Anyone know what happened to this M1?

Or the crew

This was in the news in the US. The tank was blown up by a buried explosive device. Two dead, two wounded last I heard.

I can't seem to view it, but I assume this is a picture of the M1 that had it's turret blown off by an IED.

Two dead, I assume the commander and gunner, one injured. The driver, I guess.

Matt

It was believed to be two 155mm artillery shells that were detonated by remote control as the tank passed over them. The three turret crewman were killed, the driver survived but was seriously wounded.

Horrible. The Israelis lost a Merkava III like this a few months ago, I wonder if serious bottom armor protection will become a feature of newer AFVs.

John

I seem to recal the VC having a lower-tech version of this, which injured a friend of mine (wound up losing most of his left foot). They'd dig a maybe two-foot deep hole and place a plank with a spike in it at the bottom. Back fill somewhat and place a 50cal. round on the spike. Backfill somemore and place a 75mm recoilless round on the 50cal. round. Backfill and place a plank on the recoilless round and cover with a thin (1") layer of dirt. The next hapless GI to drive over the hidden plank will literally get a 75mm round up the ass. The pressure of the vehicle forced everything down. The spike acted as as hammer on the 50cal. round, which in turn set off the 75mm round. Crude but effectice. My friend had his foot mangled when the hood of the Jeep he was riding in came down edgewise on his leg. As he liked to say, "coulda been worse, coulda come down on my head!" I also heard (but can't verify) that this kind of booby-trap could take out a tank, maybe by wrecking the treads?

-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------

The history of things that didn't happen has never been written - Henry Kissinger

As an old instructor Sergeant once told a bunch of wetnosed recruits, "Never underestimate human ingenuity when it comes to the desire to kill one of his fellow Human beings".

Bill Shuey

I doubt you can build an AFV (that is, one that is mobile and/or useful) that can withstand a point blank strike from a 155mm round under its belly. Front, top, side or bottom, I don't care where you place it, your tank crew is going to have a seriously bad day when that thing spikes off. Toast.

WmB

To reply, get the HECK out of there snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net

So you knew the late G/Sgt. C.F. Bailey as well? (P.I.R.D. - Sep 1966)

-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------

The history of things that didn't happen has never been written - Henry Kissinger

In some history book I've read there's mention of the German propensity for booby-trapping everything when they made retreats. A possibly apocryphal story was about US Army troops clearing a farmhouse, and finding that the doors/windows had been booby-trapped with some sort of trip-wire activated charge. The US troops rigged up the wire so that they could activate it from a ditch where they would hunker down. When they did so the ditch blew up. Suppposedly the Germans had figured out US thinking and had set the explosives in the ditch, knowing that US troops would retreat to it when they spotted the wire in the farmhouse door.

It's an interesting story but I wonder how much truth there is in it.

John Hairell ( snipped-for-privacy@erols.com)

the ira did that to the britisah army several times, according to boston globe articles i read in the 70's-80's.

According to a 1944 report from the 3AD G-2, the Germans noted that when shot at American infantry would drop to the ground and roll to their right before taking up a firing position. Ergo the Germans would shoot up in the air and then shoot at the ground about six feet to the right of where they saw the Americans, and nail them every time.

Yes, those things are true!

Cookie Sewell AMPS

I guess there's something to be said for freezing in your tracks.

I've heard things like that before but something about that sounds odd. I'm trying to figure out why anyone would roll once they made themselves small and prone. Not unless it was to get behind cover. Must have been in the training doctrine at the time.

I just realized what is odd. The only way that makes sense is if ONE German shot in the air to flush them to the ground and the rest drew a bead to the right of their target. Otherwise, you'd be a fool to waste a shot in the air when you can take a chance on aiming for your target's chest and forego trying to hit the tougher prone target.

WmB

To reply, get the HECK out of there snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net

I seem to remember being trained in ROTC to hit the ground and roll. Perhaps only in an open flat area where there is no cover.

As for booby-trapping, I also remember the VC putting two booby-traps on a gate. One was an obvious one, the other very well hidden. Americans would disarm the first then proceed through the gate.

My Uncle Nelson did the first 6 months after D-Day with a combat engineering outfit. He admittedly was a "souvenir hound". Cameras were his big weakness. One afternoon somewhere in France they find the remains of a German convoy that had been strafed, overturned staff car and a truck or two. On the ground next to one KIA is a Leica. The Sergeant warns my Uncle "don't touch, I'll show you how to check it out". He checks the area around the item for any sign of a mine, then he makes a loop in a length of rope and drops it around the camera and walks over to a shell hole. "What you do is get in the hole and pull the rope". Everyone ducks as the Sergeant drops down in the hole. My Uncle said what ever was in the bottom of the hole, it blew the Sergeant 50 feet through the air. That ended my Uncle's souvenir collecting.

Another relative, a Great Uncle, was a Navy salvage type who ended up helping clean up Naples to get it operational as a port after the allies finally secured it. Clearing the area of booby traps was a major problem for Army Engineers and held the project up for some time. The unit My Great Uncle was attached to was living under canvas while waiting for the signal to go to work. When they finally got access to the port buildings, one young Lieutenant looked over one of the office buildings and announced that he wanted to start living like a human being again. He went into the bath room attached to the office he had been assigned to "Take a crap like a Gentleman"! You wanna guess what was wired? Blew him through the roof. They evacuated the building while the Army Engineers went through it all over again. My Uncle said they got a very detailed Army T.M. on German mine warfare and booby traps (after the war, of course). The basic booby trap tools were a standard detonator that could be set to work either on compression or on being pulled and blocks of explosive. The German engineers were encouraged to use their imagination. They followed orders quite well.

Bill Shuey

Bill Not picking, but does this really make sense....?

. The German

Kinda seems like the phrase 'Please sit back and relax while Windows 98 is installed to your computer.....' :) what's it called - a dichotomy?

RobG (the Aussie one)

Now that AFV designers have to take into account modern low intensity type warfare, I wouldn't be surprised to see some inventive measures to protect crews from mines and IEDs. Will it be 100% successful? No, for sure, but several verhicles already have been designed with mine protection in mind. It will be interesting to see how far that is taken in design.

can withstand

day when that