my dad was a gazelle pilot when he was younger, told me a great story of a training mission whilst stationed in germany, the tank column he was supporting got trapped in bogs, they lost 4 tanks and around 7 lorry's and jeeps, managed to get all the sensitive equipment out before the bog swallowed them
I remember reading some horrifying stories when we were first making the run on Bagdad, the soldiers had gone 24 hours with no sleep. A few tanks either mad a wrong turn or slid into canals. I read one or two of them flipped upside down trapping the crews inside. The crews were trapped inside and drown with their buddies standing on the bank helpless to get them out. I don't know much about the Abrams, is the top hatches the only way out? That would be a terrible way to go.
Jay
There is no escape hatch under the body of the tank. The equipment-packed interior prohibits such a feature. There is a small area where the interior turret floor plate can be removed to access hydraulics on the hull floor, but that is just big enough to fit your hands through and still does not allow access of any kind to the outside. I seem to recall two small drain plates at the rear underside near the drive sprockets, but they were very small.
Believe me, it is small inside the turret and the driver's compartment as well. I can't count how many times I was nearly hammered by the main gun recoil while being tossed about inside over rough terrain in Kuwait. Additionally, any disruption in the form of a hatch large enough for a man to fit through would result in a weak point and compromise the integrity of the armor plate.
[B][COLOR=Black][SIZE=3][FONT=Book Antiqua][I] Steve[/I][/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/B]
[CENTER][I][FONT=Georgia][COLOR=orange]Did you ever get the feeling that the world was a tuxedo and you were a pair of brown shoes?[/COLOR][/FONT]
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Being the driver of the Abrams can be incredibly dangerous in addition to the general risks to the entire crew. The driver is the only crew member who actually is positioned in the hull, the commander, gunner and loader are in the turret. The driver can access the tank from his outer hatch or the turret from the inside via a gate directly behind his head. However, the turret must be turned to a certain alignment point and the turret ring manually locked. There have been several drivers who carelessly crawled through this space with out the lock in place - the result is being cut in half.is the top hatches the only way out?
Also, as far as access from the outside, if the main gun is lowered all the way and the turret is in a certain position, the driver is trapped. My biggest fear was that my crew would be incapacitated or killed and the main the gun lowered over the front because of hydraulic loss during a fire. If the fire suppression system didn't work, the only other way "out" was the Beretta M9.
[B][COLOR=Black][SIZE=3][FONT=Book Antiqua][I] Steve[/I][/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/B]
[CENTER][I][FONT=Georgia][COLOR=orange]Did you ever get the feeling that the world was a tuxedo and you were a pair of brown shoes?[/COLOR][/FONT]
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[SIZE=3][COLOR=lemonchiffon][I][CENTER][FONT=Georgia]"Fly on dear boy, from this dark world of strife. On to the promised land to eternal life"[/FONT][/CENTER]
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hi guys the last tank to be built with an escape hatch underneath was the US M60
the hatch was down by the drivers feet
all tanks going back to the mk1 foward to challenger and m1 are as dangerouse to the crew as they are to the enamy and have to be treated with great respect ,this is 1 of the reasons why it takes so long to train a tank crewman
the russian T62 is a good example ,the auto loader puting a round in the breach of the gun has bin known to try to load the tank commander at the same time usualy ending up with an arm ripped off if he got to close to the mechanism
not my idea of fun the tank is like a wild animal it will bite you if you dont keep a close eye on it
cheers ian
oh also with the m1 im only a small bloke so i have managed to get in and out of an m1 drivers hatch no mater the position of the gun or turret but its not easy believe me hell o a squeeze
chieftain and challenger not a problem plenty of room
Last edited by ian; 02-26-2010 at 08:52 AM.
Steve
Thanks for that, that's something that I just learnt then.
All I can say to that is, "thank God I did my time in infantry and engineers"
Regards etc
Ian
I was motor transport during the invasion in 03', anything that broke down we would torch- even city buses, $100,000 bonfire, lol!
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