I do not know wether there was already a topic about the most long serving tanks, but today I read in a magazine that Afghanistan apparently used Renault FT 17 tanks in 1980 or 81 against the soviets. One of those tanks is actually being examined by US and french military, and is to be send to Patton Museum in Fort Knox.
Wasn't that just a confiscated antiquity? :lol: Seriously, now I realize there's gradations of obsolescence...
Imagine: You're in Ft-17 in city fight. You turn around a corner and what you see: a T-72 10 meters away from you! Scary or what!
Well, if you're lucky, you'll be able to reverse back round the corner before the T-72 crew can stop laughing...
I think your best bet would be to fit a brass plaque to the front, find some kind of plinth or the front of a government building and pretend your a monument.
http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/afghanistan/afghanistan.html Early history of FT-17 in Afganistan. Magnus
I think the profile of the Ft-17 would be smaller then the height of the cannon at that distance , but the T-72 could probably run over the Ft-17 :lol:
Again, only if they can stop laughing... Seriously though, for a crewmember of a high tech 125mm-armed tank I can't imagine what it would be like to encounter a two-man tank armed with only an MG and with wooden wheels.
Surely there is a danger that the 125mm shell would simply go right through the FT-17 without going 'bang'. Although in one of those there is not much space that a shell could pass through without hitting something vital (like the crew)
The brits used to do that to some of the Italian tanks in North Africa, it confused the hell out them as they thought they were bouncing off which they thought was impossable. It was only when they captured a few that they realised. FNG