INSIDETHE GREAT

TANKS

INSIDETHE GREAT

TANKS

Hans Halberstadt

THE CROWOOD PRESS

© Hans Halberstadt 1997

This edition published inGreat Britain 1998 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

Printed by The Amadeus Press, HuddersfieldDesigned by Tony Stocks/TS Graphics

All rights reserved. No part of this publicationmay be reproduced or transmitted in any form ofby any means electronic or mechanical includingphotocopy, recording, or in any informationstorage or retrieval system, without the priorwritten permission of the publishers.

A CIP catalogue record for this bookis available from the British Library

ISBN 1 86126 270 1

Stock photographyAll photographs in this book (and about60,000 other military photos) are availableas stock images for editorial and advertisingapplications. Direct inquiries to:Tanks A Lot240 South 13th StreetSan Jose, California USA 95112telephone: (408) 293-8131fax: (408) 293-8156

DedicationFor Jacques Littlefield, with a salute and thanks.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for help in the completion of this book toseveral folks who know a lot more about armor than I do:Jacques Littlefield for one, and Mike Green for another.Jacques has made a life-long study of armor technology andevolution, and Mike has very generously shared his extensivelibrary and armor experience with me. I am also indebtedto Keith Boles, Roy Hamilton and Greg Taylor for helpingmove and position the vehicles for photography. I am like-wise grateful for the insights of the folks who have actuallyoperated these tanks and shared the experience with us all:Marc Sehring, Dean and Nancy Klefman, Richard Boyd,Duane Klug, and Charles Lemons of the Patton TankMuseum at Fort Knox, Kentucky. We also wish to acknowl-edge our debt to the published standard reference works ofsuch well-known armor experts as Maj.James Bingham,Simon Dunstan, Jim Mesko, Brian Perrett, Bart Vanderveenand Steven J.Zaloga.

Special thanks are also due to several World War II combatveterans: to the legendary Col.James Leach, USA (Ret.),Col. William Marshall, USA (Ret.), and John Whitehill.Anybody interested in armor is advised to visit the premierecollection of historic tanks in the USA - the Patton Museumat Fort Knox, Kentucky; while many US Army installationshave museums open to the public, the Patton Museum isprobably the best dedicated to tanks and armored vehicles.The equivalent in the United Kingdom is the Tank Museumat Bovington Camp, Wareham, Dorset.

Preface

In the broad spectrum of books about armor, this is anunusual one: it takes the reader inside some of the mostimportant, battle-proven armored fighting vehicles fromWorld War II to the present day. There are lots of booksabout tanks, but not many that show you what lurks insidethat thick armored hide, where all the action actuallyoccurs; and those featuring the Ml Abrams are among thefirst ever made inside the turret, and required specialdispensation from the US Army. But the really remarkablething about this book is that these handsome vehicles are -except for the M60A3 and Ml Abrams - to be found in theprivate collection of Jacques Littlefield. He and his crewhave acquired, restored, and maintained one of the bestcollections of armor in the world, and Jacques has been kindenough to share them with students of armor through thispublication.

An explanation is perhaps due at the outset: while thetanks featured in this book are certainly "great", we cannotpretend to include all the "great tanks". Notable ommis-sions are the classic German Panzers from World War II, ofwhich the very few existing examples in private hands arenot yet restored and accessible. While the Littlefield collec-tion does include some interesting British types of WorldWar II and later - the Churchill, Comet, Valentine, andCenturion - these are not yet restored to a suitable standardfor photography in this book. Depending upon the receptionthis book achieves, we may perhaps attempt a furthervolume in a year or two.

Hans HalberstadtSan Jose, California

CONTENTSChapter 1: Warning Order 6Portrait of a tank crew; anatomy of a tank

Chapter 2: World War IIMatilda 26Scout Cars & Halftracks 34M5A1 Stuart 50M4A1 Sherman ..56Jagdpanzer 38 Hetzer 71

T-34/85 79Chapter 3: Wars Warm and ColdM37 Howitzer Motor Carriage 88T-55 92M60A1/A3 Patton 98Chapter 4: Desert Storm

M551 Sheridan 105T-72 113Ml Abrams 121

J ust before midnight - about an hour after he had finallybedded down by his tank - a call on the radio summonedthe company commander up to the Tactical Operations

Center (TOG) to receive his operation order. He collectedhis web gear, weapon, helmet and map case, and staggered offinto the night.

He was back an hour later, rousing and calling together theplatoon leaders and platoon sergeants, the executive officerand first sergeant to hear the "op order". This one, like manybefore it, was a "movement to contact" against an enemyforce 20 "klicks" down the road and over the next ridge. Theplatoons had received their warning order early the previousevening; expecting to kick off at 0400 hours, they hadplanned back from that time, and after doing their prep theyhad bedded down to get what sleep they could.Just three klicks back down the road at the assembly area the

four tanks of each platoon were ready: fuel tanks topped off,main gun racks and machine gun ammunition bins replen-ished by the battalion support platoon. The sixteen men(including one boyish lieutenant) had already been fightingfor three weeks now, and knew the drill. Nobody had to talkmuch, and nobody did.

The tank commanders (TCs) woke their crews at 0300hours - those who had been able to sleep - and prepared forbattle. Bedrolls and camouflage nets were secured in thebustle rack, "meals ready to eat" (MREs) were distributed,and coffee was brewed in canteen cups on tiny backpackers'stoves. Then the crews clambered up and disappeared intotheir vehicles, wriggling down into their stations, waiting andwatching for the curtain to rise. Off in the distance beyondthe ridge artillery muttered, the flashes from the tubes flick-ering from the clouds floating over the battlefield.

At 0355 each driver reached for the master switch that ener-gizes the electrical system of his tank, switching it to ON.Each driver worked through the engine pre-start checklist,just as he had done so many times before. At exactly 0400 theSTART switch for each of the four engines in the platoon, the17 engines in the company, and the 58 tanks in the battalionrumbled into life. One by one, the platoons made a briefradio check; then the leader of each platoon reported to thecompany commander: "Up!"

"Driver, move out", orders theTC. On the command, insequence, each tank moves out on to the road, into the night.If you've never stood in the hatch of a tank in the hours beforedawn and before a certain fight, here's something of what it

feels like: you seem to float above the ground, the hull of thetank pivoting gracefully and ponderously beneath your feet.Despite its huge bulk and massive weight a tank often seemsto glide across the landscape, floating smoothly.

The long column of combat vehicles - tanks in the lead,followed by the infantry in personnel carriers, the commandtracks, the logistics train with its fuel, food, spare parts -thunders down out of the valley into more open ground,eating up the kilometers between the friendly force and theenemy.

About seven klicks short of the known enemy positions thelead element of the attack shifts from a column formation -one tank following the next - into its combat formation,according to the unit's SOP. Each platoon reports to thecommander as they cross the "line of departure", the place onthe map where the attack begins: "Second Platoon, Bravo,LD". The commander, listening on the battalion net, has hisducks in a row.

Each four-tank platoon spreads out into a shallow wedgeformation, with the platoon commander centre right, theplatoon sergeant centre left, and the two "wingmen" on theoutside. Each tank has a designated field of fire, and the TCsand gunners search intently for enemy targets and threats as,roaring across the landscape at better than 20 miles per hour,the force begins to sweep down on the defenders.

The defending enemy have only been in their positionsovernight, and their engineer force has worked furiously toobstruct just such an attack, observed by friendly scouts.Tank ditches, minefields, barbed wire, anti-tank teams, anddug-in tanks with just their turrets visible are all waiting forthe inevitable attack. A tank attack can't be avoided, but itcan be channelled into killing zones where the attackers canbe ground down until their force is spent. But one night is notmuch time: no defense is ever perfect or complete, as theenemy commander knows full well. The friendly task forcecommander knows where some of the obstacles are, thanks tothe scouts and to observation aircraft.

First light finds an armored brigade descending on adefending regiment, the force closing at a relentless rate of 20kilometers an hour. The defenders, and the objective, areenveloped in dust, smoke, and fire from the artillery and airprep fires. Attack helicopters roar past the lead elements, flitacross the terrain from one hiding place to another, andattack survivors in the enemy position, their anti-tank missilesstreaking into the objective like horizontal lighting. The

Chapter 1

Warning Order

flashes of warhead impacts are followed by secondary explo-sions as tanks come suddenly unzipped in massive fireballs.Streams of tracers float out from some of the attack heli-copters, a hail of 20mm and 30mm cannon fire that chews upthe enemy's thin-skinned support vehicles and infantry.

Out of the gloom, the attacking tankers can see muzzleflashes from the defenders. One attack helicopter pops up tolaunch a missile; an enemy tank, unnoticed in the melee,takes him out with a shot from the main gun, the sabotprojectile streaking across the battlefield at over a mile persecond; its tracer forms a straight, deadly line from tank tohelicopter, punctuated by a ball of fire and falling metal.

Five klicks from the forward line of enemy tanks the firstartillery rounds start to fall on the force. Four klicks from theenemy, the first tank rounds are fired - ineffectually, as ithappens, and revealing the positions of the enemy. Inside theattacking tanks commanders and gunners scan for targets.You can't see very well through the vision blocks, but youcan't get killed by a sniper's bullet or shell fragment frominside the turret, either. As the lead elements of the assaultcome into range, the radio comes alive with spot reports fromthe tanks as they begin to identify and fire on the enemy:

"Sabre Six, this is Red One - spot report", calls one of thetanks to the company commander, offering information.

"Roger, Red One, send it," the CO answers."Roger Sabre Six; observed recon vehicle vicinity Papa

Alpha six seven four eight three - disappeared before I couldengage, moving southwest."

One TC spots an enemy tank scuttling out of the way of theadvance, and makes a hasty call to the CO: "Red Six, engag-ing two T-72s vicinity of house on woodline, now, out!"He grasps his pistolgrip control for the main gun, depressinga switch on the side; the loud whine of the turret motorhydraulics is added to the roar inside the tank, and a controlcircuit snatches authority for the gun away from the gunnersitting just forward of the TC's legs.

The TC rotates his grip left, and the turret and gun slewrapidly round. "GUNNER!", he calls; "SABOT! TANK! ATMY COMMAND!"The TC swings the gun toward the enemy tank, which is still

moving, over a mile away. The enemy vehicle appears in thegunner's sight, and when he sees the target materialize in hisfield of view he answers, "IDENTIFIED!" The TC releaseshis grip on his over-ride control, allowing the gunner to takeover the engagement; and the gunner lays the reticle onto thecenter of mass of the target. The loader, on the left side of theturret across the gun breech from the TC, selects a sabotround from the ready ammunition rack and heaves it into thegaping breech of the main gun; the breech slams closed threeseconds after the command. The loader rams the safetycontrol from SAFE to FIRE, and calls "UP!".

"FIRE!", calls the commander. "ON THE WAY!", respondsthe gunner as he presses thefiring trigger, launching theround downrange. Thesound of the huge main gunfiring isn't especially loudfrom inside the buttoned-upturret, but the gun recoilsfiercely as it launches itsprojectile at a mile persecond. The TC and gunnerboth watch the round streakacross the battlefield, the redtracer element marking itsbrief, bright journey. Amomentary cloud of dustand fire obscures the round,but quickly clears to revealthe tracer streaking towardthe center of mass of thedistant tank.

The projectile - a 15 poundneedle made from depleteduranium, only about an inch-

and-a-half in diameter and 15 inches long - strikes the side ofthe enemy tank's turret at a velocity of about 4,500 feet persecond. In a couple of microseconds the kinetic energy of thisheavy, slender arrow melts right through the heavy armor andsprays molten steel throughout the interior of the target tank.Several main gun rounds in the target's internal racks arestruck by the incandescent spray, their propellant detonatingcatastrophically in the enclosed space. The TC and gunnerwatch in solemn fascination as the target blossoms in a ball offire, the huge turret tossed 50 feet into the air like an oldskillet....

The platoons, companies, and battalions take their objec-tives, the enemy survivors routed. Their eyes pressed againsttheir cushioned optics, each crew sweeps the terrain from sideto side, searching for surviving threats like missile teams ordisabled tanks still able to fire. Tumbling from their armoredcarriers, the infantry search all the nooks and crannies of thebattlefield; unheard from inside the tank turrets their smallarms rattle, and grenades detonate with muffled cracks in theenemy trenches and dugouts. They emerge, some herdingprisoners before them. The operation is over. The tankplatoons fall back to the reverse slope of the objective, take uppositions to resist any counterattack, and report.

This scenario - with variations, depending upon the currentstate of the art - has been played out thousands of times sincethe 1940s. The tanks and tankers on each end of the equa-tion have been American, British, German, Russian, French,North and South Korean, Israeli, Egyptian, Syrian,Jordanian, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese.... Tank warfare today,80 years after its primitive beginnings, is essentially the sameas it was back in September 1939 when German Panzersinvaded Poland. The tanks in service today are bigger andfaster, shoot farther and more accurately, can see and navi-gate and communicate with far greater precision and sophis-tication; but the fundamentals remain unchanged. Thosefundamentals are firepower, mobility, and protection, andinvolve competing compromises.A big gun and heavy armor inhibit a fighting vehicle's mobil-

ity. It is quite possible to provide heavy firepower while stillretaining excellent mobility (e.g. the M551 Sheridan); butthen the only way to keep the vehicle's weight within practi-cal limits is to sacrifice protection. Likewise, some tanks havehad massive firepower and armor (e.g. the legendary GermanTiger), but were so ponderous that few bridges could survivetheir passage. So, traditionally, tank designers have traded offone part of the equation or the other. Only recently, with theadvent of the gas turbine-powered Ml Abrams in the 1980s,has a tank combined a high level of all three elements in asingle design - although at tremendous financial cost pertank.

Tanks of an Abrams platoonmanoeuvre in "combatwedge" formation, eachtank covering its partnerand each pair of tankscovering the other two. Theformation is very like theclassic "finger four" used byfighter aircraft.

Portrait of aTank Crew"The typical crew of most tanks in service today comprises

four men: a driver, gunner, loader and commander. Eachhas a set of very specific responsibilities, and most are cross-trained in at least one other skill.

LoaderThe loader is the "entry-level" job for apprentice tankers freshfrom Armor School; but it still requires considerable skill,strength, and judgment. In most Western tank crews theloader's position is in the turret to the left of the main gun.His primary job is to serve it, selecting ammunition - typicallyeither "sabot" (see bottom right) or "HEAT"(see top right)rounds - from the ready rack, as directed by the TC or gunner.The sabot round is a slim rod of tungsten carbide or depleteduranium surrounded by an aluminum "shoe" which bulks itout to fit the caliber of the gun; this falls away as the rod leavesthe muzzle. Sabot rounds are used against tanks; they containno explosive, relying on kinetic energy to burn through armorand flake off deadly superheated "spall" inside the target.Sabot rounds fired by the Ml Abrams during OperationDesert Storm not only cut right through Iraqi T-72 tanks fromone side to another; on some occasions they went throughprotective earth berms, then through the tank, then throughthe berm on the far side.... HEAT (High Explosive Anti Tank)rounds are today used mainly against bunkers, buildings, thin-skinned vehicles, gunpits, and troops in the open.

Except during combat, the loader usually stands in his hatchin the turret roof, manning his externally mounted machinegun and scanning for targets on the left side and rear of thetank. These days it is unrealistic to hope to shoot downattacking aircraft with a hand-held MG; but it is useful forengaging any infantry armed with anti-tank rockets ormissiles.

When serving the main gun, the loader waits for a commandfrom the gunner or TC - something along the lines of"Gunner, sabot, tank!". While the gunner is identifying thetarget the loader stuffs a fresh sabot round into the tube.These days the loader starts the sequence by opening thearmored door over the ammunition stowage by hitting a bigknee switch, then releasing the round he wants from the readyrack. In the M60 he flips a latch that retains the round, anda spring gives it a push to allow him to get his fingers roundits base rim; grasping the base with one hand, he extracts thecase and flips it end for end to bring the nose forward, reclos-ing the doors over the rack by hitting the knee switch againbefore swivelling round to face the gun. The nose of theprojectile is guided into the breech with the left hand, theright hand pushing the base home. The loader seats the roundwith a closed and gloved fist, knuckles up, to avoid getting hisfingers clipped off - the breech block slides upward as soon asthe round is fully seated in the chamber. As the breech slamsclosed, the loader reaches over and hits the safety button; andthe gun is ready to fire - in American tanks, he informs thegunner and TC by calling "Up!" when the safety is set to theFIRE position. Armor officer Richard Boyd:

"There is a considerable difference between loading a105mm M60 or Ml round and a 120mm M1A1 round,which is substantially heavier. I've known guys who could'vacuum-load' a 105 round - run the fresh round up into thebreech as the gun recoils from the previous shot - and thattakes considerable speed and strength. And I know guys whocould load the 105mm round with one hand, gripping thebase of the round alone; that also takes considerable strength.But I don't know anybody who could do either with the120mm round!"

(Above) The loader in anMl Abrams crew withdrawsa 105mm round from thearmor-protected ammostowage in the rear of theturret; the door control isthe large pad immediatelybeyond his right knee.

(Left & opposite) The Mldriver's isolated "armoredfoxhole" centered in theglacis plate immediately infront of the turret ring.Driving "head up" givesexcellent visibility, butexposes him to theweather, flying mud, andenemy fire; with his seatand control handlebarslowered and his hatch"buttoned up" he is dry andprotected, but reliant on hisperiscopes and night visiondevice.

DriverPhysically separated from the rest of the crew in his compart-ment at the front, the driver is fully focused on moving thetank across the ground, at the TC's direction.

You scramble up onto the glacis plate, squeeze through yourhatch, and slither down into the seat; this can be adjusted upor down, for driving with the hatch open or "buttoned up".The starting sequence for most tanks is pretty simple: there isa master electrical switch, normally on one of the instrumentpanels; switch it to ON, and the "idiot lights" will illuminate.The fuel shut-off switch is opened. Some tanks requirepriming, while others don't (except in cold weather). Tankswith radial engines, like the old World War II M4 Sherman,needed hand-cranking of the engine before cold starts (50turns for the M4A1) to clear the cylinders. Then, in oldertanks with reciprocating engines, you typically press thestarter and the magneto boost switch; then switch themagneto control to BOTH, and the beast should fire right up.The vastly more modern and sophisticated Ml Abrams, withits gas turbine engine, is even simpler: just press and hold theengine start button, and the process is automatic.

If your tank has been on radio watch all night and workingoff the batteries, there's a chance you won't have enough juiceto get started. Then you must humble yourself in front ofyour jeering comrades by asking one of the other AFVs in theunit to "slave" or jump-start you, with a heavy cable connect-ing outlets in the two drivers' compartments.

Former US Army armor officer Duane Klug, a volunteer atthe Patton Tank Museum at Fort Knox, Kentucky, gets todrive just about anything with tracks on the bottom:

"Tanks can give quite a rough ride - except for the Ml,which is wonderful. You've got to pick your route carefully; Inever threw a track, but there were times when I came close.You need to apply bursts of power, then back off, sometimesapplying the brake as you cross ditches, logs, and uneventerrain. The M60 makes this very easy with just a two-speed

automatic transmission; other tanks, particularly the earlyones, can be a bear to shift, particularly when you're comingdown. The German World War II Hetzer is an exception - youpreselect the gear you want, press the clutch in, then let it out,and you're in that gear. The Sherman is much more difficultand demanding, requiring double-clutching when shiftingdown. You can get real busy when you're trying to handle twolaterals, the accelerator, and the shifting lever all at the sametime."

All modern tanks are designed to negotiate ditches up toseven feet across or more, and obstacles about three feet high.In a combat environment the driver's skill has a lot to do withhow well the tank gets across, if at all, and whether it throwsa track. Duane Klug learned to drive an M60 early in hisArmy career: "I remember crossing ditches seven feet acrossand about four feet deep. Once you nosed down into one ofthose things, you were looking at dirt for quite a while, thenup at the sky for quite a while coming out the other side."

Richard Boyd, who commanded a tank platoon in the early1980s, has this to say about the driver's job: "The thing thatrequired a significant amount of training and experience wasdealing with obstacles without getting stuck or throwing atrack. The M60A3 could go some quite astonishing places -places most people would think were impossible - because ofan experienced, capable driver. I've taken one down a 60-percent gradient and done a double dog-leg at the bottom,without throwing a track. You can do that with a well-main-tained tank, a tightly tensioned set of tracks, and a gooddriver."Driving a tank in a tactical environment requires several

things: the tracks, in particular, need to be in good shape andcorrectly tensioned. Obstacles need to be approachedstraight-on wherever possible, rather than at an angle, toavoid throwing a track. A driver needs to learn when and howto brake and accelerate when crossing obstacles. The realproblem for the driver is dealing with mud, slopes, craters,snow and ice."

GunnerThe gunner is buried deep inside the tank - in AmericanAFVs, on the right side of the main gun breech; he is the onlymember of the crew without a hatch of his own, and hedepends on getting second helpings of the commander'shatch above and behind him for access, and such daylight andfresh air as he ever sees. Through his optics he constantlyscans for targets, traversing the turret back and forth, cover-ing his tank's field of fire.

In modern Western tanks he controls the gun with a pair ofpower control handles. Far simpler than the old separatedelevating wheel and traverse control of World War II tanks,this H-shaped device tilts fore and aft and rotates to the leftor right to elevate and traverse the main gun, and also incor-porates the activating switches for the laser range-finder andthe firing trigger.

In combat, the gunner jams his helmet up against the padsurrounding the eyepiece of his sophisticated sights. If hisseat is properly adjusted and the chest rest is correctly posi-tioned, he can lock himself into his sight and can maintain hisscan while the tank rocks and rolls across the terrain.

Until the advent of the Muzzle Reference Device (MRD)on the Ml gun tube, gunners had to bore-sight their gunsseveral times a day, correcting for the inevitable drift thatoccurs in sight systems. The MRD automatically corrects forthe natural warping of the gun tube caused by the warmth ofthe sun on its upper surface. Richard Boyd explains part of thegunner's demanding duty:

"The gunner has, in many ways, the most technical job inthe tank crew. It takes close attention to detail to hit the rightswitches in the right sequence at the right time. There is avery high degree of hand-eye co-ordination required. Thegunner has to make the same precision G-pattern lay onto the

(Opposite) The Mlgunner's station: wedgedinto his seat, with pads infront of his helmet andchest, he can concentrateon searching out andengaging targets even whilethe tank is in motion overrough terrain, without toomany black eyes andchipped teeth. (Above)The gun control handles -known to US tankers as

"Cadillacs", as they aremade by Cadillac-Gage -incorporate all the turrettraverse, gun elevation,laser range-finder and firingcontrols. With thoroughtraining they can be manip-ulated instinctively to tracktargets nearly two milesaway, hand and eye co-ordinating almost asnaturally as when a hunterswings his shotgun.

target each time to get consistent hits, and he has to do it veryfast. Every tank gun has a little slack or play in its mecha-nism; to minimize that, you should always bring the gun ontothe target the same way you boresight the gun."Normally that means bringing the gun across the top of the

target from right to left, then down, then below and acrossfrom left to right until the tube is directly beneath the target,then upward to its center of mass. (This movement forms aG-shape, hence the name.) The most important part of thisis the last vertical movement, because the greatest proportionof error is likely to be either in range or lay."

The gunner will usually have his targets designated by theTC, but in an emergency can engage a threat on his own.The exception to this is when the TC is busy with the .50calMG mounted near his station, perhaps firing at thin-skinnedtargets, while heavy armor targets are available within range;then he may release the gunner from his control by makingthe call, "Gunner - acquire and engage, TC caliber .50!"

CommanderThe TC has several simultaneous tasks. As the crew memberwith the best visibility and communications he maintains"situational awareness" - jargon meaning simply that becausehe can see better, and talk to other tanks, he should knowwhat's going on at any given moment. He keeps the tankmoving toward its objective as part of the tactical plan, co-ordinated with the other tanks in the platoon; that meansensuring that the driver maintains position within the platoonformation. He watches all around the tank, observing terrainand targets; he directs the use of the main gun, but he also hasa heavy machine gun of his own. He is typically the onlymember of the crew who communicates over the radio toother tanks, passing reports and making requests, and - if he'sthe platoon leader - issuing orders. At night he ensures thatthe crew maintain and service the tank as required to keep itin fighting condition. Ex-TC Richard Boyd:

"The commander spends most of his time isolated from therest of the crew, with his head up out of the hatch. He doesn'tsee the other crewmen, he just talks to them. He scans fortargets, with binoculars or with the naked eye, and he has tomaintain situational awareness at all times - understandingexactly where he is and what's going on outside the tank."

Riding in a tank for any length of time can be fatiguing.There is constant vibration. Modern tank design emphasizesa kind of "sports car" ergonomics for the crew - you don'tmove around much. That's particularly true for the driver,whose seat gives him a semi-reclining position (in anymodern Western tank the driver's position tends to be themost comfortable). Of his days as a platoon and companycommander in Germany, Duane Klug recalls:"Especially with the M60 and the Abrams, you get a tremen-

dous feeling of power while moving across the landscape. Youlearn how to hold on, how to ride the tank, how to anticipatethe jolts and the way you get slammed around."

John Whitehill, a veteran of the 4th Armored Division's epiccharge across France in 1944, summarizes the relationshipswithin a tank crew: "We were closer together than guys in asubmarine - shoulder to shoulder, jammed into that vehicle.We cooked our meals on one little Coleman one-burner stove,in a 'liberated' frying pan from a German field kitchen, andthe five of us ate right out of that pan, passing it around andtaking turns. That is pretty intimate, and a good example ofhow close we were. Another thing: we always had a stash ofwine and maybe brandy, also liberated from someplace orother, and after a skirmish I'd get out a bottle and pass itaround. The five of us would kill that bottle, and as theofficer, I waited till last - and sometimes there wasn't toomuch left in that bottle! A bottle of wine doesn't go too farunder those circumstances.

"Something else you don't hear about too often, but impor-tant to tank crews, was the problem of relieving yourself - andafter a fight, everybody needed to go. Well, it was the loader'sresponsibility to save the last empty shell casing, and this, too,was passed around inside the turret - again, with the TC orofficer getting the last turn - and then the case was tossed overthe side. This wasn't the easiest thing to do, since the brasscould still be quite hot! If you looked out at the tanks rightafter a battle, you'ld see all these casings flying through theair...."

(Left) An Abrams commander of the 4th InfantryDivision scans thesurroundings through hiscupola vision blocks, hisright hand on his gun over-

ride control stick. In frontof his face are his sightsfor the .50 cat machine gun(white) and main gun (blackpad), and .50 cal elevationcontrol (red).

Col.William Marshall joined the US Army in 1939 whenthe Cavalry still had horses. After exchanging his mountfor an AFV in 1941, in 1944 he came ashore in

Normandy on D+30. "The secret of our success", he recalls,"was a carry-over from the Cavalry. In the Cav you worryabout your horse and your squad; in the Tank Corps you worryabout your tank and your crew. We trained hard together, andwe built a going organization, and we were good! We shippedout to England, picked up M4A2 Shermans, and started train-ing. We fired and manoeuvered day and night. And we werefortunate to have a commander - Edgar T.Connely - who wasjust as intense about the mission as we were. We became the8th Tank Battalion [4th Armd.Div.], and we went across thebeach at Normandy and all the way to the Rhine in 181 days.

"One morning about 0500 I received a mission to attackacross the Moiselle River to relieve pressure on the 35thInfantry to our front. I found a spot where it looked like wecould ford the river, but the bank on the far side was too steepfor us to get over easily. So I sent for my tanks, lined them uphub-to-hub, and we each fired five rounds, fuse-delay. Thatblew the opposite bank down enough that we had a ramp upout of the water. I went across first, and we all got across. Thathelped turn the right flank of the German army, and helpedrelieve some pressure on the British forces to our north.Gen.Patton was in the area about fifteen days later, andawarded me the Distinguished Service Cross for the action.

"When we first broke out of Normandy the German tankunits we encountered fired a volley at us, then turned and ran.Most of the hits we got were in the rear of their tanks, and weblew them off the road!

"Here's how combat operations worked for us in France andGermany: we always had scouts out, up forward, and they'dwarn us of any enemy forces in our route of march. They mightbe 500 or 1,000 yards ahead, usually in jeeps or halftracks. Thescouts would call us on the radio and we'd shake a leg and getup there. The Germans had tanks that were more powerfulthan ours, but we fought them successfully because we had alot of tanks ... .Although our gun was smaller than theirs, weclosed to under 750 yards and attacked them as a team. Weout-manoeuvered them, and then five or six of us would closein on a Panther and we'd all start firing on him, and we'd killhim. The German tanks had better armor, a better gun, bettersteering; but we destroyed them anyway."

Anatomy of a Tank

The Gun and TurretThe tank's fundamental mission has always been to carry agun and its crew safely into enemy lines; and it is around thegun that the tank is designed. Tank warfare has always been arace between the designers of better guns and better protec-tion, advantage tilting first one way, then the other.

At the outset of World War II tanks like the British Matilda,US Stuart and their equivalents went into battle with gunsfiring projectiles of only about 37-40mm diameter, withmuzzle velocities of about 2,800 feet per second. Today, theM1A1 Abrams has a 120mm gun which sends vastly moresophisticated projectiles downrange at over 5,000 feet persecond. In 1940 the Matilda briefly seemed almost invulner-able with a maximum armor thickness of 78mm; today'sAbrams and Challengers have composite "Chobham" armorwhich probably gives equivalent protection to 400-500mm ofsteel.

A tank's main gun is expected to engage two kinds oftargets: first and foremost, enemy tanks; and secondly, fortifi-cations, emplacements, and other "point" targets. For thepast 50 years the gun has typically been designed forextremely flat trajectories, with a very high velocity round.The German 88mm gun, adapted from an anti-aircraftweapon and mounted in the Tiger tank, was the dominanttank gun of 1942-45. The 120mm-plus rounds provided forby today's tank designers streak across the battlefield at a rateof about a mile per second, and are effective against tanks atup to three kilometers range.

The gun is mounted in an armored turret allowing 360-degree rotation and protecting the fighting members of thecrew. However big a tank appears from outside, turrets havealways been cramped. Ammunition is bulky, and has prior-ity; every technical advance adds more "black boxes" to bemounted around the inside; and under combat conditionsevery cranny is stuffed with spares for the optics, batteries,rations, canteens, personal kit and weapons, and dozens ofother essentials. Since the 1940s tankers have had to stowtheir bedrolls, packs, water and cooking gear in the exposedbaskets on the outside of the turret.

The basic turret structure has normally been of cast steelalloy armor, far thicker on the front than the sides.Historically the roof was surprisingly thin; today sophisti-cated air-delivered anti-tank munitions have led to increasedoverhead protection. The main gun is mounted in the turreton a pair of trunnions - the bearing surfaces on which thetube pivots vertically. Since these trunnions and their mount-ing points absorb the recoil of the weapon they are of massiveconstruction.

The fighting compartment for the crew, rotating with thegun, has normally been a drum-shaped "basket" structuremounted below the turret ring, only partially enclosed so thatthe crew have access to ammunition and other stowage invarious parts of the hull. Electrical continuity between hulland rotating turret is obviously impossible with fixed wiring;tanks have a large rotary connector at the centre of the turretfloor, the lower part fixed and the upper allowed to rotate,containing the circuits serving all the turret-mounted compo-nents - radios, fire control systems, lighting, etc.

(Opposite) The 105mmgun and turret of an MlAbrams of the US Army's4th Infantry Division at FortCarson, Colorado. The TC(left) and loader (right) manrespectively .50cal and7.62mm externallymounted machine guns.The huge, boxy appearanceof the turret is quite decep-tive: most of its bulk istaken up by its spacedcomposite armor, and theinternal dimensions are notall that much less crampedthan in previous genera-tions of tanks.

(Below) "Say aaah...": anM60 Patton turret in theworkshop with gun removedoffers an unusual view ofthe massive cast steelarmor and the gun trun-nions. Note ammo stowageracks back in the rearbustle of the turret.

(Left) In 1940/41the Matilda's 40mm(2-pounder) gun wasconsidered - and brieflyproved - quite adequate fortank-vs.-tank combat.

(Below) Within the hullshell hundreds of differentcomponents and assem-blies have to be "wired andplumbed" in; this is anM88 undergoing major over-haul. Note the black-wrapped torsion barsacross the floor - these arethe essential element ofthe suspension, eachsupporting one of the roadwheels.

HullTank hulls are typically fabricated from plate armor,although some (like the early M4 Sherman) have used hugecast components. The armor typically comprises over halfthe weight of the vehicle. Many early World War II tanks usedface-hardened steel armor, a difficult material to work; theseare generally recognizable by their bolted construction. Castarmor allows for variations in thickness within a singlecomponent - typically, thick at the front, theoretically facingthe enemy, and thinner at the sides and rear.

Steel armor on the front surfaces of main battle tanks caneasily be over four inches (100mm) thick and is sloped,sometimes at a high angle, to deflect impacting projectiles.An angle of 60 degrees effectively doubles the protectivevalue of a given thickness of armor.The hull is normally intended to be watertight, although few

tanks will float; many, however, can wade through rivers andstreams up to three or four feet deep without preparation,and can even drive across riverbeds completely submerged iffitted with a snorkel breather system for the engine. (InWorld War II tanks were sometimes extensively modified inorder to "swim" ashore from landing craft or to makesubmerged crossings.)

In nearly all tanks the driving compartment is positioned inthe front of the hull; the engine at the rear, behind a solidbulkhead; and the turret, with its suspended fightingcompartment, amidships. The turret mounting ring and thesurrounding area of the hull are centrally important elementsof tank design; they must absorb the full force of the maingun recoil. Battle damage to the ring of bearings on whichthe turret rides can easily jam it, leaving the tank more or lesshelpless; the turret ring has always been a classic aiming pointfor enemy gunners.

(Above) Internal assem-blies are usually simplymounted to the "raw"inside surfaces of tankturrets and hulls; this is acommunications switchbox.

(Below) The engine hasbeen lifted out of its rearhull compartment duringoverhaul of this M41 tank.

Power PackTanks are tremendouslyheavy vehicles, even inWorld War II often weighingmore than 60,000 pounds(27,200kg - more than 26tons), and often more thantwice that today. Movingthat mass across countrydemands really big enginesand transmissions.

In the 1930s-40sunorthodox solutions weresometimes tried: earlyShermans used an aircraftengine, the 400hpWright/Continental R975radial (see photo). Thelater M4A4 Sherman hadits hull lengthened to takea huge 445hp ChryslerMultibank made up of fivecar engines geared to acommon drive. Moderntanks use massive 700hpor bigger power-plants,generally diesels; thel,500hp gas turbine engineof the Ml Abrams remainsunique. (Opposite above &below: modern US air-cooled tank diesels in thel.OOOhp range.)

Historically, ease ofaccess for mechanics got alow priority when fittingavailable engines into tankhulls; and even today yougenerally can't see much ofthe engine when it isinstalled, even with theaccess panels open (seeSoviet PT-76, photo left).Modern tank engines aretherefore designed for rela-tively quick and simpleremoval. Some slide outon rails, although mosthave to be lifted out with ajib-arm on a wrecker orrecovery vehicle in thefield, or a hoist back in themotor pool. Electrical, fuel,air, control linkage andhydraulic lines are all fittedwith quick-disconnects tosimplify the job of extract-ing an engine in one piece;and although never lessthan a major job, it is nowpossible (under good condi-tions) to make a completeengine change in only anhour or two.

SuspensionThe only way a vehicleweighing 30 to 60 tons canmove across countrywithout sinking to its bellyis by distributing the weightover a fairly large surface -the tracks. The "footprint"of a motor car - the surfacewhere the weight of thevehicle is in direct contactwith the road - might beless than one square foot;the footprint of an M60tank is about 67 squarefeet. A tank's ground pres-sure is often only ten ortwelve pounds per squareinch (psi).

The drive is transmittedto a toothed sprocketwheel, usually at the front,which moves ("lays") thetrack, fed forward over an"idler" wheel at the rear ofthe run and sometimessupported by "returnrollers" along the top of therun. Road wheels,mounted either indepen-dently to torsion barsuspensions, or in pairs onbogies with spring orhydraulic shock absorbers,transmit the weight of thetank to the track.

(Opposite top) M5A1Stuart: the nut on this rearidler arm adjusts tracktension. Each track plateis attached to the next byhinge-type pins, and keptaligned with the wheels bytooth-like extensions. The11.5in wide tracks give the15-ton M5A1 a groundpressure of 12.5psi.

(Opposite bottom) M4A1Sherman: these 16.5inwide tracks, with 12.25ft ofground contact, gave the28-ton Sherman a highground pressure of about14psi - inferior to manyGerman types, and aproblem in "soft going".

(Above) From late 1944Shermans were built with anew 23in wide track andthis "horizontal volutespring suspension",reducing ground pressureto llpsi.

(Left) M60A1 Pattonsuspension: the pairs ofrubber-tyred roadwheels aresupported on individualtorsion bars passing rightacross inside the belly.

(Right & below) Russian T-34: note rear-mounted drivesprocket, and Christie-typeindependent suspensionwith full-height double roadwheels. The T-34 had excel-lent floatation in mud andsnow; 19in-wide "waffleiron" track plates gave earlymodels a ground pressureof only 9psi despite aweight and "footprint"length almost identical tothe Sherman.

Track and suspensioncomponents are quitemassive and durable, andcan be difficult to work onwhen they do need fixing."Breaking" a track in thefield, to replace a damagedtrack plate while perhapsmired in mud or sand, isnot an enjoyable job.Replacing a whole throwntrack, by means of crow-bars, cable and winch, is along, back-breaking, finger-and toe-crushing ordeal forthe whole crew.

(Left) The tracks of theBritish World War IIChurchill had a very hightop run - reminiscent of theoriginal World War I tanks -to give good trench andobstacle crossing capabil-ity. The road wheels weremounted in 22 small,independently sprungbogies.

(Below) The German Hetzerwas built on the basicchassis of the "Panzer 38t"- an excellentCzechoslovakian tank takenover by the occupyingGerman forces. The tallsteel road wheels provide ameasure of extra sideprotection; and theGermans made great useof additional "skirt" plateshung along the sides oftheir AFVs.

Chapter 2

World War II: MatildaHard as it may be to believe today, in the first two years

of World War II the little 26-ton Matilda II, armed witha 2-pounder (40mm) gun and with an effective cross-

country speed of less than lOmph, was considered a heavytank - and a seriously dangerous opponent for the best tanksthen fielded by other armies.

Under the stimulus of war, developments in tank designadvanced at frantic speed during 1941-45; and by the end ofthe war tanks like the German King Tiger, US Pershing andSoviet Josef Stalin were unrecognizably superior to the bestequipment of 1939-40. But during the 20-year peace follow-ing World War I designers and tacticians had only been able tobase their work on guesses about the shape of future wars;and the relative success of tanks like the Matilda in 1939-40showed that they got at least some things right.

The theory in the 1930s - based on World War I experience- was that Britain needed three types of tank: "Light", forreconnaissance; fast, medium-weight "Cruisers" for exploit-ing break-throughs by the armored divisions; and slow,

heavily armored "Infantry" tanks to support infantry assaultson fortified defenses. The result was over-complex produc-tion: too many different types were built, in too smallnumbers, and in the fast-moving campaigns of early WorldWar II there were never enough tanks of the right type at theplace and time they were needed. The Cruiser tanks proved,in any case, too weakly armored to take on the Panzers.

However, during the British Expeditionary Force's generallydisastrous retreat to Dunkirk in May-June 1940, the first fewMatilda Us available to 7th Royal Tank Regiment gave theGermans - in the shape of the infantry, artillery and armor ofGen.Erwin Rommel's 7th Panzer Division, and the SS-Totenkopf Division - a severe fright. At Arras on 21 May, 7thRTR launched a counterattack across Rommel's fast-moving,strung-out columns; of 58 British tanks just sixteen were thenew Matilda Us, with the same 2-pdr. gun as the BritishCruisers - but with armor protection up to a maximum of78mm (3ins). So badly did they maul the Wehrmacht that 7thPanzer sent in a panicky report about attacks by "hundreds of

tanks"; in all they lost 30 to 40 AFVs and some 600 men.Under the general conditions of the Allied retreat this localvictory could not be exploited; but examination of abandonedMatildas after Dunkirk gave the Wehrmacht plenty to thinkabout.

The Matilda next went into battle in the North Africandesert in winter 1940/41, where a British Commonwealtharmy of just 36,000 faced about 250,000 Italian troops. Asingle regiment with a starting strength of less than 50Matildas (rapidly "written down" by disabling minor damageas the battle progressed) spearheaded Operation Compass,Gen.O'Connor's offensive against several Italian divisionsdispersed in fortified camps around Sidi Barrani and Bardia.In continuous close-quarter fighting the Matildas stormedthrough the Italian defenses, smashing the enemy's artilleryand tanks and clearing a path for the following infantry. Socomplete was O'Connor's victory - against huge odds - that atone point a British officer, asked to estimate the number ofprisoners taken so far, radioed the reply that there wereroughly "20 acres of officers and 100 acres of men". Not oneMatilda was destroyed by enemy gunfire; their armor wasproof against the worst the Italians could throw at them.

The appearance of the deadly German 88mm anti-tank gunin the desert during spring 1941 began the decline of the"Queen of the Battlefield"; it could punch through even theMatilda's carapace (though a hit did not always mean a kill:in June 1941 one Matilda of 4th RTR drove out of battle

under its own power, with crew unwounded, after takingthree 88mm hits). Although it was to be the end of that yearbefore up-gunned and up-armored Panzer III Js could facethe Matilda with any confidence, Rommel's Afrika Korps wastactically superior, and often made lethal use of screens ofanti-tank guns to decimate British armor before tank-vs.-tankbattles could develop.

Thereafter the gun/armor competition between Germanand Allied tank designers quickly took the state of the art awhole generation beyond the limits envisaged in the 1930s;and the survivors of the 3,000-odd Matildas built were usedas the basis for various engineer vehicles.

Twin AEC diesel engines(174hp combined), radia-tors, gearboxes and fueltanks are housed in therear hull. Drive is to rearsprockets; ten small roadwheels each side aremounted in sprung bogies.The suspension isprotected by distinctive25mm armor skirts withchutes to prevent mud clog-ging inside, and access

doors for working on thebogies. The external drumon the rear hull is a 36-gal.auxiliary fuel tank. Officialroad speed was governeddown to 15mph, but experi-enced comanders savedwear and tear by keepingbelow even that when theycould; off-road radius ofoperation was about 80miles.

(Opposite top) The 2-pdr.gun, standard armamentfor British tanks in 1939-41, mounted in the caststeel turret (75mm armor).At the time its armor-pierc-ing round could penetratethe 30mm armor of thePanzer III at 500-800yards' range, while theMatilda was proof againstthe Germans' short 50mmgun. The main weakness ofthe 2-pdr. was that it onlyfired solid AP shot. Lack ofa high explosive roundmade it ineffective againstconcealed gunpits, andagainst infantry - thoughthe latter were oftenengaged at short rangewith the co-axial 7.92mmBesa machine gun, missinghere, whose muzzle wasnormally seen in therectangular port left of themain gun.

Left) "Pistol port" in leftrear of turret, actually usedfor dumping empty shellcases.

(Opposite bottom) Stowageon the left turret bracketswas supposed to includetarpaulin covers andcamouflage netting, abivouac tent, and thecrew's bedrolls. Note alsothe commander's cupola,with two-part hatch openand periscope set inforward half; and openengine cover leaningagainst turret.

(Above) Right side ofturret. Note smoke genera-tors; behind them, maga-zine box for the Bren LMGsometimes carried for anti-aircraft defense; above,opened loader's hatch.British squadron markingswere a triangle (A Sqn.),square (B Sqn.), circle (CSqn.), or this diamond forRegimental HQ.

((Above) 78mm cast steelhull front - it's an easy tankto climb up. Note driver'sposition, with periscope anddirect vision block, andmirror mounted on a rod.Two external lockers flankthe driver's station - notelatches, just above head-lights. That on the left (asviewed) held cleaning kit,tools, spare track pins,etc.; that on the right, thecrew's coats, packs,rations, cooking gear, andair recognition panels.Individual tank namesbeginning with D - here,Dunkerque, painted acrossthe nose - identified 4thRTR.

(Left) Each regiment in aBritish formation had acode number, painted incontrasting colours on thenose. The traditionalwhite/red/white Britishnational recognition flash(first used in World War I)was also ordered paintedon for Operation Crusaderin November 1941; thecrews hated it - it made toogood an aiming mark forenemy gunners.

(Left) Spare track platesare clamped to the forwardtrack covers. The driver'sstation has a curved,padded overhead platewhich is rotated forwardand back by internal levers.During the June 1941 fight-ing one 4th RTR driver'shatch was jammed open byrepeated hits. Severalmore AP shot hit themantlet above him duringthe day's fighting, and eachtime he got a shower ofwhite-hot "spall" on hishead and shoulders.

In the weird light condi-tions of the featurelessdesert the British triedseveral camouflageschemes, often based onnaval-style "dazzle" withhard diagonal edges;colours seen striped overthe pale sand baseincluded this "silver-grey"and green, but also black-grey, tan, rust and purple-brown.

(Below) The black-on-whitejerboa sign of 4th ArmouredBrigade (comprising 4th and7th RTR) within 7thArmoured Division.

(Opposite top) Gunner'sposition on left of 2-pounder. Note telescopesight, centre; traversecontrol, left; and shoulderbrace - the gunner leantinto this to adjust elevationagainst friction dampers.Although the 2-pdr. wasnoted for its accuracy, thisarrangement meant that ithad to be layed anew aftereach shot.

(Left) The radio, mountedin an assyrnetrical space inthe turret rear andprotected by a cage. EarlyMatildas carried the No.11set, later examples thisNo.19 set. It comprised anA-set for normal use, a B-set for close range comms,and an intercom C-set.Remembering which switchto use in an emergencywas not always easy, andmany veterans recall givingcareful tactical reports totheir driver while screamingat their squadron comman-der to go left....The No.19set was also very noisy,and hours of listening tovoice and Morse transmis-sions, static and mushcould give you a severeheadache.

(Above) Looking downthrough the commander'shatch into the three-manturret. With shells, MGammo boxes, and manyother normally stoweditems absent here, it looksa lot more spacious than itwas. Note the ejectedcase shield behind the gunbreech, unfastened here tohang down - in action itwould be rotated up 90degrees, cutting the spacein half. The gunner's andcommander's seats are leftand right foreground, theloader/ operator's foldedup just left of the radio. Inall 93 racked rounds ofmain gun ammo could becarried.

"The Queen of the Battlefield":7th RTR in the Western Desert

The Matildas of 7th Royal Tank Regiment spearheadedGen.O'Connor's Operation Compass in December1940/February 1941, against vastly larger Italian forces in acomplex of positions around Sidi Barrani, Bardia andTobrukon the Egyptian/Libyan border. After careful training andrehearsal, Lt.Col."Smoky Stover" Jerram's tanks, workingwith single brigades of Indian and Australian infantry,stormed a series of Italian positions with divisional-sizedgarrisons defended by plentiful artillery and armor.Within four days O'Connor's 30,000-strong corps had taken

or destroyed 237 guns and 73 tanks and captured 38,000prisoners. The capture of Bardia on 5 January broughtanother 38,000 prisoners; that of Tobruk on the 22nd,25,000, 208 guns and 87 tanks; and of Beda Fomm on 7February, 20,000 men, 200 guns and 120 tanks (to no morethan 3,000 Commonwealth troops engaged). The Matildasof 7th RTR were the key to many of these victories, and thetank was christened "Queen of the Battlefield". Althoughmany were temporarily disabled by mine or gunfire damageto tracks and suspension, or shell splinters jamming theturret ring, there were no penetrations of the turret or hull(one Matilda crew counted no less than 38 shell scars ontheir armor), and personnel casualties were minimal.

Spring 1941 brought the German Afrika Korps to thedesert; and although the Matilda was superior to the PanzerII and a match for the early Panzer III and IV, the long50mm gun of later variants and, particularly, the 88mm anti-tank gun would end its dominance - gradually. Just nine 4thRTR Matildas handled 160 of Rommel's tanks so roughly atHalfaya Pass in June 1941 that three German senior officerswere dismissed their commands. The Matildas of 4th, 42ndand 44th RTR still fought in the successful relief of Tobrukthe following winter.

American-built scout cars and halftracks served andfought alongside tanks in many World War IIcampaigns, in the US and several Allied armies. They

equipped the armored division's vital reconnaissanceelements; they served as battlefield command, communica-tions, and ambulance vehicles; they carried the armoredinfantry, and towed or mounted the support weapons,without which advancing tanks are fatally vulnerable toambush. Indeed, the US M2/M3 halftrack series provedso versatile that it became more or less an all-purpose AFV,modified to fulfill dozens of roles; it was one of the mostsuccessful of all World War II armored vehicles, with morethan 40,000 built between 1941 and 1945. They survived inmany armies all over the world for decades, and a few werestill in front line service in Israel and Vietnam at the end of the1960s.

The White Scout Car - final designation, M3A1 - was devel-oped by the Ordnance Department during the 1930s as an

armored reconnaissance car for the US Cavalry. It served,basically as a rugged road vehicle, throughout World War IIwith US and Allied armies; but its four-ton weight, highground pressure, relatively under-powered HOhp Herculesengine and two-wheel drive gave it an unimpressive cross-country performance, and its protection was inadequate for atrue "battle taxi". From the late 1930s the US Army studiedpossible halftracked developments; the halftrack's great virtuewas that it could accompany the tanks (almost) wherevertheir mission took them, so the complementary strengths ofinfantry and tanks need not be separated.

Various experimental models during the 1930s culminatedin late 1940 in contracts for parallel production of two verysimilar but not identical halftracks: the "Car, Halftrack, M2",and the "Carrier, Personnel, Halftrack, M3". The mostobvious differences were the M2's slightly shorter body, witha machine gun rail running round its rim as on the scout car,and no rear door; and the M3's longer body (and thus greater

crew capacity), with a central rear door, and a "pulpit"machine gun position above the cab. Both lines would beproduced by a number of companies, in models with slightlydiffering details and designations; retrospective modificationswould further complicate the picture - in all more than 70distinct models were built.

By 1943 the M3 and its derivatives were favored over theM2 series, and were the types mostly issued to the armoredinfantry. They could carry 13 men (i.e. a 12-man rifle squadand a driver), so five could lift a complete platoon of an MGsquad, a mortar squad, and three rifle squads.Nearly all the armor on the scout car and halftrack was only

a quarter-inch thick, giving protection against rifle and lightautomatic fire and shell splinters; but the first GIs to takethem into battle in Tunisia had over-optimistic ideas aboutthem, which were quickly shaken by experience. The openhulls naturally gave no protection against artillery airbursts orany kind of plunging fire, and the side armor could be pene-

trated by anything heavier than infantry weapons. The mech-anized infantry in armored divisions would suffer very heavycasualties; but this was later proved to be due to their heavy"workload" - being mobile, they were simply committed tocombat more often than foot-slogging infantry.

White M3A1 scout car, typi-cally teamed up with aStuart light tank in therecon role. The nationalstar was displayed by theArmored Force in yellowduring 1942, and blue drabserial numbers from 1941.Used as a command car,

this M3A1 has two radiosinstalled.(Inset) The sprung rollerfitted to many scout carsand halftracks was to helpprevent them "rooting in"when they went nose-downin ditches or against steepbanks.

Even when the hull was notfull of radios and other gearthe scout car was cramped;it was officially supposedto seat six men in the rear,but this was always opti-mistic. Maximum roadspeed was 55mph. ThisMSAl's bumper markingsidentify 2nd ArmoredDivision, 82nd Recon-naissance Battalion,Company A, car 1.

The only armor thickerthan a quarter-inch(6.35mm) on all these vehi-

cles was the half-inch(12.7mm) steel used forthe sliding plates inside thedoor shields, and thearmored windshield whichcould be lowered over theglass, or propped up ashere. The movable armoredslats over the radiator werenot a successful solution tothe conflicting needs forcooling and protection, andvehicles were oftendisabled when their radia-tors were pierced by gunfireor shell splinters.

Interior details of the M3A1cab, with its simple instru-ments and uncomfortableseats. Note (above) howthe skid rail for themachine guns curves upinside the cab area, with apadded canvas cushionstrapped on above the doorto prevent the driver brain-ing himself.

Despite its drawbacks,nearly 21,000 MSAls werebuilt in 1939-44, and it wasused by the British,Canadian and Russianarmies as well as the US.In the counter-insurgencyrole it soldiered on inFrench Algeria into the early1960s.

(Opposite top) TheBrowning M2HB .SOcal air-cooled heavy machine guncould take on anythingexcept tank armor; thissliding "skate" mount ranaround the rail weldedinside the scout car (andM2 halftrack) hull.Temporarily clamped abovethe cab, it has a canvasbag to catch the emptycases. (Above) Early in thewar the water-cooledBrowning M1917A1 .SOcalwas also seen on suchvehicles. Note details of theskate mount; hauling a gunround the rail on this maderapid tracking or changingtargets difficult.

(Left & right) This scoutcar has command radiosfitted in the front and rearof the hull, with two back-facing seats. Many differentcombinations were used,including the SCR499 &SCR542. Note sparebatteries, .45cal ThompsonSMG, sleeping bag in thefoot well, etc.; in the fieldeven more clutter than thiswould be typical.

(Above & left) The rear hullof the M3A1 shows theconstruction: face-hardenedarmor plate bolted to thebody frame. This beautifullystowed example iscomplete with the supportsfor the canvas tilt some-times fitted over the body;and tripod mounts, allowingthe .SOcal and two .SOcalguns to be dismounted forground firing.

(Above right) This halftracktowing a 75mm gun ismarked as belonging to the4th Armored Division's22nd Field Artillery.Confusingly, it is an M2A1version - an M2 later partlymodified to M3 standard,with the hull gun railreplaced by a "pulpit" overthe cab. The ringed whitestar on the upper surfacewas adopted in 1943 asthe standard Allied airrecognition symbol.

(Right) The 12.75in-widetracks are a single mould-ing of tough rubber oversteel reinforcing cables,each with a "footprint" justunder 4ft long, givingground pressure of ll.Spsi- better than a mid-warSherman tank, and givinggood floatation on softground. Track drive is viathe front sprocket; thetension can be altered byadjusting the rear idlerwheel. Both the frontwheels and the tracks arepowered; on good surfacesthe front drive is disen-gaged and the tracks aloneare powered, but for "loosegoing" the front axle driveis also engaged. Testsagainst captured GermanSdKfz 251 halftracksshowed that the US typehad far better mobility andsteering over rough terrain,giving a better and quieterride.

Halftrack Road ReportWith an empty weight of just under eight tons, the basichalftrack APCs have a top road speed of 45mph; fuelconsumption is a little better than three miles to thegallon, and range between 180 and 215 miles. Theydrive very much like a modern four-wheel-drive off-road vehicle - on which the power steering has failed....The controls for the driver are absolutely conventional,and almost anybody could drive one on the road withminimal training. Operation off-road is a bit more of achallenge, particularly in soft going. Incidentally, allthese light armored vehicles vibrate like hell and areextremely noisy - loose bits of iron clank and rattle allover, even without a load of GIs and their kit andweapons, and would-be drivers are advised to carryplenty of aspirin. Veteran armor officer Duane Klugcomments:

"The halftrack is a bear to steer at low speeds,although it's not bad once you get it moving. As long asthe front wheels aren't engaged, it will move alongpretty well and is pretty easy to control. But once youengage the front axle it becomes much less responsive.I had to learn to double-clutch it, but if everything is setup right it drives like a regular transmission. It has asurprisingly good turning radius [59ft]. Visibility isgood, as long as the armor windshields are up and theside curtains are down. It shakes the heck out of you,though."

^vixS*''*"

(Left) About 5,000 M2 half-tracks were rebuilt, fromOctober 1943, as M2Alswith the new M49 gunpulpit; but from this anglethe shorter hull remainsnoticeable. See also one ofthe two big interior stowageboxes just behind the cab,and the outside accessdoor to the nearside box. Itwas these which reducedthe space for men; officiallythe M2 could carry ten, butin fact its size (and lack ofrear doors) limited its useto such roles as acommand or recon vehicle,prime mover for artillery, orcarrier for machine gun andmortar squads, which weresmaller than rifle squads.

(Top) The data plate inthe M2A1 cab.

(Opposite top) One of theunprimed anti-tank minessometimes carried in thehull racks, for the crew touse when consolidatingcaptured ground.

(Above & right) One half-track modification was theM16 Multiple Gun MotorCarriage, with a Maxsonturret mounting quad .50calBrownings. Some 3,500were produced from May1943 as mobile light anti-aircraft defense forarmored units. The relativescarcity of enemy ground-attack aircraft from mid-1944 led to the M16"Meat-chopper's" awesomefirepower being applied inthe ground support role.Note the cut and hinged-down upper hull plates, togive the guns more depres-sion. The M16 served onfor many years; this onebears the markings of the2nd Infantry Division's82nd Anti-Aircraft AutoWeapons Battalion duringthe Korean War, where thequad-50 tracks saw muchground fighting.

(Left) The upper armor flapon the cab doors of thescout cars and halftracksfolds outwards when not"tactical", showing thesliding plate over the visionport.

(Above) Many late-produc-tion halftracks were fittedwith a 10,000-pound-capacity winch in place ofthe sprung front roller -much more useful forkeeping vehicles movingunder the actual conditionsof Europe in winter.

(Left) Inside the halftrackcab, left side - generallyvery similar to the scoutcar. The main gearbox hasfour forward and onereverse gears, and drivingcontrols are conventional,but with extra shift leversfor front wheel drive,transfer case high and lowratios, and - when the winchis fitted - power take-off.

(Opposite top) The half-tracks are powered by atruck powerplant, the White160AX six-cylinder L-headpetrol engine rated at147hp at 3,000rpm.

(Left & above) In theory,everything in a militaryvehicle has its proper place- from the fire extinguisherin the cab, to the bucket onthe rear hull. In practice, ofcourse, soldiers oncampaign - enjoying theluxury of a halftrack ratherthan just a back-pack tostow their gear in - tendedto acquire a huge variety ofunofficial possessions.

World War II photos show agypsy array of authorizedand unauthorized weapons,munitions, bedrolls, stoves,pails, chairs, brooms,cartons, crates, sacks andbundles; some veteranseven claim to have takenalong hens for fresheggs....

(Above left & above) TheM45 Maxson turret fitted tothe M16 (and similar M17)MGMC was electricallypowered by a separate rear-fitted generator; the gunscould traverse and elevateeven when the halftrack'sengine was switched off.The gunner wriggled into aseat between the two bigcircular trunnion plates.

(Far left) The sights weremounted on a bar abovethe central cut-out in thegunner's front armor plates.

(Left) The big 200-roundammo chests were wrestledinto place by other crewmembers; the rounds aloneweighed 50 pounds. Eachgun had a rate of fire ofbetween 450 and 575rpm,giving the M16 a firepowerof around 2,000 roundseach minute - 500 poundsweight of metal.

US Armored InfantryBattalion, 1944

Headquarters CompanyBn.HQ (4 x jeeps, 2 x halftracks)Co.HQ Platoon :

HQ Section (1 ea. x jeep, halftrack)Maintenance Sect. (1 ea. x jeep, halftrack w.winch, 1-ton trailer)Admin., Mess & Supply Sect. (1 ea. x 2'/2-ton truck, trailer)

Recon Ptn. (5 x MG jeeps, 1 halftrack)Mortar Ptn. (4 x halftracks, 3 x 81mm tubes)Machine Gun Ptn. (3 x halftrack, 3 x .50cal MGs)Assault Gun Ptn. (3 x M7 SP 105mm howitzers,

2 x halftracks, 4 x ammunition trailers)

Service Company(14 ea.x 2'/2-ton trucks, 1-ton trailers; 2 x 3A-ton trucks,

3 x jeeps; 1 ea. x halftrack, 6-ton wrecker, M32 ARV)

Rifle Company (x 3)

Each 251 men, 20 halftracks:HQ Ptn:

HQ Sect. (1 ea. x jeep, halftrack)Maintenance Sect. (1 ea.x jeep, halftrack, 1-ton trailer)Admin., Mess & Supply Sect. (2 ea.x 2'/2-ton trucks, trailers)

Anti-tank Ptn. (1 x jeep, 3 ea.x halftracks, 57mm guns)

Rifle Ptns. (x 3), each:Ptn.HQ, & Rifle Squad as below (1 halftrack, . 50cal MG)Rifle Squads (x 2), each:1 halftrack, .30cal MG; 12 men; 1 ea.x .30 cal MG, bazooka)Mortar Squad (1 halftrack, 2 x 60mm tubes)Machine Gun Squad (1 halftrack, 1 x .50cal, 2 x .30cal MG)

M5A1 Stuart

The M3 Stuart light tank was rushed into production in1941 as part of America's rearmament programmefollowing the German triumph in France in 1940. It had

a maximum armor thickness of 1.5ins (38mm), and anupright, boxy shape which at 8ft 3in high made a dangerouslytall target. The two-man turret was cramped, with thecommander having to double as gun loader and radio opera-tor; at first it had only a hand-cranked traverse, and no turretfloor, so the turret crew had to take care not to get their feettrapped as it turned. Its fuel consumption was high, limitingits radius of action to about 70 miles between refuelling stops.

Yet for all these apparent drawbacks, the hard-pressedBritish tankers who received it in the North African desert

lovingly christened it the "Honey", and for several monthsused it - with more success than anyone had a right to expect- in the "Cruiser" role for tank-vs.-tank fighting. A tank'sreputation among its crews depends not just on a coldcomparison of technical specifications, but on what the crewshave been accustomed to before, and what they face on thebattlefield.

In early 1942 the Stuart's 37mm gun was good enough toknock out all Italian tanks; and most of the current GermanPanzers - if it could get to within 500 yards of them.Although the Stuart's flimsy armor put this well within thekilling range of the German tank guns, its high speed andterrific manoeuvrability allowed battle-wise crews to get into

and out of action fast. A British Stuart commander whofought the Afrika Korps in November 1941 recalled:

"I worked out a system in my troop whereby, after the targethad been indicated, a more or less automatic procedurefollowed....The object was to get close enough to the enemytank to be able to destroy it. The first order, then, was 'Driveradvance - flat out!'The gunner would do his best to keep histelescopic sight on the target all the time we were moving.The next order would be 'Driver - halt!' As soon as the tankstopped and he was on target the gunner would fire withoutfurther command from me. The sound of the shot was thesignal for the driver to let in his clutch and be off again. Fromstop to start it took about four seconds."

British tanks had suffered a chronic rate of mechanicalbreakdowns in the desert, which often took many more tanksout of battle than enemy fire. The Stuart was not just a delightto drive; it was mechanically reliable, and easy to maintainand repair even in punishing desert conditions. Though ithandled like a sports car, it never threw a track when rackedaround in a tight turn after biting off more than it could chew.

What's wrong with thesepictures? Nothing - exceptthat you would never seean armored fighting vehiclethis clean and pretty out inthe field. This particularM5A1 Stuart is a veryspecial project, restored tovirtually new condition bothinside and out, and paintedin the markings of the 25thCavalry, a recon unit of theelite 4th Armored Divisionin 1944-45. The late turrethas a distinctive armoredshield around the external.SOcal machine gun pintleon the right side.

(Opposite top) M6 37mmgun mantlet, with co-axial.SOcal MG. The 37mmarmor-piercing roundweighed 1.92 pounds; witha muzzle velocity of2,900fps, it could penetrate47mm of armor at 750yards, 63mm at 100 yards.(We must perhaps view withscepticism the legend thata Stuart in a German forestin 1945 knocked out aTiger by stalking it to pointblank range from the rearand putting a round into theengine; the Tiger's rear hullplate was 80mm thick....)The gun fired AP, HE,smoke, and - unusually - adeadly anti-personnel canis-ter round, which provedvaluable to USMC tankersin the Pacific and Britishand Indian crews in Burma.Officially 147 rounds of37mm could be stowed inracks and lockers, and6,500 rounds of .SOcalammunition.

(Left) Unlike the co-ax gun,the .SOcal Browning ball-mounted in the right side ofthe glacis and operated bythe assistant driver couldnot be sighted - it was

simply a "bullet hose", withsome deterrent value toinfantry at close range.

(Above) Looking down andback into the two-manturret of this beautifullyrestored M5A1; there isjust room for the gunner(right as viewed) andcommander (left). Thelatter also had to serve asthe loader, and operatedthe radio (top,in the rearturret bustle); this was fartoo great a workload,distracting him from hiscommand duties.

Marc Schring: "Thecrewmen in the turret arequite cramped, with smallseats. Your knees areunder the gun, up againstthe rounds in the readyrack. The hatches arepoorly designed so it istough to get in and out;buttoned up, you have noheadroom at all. If youwere in the turret youwould get bruisedconstantly - lots of sharpcorners and not muchpadding, with primitiveergonomics."

The Stuart was as popular in the Pacific theatre, where it wasthe only tank available to the US Army and Marines in theirdesperate early 1942 battles such as Luzon and Guadalcanal,and was still doing yeoman work on Eniwetok and theAdmiralty Islands in early 1944. It was used to good effectby British and Indian crews fighting in Burma - as rearguardsduring the retreat of 1942, in the battles which smashed theJapanese advance around Imphal in early 1944, and in thetriumphant offensive of spring 1945.

This later island and jungle fighting was usually carried outalmost blind - often at less than 50 yards range, againstconcealed bunkers which sometimes mounted ordnanceserious enough to take a heavy toll of the thinly armoredStuarts. But its gun was always a match for any Japanesetank encountered (these were few and far between, andusually very unskilfully handled). Its AP and HE roundswere used in deadly combination for "bunker-busting"; andits lethal canister "shotgun" rounds broke up many a banzaiinfantry charge, and swept treetops free of snipers.

From 1942 the M5 series offered many improvements,notably a better (though still cramped) power-operatedturret, a better gun mount and optical equipment, and quiet,powerful Cadillac engines with automatic transmission.Outclassed in Africa and Europe by spring 1943, and there-after replaced as a tank-fighter by the M4 Sherman, theStuart still served on until the end of the war with therecon units of US and Allied divisions - where its agility andspeed paid dividends - and in support of mechanizedinfantry. Nearly 20,000 Stuarts were built before productionceased in June 1944. Many hulls were also modified forvarious specialized tasks, mounting howitzers orflamethrowers.

(Opposite top) Lookingforward at the gunner'sstation. Extreme left, thetraverse and firing control;the elevation wheel isvisible on the left side ofthe gun mounting. Thegunner has a periscope (topleft, with white pad) forwide field vision and a tele-scope sight (center, greypad, above co-ax MG ammobox) for aiming the gun,both linked to the tube.At top right note thecommander's periscope.

(Far left) Gunner's controlhandle; the turret istraversed by rotating theblack "spade" handle, andthe co-ax .SOcal and 37mmare fired by the two redbuttons - the latter couldalso be fired by a footpedal. A gyro-stabilizer wasinstalled, holding the barrelelevation constant as thetank moved across roughterrain; but fire-on-the-moveshooting was not reallypractical, and the compen-sating rise and fall of thegun breech in the crampedturret made life difficult forgunner and loader alike -the device was usuallyswitched off.

(Left) Gunner's weaponcontrol panel, on the leftturret wall forward of theperiscope.

(Above) The comparativelyroomy driver's station atfront left, seen through hishatch; the edge of theturret "basket" curvesround behind his seat. (Itwas a design defect thatthe two front hull hatcheshad to be closed before theturret could traverse freely.)Steering was by selectivebraking of each track withtwo levers - invisible here,as in the M5 they weremounted to hang downfrom linkages across theroof rather than on thedeck. The assistantdriver/hull gunner had anunusual luxury, envied bythe drivers of other tanks: aset of duplicate controls,so that he could take overfrom the driver on long roadmarches.

M5A1 Stuart Road Report

Marc Sehring: "The driving position in the Stuart isquite nice; the compartment is roomy, and the tanksteers well. The automatic transmission makes itquite easy to drive, and the driver is the only reallycomfortable guy in the crew.... The Stuart is veryfast, light, and quiet - other than the clunking of thetracks, you can have a hard time telling if the engineis running, even from inside! That makes it a greatvehicle for scouting and reconnaissance - you couldavoid or escape a dangerous situation even whenyou couldn't shoot your way out. If you step on thegas, it really picks up and goes." When the gas pedalis pushed down as far as it will go, it not only opensthe throttle all the way; it also kicks the Hydramatictransmission into shifting down, giving excellentacceleration. Early M3 series Stuarts hadContinental petrol or Guiberson diesel radialengines and synchromesh transmission; but the M5series uses two Cadillac Series 42 V-8 car engines,each driving Hydramatic transmissions linked tothe drive shaft, and developing 220hp at 4,000 revs.That's a lot of power for a 15-ton scooter - as longas the engines are properly synchronized. DuaneKlug: "If the engines are not synchronized, you'vegot a problem; then you'll be grinding gears, andthey'll overheat. But if they're set up right, it willrun like a scalded ape!" Top speed is officially listedat 36mph.

M4A1 Sherman

The M4 Sherman was probably the most widely built andbest-known tank of World War II. It was the standardbattle tank of the US and the Western Allies from late

1942 onwards; some 55,000 were delivered to the US Army,and 26,000 served with Allied armies - 20,000 with theBritish, and even 5,400 with the Red Army. And - withapologies to any sentimental Sherman veterans - that mayseem a little odd, since it wasn't outstanding in any depart-ment.

Although a definite improvement over earlier US andBritish types, and a good match for the German Panzer IIIand IV, the Sherman was inferior to the later Panzer VPanther and heavy Panzer VI Tiger in most respects - notably,in armor protection and gun penetrating power. Its narrowtracks gave poor floatation in soft going, and its tall silhouettemade it stand out like a sore thumb. Thanks partly to thepetrol engine, but mostly to the ease with which any penetra-tion set off its racked shells, it had such a reputation forcatching fire when hit that GIs called it the "Ronson" (guar-anteed to light up at the first try...), and British tankers the"Tommy- Cooker", after their field stove.

But...it was simple, rugged, and mechanically reliable, andthat's important on the battlefield. It had a good, fasttraverse that could often give it the first shot in an engage-ment. It gave the Allies all the advantages of standardizing ona single basic design; US industry could turn them out inhuge numbers to replace battle losses, while Germany neverhad enough Panthers and Tigers to equip more than about athird of the units facing them.

The US Army made a conscious decision in 1943: to ignorecalls for rapid development of the heavy, 90mm-gun T26(Pershing) to take on the Panthers and Tigers, and instead tomass produce the M4 - a medium tank that would do the jobwell enough rather than brilliantly, and at a practical cost intime, talent, treasure, and shipping weight.

Its 75mm gun and 50mm (2in) frontal armor were not goodenough to take on a late Panzer head-to-head; but Shermancrews used their numbers, speed and agility to swarm round

the Panthers and Tigers. The Panzer might survive longenough to kill one, maybe even two M4s; but in the meantimethe rest of the platoon, working round onto its flanks, wouldbe putting rounds into its more vulnerable sides and enginecompartment from close up.

The Sherman also lent itself to adaptation. The 75mm gunwas a good all- purpose weapon with a very useful HE round;but when its shortcomings against the new Panzers becameevident, the British customized a proportion of their Shermanfleet by shoe-horning into the turret their big 17-pounderanti-tank gun. Probably the best Allied anti-tank weapon ofthe war, this 76mm (3in) gun could pierce at least 130mm ofarmour sloped at 30 degrees at 1,000 yards range, comparedto about 60mm for the 75mm gun (the frontal armor ofTigers and Panthers was around 80mm). Sadly, there werenever enough of these 17-pdr.Sherman "Fireflies" to issuemore than one tank per platoon. The US Army turned themdown, but late US Shermans received a new turret for thelong 76mm Ml series gun (which actually gave little betterpenetration than the 75mm).

One good point about the US Sherman's guns was that theirtrajectory allowed indirect fire - wartime photos show tankslined up track to track on slopes with guns elevated, firing HEbarrages over crests like howitzer batteries, a tactic impossiblefor most German tanks with their high velocity cannon.

Of the many versions of the M4 which were produced,varying in armor, turret, ammo stowage, weapon, engine andsuspension, the best - by acclamation - was the M4A3E8("Easy 8") with a big liquid-cooled V8 engine, wider tracks,HVSS suspension, and enlarged turret with 76mm gun; thesebegan to reach the troops soon after D-Day. They served onfor some years, seeing combat in Korea; and they - and manyearlier marks - would continue to serve in overseas armies fordecades afterwards. A handful served in Israel's 1948 war ofindependence, and many in her 1956 and 1967 campaigns;Shermans fought in the Indo-Pakistan wars of 1965 and1971; and in odd pockets of the Third World a few may havesoldiered on even later.

(Previous pages & oppo-site top) Cast hull M4A1Sherman, here a 1942-vintage Canadian-built"Grizzly" version, markedfor the 37th Tank Bn., US4th Armd.Div., NW Europe,1944. The welded-on sideplate gives necessary extraprotection to ammo racksinside; sadly, the white staralso makes a perfectaiming point.

(Above) The rough-cast,3.5in thick mantlet of the75mm gun; note sight aper-ture, and .SOcal co-axialMG, at left and right asviewed. (Right) A horriblyeasy kill for a Panzer: theturret rear armor is 2insthick, the engine accessdoors about half that. TheM4Al's Continental R975air-cooled radial engine ispowerful and, when wellcared-for, dependable, butnot without problems. Acold engine has to berotated with a crank handlebefore starting, to lube thecylinder walls and precludehydrostatic lock; the enginealso has to be pulled out toget at the spark plugs onthe lower end.

(Left) This M4A1 is retro-fitted with the all-round-vision cupola which wasfactory-fitted during produc-tion from mid-1943. Notethe bearings round theinner edge of the hatch,allowing the commander torotate his periscope.(Below) The M34A1mantlet, traversing andelevating with the M375mm gun to shield thegap where it emerges fromthe turret front.

(Right) The hatches fordriver and co-driver are atight and awkward fit,especially for crewmenbundled in winter coverallsand wearing shoulderholsters; getting out of a"brewing" tank was aperilous business. Notethe fixed periscope in frontof the driver's station, andthe rotating one in hishatch.

Sherman Combat ReportJohn Whitehill joined Able Co., 37th Tank Bn. as a greensecond-lieutenant after the battalion had been in combat forsome weeks. The battalion CO, the legendary Col.CreightonAbrams (for whom the Ml tank is named) looked over thereplacements he'd been sent and snarled, "If I wanted second-lieutenants I would have made some myself." But John andthe other replacements proved themselves soon enough. Johnhad four M4s shot out from under him; despite their reputa-tion, not one caught fire. John was wounded four times, andwas awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for action atBigonville, Luxembourg. A full-strength company in 1944had 17 tanks; A/37 lost 32 during the war - nearly 200 percent attrition. The normal tank company included five offi-cers; Whitehill was the fifteenth officer lost when he waswounded by a Panzerfaust; and in all Able Co. would loose176 men against an authorized strength of 117. It was, inother words, a bloody business.

"My first tank was destroyed when a German infantrymanfired a Panzerfaust at us. It hit the turret broadside, anddidn't penetrate the armor, but it sure shook us up; the noisewas tremendous, sparks and smoke flew everywhere, andthere was a smell that reminded me of brimstone. I backedthe tank up about 200 yards into a woodline, but as I wasbacking a German tank hit me with armor-piercing rounds;one hit the left front of the tank, breaking the track anddestroying a bogie wheel. We were able to back up the lengthof the remaining track, but that's all - we abandoned the tank.

"I lost my second in November 1944 while leaving a village.I was in the lead, and about 200 yards down the road I got hitby a German HE round on the left side of the tank. When Irecovered, I looked to the left and saw three German tanks;but before I could do anything they fired again. I couldn'tfigure out what they were shooting at until I saw somethingfall into the field to my right - it was my gun tube! Well, wecouldn't fire back, and we couldn't get off the road, so weabandoned that tank right there. My crew and I were shel-tering in the gutter when the German tanks opened up fromour front. One of the rounds struck my driver just as he was

crossing the road, and he was killed instantly. The remainingfour of us crawled back to the shelter of the village, and I tookover another tank.

"I lost my third tank when I ran over a mine during theBattle of the Bulge. I thought I'd been hit by a tank round,and was searching frantically for the enemy when the sergeantbehind me called on the radio telling me that it was a mine.It took out about four feet of track and the front bogie wheel,and caved in the bottom of the tank at the driver's position,injuring him. I was company commander by this time, theprevious commanders having been killed or injured. Icommandeered my sergeant's tank and told him to take careof my crew."Twenty minutes later I lost that tank, too, when I went over

the brow of a hill: with just the turret exposed, I took three APhits on the left-front corner of the turret. Again, there was ahell of a jolt, smoke, sparks, and the smell of brimstone. Theimpact knocked loose all the equipment bolted to the leftinterior wall of the turret, injuring the loader. More materialfrom the turret ring race struck the driver, cutting him. Thetank was idling when we got hit, but it was in gear; after wegot hit the whole crew except me bailed out and startedrunning to the rear. I realized the thing would still run, so Iclimbed down into the driver's compartment, turned itaround, and caught up with the crew and asked them if theywanted a ride. The tank wasn't battle-worthy, so I fought thecompany on foot the rest of the day, using hand and armsignals to issue commands.

"On another occasion the loader and I were standing up inthe hatch, scanning for targets, when a German round camebetween us, ricocheted off the turret, and decapitated theloader. He fell back into the turret, and the rest of the crewabandoned the tank - leaving me with an operable tank, nocrew, and a dead man on the turret floor. The medics cameup and we put a web belt around him under the armpits, andthey pulled while I pushed from inside, and we got him outthat way. I turned that tank over to my supply sergeant; heand his crew took GI soap and water and tried to clean it upas best they could, but he has never forgiven me...."

(Above) Driver's simpleinstrument panel on left ofseat: big speedo and tachodials, smaller gauges forammeter, oil temperatureand pressure, and fuel,triple switch (top center) forcranking engine and magne-tos, and various circuitbreaker reset buttons.

(Opposite top) Driver'sposition: black-grippedsteering brake controllevers ("laterals") betweenclutch and gas pedals;below and right ofperiscope, black knob ofprimer pump; below this onright of box, white-paintedhand throttle; adjustableseat; right of this, knobbedgearshift lever and plainparking brake.

(Right) The large transmis-sion housing between thedriver's and bow gunner'sstations (the latter's seat isremoved here). Stowedabove the transmission is alarge collapsible canvashood, complete with glasswindow and wiper; for useby the driver when driving"head out", this was gener-ally too confining andcumbersome for use in thefront lines.

(Opposite bottom) Bowgunner's station. TheM1919A4 .SOcal was - asin the Stuart - anunaimable "bullet hose",whose fire could in theorybe corrected by orders fromthe commander observingbullet strike. Some maingun and MG ammo wasstowed in the hull spon-sons beside the two frontcrew stations. The floorescape hatch was fittedbehind the co-driver's seat.

(Left) General arrangementview from rear of a"cutaway" Sherman demon-stration turret, the cutawayedges painted red: loader'sstation left of gun breech,gunner's right, and TC'sabove and behind gunner.

(Below left) Loader'sstation, looking forwards:roof periscope, breech of2in smoke mortar firingthrough roof, co-axial .SOcalwith ammo box in cradle.

(Below) Looking from leftto right across the 75mmgun breech, from loader'sto gunner's station. The co-axial .SOcal is mounted leftof the main gun and firedby this solenoid, actuatedby the gunner on the farside of the breech.

Sherman Road Report

Marc Sehring: "The M4 Sherman is a weird design: that high silhouette seems likesuch a waste of space. It is pretty uncomfortable inside. The turret is a bit cramped,particularly for the commander and gunner but not too bad for the loader. The earlySherman were a noisy tank, rough-riding and not particularly manoeuverable. I havedriven a lot of them, and some are easy to steer while others are very difficult.Visibility is poor, buttoned up.

"The radial engine isn't bad, as long as you keep it maintained - plenty of horse-power. It's pretty easy to maintain, close to theT-34 in simplicity. It uses some oil, butthen they all did. It's a hell of a fire hazard, though, and you've got to have somebodystanding there with a fire extinguisher whenever you start up. The little auxiliaryengine is a nice touch, allowing you to run the radios without draining the batteries."

Dean Klefman: "I've crewed two versions of the Sherman, the M4A3E8 'Easy 8' andthe 'Grizzly'. The Easy 8 is the Cadillac of the Shermans, a really fine tank; but it hasone bad feature, and that's a half-basket. The turret basket on this model is onlyunder the TC and the gunner; the loader stands on the hull floor when he isn't sittingdown. Other than that, it's a great tank. You've got plenty of room, good periscopes,and the loader has his own hatch - unlike the earlier models.

"Starting is extremely simple: hop in, turn on the master power switch, hit themagnetos, hit the starter switch, and BOOM, that big Ford V8 kicks in! Very reliable,and plenty of power. The nice thing about driving the Easy 8 is that you sit up high,and you're not cramped. I'm 6ft 2in tall, and still have plenty of room. Normally, youstart out in second gear; it's got five forward gears, but we seldom get it out of secondor third. And you can drive it standing up, tapping the laterals with your elbows asrequired. Once you get it going in a straight line, it will keep going straight unless youtap one of the laterals. Shifting up is easy, but downshifting requires double-clutch-ing.

"In winter it can be awfully cold. When that steel gets cold, you just can't get thething warmed up again. Even with blanket coveralls and tanker's jacket, you can reallyget chilled....You get bounced around quite a bit going across open terrain, and Itraded in my tanker's helmet for a steel pot for protection in the turret."

(Above) The usual radiomounted in the rear turretbustle was the SCR508,528 or 538. Note coveredThompson gun and itsmagazines, top, and K-ration packs, left. (Left)Looking forwards into bowgunner's station frombottom of turret: MG ammostowed on turret basketfloor ahead of 75mmammo ready rack.(Opposite top) Eight-roundready rack on turret basketfloor, looking left to right -various HE and AP typesare shown here. Other offi-cial stowage was 12rounds upright round thebasket rim, 15 and 17 inleft and right hull sponsonsforward, 15 in rightsponson aft, and 30 underthe basket floor. In prac-tice, as many rounds aspossible were piled aroundthe floor; Col.WilliamMarshall's crew found theready rack just the rightsize for bottles ofwine....(Right) Auxiliarygenerator in left rear cornerof the hull; this providedindependent power for theradio and charging thebatteries, and even a littlewarmth in winter.

(Left) Looking down intogunner's station fromcommander's hatch: eleva-tion and traverse controlsahead of flip-up seat,azimuth indicator (for usein indirect fire) to the rightof it, periscope with whitepad above controls - thetelescope sight seems tobe absent from this photo.

(Above) Gunner's recoilcontrol box, mounted onturret wall right ofperiscope.

(Above) Looking forwardsfrom gunner's seat: left,elevation control wheel,here with red-painted knob;above this, x3 M70 tele-scopic sight; center, black"spade" grip of powertraverse, with reserve handtrigger - primary firing wasby a foot pedal; right, leverof the manual traverse.

(Left) Looking forwardsfrom left rear of turret atthe M3 75mm gun in itsM34A1 mount; note coun-terweights at the rear ofthe body shield whichguarded the turret crewfrom the recoiling breech.Just visible beyond it on theright turret wall are lengthsof brown padding, to cutdown crew injuries; unfortu-nately, most were causedby heads and joints beingthrown against protrudingassemblies - which couldnot be padded, as they hadto be accessible.

(Right) Cutaway turret,looking from right to leftacross the gunner'sstation: azimuth, traverseand elevation gear, tele-scopic sight, and periscopewith slanting bar slaving itto the gun. At bottom leftthe open ammo ready rackcan just be seen.

Access to the main ammostowage under the turretbasket floor was particu-larly awkward; some co-drivers reversed their seatsto sit facing backwards,where they could moreeasily wrestle the 18- or20-pound rounds out andpass them up through thegaps in the turret basket.

(Left) Controls of Oilgeargyro-stabilizer fitted to theSherman's 75mm gun,beneath the power traversehandle. By stabilizing theangle of elevation of thegun on the move, this wassupposed to allow firingwithout halting. Reportsfrom crews varied: manydisliked it and kept itswitched off; some claimedit was useful if crews tookthe time and trouble totrain thoroughly and main-tain it carefully.

(Right) Looking from left toright underneath the gunbreech at the gyro-stabilizergear, in this case with ablack-painted control box.Note also the gun trunnion,top center, and powertraverse and elevationcontrols, right.

As the war ground on, Germany - fighting on threefronts against huge odds - found it ever harder to keepup the supply of tanks to her front line divisions. One

solution was greatly to increase the number of Jagdpanzer orPanzerjaeger - "tank-destroyers". These turretless AFVs,their guns mounted (with very limited traverse) in a fixedsuperstructure, were thought adequate for most defensivefighting - and in 1944 the Wehrmacht was fighting on thedefensive almost everywhere. Without a complex traversingturret, the tank-destroyers were quicker and cheaper to build;their low profile made them easy to conceal in ambush; andthe crews, drawn largely from the artillery, did not have to beso highly trained for battles of manoeuvre as the tank crews.

These tank destroyers appeared in many different models,using the basic chassis and running gear of existing German,French and Czech tanks; the 1944 Panzerjaeger 38 Hetzer(which loosely translates as "Troublemaker") was based onthe excellent Czech Skoda 38, which Germany had appropri-ated in large numbers in 1939 after occupyingCzechoslovakia. As a tank-destroyer it was given a low, boxysuperstructure of sharply sloped armor, and mounted anexcellent existing German gun, the 75mm L48 Pak 39.

Allied tank crews advancing into German-held territorybecame justifiably nervous of the Panzerjaegers, whosehidden presence was usually only betrayed when the firstSherman, Cromwell or T-34 in the column was suddenlystruck, with a noise like a giant's hammer hitting an anvil, andburst into flames. But the tank-destroyers suffered fromseveral major drawbacks, and once flushed from their hidingplaces they had no chance of surviving a moving fight withreal tanks.

Their guns may have been powerful, but had such a limitedrange of motion in the slots at the front of their armored boxbodies that initial aiming involved the whole vehicle - thecommander had to direct the driver to align it with a road orvalley down which the enemy were thought likely to appear,

and simply hope that they would arrive in front of him fromthe right direction. The gunner could make fine adjustments;but if the targets decided to move across the gun's front at ahigh angle it was almost impossible to track them and firebefore having to move the whole vehicle. This compromisedany camouflage and concealment - and also turned the thinside armor towards the enemy's counterfire. The Hetzer hadthe worst arc of traverse of any German SP gun: only fivedegrees left and 11 degrees right. Although the Hetzer'sexcellent chassis, engine and drive train earned it a reliablereputation, it suffered gravely from all these other drawbacks.These were summed up some years ago, in an article in AFVNews by former Hetzer combat commander Armin Sohns. Tosummarise his comments:

The main problems stemmed from the off-center positionof the gun, set in the right side of the body, which meant thatthree of the four-man crew had to be crowded into the leftside - driver, gunner and loader in single file, from front toback. The commander was stuck at the right rear, behind thegun, in a small space carved out of the engine compartment.In this type of AFV, with its particular aiming problems, closeco-operation between driver, gunner and commander is vital;separating the commander like this had a disastrous effect onefficient teamwork. Visibility was bad all round due to inad-equate provision of periscopes; the commander, stuck so farback, had a huge blind area to his front unless he exposedhimself dangerously, while the rest of the entombed crewwere almost entirely dependent on his directions.

Using existing components to improvise a fighting vehiclemay be cheaper, but it has many traps. All the breech controlsof the existing Pak 39 gun were mounted on the right side,and the main ammo stowage also had to be on the right of thehull. The loader had to lean over the gunner and over thebreech to reach them; and when the gunner traversed right,the breech moved left and pushed the loader even furtheraway from them.

(Left) Slinking out of thetreeline, the Hetzer showsa menacingly low profile - itis only seven feet high.Firing from ambush, it tooka considerable toll of AlliedAFVs in 1944-45; but ithad serious built-in disad-vantages.(Right) Right front drivesprocket and apron armor.At only 16 tons, with broadtracks, the Hetzer hadgood floatation.

••;• ••? -"x\:.

(Left) Rear hull. Note thehatch under the machinegun mounting - this is theonly entrance and exit forthe three crew memberssitting on the left of thefighting compartment - andwas only accessible whenthe MG was traversed side-ways. The commander'shatch at the right rearcorner is so small that ithas to have two flaps, onein the roof and one in thesloping rear plate.

(Right) The rear hull plate.The muffler was originallyset horizontally, but wasmodified when it proved adangerous trap for anti-tankcharges tossed onto theengine deck. The 6mmarmor panel, at lower rightof the top plate, is foraccess to the engine airfilters.

(Opposite top) This generaltype of mantlet, of steelcast in compound curves,was typical of severalGerman self-propelledassault guns and tankdestroyers; it was called asaukopf- "pig's head". Thehull front armor was 60mmthick.

(Left) The 7.62mm MG34machine gun mounted onthe roof; here it has theshoulder stock fitted, butthis was often omitted, asthe gun could be fired,elevated and traversed byremote control from insidethe fighting compartment,where a small periscopeprovides limited vision.Since it was fed by 50-round drums, however, itneeded frequent reloading;this, and dealing with anyjams, meant that thegunner or loader had topartly expose himself whilehe wrestled with it, hismovements restricted bythe small armor shields.

(Above & right) Left sideof the fighting compart-ment, with driver's seat atright foreground. There aretwo points to note. Thisvehicle is one of theHetzers taken over by theSwiss Army after the warand used until the 1960s.They kept the originalGerman radio sets, butmoved them from therear firewall to the leftsponson, as here. Abovethe radios, note the largecontrol handles for theremotely operated MG34on the roof - these were afurther inconvenience forthe hard-pressed loader.

(Above & opposite) Thedriver's station, at front leftof the hull, with the gunmount and transmissiontunnel to the right. Notepads to protect the driveron the left sponson andabove his head; AFVcrewmen, closed downinside a vehicle with verylimited vision,-are in real

danger of injury from beingslammed around by unex-pected lurches duringcross-country movement.Left and below of the twovision blocks is a black boxpierced for three cruciformlights; these are operatedby the commander to showif he wants the driver to goleft, straight ahead or right.

Hetzer Road ReportsDuane Klug: "The Hetzer is a very cramped vehicle,particularly the driver's compartment. I have a hard timegetting my feet on the pedals because they are so closetogether. You only have two small vision ports to see outof, and you're always buttoned up; the restricted vision isthe worst thing about the Hetzer. If you keep the RPMup, she'll dance right around for you, otherwise it can bequite sluggish. It has a 'pivot steer' capability that helpsbring it around, and if you've got some speed up you cando a sliding turn around a corner - and that can be a littleunnerving, until you learn how to compensate andcontrol the tank. It can surprise you how responsive theHetzer can be.

"The pre-select transmission is really great - you selectthe gear you want, then operate the clutch, and the gearchange is made automatically, up or down. That was atremendous advance for its time, 50 years ago."

Marc Sehring: "The Hetzer would have been a nightmarefor the driver. For one thing, his visibility is very bad. Youhave a very narrow field of view and no sense of depthwhile looking through the vision blocks. It is even hard totell if you're moving, because it is a loud vehicle with a lotof vibration, and you can creep ahead without noticing. Itwould be an uncomfortable tank to crew in combat,particularly for the driver, especially if you got hit; theonly way out is through one hatch at the rear. Because oflimited visibility, the first time you're likely to know you'rein trouble is when the enemy rounds start bouncing off(or going through...) the hull. And the gunner has a verylimited range of motion for the gun; the driver has topretty much rough-aim the whole vehicle and the gunnerdoes the fine tuning. It would be almost impossible toengage a target that was moving across your front."

The Pak 39 gun seen fromthe gunner's station: noteperiscope sight passing upthrough the roof (detail,above); elevation andtraverse controls on left ofgun (detail, below); butalso solid body shield onleft (loader's) side behindthe breech. Because thePak 39 was designed forright hand operation, thedeflector bar and the solidshield were on the wrongsides for the loader'sconvenience. He also hadto lean across to the rightto reach the breech operat-ing lever, safety switch andextractor release - openingthe breech for the firstround, extracting a jammedcase or unloading the gunall required considerableagility.

In any of the innumerable arguments which crop up amongarmor enthusiasts as to which was the best tank design ofWorld War II, the M4 Sherman and the Panzer V Panther

will always have their advocates; but for all-round perfor-mance, the author's vote for the blue ribbon has to go to theSoviet T-34. Tanks are all about firepower, protection andmobility; in its developed version the T-34 had a very power-ful gun, heavy and excellently shaped armor, a first rateengine and drive train - and it simply blew the doors off thecompetition.

When the German Panzers first encountered properlyhandled T-34s in any numbers - those of Col.MikhailKatukov's 4th Tank Brigade, at Mtsensk, south of Moscow,on 4 October 1941 - the experience was profoundly shocking.Since the launching of Operation Barbarossa in June theGerman tankers had been massacring their Soviet opponentsin enormous numbers. Although much of the huge RedArmy tank fleet was technically obsolete or mechanicallyunserviceable, many hundreds of excellent new KV-1 andT-34 tanks had in fact been delivered; Soviet weakness lay in thestandard of command and control, communications andtactical training. Their repeated easy victories led somePanzer officers to express a puzzled contempt for their enemythat summer. Yet after Mtsensk, no less a leader thanGen.Heinz Guderian would admit the plain superiority of theT-34 over the German Panzer IV - and recommend thatGerman designers should simply produce a direct copy of it,as the quickest solution.

Throughout the terribly costly years of 1941 and 1942,newly promoted young Russian tank officers learned andapplied the hard-won lessons; and the factories - some safe farbeyond the Urals, some a couple of miles from the front linesin besieged cities - kept on pouring out T-34s. The type was

steadily improved; before the appearance in early 1943 of thePanther (inspired by German study of the T-34), the Panzerdivisions had nothing which could challenge it head to head.From spring 1944 the up-gunned 85mm model could givePanthers and even Tigers a run for their money - and now thebalance of sheer numbers had tipped back in Russia's favour.Although newer, more powerful designs appeared by 1945,the T-34 remained by far the most numerous tank in RedArmy service. It was the faithful tridsatchetverka ("little thirty-four") which pushed back the ramparts of Hitler's empire, allthe way from Stalingrad to the streets of Berlin.

Production of theT-34/85 continued after World War II, notonly in the Soviet Union but also in Poland andCzechoslovakia; one source states that it may not finally haveceased until 1964. Exact figures are unknown, but authoritiesestimate wartime production of all T-34 models at around40,000, with about the same number built post-war. The T-34/85 was supplied to many foreign armies after 1945; it sawaction with the North Korean, Egyptian, Syrian, Hungarian,North Vietnamese, Cuban and Angolan forces, and smallnumbers lingered on in Africa and Asia until the moremodern T-54/T-55 series became cheaply available in theThird World. The T-34 shares with the M4 Sherman, and theBritish Centurion, the record for the longest service life of anyAFV in history - so far...

Crewing the T-34/85Inside, the T-34 is noticeably roomy compared to theSherman. There is no turret basket providing a separate floorfor the fighting compartment, revolving with the gun; thegunner, loader and commander sit on seats attached to the

Probably the best tank -measured against itscontemporaries - of WorldWar II: the 85mm gunversion of the RussianT-34. This ex-CzechoslovakArmy example is fitted outas a battalion comman-der's mount in 1944-45,with the turret slogan

For Stalin! In the head-onphoto, note the frontalprotection provided for thecommander and loaderwhen riding "head out"behind their uprighthatches, and the thicknessof the driver's open hatchin the glacis plate.

turret ring or to the gun, or stand on the ammunition binswhich form the floor of the hull - and when the turrettraverses, you'd better be ready to traverse yourself along withit, or you can get snagged in the works.

As is common in Soviet tanks, the gunner (who on earliermodels of the T- 34 had to double up as the tank commander)works from the left side of the gun. The controls for thesuperb D-5T 85mm gun are elegantly simple: hand wheels forelevation and traverse, a single periscope for a wide field viewof the area in front of the gun, and a telescopic sight for align-ment with the target. The gunner uses an electric drive totraverse the turret rapidly into rough alignment with thetarget, then shifts to the handwheels for precision gun laying.

The TC has a flip-down seat behind the gunner, and acupola with all-round-vision optics and a large forward-opening hatch. He operates the radio, which is mounted on

the turret wall to his left. The gunner shares his hatch forentry and escape.

The loader works from the right side of the turret; it musthelp if he's left-handed, because serving the gun is awkwardfor a right-handed man. He feeds the gun initially from aready rack holding nine rounds, stowed against the hull.Most of the ammunition - offically, another 51 rounds - isstowed in the protected bins which form the floor of the hullinterior; getting it out and up to the gun, while the tank wasrocking and rolling across country, must have been quite achallenge. He has his own hatch in the right side of the turretroof, but no cupola.

The driver and bow gunner sit side by side up front, withlimited headroom; but because the final drive is at the rear ofthe tank they don't have a big transmission tunnel filling uptheir space. The driver uses a conventional pair of track

Continued on page 86

(Left) Note rough finish ofturret casting: in World WarII all that mattered wasgetting tanks out of thefactory, onto the flatcar,and off to the front.(Right) Engine compart-ment and final drive; therear hull plate protectingthe 500hp V-12 diesel was45mm thick, as was thearmor over the interior fueltanks dispersed around thesides. The engine bulk-head was thin, making thefighting compartment verynoisy.

(Left) Extra fuel tanksstrapped round the outsideof the engine compartmenthave long been a feature ofRussian tanks; the theoryis that if they are going toget hit and burn, it wouldbe best if they burnedoutside the tank. In fact,being diesel- rather thanpetrol-fuelled, and withmost of its ammunitionstored so low down, theT-34 did not burn as readilyas German tanks.

(Left) The glacis, 47mmthick and sloped at adramatic 60 degrees tothrow off shot, was a greatstep forward in protection.Note the hammerhead towhooks each side of thespare track plates; the bowgun's protective mantletand telescope port; andthe two driver's hatchperiscopes.

(Right) Paired, rubber-tyred, full height, indepen-dently sprung steel road-wheels of the Christie-typesuspension, with 19in-widetracks, gave a roller-coaster ride but excellentfloatation.

(Left) The left side of thedriver's station: at top left,the cylinder of the fronthatch counterweightassembly; bottom left,compressed air cylinder forcold weather starter; onsmall panel left of hatch,tachometer and speedo-meter.(Right) The front hull,looking forwards into thedriver's and bow gunner'sstations from low down inthe loader's station insidethe turret ring. Thedriver's steering levers,pedals and gear shift arequite evident; the machinegun has a canvas bagrigged to catch empties,and plentiful spare drumsstowed around it - notealso its telescopic "peep".An escape hatch is let intothe floor in front of thegunner's seat.

(Left) Looking forward fromthe loader's station right ofthe gun breech: note thefloor made up of ammuni-tion bins; drum magazinerack for co-axial machinegun on right of turret;below it, turret traverselock. This turret has beencalled cramped; but itappears fairly roomycompared with the M4A1Sherman, and positivelyluxurious after the badlydesigned two-man turret ofthe old T-34/76.

(Right) The right side ofthe breech of the D-5T85mm gun, with the leverused to crank open thebreech before loading thefirst round - recoil opens itthereafter - and the gunsafety switch, top right.

(Top & above) Left side ofthe breech, from behind thegunner's station: notebrown gunner's seat flippedup; periscope and tele-scopic primary sight aboveelevation and traversecontrols; gun control switchboxes on turret wall.

This gun could penetratethe side or rear armour of aPzKw VI Tiger at a mile, butits turret and hull frontarmor only at about 200yards. The Tiger couldpunch an 88mm AP roundthrough the T-34/85's turretfront at 1,400 yards, buthad to come to within 100

yards to be sure of penetrat-ing the glacis. In battle,tactical skill and fast, accu-rate shooting counted formore than cold mathemat-ics. In August 1944, in thefirst encounter with KingTigers on the Russian Front,a heavily camouflagedT-34/85 ambushed andknocked out two in as manyminutes from 200 yardsbroadside on, using fourspecial high velocity tung-sten-cored AP rounds oneach. He then got a thirdwith a single round throughthe rear plate.

braking levers for steering control, just as in most other tanksof the period. These are notoriously stiff, and cross-countrynavigation requires considerable brute strength; it is a long-standing joke that T-34 drivers must have been recruited (ordeliberately bred...) about five feet tall, with ape-like arms ofroughly the same length. Stirrup-type pedals are provided forthe clutch (left) and parking brake (right), and a pedal oper-ates the foot throttle (far right); the hand throttle and gearshift lever are to the driver's right. An extremely Spartan arrayof instruments to the driver's left and front report on basicengine conditions. A high pressure compressed air tank isattached in front of or left of the driver, part of an ingeniousand very efficient system for starting the engine in coldweather; the primary starter motor is electrical.

When out of battle the driver enjoys much better forwardvision (and ventilation) than most of his contemporaries: ahatch large enough for him to enter and leave the tank is setin the glacis ahead of his station, and can be hinged up andfixed open when conditions allow. When it is locked down forcombat forward vision is as mediocre as in other tanks of thetime, through two periscopes set in the hatch.

In early model T-34s the bow gunner/radio operator oftendidn't have much to do, since only the tanks of platooncommanders and above were even fitted with radios - the resthad to communicate by waving signal flags.... In the T-34/85,which saw the radio moved up into the new three-man turret,he was still not over-employed unless the driver got killed orwounded, when he was supposed to drag him out of the seatand take over.

His ball-mounted 7.62mm DT machine gun was aimed (ina rudimentary fashion) through a small x2 telescopic sight; itwas useful against any infantry foolish enough to positionthemselves directly in front of the hull. The DT is fed bydrum magazines, and a plentiful supply of spare drums areprovided in racks to the bow gunner's front and right. Thegun has a telescoping shoulder stock and a separately stowedbipod mount; it was the bow gunner's job to dismount it forground combat if the crew abandoned the tank. He hadplenty of time: unless by some miracle the floor hatch hadenough ground clearance, he wasn't going anywhere untileither the driver or the loader had made it out of their ownhatches.

(Left) The radio equipmentin this ex-Czech Army tankis of Czechoslovak manu-facture, but installed in theoriginal position high on theleft turret wall, convenientto the commander's hand.Two of the cupola visionblocks are seen above it.

(Below) A slightly confusingangle, but a useful shot tohelp "tie up" the variouscomponents in the left sideof the turret. We are lookingupwards from the floor ofthe gunner's station, pastthe gunlaying controls andtelescope sight at left andcenter, to the radio at upperleft, and the inside of thecommander's cupola andhatch at top center.

T-34 Road ReportMarc Sehring: "The T-34 is crude, basic, noisy, smoky,smelly - a very charming, very Russian tank! I like theT-34; it is simple, without frills, designed to fight andsurvive, without any consideration for crew comfort.Working in the turret could be dangerous. Visibilityisn't great, particularly for the bow gunner, who can'tsee anything unless it's directly in front of his little'scope. But it will take off and run really well - it is afast, reliable tank.

"The driver has to be built like a horse to drive it, butonce you're out in open country it rides very well; thetracks are wide enough to give it good floatation. Youare surrounded by fuel and ammunition, but the armoris thick and beautifully shaped - the shape of the vehiclewas well ahead of its time.

"The V-12 engine is a great powerplant, very welldesigned and highly dependable. I've never had aproblem with Soviet engines, anyway. They do burn oil,but the Russians planned for that, and you've got a bigtank to keep the crankcase filled - if you aren't burningoil in a T-34, it means there's no oil in the engine. Andthe air start system works really well - the engine fires upevery time.

"The gunner's sight is pretty good for its time - goodfield of view and a pretty bright sight system. The turrettraverse system is simple but effective. The real problemis communication between the commander and thegunner, which has to be good, because the gunnerdoesn't have a wide field of view.

"You can't really sneak up on somebody with them,but they weren't designed for that - they were designedfor the attack. And if they'd gone up against ourAmerican tanks of the time, we'd have lost: it's a muchbetter design than the M4 Sherman, with a lowersilhouette, much better gun, better armor, better slope,a great suspension system, simpler, easier to maintain -a superior machine."

Chapter 3

Wars Warmand ColdM37 Howitzer Motor CarriageThe development of armored divisions before and duringWorld War II was not just a story of bigger, faster, betterprotected tanks. Tanks which advance alone are vulnerable toa range of enemy weapons, from dug-in long range anti-tankguns to courageous infantrymen with hand-held bazookas orshaped charges. The effective armored formation mustinclude infantry, as mobile across country as the tanks, andwith some measure of armor protection to allow them to ridequickly into the forward edge of battle - thus the halftracks ofWorld War II, and today's fully tracked, fully armored person-nel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles. Tanks and infantryalso need their own artillery support, capable of accompany-ing them across any terrain, to provide heavy howitzerbarrages onto area targets.

All the major combatants of World War II fielded "self-propelled artillery" in the shape of howitzers mounted inpartly enclosed, thinly armored housings on tracked chassis;and it was obviously economic to use the chassis and runninggear of existing tanks - sometimes their own current battletanks, sometimes captured or obsolete types. The best knownAllied SP gun was the 105mm howitzer mounted on the M4Sherman chassis - the M7 Priest. At the end of the war a newlight tank, the M24 Chaffee, began to replace the M5 Stuartin the recon role. This had a well-designed and well-poweredchassis and suspension, which were later used as the basis fora number of other armored fighting vehicles. One of themwas the M37 Howitzer Motor Carriage, of which a splendidlyrestored and stowed example is illustrated here.

(Above) The tall machinegun "pulpit" off-set besidethe gun gives this HMC animmediate look of the oldWorld War II M7 Priest, buta glance at the running gearquickly identifies it as basedon the M24 Chaffee. The16in-wide tracks and 20.5ton loaded weight give areasonably low ground pres-sure of 11.7 pounds. TheM24 also served as thebasis for the M19 twin-40mm anti-aircraft GMC,and the heavy M41 155mmHMC. Only about 300 ofthese M37s were built from1945, but- like the M19and M41 - it did see combatin the Korean War, with suchunits as the 58th FieldArtillery Battalion (whichfought with the 3rd InfantryDivision).

The open box body charac-teristic of SP guns of thisvintage gave some protec-tion against small arms andshell splinters, but no over-head cover; they were notintended to fight in the frontline of battle, deliveringdirect fire, but to lob shellsover hills from the rear gunlines. Aircraft were alsogetting too fast to track withhand-aimed guns; and that.50cal pulpit was as muchfor psychological comfort asin any serious expectationthat the crew would have touse it for real.

(Right) The driver's stationat left front of the M37 isidentical to that of the M24tank, though the latter alsohad an assistant driver/bowgunner's position with dupli-cated controls. The simplepanel houses dual instru-ments for the two HOhpCadillac V-8 petrol engines.

(Above & left) Breech area,looking forward: like manypre-existing guns pressedinto service in AR/c -^othan being designeu iu, o.e.job from scratch, thehowitzer has been turnedon its side to make it fit.The box body gives theseven-man crew more roomto stow their gear thantankers enjoy; everythinghas its place, from thestriped aiming stakes tobinoculars and canteens.Note the crew's .SOcalcarbines stowed with a fuelcan and six "ready rounds"on the right of the breech.

(Below) At the right front ofthe hull six fused roundsare clipped in a ready rack,for a "hip shoot" or emer-gency fire mission. Therest of the main gun ammo- officially listed as 26rounds, but photos showtwice that many carried -were kept in their protectivefiberboard packing tubesand stacked upright in binsalong the hull sides.

The Soviet T-54/T-55 series is the hands-down, all-timemost popular tank in history. Perhaps 100,000 exam-ples have been built; and these tanks have served with no

less than 50 armies and quasi-armies throughout EasternEurope, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America.The T-54 was developed immediately after World War II; thefirst prototype appeared in 1946, and it went into Red Armyservice by 1950. The very similar but improvedT-55 followedin 1960. The USSR supplied and licensed them at favourableterms to its satellites, and to other favored clients as part ofits drive for world-wide influence throughout the Cold War.The series was adaptable; improvements were steadily incor-porated, and many specialist modifications and conversionswere carried out over the years. Russia was still buildingT-55sin 1979; and they are readily available today for aboutS 10,000 US per copy.

The T-54/T-55 family have seen combat on many battle-fields, but will forever be associated with the Middle Eastwars of 1967 and 1973. In the Sinai desert in 1967 theEgyptian Army lost nearly 400 to Israeli aircraft and in battlewith Israeli M48 Pattons and Centurions. In October 1973,after a much more evenly balanced start, enough werecaptured for Israel to take them into service, with suitablemodifications - a considerable compliment. In the savagetank battles on the Golan Heights in 1973 Syrian tankersvery nearly broke through Israel's defensive line.

Several hundred Indian Army T-54s and T-55s also sawaction against Pakistan in December 1971 - interestingly,coming up against Pakistan's T-59s, the Chinese-builtversion, in the Chaamb sector. Honours were roughly even,despite the Indians having the advantage of better AP ammu-nition and infrared night fighting systems. These active IRsystems, fitted to theT- 55 since the late 1950s, were usefulback then, but are a real hazard on the modern battlefield.One IR searchlight is slaved to the main gun, and a smallerone is installed on theTC's cupola (see photos), allowing himto search for and acquire targets. IR radiation is invisible tothe unaided eye, but highly visible to anybody on the battle-field with a similar system; a tank which powers up an IRsearchlight is essentially shouting "Over here, guys!" to anyenemy tank with an IR viewer within line-of-sight. Modernpassive night vision systems have entirely outclassed IRnowadays.

More than 3,500 T-54s and T-55s made up the bulk ofSaddam Hussein's Iraqi armored force during the 1990/91Gulf War; huge numbers of these were destroyed by USaircraft and later Coalition ground attacks. While the T-55was a great tank in its day, that day has passed; it is totallyoutclassed by tanks like the Ml Abrams - whose fire controlsystems can easily home in on it in any light conditions;whose gun can easily outrange and penetrate it; whose armoris virtually impervious to its AP rounds; and which can out-manoeuver it on any battlefield.

(Previous pages & aboveright) T-55A in Czech Armymarkings; this variant -lacking the bow machinegun - appeared in 1963.Fully combat loaded, thesetanks weigh about 40 tonsand exert about ll.Spsiground pressure. Theseries typically uses a250hp model V-54 dieselengine, a massive air-cooled V-12; the T-55 has aslightly up-rated modelV-55. Top road speed isabout SOmph, and combatrange about 250 miles.

T-55 Road ReportMarc Sehring: "I am really impressed with the way theSoviets put these vehicles together: they're monsters,they're crude, they have lots of horsepower, lots ofarmor, a really big gun, lots of ammunition, lots of fuel,and the engine just drinks oil - this is a man's tank!

"I love to drive the T-55; it is an awesome machine.That big V-12 diesel sounds just amazing, with atremendous roar and a distinctive clinking from thetrack linkage. They steer very well, much better thanAmerican tanks of the same period. The night visionsystem,smoke capability, and the deep fording capabil-ity all made the tank really capable for its day. In fact,it has lots of little bells and whistles: compass, excellentcompressed air or electric starters, lots of back-upsystems - you can even clean the periscopes with airpressure, from inside. The 100mm gun was excellentfor its day, and you've got pretty good vision, evenbuttoned up.

"It is harder to maintain; the access to the engine issomewhat limited, although the filters can all be cleanedin the field. It is designed to be maintained in the field,and it has enough back-up systems that you can over-come most failures. The components are beefy, partic-ularly compared to American equipment. It is a veryrobust tank, and hard to break; that means that incombat you can worry about the enemy rather thanyour own vehicle."

(Above) The turret is amassive casting with awelded-on armor plate roof.At first the T-55 was notfitted with the external12.7mm DShK heavy anti-aircraft machine gun; in thelate 1960s, with the growthof NATO's tactical groundattack fleet, they were retro-issued, and the ammo hadto be stored in these exter-nal boxes.

(Right) The very sharplysloped glacis is nearlyseven inches thick; thestraight weld distinguishesthe T-55 from the T-54.

(Left) Looking fromgunner's station to rightrear of the turret, under theloader's hatch; the AK isjammed behind a clip for100mm ammo. The turretlooks deceptively roomy - itis in fact very cramped,especially when the (stillinadequate) load of 43 x100mm rounds are stowed.

(Right) Driver's station atfront left: controls areconventional - brake, clutchand accelerator pedals,lateral steering levers, anda five-speed gear shift. Hecan drive "head out", butthe gun cannot traverse ifhe does. The driver is notseparated from the fightingcompartment by a bulk-head; the whole T-55A inte-rior has an overpressuresystem, to keepcontaminated air out in anuclear/biological/chemicalenvironment. Diesel fueland main gun ammo arestowed to the right of thedriver's compartment.

(Left & right) Commander'sand gunner's stations onleft of D-10T2S 100mmgun breech; and detail ofgun and turret controls andtelescopic sights. The gunis stabilized in both axes,and has power elevation;traverse is electrical withmanual back-up - about 30per cent slower thanWestern hydraulics. The TCacquires a target with hisdesignator sight, traversesthe turret into a rough aim,passes estimated range tothe gunner, and orders theloader to select a round;the gunner then takes finalaim, and the TC gives theorder to fire. The smallturret size, and his awkwardposition right of the gun,hamper the loader wrestlingwith the 50-pound shells -rate of fire is typically onlyhalf as fast as with NATOtanks.

I t is a reflection on the extraordinary speed with which weadapt to new circumstances that it is already quite hard toremember the atmosphere of the 1970s and 1980s, when

the prospect of all-out war between the forces of the WarsawPact and NATO seemed very real. The M60 - which kept thename Patton, first used for the M46 tank of the 1950s - wasdesigned and built to fight that war which never came.Introduced in 1960 in direct response to the appearance ofthe Russian T-54 series, this 45-tonner retained a few featuresof the earlier M48 but was armed with a deadly new 105mmgun, and powered by a safe and frugal 750hp diesel giving a300-mile combat range.

The M60A1, with an improved turret, appeared in 1962; itserved with the US Army and Marine Corps throughout the1960s and 1970s, its engine, electrical systems, and firecontrol equipment being steadily up-graded. Only engineerand bridge-laying variants saw action in Vietnam; but guntanks saw hard and costly fighting in the ranks of the Israeliarmored brigades in the 1973 Middle East war and theLebanon invasion of 1982. This battle experience identifiedseveral weak points, leading to improved protection of theturret ring area; the replacement of the very inflammablehydraulic fluid used in the traverse system; and the attach-ment of "reactive" explosive slabs outside the turret, to deto-nate HEAT projectiles before they touched the steel.

The final M60A3 version appeared at the end of the 1970s,incorporating all the successive improvements. Intended toface any Warsaw Pact onslaught in Central Europe, it wasdesigned and equipped to destroy T-55s, T-62s and APCs bythe platoon and the company, and to go head-to-head with itsnatural foe, the T-72. It might have succeeded, too: theM60A3 is a superb tank, with a better gun system than thefirst generation Ml Abrams. Though it is less heavilyarmored than the T-64 and T-72, its dual-stabilized 105mmgun - based on the British L7 series - has a hyper- velocity APround with a depleted uranium core which can punchthrough any Soviet armor at long range. The US Army rates

its effective reach at 3,000 yards, about 30 per cent betterthan current Soviet equivalents; and despite the M60's tallerprofile, the ability to depress the gun to -10 degrees allows itto engage from a lower hull-down position.

The M60 is powered by a big 12-cylinder diesel coupled toan excellent automatic transmission. People who have drivena variety of tanks acclaim the M60 as one of the very easiest,and it is used for driver training at the Patton Museum at FortKnox, Kentucky. It is set up very much like a conventionalautomobile with automatic transmission, with just twoforward gears and one reverse - a considerable improvementover the manual shifting required in earlier US tanks andcurrent Russian models. Six paired road wheels, torsion barsuspension, and massive tracks give the tank a very comfort-able ride across difficult terrain, and excellent traction on theslimy German hillsides it had to negotiate in the annualNATO "Reforger" exercises of the 1980s. The M60 will do30mph on a good road, less on broken ground - but it will stillbe pretty fast. It will get across an eight-foot ditch and climba 60 degree gradient; you can ford a stream four feet deepwithout preparation, or 13 feet deep with the snorkel.

One strikingly different variant, the M60A2 (unofficiallynicknamed the "Starship" by crews frustrated at its complex-ity), entered limited US Army service in the middle 1970s. Itfeatured a new, smaller turret mounting the same M162 dualpurpose 152mm gun/Shillelagh missile launcher as installedon the M551 Sheridan. With two-axis stabilization for boththe main gun and the cupola, and a laser rangefinder (a USfirst), theTC could designate and lock onto a target for auto-matic "hand-off" while the gunner engaged another target.Unfortunately the M60A2 suffered most of the same prob-lems with the missile and the fragile, damp-prone, unreliably"self-consuming" combustible case ammunition as did theSheridan; and while these were eventually sorted out, by thattime advances in conventional gun ammunition and firecontrol systems cut its career short.

(Opposite top) A platoon ofM60A3 tanks rumblestowards the sound of gunsat the massive US MarineCorps training area aroundTwentynine Palms inCalifornia's Mojave Desert.They are fitted with clustersof smoke grenade discharg-ers on the turret; and - seethe orange "bubblegum"light rising from the rear -with the MILES lasersystem which accuratelymonitors "hits" during train-ing battles.(Above) An M60A1 out topasture; apart from theabsence of the smokegrenade tubes this exampleis structurally complete.(Right) This shot remindsus of the abuse that tanktracks have to endure,particularly from abrasivesand and gravel; eventoday's massively strongsteel and rubber compo-nents don't last for ever,and track life is an impor-tant factor in the calculationof a unit's overall combatreadiness.

(Above) The turret bustlerack provides handy exter-nal stowage for suchnecessities as water, sparetrack pads, machine gunammunition, tarpaulins,cases of MRE rations, andthe crew's packs andbedrolls. The insignia boardshows the tank's positionin the unit in coded form:the shapes of the yellowbackground and central ODpatch indicate the battalionwithin the brigade, and thecompany within the battal-ion; the white III identifies3rd Platoon, and the singlebar below it the first tankin the platoon.

(Right) An M60A1 driverpeers up from his solitarystation centered in thefront of the hull - note theswivelling hatch.

(Right) M60A1: this power-ful xenon searchlight,slaved to the main gun,was a feature of the M60,Al and A2 variants.(Below) The enclosed, ind-ependently traversingcommander's cupolamounting a .SOcal machinegun was a development ofone fitted on the earlierM48A2. It proved unpopu-lar with Israeli combatcrews; in its high position itwas sometimes hit by tankshells, which ripped thewhole ton-weight assemblyout, and the IDF laterreplaced it with a lower,conventional cupoladesigned to protect a "headout" commander fromabove. Before the develop-ment of laser rangefinders,coincidence optical systemswere the norm; the TC'speriscope and rangefinderwere positioned centrally onthe cupola, and the lateraloptics as far apart aspossible - see inset, theprotruding ball housing ofthe left optic.

(Opposite & above)Gunner's and commander'sstations, M60A3: the prolif-eration of "black boxes" ina modern tank reflects theenormous advances intarget acquisition and firecontrol in the past 20years, due to such newtechnologies as computerscience and lasers.

In World War II a tankgunner looked for an enemytank through a telescopicsight; lined it up with thesight reticle; made aneducated guess at rangedepending on how big hethought it was and howmuch of the sight picture itfilled; "layed off" deflectionfor angle and speed ofmotion based on hiseyesight and practical ex-perience - and fired, hopingto correct his aim byobserving the fall of shot.

The M60A3 was intro-duced in 1978 with a laserrangefinder and a solidstate ballistic fire controlcomputer; a laser beam is"bounced" off the target,feeding the computer withexact range data. It wassoon fitted with a thermalsight; this "sees" anddistinguishes between thenatural infrared emissionswhich all objects give off,and amplifies those of e.g.a warm-engined vehicle intoa sight picture - not only atnight, but also through fog,rain, and the dust and

smoke of battle. TheM60A3 was the first tankfitted with this device,which greatly increases thechances of a first-round kill.It also has a sensor whichfeeds the computer directlywith wind speed informa-tion, taking into accountthe type of round selectedwhile correcting the aimautomatically.

(Right) Gunner's firecontrol computer inputpanel.

M60A3 Road ReportRichard Boyd: "The A3 is clearly not a modern tank anymore. Its armor protection isnowhere near that of current tanks, and its 105mm gun is no longer equal to the mostmodern tank guns - although it would still be formidable under some conditions. TheA3 was excellent in its day, with the best thermal sights ever manufactured - betterthan the first generation sights in the original Ml Abrams. It had a very good firecontrol system that required a well-trained crew - not as 'idiot-friendly' as the Ml firecontrol, but devastating in the hands of a sharp crew. I went to gunneries where wenever shot twice at the same target, and never missed one. The results of tank combatduring the Gulf War showed that with American training and fire control systems theprobability of getting first-round kills on anything out to 2,500 or 3,000 meters is veryhigh.

"The M60A3 was not as mobile a tank as the current generation, although it wasgood in its day. It was a very easy tank to learn to drive, at least at the entry level - itonly took about ten seconds to teach somebody all they needed to know (in theory)to drive one. You have aT-bar for steering, a brake, a gear selector with just two posi-tions for forward motion, and a starter button. You get in the tank, push the starterbutton, put the tank in gear, pressed the accelerator, and away you go - it really ispretty much dummy-proof."

(Above & right) Radioinstallation and some ofthe ready ammunitionstowage in an M60A1turret bustle. These protec-tive tubes for individual105mm rounds are fittedwherever there is room forthem, including 26 flankingthe seat in the driver'scompartment; in all 63rounds are carried for themain gun, plus 900 for the.50cal machine gun in theTC's cupola, and another5,950 for the 7.62mm co-axial gun. The turret isspacious and well laid out,with room for even tallcrewmen to stand upcomfortably; its format isconventional, with theloader on the left of thegun beneath his own roofhatch, and the gunnersitting ahead of the TC'sknees on the right.

U nder the urgent conditions of a shooting war it isinevitable that new equipment - aircraft, guns, tanks -will be sent into the line prematurely, before they have

been thoroughly tested. Their equally inevitable shortcom-ings will show up in combat, rather than in the controlledprivacy of a test program; and inevitably, men will die beforethe problems are identified and solved. Under the pressureof war, with line commanders crying out for new weapons toreverse an enemy advantage, all this is unavoidable; some-times, however, it is the unnecessary result of simple bureau-cratic bungling.

Like so many other revolutionary designs, the M551Sheridan airborne reconnaissance tank seemed like a goodidea at the time. It was a response to conflicting demands: fora fast, agile recon tank light enough to be air- dropped withthe airborne division, but heavily armed enough to give theparatroopers some serious anti-tank muscle. The firstrequirement worked out pretty well: the Sheridan is fast,manoeuvrable, and genuinely air-droppable. Once on theground and reunited with its separately parachuted crew, theM551 is a first rate AFV for the recon and cavalry missions,able to shoot, scoot, and communicate. Its armor is far toolight to survive a head-to-head with an enemy Main BattleTank, but that isn't its job.

The problems arose from the ambitious, exotic armament.Since 1959 designers had been studying the concept whichemerged as the MGM-57 Shillelagh missile launcher/152mmgun system, for use in various planned new tanks both lightand medium. A guided missile would give excellent anti-tank performance without the massive recoil of a big cannon,and could thus be fired from a light vehicle. To keep costsdown, the other types of ammo needed would be fired fromthe same weapon as more conventional shells. But forvarious reasons it was also decided to develop "self-consum-ing" or combustible projectile cases for these - cases made ofmaterial which, apart from a small metal endpiece, wouldburn away to nothing in the barrel at the moment of firing.

Development of the tank itself went smoothly; but the

armament caused one headache after another throughout the1960s. The missile initially had a bad habit of squirting out ofthe end of the tube only to collapse to the ground, where itflopped around in front of the tank. The early version of thegun and ammunition system proved more hazardous to itscrews than to any enemy; trials reports made hair-raisingreading - tales of burning debris in the breech and turret, andcrews passing out from the fumes - and major redesign workhad to be carried out under great pressure of time.

To head off growing criticism from Congress and the Armyof this slow and increasingly costly project, the developingagencies were anxious to show off the M551 in action inVietnam. There was no need for its anti-tank missile outthere; and although it certainly offered the Armored Cavalryrecon units much greater punch than the light weapons whichthey were rigging to their ACAV personnel carriers, the hastewith which the bureaucrats insisted on bundling it off to theAsian battlefield invited serious criticism. The combustiblecase ammo was still dogged by serious problems when the firstSheridans were shipped out in January 1969, to fight in theranks of the 1/11th and 3/4th Armored Cavalry.

The 1/11th, who traded in Ml 13 ACAVs for the Sheridan,approved of the increased firepower of its big HE shell, and itsspectacularly effective "Beehive" flechette round (which firednearly 10,000 small steel darts). The 3/4th, who exchangedtough M48A2 tanks for the new design, were a lot less enthu-siastic; and reports of the M551's shortcomings becamesomething of a scandal.

The force of the recoil when it fired (which wasn't every time- the firing circuit was balky) lifted the front of the M551 afoot and a half off the ground, and threw the crew around sobadly that they had to hold on tight to keep from beinginjured. Duane Klug recalls: "The concussion from the152mm gun is just tremendous. For theTC, standing in theturret, it is like getting hit hard in the face. Inside the turretyou've got the 'idiot handles' to grab, but you still getslammed around really badly. Firing that thing is anabsolutely unreal experience." More seriously, the shock also

disrupted the turret's notoriously unreliable electricalsystems, and sometimes ruptured the recoil system.

The combustible case ammo was dangerously fragile,coming apart under any sort of shock or rough handling; andwas prone to spoilage in the damp tropical climate. When inFebruary 1969 a 3/4th tank triggered a mine - which wouldhave done only minor wheel damage to an M48 - the blastdetonated the stowed ammo, killing the driver and destroyingthe Sheridan. Minor battle impacts, damp, and even fastdriving across rough terrain caused distortion of the caselessrounds, which then refused to feed.

The aluminum armor was extremely vulnerable to mines.Although extra titanium plates were later added, the M551'spoor "survivability" against mines and RPGs always preyedon the minds of its crews; Vietnam photos frequently show allbut the driver riding outside for a quick getaway, and theywere often too nervous of the volatile ammunition explodingto carry a realistic combat load. Once damaged, the M551 -already terribly costly - was often unrepairable. Finally, the300hp V-6 water-cooled, turbocharged diesel enginefrequently failed due to overheating.

Vietnam was probably the last place on earth the Sheridanshould have been sent: a battlefield which exaggerated itsweaknesses, and where its main strength - heavy anti-tankfirepower - was irrelevant. Nevertheless, by the time produc-tion ceased (after about 1,700 vehicles) in 1970, some 200were in Vietnam, serving with most US Cavalry units. By thetime the last were pulled out in late 1971 more than 100 hadbeen destroyed or written off.

The Sheridan's problems were gradually resolved in piece-meal fashion by retro-fits and component modifications; andthe M551A ultimately became a workhorse for the Cavduring the 1970s, despite persistent maintenance problems

Continued on page 110

(Previous page) Profile ofthe M551. The hull is ofwelded aluminum armor,the turret of welded steel;it has torsion bar suspen-sion, and rear sprocketdrive.

(Below) On the road again,an ex-82nd AirborneSheridan painted up in themarkings of 3/73rd Armornoses down a woodlandtrail. The M551 has verygood mobiity; with a topspeed of about 43mph, itcan turn on a dime, and atunder 16 tons weight ithas excellent floatation.Note the driver's hatch,with three periscopes - themiddle one can take aninfrared lens for nightdriving.

(Opposite) The shallow,sharply sloped turret of theM551, covered with opticsand smoke grenadedischargers, stowed MGammo boxes, jerrycans

and tarp rolls. The cupola,with ten vision blocks givingall- round views, is retro-fitted with an armored"crow's nest" to protect thecommander when he ismanning the .SOcalmachine gun; this will stopsmall arms fire, but no partof the Sheridan is proofagainst anything heavierthan .SOcal bursts. Evenan RPG is guaranteed tomake a mess of it, and theM551 relies on speed,agility, and concealment tostay out of trouble. The biglow-light telescope mountedabove the machine gunallows accurate fire oninfantry, softskin vehiclesor other point targets out toranges of 2km (1.25miles), in full auto or singleshots. Another 7.62mmgun is mounted co- axiallywith the 152mm tube.Note also the open driver'shatch, rotated up and backinto the hull.

M551 Sheridan Road ReportLt. Col. Charles Donnell commanded 3rd Battalion, 73rd Armor,82nd Airborne Division during Operation Desert Storm: "TheSheridan is a kind of maintenance nightmare. It was veryadvanced for its time, but the electronics were outdated when weused it in the desert. The circuit cards shake loose and terminalscorrode in ways that don't happen with the Abrams and Bradley.The engine installation made maintenance more difficult than itneeded to be, and we had recurring problems with the torqueconverter...[This] incorporates a flywheel which, when over-torqued, will break and protect the engine or transmission frommore serious damage - but when it breaks, you're out of actionjust the same! And that caseless ammunition is stacked every-where in the turret - a real hazard if you get hit with an HE roundor even explode a mine."But having said all that, the tank was perfect for its role. It has

a huge gun, and a very effective missile. The armor is proofagainst 12.7mm heavy machine gun fire even at point blankrange over most of the hull. You've got two very good machineguns with the latest up-grade, and the 152mm canister roundwas just awesome. If you air-drop a Sheridan into an airhead,you give the enemy some serious problems right away. Weworked out some good strategies to do that, including putting thecrew on the same aircraft and having them follow the tank out onthe same pass over the drop zone...the crew would land close tothe tank and could de-rig it and get it into action fast.

"Despite what you hear about the main gun, firing it was kindof fun, even if it seemed a bit like a religious experience some-times. The front three road wheels come off the ground when itfires, and the front of the vehicle lifts a couple of feet in the air.

"It drives well, and will go over just about anything. It is verygood in soft soil and is very manoeuvrable. The short gun tubeallows you to manoeuver in amongst trees where a larger tankcouldn't fit. It isn't as fast as the Ml, but it is a very agile tank.And the Sheridan has a very low profile that lets you tuck it intothe landscape: if it is in hull-defilade position, it can just aboutdisappear at 500 or 600 meters."

(Above left & left) Left andright of the gun tube, asviewed, are the portsthrough the mantlet for thegunner's M129 telescopicsight and the co-ax machinegun. The box immediatelyabove the tube houses theMGM-57 Shillelagh missileguidance system; when inuse its armored flap isdropped to expose theoptics. The Shillelagh isfollowed in flight by thegunner, who keeps thetarget aligned with the sightreticle; this automaticallysends guidance correctionsto an infrared tracker in thetail of the missile. It takesan appreciable time for thegunner to "gather" themissile after firing, so it isineffective under 1,000meters; but it makes up forthis in a big way at 3,000meters.

The big xenon searchlightis an anachronism onmodern tanks, equippedwith today's sophisticatedpassive night vision

devices, though still occa-sionally useful in the reconrole. Back in the early1970s it was commonlyfitted; and, with use of apink filter, this wouldextend the guidable rangeof the Shillelagh inmarginal light conditions.

(Above) Looking from theloader's to the gunner'sstation, right of the unusualelectrically powered breechof the 152mmgun/launcher. The earlyproblems with thecombustible case ammohave long been solved,partly by use of a "closedbreech scavenger system"which blows compressedair violently through thetube after firing, scouringout any smoulderingresidue.

(Right) Gunner's station,looking forward and down;note elevation (left) andtraverse controls.

Continued from page 106

and the evil reputation which clung to it after Vietnam. It wasfar better suited to the environment of Germany, however,where it served in numbers with US Army forces until thedecision was taken to withdraw it in 1978.

One role for which the M551 remained uniquely suited,however, was to provide the paratroopers of the 82ndAirborne Division with air-droppable armor. The Sheridancan be delivered to the DZ either as a conventional heavy loadby Low Velocity Air Drop (LVAD) under eight 100-foot para-chutes; or - much more commonly - by Low AltitudeParachute Extraction (LAPSE), when a drogue chute dragsthe palletized tank out of the tail of a C-130 making a slowpass at very low altitude.

The division's integral tank battalion kept Sheridans rightup into the 1990s, and they gave good service. The Sheridansof the 82nd's 3/73rd Armor were the first, and for weeks theonly Coalition tanks facing Saddam Hussein across the SaudiArabian border during Operation Desert Shield, arriving inAugust 1990. The only combat use of the Shillelagh missilecame in Operation Desert Storm, when a round from a3/7 3rd Sheridan demolished an Iraqi anti-tank gun bunker -as advertised....

Sheridans have recently been withdrawn from active servicewith the 82nd Airborne; but they still serve the US Army atthe National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California - whereyou'll see M551s zipping around the desert battlefield in a

variety of odd disguises. To boost the realism of their battletraining, the Army modified some 300 M551s with fiberglass,sheet metal and wooden kits which mimic the basic appear-ance of Soviet AFVs - the T-72, BMP, 122mm SP howitzer,and ZSU-23-4 AA tank. Using the MILES computerisedlaser training system, these Opposing Forces provide a mosteffective "enemy" for US units rotating through Fort Irwin.

(Below) The right side ofthe turret interior, withgunner's (left) and TC'sstations; the commander'sseat is flipped up.Beneath the gunner'sweapon selection instru-mentation is the azimuthindicator allowing theM551 - like most modernUS tanks before the

Abrams - to provide veryaccurate indirect fire withHE rounds. Apart from histelescopic sight, for nightwork the gunner has aninfrared M44 sight on theturret roof. The TC'scontrols are below andforward of his cupola -note all-round visionblocks.

(Right) Commander's maingun override controls. Thered palm switch on the rightof the black grip energizesthe electrical motors for theturret and gun, and disen-gages the gunner's control -as long as it is depressed,the TC has control of thegun. The white box ahead ofit is the selector for thesmoke grenade discharg-ers. On the turret wall atright are the commander'scommunications controls,above a first aid box.

(Right) M551 commander'scommunications switchbox,below his cupola controlshigh on the right turret wall.

(Below) M551 main radiointallation, in the turret rearbustle behind and left ofthe commander's station.

Back in the mid-1970s, before anybody outside theWarsaw Pact got to play with one, the Soviet T-72 wasa very fearsome beast. Intelligence reaching the West

was incomplete and contradictory; guesswork about itsunknown powers inflated it into a monster; but when NATOgot further and better particulars, it became clear that thoughit was a very powerful, sleek, fast fighting machine, the T-72had certainly not leapfrogged over current NATO designs.

Conversely, since hordes of Iraqi-crewed T-72s were easilydemolished by Abrams and other more modern tanks duringOperation Desert Storm in 1991, some commentators havetended to belittle it; and that's equally foolish, because it's aninteresting, important example of the breed. Desert Stormdid not, in fact, provide a fair comparison: the T-72 is theRussian equivalent of the American M60, not the Abrams.What's more, the models defeated so easily in Kuwait andIraq were designed for export, with a lower specification thanthe Russian Army's tanks - and they were handled withstriking incompetence by their unit commanders.

The T-72, like most weapons of Russian/Soviet design, isdesigned to be durable and efficient rather than fancy. It hasthick, well-sloped armor, a huge gun and a powerful dieselengine. The sights are conventional, at least on the exportversions, with low-light viewing capability but without thepassive imaging system which distinguishes the latestAbrams, Challenger and Leopard. Its small turret, allowed bya two-man turret crew with mechanical loading, is the mostimmediately noticeable feature.

You don't really climb into the T-72 - you more or less putit on, like steel coveralls....If you drop down through thegunner's hatch on the left side of the turret, you find yourselfencased in bits of machinery, weapons sights, and the auto-loading system for the gun on your right. It is a tight fit,unlike the Abrams and many other modern tanks. From thegunner's seat you can see very little except your sighting andviewing devices, about ten inches in front of your nose. Thegunner's controls are very similar to those used by NATOtankers: a set of dual grip devices which can pivot back andforth to elevate and depress the huge 125mm "Rapier 3"

smoothbore gun, or rotate left or right to traverse the turretand gun. The gunner has control of a laser rangefinder, dual-axis stabilization system, co-axial machine gun, and infraredsearchlight.

There is no loader in the T-72; the gun breech divides thelittle turret in two, with the gunner on the left and the TC onthe right, and an automatic loading system below.Ammunition is stored in a 24-round carousel under theturret basket, the projectile and propellant components of theround stowed separately. The case is combustible except fora metal stub. During an engagement, the commander selectsthe type of ammunition needed (HE, HEAT, or APFSDS);the loading mechanism rotates the carousel, removes theright projectile and inserts it into the breech followed by thepropellant, and the breech closes. The gunner fires; the gunrecoils, and the stub endpiece is automatically extracted andejected through a small port at the top rear of the turret.(This makes the T-72 doubly dangerous, as the US Army'sDirector of Combat Development found out while watchinga demonstration from close up: the stub flew through the air,hit him on the head, and left the two-star general uncon-scious....)

Expert assessmentThe Patton Museum at Fort Knox, Kentucky, owns severalex-Iraqi T-72s gathered up after Desert Storm in 1991,including at least one that is a double combat veteran - a neatline of 12.7mm bullet scars on the armor recalls some previ-ous encounter with an Iranian unit during the "First GulfWar" of the 1980s. Charles Lemons, curator of the PattonMuseum, has had the opportunity to drive the T-72 on manyoccasions; his report, in part, is as follows:

"There are some inherent problems with Soviet armoredvehicles. One is that you've got to be sure to pressurize thehydraulic system before you shut down - or you don't haveany brakes or clutch the next time you fire up. In that event,you'll jerk forward about five feet when the engine starts

because the clutch is engaged, whether you want it to be ornot; and the brakes won't work until you get pressure. Infact, the clutch is either in or out - there's no feathering itgently to get started smoothly. The most important thing toremember is, at the end of the day, to push in the clutch, pushin the brake, then reach down and lock them both - other-wise, the next time you start up you're going to kill somebody.

"Since the steering is also hydraulic, you loose authoritywhen you push in the clutch - this really requires someadjustment on the part of the driver! You end up popping theclutch in and out and jerking the vehicle around more thanyou would do with a British or American tank. Unlike UStanks, the steering is also very jerky: you pull back on alateral, and when the system engages, you turn - right now!At higher speeds there is a delay in steering release that seemsdesigned into the system, and the higher the gear, the longerthe delay. If you're cruising down the battlefield in 5th or 6thgear, the steering will smooth out, but you'll find that there'sa noticeable delay before changes in steering to take effect -that also takes some getting used to. And the driver has to bebuttoned up to fight the vehicle, unlike the Abrams and manyother contemporary main battle tanks.

"Generally, theT-72 is pretty noisy, and extremely smoky (Ican't believe how much smoke those things put out, evenwhen new) - but they will run on just about anything.

"The T-72 is the Soviet equivalent of the US M60, not theMl Abrams, despite all the comparisons made between thetwo. It has some deficiencies, and some virtues, for a mainbattle tank of the Cold War era. One problem is that theammunition is mostly stowed in a carousel directly under theturret; all you have to do is get a round in between the roadwheels, and you're pretty well guaranteed to have a secondaryexplosion that destroys the tank and instantly kills the crew.

"But the fire control system is excellent: it has a laserrangefinder that works quite well and a good fire controlcomputer, and the infamous auto- loader actually workspretty well. The 72's gun stabilizer is the equivalent of theM60's - it will lock onto a target and track it; we've done itright here, and it works quite nicely. TheTC's target desig-

(Opposite & above)This T-72 was built inCzechoslovakia in 1983,and supplied to the EastGerman Army; someWestern sources term thismodel the T-72G. One char-acteristic, later replaced byconventional rigid skirt

plates, was this set ofspring-loaded "gill" armorpanels, seen above fullydeployed. Note, above left,the smoothbore muzzle ofthe 125mm Rapira 3 gun;and the active infraredsearchlights slaved to thegun and the TC's cupola.

nator has the oddest set-up I have ever seen, though, withthose handles sticking up.

"It has another odd feature, which is that the turret willwobble back and forth unless you've got the turret lockengaged, or power applied to the system. Otherwise the turretwill swing back and forth a bit as the tank corners left andright, which is a bit disconcerting. Operating the turret lockis also a real pain compared to other tanks - it has to be hand-cranked into the locked position, and hand-cranked outagain. That will slow you down in a combat situation, and youmight not be able to get the lock off in time to save your life.

"The radio equipment is buried in the hull, along witheverything else. A lot of the switches are hidden, and youhave to learn where they are to get things to work, unlike inan M60, where everything is in plain view. Unless you knowexactly what you're working with, it could get real confusing.But once you know where all the switches are it's kind ofidiot-proof. The stabilization system is another example: ittakes four switches to turn it on, and two of those are out ofsight.

"Despite the tiny spaces and apparently crampedconditions, we worked with a guy who had been in the EastGerman Army and was all of 6ft 2in tall - and he slid into thefighting compartment without any trouble at all, and seemedperfectly comfortable. He probably couldn't do that in thedriver's compartment, though. The engine runs smoothlyenough, and has plenty of power, but it isn't a comfortabletank to drive. If you're as tall as I am - 5ft 4in - you're too tall

(Left) Convoy station-keeping light on the rear ofthe turret.

(Right) The small T-72turret from the left rear.The tank stands less thaneight feet high, but thelimited depression allowedby the gun's low mountingpartly cancels out thisadvantage when in hulldefilade positions. Thegunner's hatch is at left,the commander's at right,and between them the ejec-tion port for the used shellcase stubs. Maximumarmor protection for theturret is around 275mm inthe forward quadrant (theglacis is about 200mm, therest of the hull about70mm maximum).

to read half of the gauges. The NBC controls and batteriesare right next to you, boxing you in. It is possible to get outthe escape hatch, and to squirm back through the turret ifnecessary, but both are extremely cramped; if you need to getout fast, you're probably dead.

"The auto-loader is supposed to be dangerous tothe gunner, and you hear stories about gunners having theirarms crushed in the thing; actually, in my experience, thetube - when controlled by the gun stabilization device - ismore dangerous to the commander. With the gun depressed,the loader can potentially crush the arm of theTC against theturret roof if he doesn't keep out of the way. And when you'redistracted by searching for targets and watching what's goingon outside the tank, it's easy to get in range of the loader.That happened to me while trying to designate a target on themove, travelling about 30km/h over rough terrain; the stabi-lizer was keeping the gun level, and as the hull pitched up anddown the gun swung up and down, with the breech tappingme on the elbow. Once I discovered what was bumping me Igot my arm out of the way; if we had really pitched down andthe breech pitched up any higher, I would likely have beeninjured.

"It's a robust vehicle, with moderately good speed - not asgood as an Ml, but equivalent to the M60; and that's whatthe T-72 is, really. Why did it do so badly in the Gulf War?For one thing, it was totally outclassed by the Ml, a newergeneration tank. It still uses 'active infrared' imaging, a sureway to become a target for any modern tank with thermalsights. Another problem was that the crews were totally ineptand demoralized. And yet another factor was that the tanksthat we captured from the Iraqis are the export version, notthe top-of-the-line model."

T-72 Road ReportsDuane Klug: "The T-72 is a pain to get in and out of- there'snot much room for a big guy like me. The gunner and TCpositions are extremely tight; I can get in there, but it takesme some time. We don't use the compressed air startingsystem for our captured Iraqi model, but use the electricalstarter. It is a very responsive tank, with a tendency to over-steer - you have to learn how to come out of turns or you willover-correct. It has good speed; the brakes are good; but wehave a hard time getting the idle RPM set properly. Thetransmission is manual, with a straight line shift pattern."

Marc Sehring: "The T-72 is another awesome Soviet inven-tion. It uses the same engine as theT-55, but turbocharged,with a lot of guts. I like the driver's compartment very much;it's like a cockpit. You sit nice and low, in a comfortable seat.Visibility is pretty good - one large periscope forward and twosmaller ones for the side. You have a lot of armor around you.You've got lots of control - preheater, air system, smokegenerator, heating, good instrumentation for the engine,good communication systems. When you are flying down thefield in something like that (and it accelerates really well),you don't have to worry about hitting anything, because youcan go through or over almost anything in your way.

"The silhouette is even lower than the T-55, one of thelowest of its era. The 125mm cannon is a hell of a gun - justkeep your arms tucked in, away from the automatic loader,and you'll be okay. I think it was able to take out anything ofits time - and that was the 1970s, when we only had the M60.If the crews were equally well-trained (and that's really thekey ingredient) the T-72 would probably have been thewinner. I don't know how good the 125mm gun is, but thereports we get indicate that it has been improved many times.Traverse and elevation are good, but I don't know how goodthe stabilization is. The auto-loader on ours works well, andit's just one system on the tank that seems quite advanced forits era."

(Right & below right)Inside surfaces of thecommander's and gunner'shatch covers; they aredesigned to stand uprightand provide protection fromsmall arms when thecrewmen are standing inthe hatches, and are lockedin position by the smallhandles near the bottomedge. Note the texturedsurfaces: this is anti-spalllining, a sort of "lead foam"material added to the innersurfaces of most moderntank turrets and fightingcompartments. It providesa degree of protectionagainst the fragments fromthe inner surface of thearmor which are oftenknocked off by the impactof an AP round which failsto penetrate.

(Above left) The T-72commander's station,looking down and forwardfrom outside his hatch.Note vision blocks, gunsighting/target designationsystem and control handles- as in most modern tanks,the TC can override thegunner's controls andengage targets himself.

(Left) The commander'sstation, looking down intothe hatch at the seat, andleft over the gun breechtowards the gunner'sstation - the gun points tothe right of this photo.

(Above) The commander'sstation, looking right acrossthe breech from thegunner's station. Theimpression of space is adeceptive effect of the lensused to get this shot; thisturret is a very tight fit, toWestern eyes, and youcertainly can't stretch outfor a snooze. Crew comforthas never been a majorfactor in tank design.

(Right) T-72 commander'scontrols, all within easyreach of his right hand onthe wall of the turret belowhis hatch. Note propellor-shaped air circulation fan.

(Above) The T-72 gunner'scontrols and instrumenta-tion on the left of theRapira 3 gun; he has anefficient laser rangefinderand fire control computer,though the "active" infrarednight vision system isdangerously outdated. Hisprimary gun control gripsare the red-brown plastichandles low at center right.Note the turret position indi-cator left of this. (Havingserved in the DDR, thistank's labelling is partly inRussian, partly in German.)The US Army rates the125mm gun as effective to2,000 meters, a little overa mile - considerably lessthan the 120mm roundfired by the M1A1, ratedeffective to 3,000 meters.

(Left) Looking from thegunner's hatch to the right,across the breech to thecommander's station - thegun points to the left in thisphoto. The red bar is atravel lock, keeping the gunrigid during non-tacticalroad marches. Behind thebreech, part of the carouselof the controversial auto-loading system is clearlyvisible. Horror storiesabout the auto-loader bitingbits off crewmen were rifesome years ago; but the

problems dated from animmature version inventedfor the earlier T-64 tank(christened by its crews"The Steel Grave"), and itseems to work efficientlynow - although rate of fireis much slower than formanually-loaded NATO tankguns. When the 24 roundsin the carousel areexpended it has to berefilled manually fromanother 16 rounds stowedelsewhere in the hull - aslow and awkward process.

The Ml Abrams is one of the two or three most advancedtanks in the world today, and the most battle-proven ofthat handful. It excels in each of the fundamentals of

armored warfare - firepower, protection and mobility. TheM1A1 variant performed spectacularly well in Desert Storm,its 120mm gun and state-of-the-art fire control systemsroutinely killing enemy tanks at over three kilometers range,in conditions which left enemy tankers entirely blind to itspresence. Its sophisticated composite armor threw off the fewIraqi anti-tank rounds that managed to find their targets. Andthe Abrams' once-derided 1,500 horsepower gas turbineengine propelled its 50-ton bulk fast and reliably across thedesert under the very worst conditions.

Back at the start of the 1980s, when the program was in itsearly stages, it was criticised by politicians and journalists asbeing far too complicated to work, and too expensive to buy.Unburdened by any real knowledge of what they were talkingabout, they were confused by superficial parallels - the M551Sheridan scandal, and the heavy losses of Israeli tanks toenemy infantry in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In fact, theAbrams has proved not only a remarkable success story, but astep upward to a whole new level of tank performance - a levelwhich (so far...) it occupies virtually alone.

The fighting compartmentLike most tanks, the normal way to mount it is at the frontnear the idler wheel. Stick the toe of your boot in the loopprovided under the track skirt, find a handhold, and pullyourself up. The turret looks massive, but you can climb upto the loader's hatch from the left side. Inside, the turret isfairly roomy - especially after the T-72. To expand on theintroductory tour on pages 9 to 11 of this book:

An immediately striking difference is the absence of visiblestowed ammunition. The shells are stored in the turret bustle- 55 rounds for the 105mm gun in the Ml, or 34 of the larger120mm rounds in the M1A1, with 17 of them immediatelyaccessible in a ready rack behind an armored door on the leftside. (Veteran combat tankers would think these dangerously

Ml Abrams of the 4thInfantry Division's integralarmored component, prowl-ing the tactical training areaaround Fort Carson,Colorado. An Ml battalionhas 58 tanks - four compa-nies each of three platoonseach of four tanks, plus HQand specialist tanks. Inbattle each element worksin concert with its pair -each tank supports apartner, and the platoonfights as two pairs of tanks,following classic fire-and-movement principles.

The boxy shape of turretand hull are governed bythe space needed for thehighly protective Chobhamarmor; details are still clas-sified, but the armor incor-porates spaced layers ofsteel plate and ceramicbars, to frustrate bothkinetic-energy and chemi-cal-energy AT ordnance. Onthe turret roof, left of thegun, the armored doorsprotecting the optics of thegunner's and commander'sintegrated day/night sightsare open.

low stocks to take into a serious battle; but the much greaterchance of first-shot kills makes them adequate.) Theshielded-off rack is an important improvement in safety: if theturret is penetrated and the propellant in the stored ammodetonates, blow-off panels in the roof should channel theforce of the explosion upwards and away from the fightingcompartment - historically, a hot AP round through theammo bins often killed die crew in a catastrophic explosion.The Abrams loader has a seat in the rear left corner, to help

protect him from being thrown around and injured when thetank is moving fast across country; he also has to watch outfor the moving breech when the stabilized gun is trackingautomatically. The tank's radio is installed to his left front, upbeside the gun, along with MG ammunition and otherstowage.

The gunner is conventionally stationed on the right of themain gun - the rifled 105mm M68A1 in the Ml, and the bigsmoothbore 120mm M256 in the M1A1. Each takes two

Continued on page 124

(Left) Abrams at speed; itsunique AGT-1500 gasturbine guzzles fuel - about3.5gals per mile acrosscountry - but is smaller,lighter, and needs lessmaintenance than a com-parable diesel. The Mlcan track and engagetargets while travellingacross country at speedsof 30-40mph.

(Below & right) Gunner andTC in their stations, thecommander searching thescenery through his visionblocks, right hand grippinghis CPC override guncontrol stick - ahead of thisis the CWS control. Thewhite element just belowthe red cupola crank handleis the TC's .50cal machinegun sight; left of this is hismain GPS Extension sight.

main types of ammunition: High Explosive Anti-Tank(HEAT), and Armor Piercing Fin Stabilized DiscardingSabot (APFSDS). The distinction between rifled andsmoothbore guns is worth a brief explanation.

In simple terms, smoothbore guns (as preferred by theGerman, and lately the Russian and American armies) cantake ammo giving a very high muzzle velocity, which suitsthe modern kinetic-energy penetrators used against enemytanks - the APFSDS rounds - which fly far and fast on arather flat trajectory for maximum accuracy. But becausethere is no rifling in the barrel to impart a twist and keep itstable, the projectile has to have built-in stabilizing fins. Thetrade-off is that the high explosive rounds needed to engageother types of target are less effective - the fin- stabilizedHEAT rounds are measurably less useful against infantry,gunpits, etc. than the equivalent shells from rifled guns.

The first Ml Abrams, and the British Challenger, haverespectively 105mm and 120mm rifled guns. These can stillfire effective APFSDS ammo; but also High ExplosiveSquash Head (HESH) rounds, which do much moredamage to a much wider range of targets. Smoothboreenthusiasts claim that non-armor targets are the business ofthe artillery, anyway; rifle devotees argue that you're betteroff with a wide range of unpleasantness in your racks,because you can't be sure the artillery will be around whenyou need them urgently. Everything is a trade-off, and bothschools are right.

The gunner's job is battlefield surveillance, target acquisi-tion, and engagement. During combat he sits leaningforward, wedged into the space between the seat and sightsby head and chest pads to minimize the effect of the tank'smotion on his sight picture. His GPS sighting system andfire control computer have enough switches and indicatorlights for an aircraft cockpit - the procedure for set-up, track-ing and engaging is described in the captions on page 127.In basic terms: his sights allow him to acquire a target underconditions and at ranges undreamt-of by previous genera-tions of tank crews; and his computer keeps his aim true

until he fires, calculating and collating many variables whichearlier tankers had no way of even measuring, let alonefactoring in.

The Abrams commanderThe commander is kept busy ensuring that his tank is playingits assigned role in the larger scheme of the operation: peeringout of the hatch, listening to radio traffic on the company net,scanning for targets, and keeping the rest of the crew fromgetting complacent.

His station allows for four observation positions,from standing waist-high in the open hatch (the best view, butthe worst protection), to seated under a closed hatch (theworst view, with the best protection), He has six periscopesin his cupola; and his hatch can either be tipped open in theusual way, or raised about eight inches vertically and locked,giving an unobstructed view all round while protecting himfrom artillery air-bursts and other hazards from above.

TheTC has a .50cal machine gun mounted on a ring roundhis cupola, and the loader can mount a 7.62mm MG on apintle outside his hatch. In World War II the theory was thatexternal MGs were useful against both ground attack aircraftand infantry and "soft-skin" targets, and co-axial and fronthull MGs with limited movement could be used against thelatter. Modern jets are too fast, and modern attack heli-copters too well armored (and fire missiles from too long arange), for hand-aimed MGs to be any use today; but thethreat of man-carried anti-tank weapons has grown steadilysince World War II. The awesome .50cal/12.7mm MGremains accurate and deadly against any ground targetunprotected by tank-grade armor, and if the TC can use itwithout lethally exposing himself to return fire it remains aworthwhile addition to the tank's armament. Co-axial gunscan be tracked, aimed and fired accurately from inside thetank, and are still typically fitted; the old bow-mounted"bullet hoses" have been discarded, along with the "fifthman" position in the hull front.

In the Abrams the commander's .50cal can be fired remotelyfrom under armor with the Commander's Weapon Stationcontrol. You power up the CWS, and remove the controlhandle from its bracket with your right hand. Depressing apalm switch gives you power to traverse the turret with athumb button, left or right. Place your left hand on the eleva-tion crank handle to the left of the sight for the .50cal; andaim by traversing with your right hand and the thumb buttonon the CWS, and elevating with the crank in your left hand.The safety is a sliding switch on the shaft of the CWS control;once you've lined up the target, switch from SAFE to FIRE,and gently pull the knob on the handle with your left hand -the .SOcal will fire until you release it. Through the sight youwatch bright red fireballs float rapidly downrange; one inevery six rounds in the belt is a tracer.

As in most modern tanks, the Abrams commanderhas priority control of the main gun if he wants it; althoughhe can't feed manual input into the ballistic computer panelfrom his station, his sight gives him the same automaticallycorrected picture as the gunner's, and he can aim and firewith as much precision. He operates the gun with a righthand grip, the Commander's Power Control. TheTC selectsthe main gun on his control panel, and views the targetthrough his sight (the Commander's GPS Extension). Thepalm switch on his handle energizes the turret and gunhydraulics, takes control away from the gunner, and allowstheTC to aim the gun. A button on top of the control handle"lases" the target to measure the range, which feeds directlyinto the ballistic computer; then a trigger button under theright index finger fires the gun.

The driving position is unusual; the driver lies almostprone on his back in a comfortable seat. This, and hishand controls, can be raised or lowered for "head out"or "buttoned up" driving positions. He drives holdingsomething resembling a small pair of motorbike handle-bars, with twist-grip controls. He has a passive nightvision device; in the latest variant he may also have athermal sight, but in its absence he can still be guided byinstructions from the TC using one.

Duane Klug: "The Abrams is extremely responsive,particularly considering its bulk, with great accelerationand very responsive brakes - I gave my driving instruc-tor bruises from my first couple of stops in the Abrams.It steers easily and naturally."

(Above left & above) Theloader, dressed in wood-land-camo BDUs and CVChelmet, gets the order fromthe commander to selectHigh Explosive Anti-Tank(note the intercom switch-box behind his right shoul-der). He bangs the buttonfor the ammo rack blastdoor with his right knee,and as it slides open hepunches the base of theround he wants - he haspreviously marked "S" or"H" on the ends, for Sabotor HE. That springs the

case a couple of inches outof the rack, so he can gethis gloved fingers under therim to pull it all the wayout. The 105mm combatmunitions have aluminum-color cases and blackheads - this one, thesquared-off end withprotruding electric detona-tor which identifies theshaped-charge, chemical-energy HEAT round. (Allinert training rounds arepainted bright blue.) Theblack levers at turret ringlevel are traverse locks.

(Above & right) He extractsthe round; in a combat situ-ation he would hit the kneebutton again to close theblast doors immediately.He flips the heavy shell endfor end while he pivots tohis left, aligning it with theM68A1 gun breech. Hefeeds it in with his lefthand, then shoves it homewith his closed right fist.(Some tankers are taughtto shove with the heel ofthe open hand, fingersextended upwards; itdoesn't much matter, aslong as the fingers can'tget amputated when thebreech closes - which itdoes, automatically, assoon as the extractors aretripped.) Then he pushesthe safety control to FIRE,and shouts "Up!" to let thegunner know the round isready to go. A loadershould be able to keep thegun fed fast enough tosustain a rate of fire of tento twelve rounds per minute- one every five or sixseconds.

The Ml gunner's station -(right) unoccupied but litup, and (below) with atrooper in the saddle.Above the black "Cadillacs"- the handles of thegunner's traverse, eleva-tion, laser rangefinder andfiring controls - are theheadrest for the Gunner'sPrimary Sight (GPS)system; and his guncontrol switches and lights- main gun or co-ax selec-tor, ammunition type selec-tor, optical or thermalimaging selector, sightmagnification, sight polarityand contrast, reticlesymbology....

To his right is the firecontrol computer - on theclosed cover this gunnerhas scrawled a tally ofnumber and type of roundsfired recently. The gunnermanually inputs data on airtemperature, barometricpressure, and ammo type;but the computer automati-cally gathers data fromsensors on the tilt angle ofthe tank, the crosswindvelocity, and gun tubewarp.

He acquires the target inhis sights, bringing the gunto bear using the standardG-shaped approach, and"lases" it with therangefinder button on hiscontrols; the range is calcu-lated almost instanta-neously. If the target ismoving, he tracks it withhis controls - the stabiliza-tion system makes thisfairly easy, with practice;the computer collates allthe deflection factors, andsimply off-sets the reticle inthe gunner's sights. Evenwhen moving acrosscountry, with his target alsomoving at some obliqueangle, all he has to do ismaintain a good sightpicture until he squeezesthe trigger button.

(Above) At first sight thiseerie green picture resem-bles that of a standardimage intensification nightsight, which works by gath-ering and enhancing naturalmoonlight and starlight.But this image is providedby an Mi's thermal sights;it doesn't use light, it usesthe tell-tale heat of thesetwo tanks - and eventhrough a dense chemicalsmokescreen they wouldstill be sitting ducks. Thesight reticle is aligned dead

on the right hand target'scenter-of-mass, as per themanual....In Kuwait andIraq the thermal sightallowed Abrams crews toengage on the darkestnight or in the worstdaytime conditions - withtheir conventional opticsblinded by oily blacksmoke, or flying dust,which is often kicked up inhuge and persistent cloudsin front of a tank by thegun's muzzle blast.

(Right) The moment oftruth. If the trigger on theCadillacs fails - as it hasdone for the author - thenthe red handle just abovethe gunner's left hand isthe emergency firing deviceor "blaster", a small elec-tric generator which willunfailingly put fire in thehole.