There is some additional information, including diagrams of the rocket's path, here.
Posted on 01/30/2013 9:21:50 PM PST by Zhang Fei
The impact is from some kind of anti-tank weapon. Can't tell if it's been doctored, but the footage is pretty dramatic:
I'm flabbergasted that there's no supporting infantry milling about in the background or rushing to the stricken tank's aid. These guys are naked. given that there are tall buildings that provide great vantage points for anti-tank missile crews.
Watch what happened to the ejected crew member once he starts running. There’s puffs of dust around and near him that look like someone’s shooting at him. My guess is the accompanying infantry (if any) have taken shelter in nearby buildings - in fact, that’s probably why he was running to that specific building instead of closer cover.
There is some additional information, including diagrams of the rocket's path, here.
From inside the tank - he was blown out of the hatch right as the ammo cooked off. You can see him land 13 seconds in.
I just don’t see an incoming projectile, but I do see the arm of the man moving under the tank doing something in the rear just before the explosion. He falls over later.
That’s not an arm, that’s some sort of plastic or debris if you look at it on a big screen. Frame by frame shows an RPG-29 screaming in on the tank.
“For their sakes, I hope whoever was in that tank died instantly.”
Sorry, can’t feel the same way about the f’n Syrian islamofacists...and yes, I know they were ‘just soldiers’...BS
Watch it again. There was a person moving around from underneath the tank on the left side (rear?) of the tank prior to the explosion. It appeared to me also that the explosion came from within or under the tank, and not from an anti-tank missle.
The link you provided also shows two guys providing cover for a Hezbollah anti-tank guy as he lines up a shot against a Merkava. It wouldn’t surprise me if this was how a lot of “civilians” ended up becoming “collateral damage”. They weren’t really “collateral damage” - they were actively helping combatants by shielding them from discovery while they prepared to ambush their targets.
It blowed up real good.
T72 usually has a smooth bore gun.
T72 usually has a smooth bore gun.
Is that title racist? “brews” up?
Well, a pretty detailed analysis at link. Still it sounds near impossible if this guy is a survived gunner. He has to become a monk to pray until the end of his life.
“I never saw anything incoming it just suddenly blew up. And who was the guy that ran away from near it later? I didn’t get that either, maybe there was an accident inside the tank and a shell exploded.”
There was a slight “woosh” of an incoming missile. It apparently hit the side of the tank dead center of the video screen. This means the camerawork and the missile were coordinated. I’m not familiar with that model tank, but perhaps there is an escape hatch. If the crewman was in the tank when it was hit he was badly burned. I’d guess what appears to be a sweater is actually burned flesh.
Tanks are not used in the Middle East the way they are used by the west. In the west you’d never send in a tank without infantry to protect it. In the ME tanks are mobile pill boxes primarily used in crowd control. Tactical thinking does not appear to be a strong point.
When Israel last went into Lebanon they lost a classified number of Murkava tanks. Every other Arab had a $10,000 Iranian supplied, wire-guided anti-tank missile. I read where the Israelis plan on taking all 1500 Murkava’s out of service as soon as they’re replaced. The replacement looks to be an RPV about the size of an old VW Beetle.
The US Army’s persistent attempts to rid itself of the Abrams and the Israeli decision indicate that the era of the MBT is drawing to a close. General Dynamics and their minions in the Senate have succeeded in gaining contracts and funding to keep Lima, Oh. (the tank facility) open and working to provide Egypt and others with tanks. All tanks, no matter how heavy, are vulnerable from the rear. The armor is focused for attack. If you retreat you run the tank backwards. But that presupposes a battle line where the enemy is in front of you; not above in an RPV or behind dressed as a civilian but with a wire-guided missile.
Yeah, the second guy who tried to climb out wasn’t able to make it all the way.
I couldn't say, but it appears a rebel anti-tank team found a chink in the tank's armor.
” ...brews up?”
WWII military slang for explodes and burns. Probably British in origin.
Precisely. There's a sense of fermentation in the way the ammo gradually cooks off, starting with the tank shells, followed by the machine gun rounds. I saw the phrase a lot while reading accounts of WWII campaigns. Once penetrated with explosives, tanks become crematoriums.
I used the phrase figuring that anyone who's spent any time reading military history would know about it. I guess it's a little esoteric for some readers.
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