon, and Verniller Bean. Done finished off the Banana Split. Cookies are Chocolate Chip, Gingered Snaps, Pecan Meltaways, Peanut Butter, and Secret Surprise (a chewy with milky way middle). The snicker doodles went the way of the ‘nana split. Sorry.
That compilation video was classic. Who knew it was so easy to roll a tank while trying to drive it onto a transporter trailer. Wish I had video of one of our guys in the 509th in Germany who stole and M578 tracked recovery vehicle from the motor pool and drove it around Mainz-Gonsenheim crushing multiple parked cars. You should see what a set of tracks does when driven through the middle of a parked VW Beetle, back to front. I think the soldier in question destroyed about 20 vehicles on his rampage. Unfortunately, I was on Security Patrol duty the night it went down.
For those of a blue-water or blue-yonder persuasion, it might be mentioned that an M88 tracked recovery vehicle is the big-ass wrecker you send out when some tank driver wants to see if an M1 Abrahms can operate upside down…
Back in 1973, I sank a tank in the Santa Margarita River over at Camp Pendleton. Thought I was going to drown, but I floored the thing and drove on over to the other side. (Probably the most heavily armored submarine ever. Lucky for me there was a hard sand bottom and that river isn’t very wide.) Wasn’t really that big of a deal, but it will make a hell of a story some day for the grandkids.
I’ve been in the exact same circumstances as that mired T80 eating up the second half of the first vid, except that I was in an M1A1. Was not pretty, but by keeping the throttle wide open for long enough, we eventually got it out without having to get off or attach a dirty nasty tow cable to the hull! On a side note, essentially everything in that video boils down to being a target for my gunner.