I loved the M1. At Knox we trained in both M60s and M1s. Stand on top of an M1 and look down, and you can see the welding seam where the turret’s forward armor is attached. It looked to me like a good two feet of armor forward of that seam. Then I’d get in an M60, and see that the turret armor was more like four inches thick. Felt like I was sitting in an eggshell. Same thing with ammo. In an M1, ammo is behind a sliding armored door, and the ammo compartment has a blast panel on top so if you get hit there, the blast goes up instead of into the crew compartment. In an M60, the ammo was literally stashed EVERYWHERE inside the turret. Being in an M1 made me feel superhuman. In an M60, I felt like I had the offensive punch of an M1, but could be killed by anybody with a Ma Deuce.
It looks like the USA designed the new M-1 tanks after the old WW2 German Tigers. Same as the new US infantry helmets are designed after the old WW2 German helmets. Smart huh ?!
Yeah the Germans are pretty darn good at making military hardware over the years. Guess where that main gun on the Abrams came from.
Surprisingly in all my years as a tanker I never blew a transmission in an Abrams. Our main problem was the air filters getting clogged up all the time robbing the power from the engine. Or throwing a track because I let the loader be TC sometimes.... Oh and all of those damn computers they introduced in the M1A2's. Those things were always malfunctioning for one reason or another. Tanks and computers don't mix too well.
Funny you mention filters. Out at NTC one night we got hit with gas (OC lobbed CS grenades on the tank). We were at 50% security and TIS watch, engine idling to charge the batteries. A few days later we were banging v-packs on the back deck. Gas Gas Gas!
Yep. But the Tiger transmission was so bad that IIRC more Tigers were lost to mechanical failures than to enemy action.
Those freakin CS grenades stay in your stuff forever. I was in NTC earlier this year and I finally decided to actually open up my duffel bag from the rotation and dig through it. Opened it up and started tossing stuff out and my eyes started burning and that all too familiar smell came right way. At the bottom was the uniform I wore during a nasty gas attack where the OC threw one of the damn things right into our tent (on accident "he claimed"). Damn smell was still potent after 3 months of being in my bag. I hate gas, I'm "that guy" who tackles everybody and runs to the door whenever they put us in the gas chamber. I hate that crap. Luckily for me now I have enough rank to where I can just simply say no I'm not doing the gas chamber this year lol.
I did that in basic. The gas chamber with the red and yellow squares on the floor with the exit door leading into a mud room where you have to turn and hit another door before you get outside.on my red square I was given the ok to “exit the room in an orderly fashion”. Yeah, right. I bolted for the door, turning my shoulder and plowing right into our 1st Sgt, he fell back and into the first door, opening it for me and fell to the ground. I climbed over him, hit the second door and took two steps outside before a drill grabbed me and put me in the front of the line to do it all over again. That gas though, puts you right into fight or flight.
I waited until I was the last man out of the chamber. This was one more chance for me to show my own superiority.
Modern O/C pepper spray stays on your stuff forever too. Might as well throw everything out and start over.
I was living in West Germany as an American kid when battalions of M60 tanks would issue out of the U.S. Army caserns and go tear-azzing down the cobblestone roads thru town on their way to the gunnery range on the outskirts of town. The Germans would stop in their tracks and stare in awe. How could Adolf ever have hoped to defy such American military Panzer power ?!
When the Abrams made it to Germany, after a few incidents, it was put out in their media not to pull up to the back of a tank stopped at an intersection. The exhaust off that turbine engine will ruin the paint and windshield.
I love the gas chamber. Not really while I'm in it, but I have horrible sinus problems so I will always jump at the chance to feel that burn!
That's what Bernies slogan is all about, feeling the burn of CS gas while protesting on the streets. Antifa in Portland
The reason why American tanks during WW ll were smaller, lighter and had less armor protection compared to German and Soviet tanks, American tanks had to be small enough to be loaded into the cargo holds of cargo ships, transported across the pond and then unloaded on to landing craft usually LCM's and transported to the beach. All American combat campaigns during WW ll began as amphibious operations (North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy D-Day landings) With the advent of the Landing Tank Ship (LST) actually a British invention, America were able to build larger tanks like the M-26 Pershing.
I love history. I have been on LST's but never knew their history. The Brit's invented a lot of good stuff.