And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Wrong angle. You want to look at them in side profile. That T-62 is about five feet tall. Get shot at, you learn to want small. The best thing about those Willys jeeps you like so much is: fold the windshield down and the highest thing above ground is the steering wheel. BTW, gingers rule. IF you don't believe me, ask my daughter. V/R JWest
It's what fits on a rail car. And the T55 is nominally 7'9" high while the Chieftain is 9'6". Your point is valid, but there are trade-offs, and I would much rather fight a Chieftain... You don't want to be anywhere you can be shot at in a jeep, no matter how small you can make it.
Yes, there are tremendous tradeoffs. The T-55s low height was achieved by making the turret so cramped it became quite difficult to load the gun (which was even more of a hazard to the loader when it recoiled than is normal in tanks, besides which, the loader stood to the right of the breech, forcing him to use his left hand primarily to get the shell loaded). The short stature of the tank meant only short men could effectively crew it. The gun was very limited in elevation and depression. -4° depression compared to Chieftain's -10°, which meant that using the reverse slope of an elevation as cover from which to fire from a hull-down position was not as effective. The T-55 had to crawl higher up and expose more of itself, negating the height advantage in that (important) situation. They were and are death traps when penetrated. The turret traverse was glacially slow, and the suspension quite bad. It would beat you to death on rough terrain and had a tendency to throw tracks at speed. No, give me the Chieftain any day, despite its crap engine.
You've got the numbers, I don't. Stood next to a couple of those Russian bastards and I swear I could see over the top of them. We were all impressed with how low to the ground they were. 30+ years ago. Right also about being shot at in a jeep. Mostly talking about hiding the thing when the bad guys are looking for targets.
Wrong angle. You want to look at them in side profile. That T-62 is about five feet tall.
ReplyDeleteGet shot at, you learn to want small. The best thing about those Willys jeeps you like so much is: fold the windshield down and the highest thing above ground is the steering wheel.
BTW, gingers rule. IF you don't believe me, ask my daughter. V/R JWest
It's what fits on a rail car. And the T55 is nominally 7'9" high while the Chieftain is 9'6". Your point is valid, but there are trade-offs, and I would much rather fight a Chieftain... You don't want to be anywhere you can be shot at in a jeep, no matter how small you can make it.
ReplyDeleteYes, there are tremendous tradeoffs. The T-55s low height was achieved by making the turret so cramped it became quite difficult to load the gun (which was even more of a hazard to the loader when it recoiled than is normal in tanks, besides which, the loader stood to the right of the breech, forcing him to use his left hand primarily to get the shell loaded). The short stature of the tank meant only short men could effectively crew it. The gun was very limited in elevation and depression. -4° depression compared to Chieftain's -10°, which meant that using the reverse slope of an elevation as cover from which to fire from a hull-down position was not as effective. The T-55 had to crawl higher up and expose more of itself, negating the height advantage in that (important) situation. They were and are death traps when penetrated. The turret traverse was glacially slow, and the suspension quite bad. It would beat you to death on rough terrain and had a tendency to throw tracks at speed. No, give me the Chieftain any day, despite its crap engine.
DeleteYou've got the numbers, I don't. Stood next to a couple of those Russian bastards and I swear I could see over the top of them. We were all impressed with how low to the ground they were. 30+ years ago. Right also about being shot at in a jeep. Mostly talking about hiding the thing when the bad guys are looking for targets.
ReplyDelete