BRITISH TROOPS KNOCKOUT 20 IRAQI TANKS (Basra)

ThisisPlymouth ^ | 17:00 - 25 March 2003

[Ahban]

What you said. Dozens of posts on this thread go on and on about how the T-55 is no match for an M-1. So what! The Brits don't have M-1s down there, the article says they have LIGHT TANKS.

Congratulations to the Brits on a skillful victory. It was not shooting fish in a barrel because the Brits had to defeat old MBTs with modern but lighter armour. Should the 'raqs get a good shot off, especially at the close ranges common in city fighting, they COULD have hurt us. The fact they didn't showed the Brits used superior skill, not just possessed unbeatable weaponry.

[archy]

Those old T55's are like death traps on treads.

I've crewed in the T-55L, and they're not that bad, other than the driver's position, horribly cramped for anyone over about 5'3". I'd happily prefer an M48A3, given my druthers, but would also pick the T55 over the gasoline-engined M48A2C in which I first trained as an armor crewman at Ft Knox in the mid 1960s, which routinely both caught fire and asphyxiated crews with carbon monoxide from it's auxilliary *little joe* generator engine used to keep the batteries charged. Indeed, the T-55 is preferable to the later T-64 in my eyes as well- that mechanical main gun loader is a Rube Goldburg nightmare just waiting to eat either the gunner or Tank Commander. Neither am I real thrilled about the T-72, nor the T-80/ T-80U/ T80UM2 with GTD-1250 turbine powerplant; make mine a T84U or T90, please.

But note too that many of Saddam's T54s were upgraded to the T72Z standard, refitting modern fire control and optics with the 125-mm main gun of the T72 tank, as replacements for T72s lost during Operation Desert Storm. Those might or might not take out an M1A2 Abrams or Challenger II with a frontal shot, but a side or rear flanking hit would probably get the job done- and there are other nasty surprises in the 125mm toybox as well. I wouldn't write off either Saddam's T54s or T62s just yet. There are both a lot of them, and they've been around long enough that their crews are both very familiar with their capabilities and weaknesses. Beware the tanker who has served in only one tank; he probably knows how to use it.

-archy-/-

[Grampa Dave]

Right on! Our Brit cousins are at peril with the lighter armor tanks they have. They have performed superbly!

If an Islamokazi has a slingshot, he can still hurt or kill you.

[Grampa Dave]

Every enemy tank is dangerous to us and our allies. Thanks for your feedback.

[sonofron]

"There shall always be an England. " they are a tough ol island. .........

"Yeh...it's that Scandinavian blood that came there a 1000 years ago..makes'em tough..;>) "

they were tough before that, remember Boudica, Queen of the Iceni, and Alfred the Great who checked the vikings...

[sonofatpatcher2]

Official "I luv Brits!" BUMP!!!!
Long may she wave!

[sonofatpatcher2]

Re: I've crewed in the T-55L

Hi Archy,
Were you OPFOR at the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California? If so, my hat's off to you. 'You guys' made our forces the best in the world!

Never had the pleasure of going through NTC, that was before my time. However, in old age
we remember the good old days. (Me & Tommy circa 1971)

[archy]

Re: I've crewed in the T-55L

Hi Archy,

Were you OPFOR at the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California? If so, my hat's off to you. 'You guys' made our forces the best in the world!

Nope, not NTC per se. I was out at Irwin for Operation SwiftStrike, still have my *SwiftStrike II Desert Rat* certificate around someplace, but that was in the old, OLD *agressor* days, before Irwin was designated as NTC. I actually crewed as a TC in a California National Guard M48A2C on that one...

Never had the pleasure of going through NTC, that was before my time. However, in old age we remember the good old days. (Me & Tommy circa 1971)

I carried M1A1 Tommys a couple of times, the buttstock was a little too long to fit me right and I eventually shortened one about an inch and relocated the sling swivel so the buttplate could go back on. Thereafter when A Thompson came my way, I'd bolt up my shorty stock, and replace the original when I turned it back in. Then, once upon a time, I got one without having to sign for it, and subsuquently *lost* it, with my nicely sanded and waxed shorty stock still atattched to it. But I bet I could find it and about 15 magazines REAL quick if I had to....

I've only run across military 21/28 Thompsons a couple of times here and there, carried one once [set on semi, with a pair of 20-round magazines, all they had] to back up a .45 while riding around in a hellowhopter. And I've fired cop '28 Thompsons a couple of times. The M1A1 is cruder, but it works for me.

[sonofatpatcher2]

Hah! The '28 Thompson!
You can never tell where a '28 will show up.
But you can bet your bottom dollar it will do the job!

[archy]

Hah! The '28 Thompson!

You can never tell where a '28 will show up.

But you can bet your bottom dollar it will do the job!

Even Forrest Gump wishes he could have gotten a '28 Tommy, instead of his M1A1....

Sheesh! All the Krauts in the world coming at us. Wish I had an L-drum....