Tanks at Checkpoint Charlie in 1961?

Musicman59 wrote the following:

I would suspect T-55 for the Ruskies and M60 Pattons for the US.

The Soviets had T-54 series tanks on their side, and the US ones were M48A1s. Alas, neither one has been kitted so if you want to do them up you will have to convert them (easier in 1/72 than 1/35 scale).

The US ones were from Company F, 40th Armor, AKA "F Troop". That was the biggest company in the US Army until the Cavalry regiments reorganized with a tank troop (22 tanks, 23 if you counted their M26A1 "gate guard").

Cookie Sewell

Other areas close to CC had T-34s and ZSU-57-2s on the Soviet side, facing the rest of F Company's tanks. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was locked and cocked. All it took was an itchy trigger finger to start a war.

And another 'what if' when the Berlin Wall fell in 89, the East Germans were thinking of sending a tank brigade to close it off. The Russians talked them out of it and the rest is history. We were so clueless back then, we thought the Cold War was going to go on forever, and so it goes......and yeah, though I miss what I did I'm glad the Cold War is over.

the simple, joy filled days of youth. we knew who to hate and fight and even why.

it was the last time there were rules of war, and they were followed too. bad guys had uniforms too. now you have no idea who your enemy is.

Craig

I wouldn't quite say that. We knew who the "bad guys" were supposed to be but once you met them and saw what their lives were like you honestly felt sorry for the Soviets. They had a truly rotten life unless part of the Politburo and the soldiers were - as they themselves said - only considered "gun grease" in the end.

East Germans not much better (as a matter of full disclosure I was - and still am - a Russian linguist and spent four years in West Berlin at the height of the Cold War). Items for sale in their "Showpiece" capital were either heavily subsidized if they benefited the state or extremely scarce and expensive if they did not. The lowly Trabant 601 two-door sedan cost M29,000 (about DM3600 or US$1800) but would take a middle grade East German anybody 10 years to save for one. And since

I am always stunned when some people want to turn the US into this sort of "Socialist Paradise" -- too bad they never saw the originals up close.

Cookie Sewell

well, so much of the world hates us, it's easier to remember the short list of who doesn't it used to be mostly the have-nots, now it's mostly everyone.

my father worked at "the house" in nurnburg during the 60's. so we got exposure to the "migrants" who were exiting to the west. so perhaps you can understand my bit of sarcasm in my last post. i agree fully about how shitty east bloc life was unless you were a "chosen one". we saw the children of a colnel who left to the west in a px. they were truly in tears because there was butter, milk, and most of all, meat that did not have a questionable ancestry. they were also amazed that it wasn't a store for only the nobility and that there wasn't a seperate currency they needed. i saw a 5 year old clutching a lb of hamburger like it was gold. cookie, you're an astute man and i agree with you all the way down. seeing my country being turned into a 3rd world toilet with the citizens being almost ubiversally hated is killing me. the socialist paradise people seem very carefull about being out of the airstream when the excrement impacts the impellar. i'm depressed, this truly sucks.

I was speaking more of in the terms of uniforms, being able to tell a soldier from a civilian.

Craig

that's what I get for trying to read on the train, most likely fell asleep - read right thru the first page where the author said that the tanks were M48s and T-72s. No one here mentioned the 72.

Craig