Fleeing troops abandon tanks

The Western Mail ^ | Mar 25 2003

[Walkin Man]

Fleeing troops abandon tanks

The Western Mail - The National Newspaper Of Wales

THE road from the Kuwait-Iraq border to Basra is lined with abandoned Iraqi tanks. Just a few days ago they were set up along the road to fire on coalition troops advancing on Iraq's second biggest city.

But now they lie derelict, abandoned by the Iraqis and left intact by the British Army so they can be used again by Iraq's army once Saddam Hussein's regime is toppled.

Officers said the Iraqi soldiers had run away too quickly to attempt to take their tanks with them.

On a four-mile stretch of road soldiers counted as many as a dozen T55 tanks lying beside the road, with others believed to have been lined up behind them.

Unmanned, they still looked sinister, dug in behind trenches which partially obscured them.

Behind them Iraqis worked in fields, some waving as the soldiers passed, others simply staring at the unprecedented sight of our transport, a 62-ton Challenger repair and recovery vehicle, passing by on their rutted road, topped with three Western journalists in bright blue body armour.

The gargantuan vehicles are reinforced Challengers, designed to be able to tow another Challenger behind them.

One was sent out to a spot 13 kilometres from Basra, where a Challenger with a faulty engine shaft was waiting.

The breakdown was blamed on wear and tear and swiftly repaired.

[CyberAnt]

Okay - good info - thanks!!

[csvset]

FNC was showing a video clip of a tank about to be taken out by a missle. You could see someone running away from the tank. Looking at the ensuing fireball, I don't think the guy got away.

[CyberAnt]

Okay - thanks!

[Benjamin Dover]

Keys, people! Just take the Keys! Or...at least remove the batteries from the remotes so they can't open the hatches... or trunk lids. Also, replace the "Diesel Only" labels with "Unleaded Fuel Only". This is not hard. Work with me people.

[Rain-maker]

>                                                                          Challenger ARRV with crane

[caisson71]

What happened to the incendiary grenades? Don't they issue them anymore?

[Beck_isright]

Not powerful enough to take out the innerds. You want a thermite bomb or C-4 pack, trust me. The goal is to detonate any remaining shells to leave nothing behind. No ammo, no innerds, no "nuttin" as we used to say.

[doug from upland]

The Denver Boot! They need the Denver Boot!

[sweetliberty]

"Officers said the Iraqi soldiers had run away too quickly to attempt to take their tanks with them."

LOL! These guys aren't the sharpest tools in the shed are they?

[TominPA]

They may be so obsolete as to be virtually useless - thus their abandonment by the Iraqis. I think they're about 3-4 generations behind even in the Soviet development scale (which is many generations behind our tanks)."

True statement if your taking on another armed force or modern Army. However, when your target is a oppressed and DISARMED population, it's still one very effective, intimidating, albeit old and cranky, tank.

[archy]

My old unit had a Hemmet for two weeks before they new that they did, courtesy of the 'requisition crew'. ... .

Wonder what they'd do with T-55's? (It was a light towed artillery unit using M-119A1's)

Both the Russians and the Israelis are reworking older T54/T55 series tanks into personnel carriers, better armoured against both hits from rocket launchers and less suceptable to taking casualties from all but the very largets mines. Both in the terrorist occupied territories of Israel and in Chechnya, wheeled personnel carriers and even lighter tracked carriers have proven too vulnerable, while a main battle tank with the turret removed and without a basic ammo load for the main gun aboard is a much better proposition.

The Israeli version, known as Achzarit is shown below.

-archy-/-

[EricT.]

That sounds like a good idea. We can sell them alot of stuff for LOTS of oil. Food for oil, tanks for oil, buildings for oil, bridges for oil, and most importantly, THEIR FREEDOM for oil. We'll be back to $1 per gallon gas in no time.

[Bob J]

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[EricT.]

The ultimate repo machine!

[caisson71]

OK, but one stick of C-4 used to heat up a lot of C-rations.....damn I'm getting old.

[timydnuc]

I read this and I think back to a time, long ago. A time that I was fighting in a jungle half way around the world. I could care less what the news media said, we didn't have any with us. We fought the war by the seat of our combat utilities, and we did it good.

News folks get in the way, and you push them out of the way. Your job, as a "troop", is to kill the enemy and break their stuff. Get in my way and you have a world of hurt to answer to. If I would have paused for one moment to "deal" with news crews 5 of my company would have died, and I would NEVER have permitted that.

Stay out of the way and you won't get hurt.

[Beck_isright]

Go to a local Army-Navy surplus store and buy a MRE with the heater....it's really cool and great if you go camping. You'll see why they can save the C-4 for the enemy now.

V

[drjoe]

IIRC, the Israelis use old and obsolete armored vehicles as battlefield ambulances and such.

[archy]

They may be so obsolete as to be virtually useless - thus their abandonment by the Iraqis. I think they're about 3-4 generations behind even in the Soviet development scale (which is many generations behind our tanks).

This is just a guess - I'd be curious to hear other people's ideas.

I've crewed in T55's, the T55-L model in particular. While hardly suitable for taking on a M1A2 or Challenger II in a head-on fight, the T55 is well- suited for killing accompanying Bradleys, hitting support and logistics convoys during road marches while they're franticly trying to keep up with advancing troops, and for such tasks as airfield and sensitive area perimeter defense, leaving the newer T72 and T72Z [T55 retrofitted with the T72's 2A46 125mm main gun, autoloader [reducing the T55 crew from 4 to 3] and fire control system. When last I counted, Iraq had upgraded around 350 of their T54s and Chinese T59s to the T72Z standard to replace T72s lost during the 1991 war.

And remember too that the US tank platoon, now reduced from 5 to four tanks, is vulnerable to flanking movements from the Iraqi 6-tank squadrons. I doubt that even a 125mm gun can get a frontal armor kill on an M1A2, but a broadside hit might be another matter. Whether the Iraqi tankers are good enough or disposed to try to do so might be another question, but I'd sure hate to find out the hard way. And the 9M119 and 9M119M guided missiles launched through the smoothbore main gun tube might provide some nasty surprises as well. I don't know if the Iraqis are using them, but the Russians certainly are.

-archy-/-

[xm177e2]

I have a sneaking suspicion the new government will choose to buy tanks from us, and not use outdated Soviet stuff.