A interesting Tank Story?

Question

I want to see if anyone thinks this is a true story.

I read a Clancy book on the army that told a interesting story back in 1991 in Iraq. But several people i have talked to said this had to be fiction.


A U.S. M1A1 tank i think was part of a convoy when it got stuck in some wet sand. It was unable to get unstuck and by security procedures it had to be destroyed and not fall into enemy hands (the technology).

The engineers are called to start the process and the crew gets ready to leave their tank.

3 Iraq tanks show up and take up positions behind and around sand dunes and not in direct line of site of the tank.

Each fires at least 1 shot and all bounce off the reactive armor plating, none penetrating.

the M1 takes out 2 some way, and the third it uses infra red to see it throuhg a sand dune and fires through it and destroys the Iraq tank.

Finally the engineers (and another tank) show up and attempt to remove the tank with chains and whatever.

They can not,

so the tank is ordered to destroy it.

I dont know how many times it fired but finally a shot penetrates and sets off a explosion but does not destroy the tank.

The crew (once the fire was gone) climbed back aboard to examine the damage, and discovered only two things wrong.

The shot had penetrated the ammo compartment and set it off, but the only true damage to the tank was that the gun alignment site was off.

Somehow they got the tank unstuck after this and it was taken to a tank yard, turret replaced and would soon eb back in the war.

Please tell me if this is something you['ve heard and is it possible to havebeen true.

Answer 1

It is possible that a round can go through the tank without exploding the shells. M1A1 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles are fited with this equipment that will extinguish a fire in 0.2 seconds to prevent the fire setting off the shells. However, firing through a sand dune and destroying a tank, that is a little far fetched. I think that infra-red might be able to see through a sand dune by the heat signature that can be spotted around the sane dune that radiated from the tank. Because heat radiates in the air, a crew doesnt have to see right "through" the sand dune, but they can see around the sand dune and still get a pretty good fix on the Iraqi tank.

Answer 2

Tanks that are stuck and are about to be captured self destruct. the story above is total fiction. 1 infra red doesn't see through sand it only sees the heat on any surface in this case it would only see the heat of the sand. 2 The M1 tank was never fitted with reactive armor it has a composite armor made up of depleted uranium and ceramics and hardened steel. At close range a 125mm round will kill; a M1 tank. 3 the 120mm round might punch through a sand dune but would have too little penetration power left to kill a tank. The engineers should be able to remove the tank especially with the help of several vehicles pulling at once.

Answer 3

It's only somewhat true. Yes, there was a stuck tank that the U.S. felt needed to be destroyed. Soldiers lacking the proper equipment (like a 2,000 lbs bomb) decided to shoot the tank using other tanks. There are several types of tank shells and they used shape charged explosive shells that were counter acted by the reactive armor. In the end, the guys ended up filling the tank up with cement.

That isn't the most impressive tank story I heard. Back in Gulf War 1, a tank saw and shot at a hovering hind helicopter using an armor piercing round. The hind helicopter didn't have enough armor so the round went right through the helicopter. The tank shot a second time using an incendiary round which set the helicopter ablaze.

Answer 4

Sounds Bogus to me for 2 reasons.
1: Infra-red would not penetrate a sand dune:
2: Any projectile carried on a tank would NEVER penetrate through a sand dune.
3: Any explosion that happened on the interior of the tank would have resulted in the occupants being reduced to jelly.

The ablative reactive armor on a tank is impressive stuff, and there have been records of russion tank rounds literally bouncing off an M1A1.
When we shoot their tanks, their 30 ton turrents jump into the air off the top of their tanks, it is sooooo cool.

Answer 5

It is possible the M1 tank is a very tough piece of gear, I have seen RPG rounds bounce of the thinnest parts of the tank and all tank companies carry tank wreckers (tow trucks built on an older model tank chasis) to drag stuck and damaged tanks out of the line of fire. The ammo compartment is sealed off from the rest of the tank to protect the crewmen from exploding ammunition so while it is plausable I don't know if its true.

Answer 6

It could be only the people in this story know