We have all seen folks fall off bikes, we have all seen cars flipped over but it isn’t very often you get to see a restored WWII tank flip over. Thankfully no one was hurt but does demonstrate that things can and do go wrong. Read More: Russian Tank Flips Over - Video
The query as to what's going on with the mantlet & turret front has arisen elsewhere. Any theories? I'm mostly looking for shots from the 2012 Victory Parade to get a clearer look at it, or see if any other machines were possibly mocked up in a similar manner. ~A
It looked like it was running up a ramp to a flat bed truck. Then the left tread must have driven off the edge of the flat bed. And then the tank rolls left on to the street/ground. Red faces all around
I have personally loaded many tracked and wheeled large vehicles onto flat-beds in my life. Who ever was in charge of this should be chased through his home-town naked being pelted by ripe veggies and over-ripe fruit. Why the speed up the ramp, why the lack of a person looking out the hull and guiding? I almost lost an IHC TD-24 off a flat-bed once, it was too wide for the bed and half of one track set was farther from center than the other. When that was seen we backed off, reset so the split was even and proceeded to completion. This event was uncalled for and inexcusable. Not a professional load at all, they should all be embarrassed to treat an historic vehicle this way and be thankful they didn't kill any spectators.
I have seen Soooo soo soo sooo many clips of Russian tanks tipping over, Would it be bad if I sent the Kremlin some free driving lessons for Christmas??
Is this why Russia has Soo many tanks? No need to shoot there guns at those damn 'Yanky Dogs' when they can just go and roll one of there 20,000+ tanks onto them =) (Actually side note that is off topic so feel free to ignore, Why are so many tanks from the 50's and 60's still around and actively used? Even a few from the 40's are still around and used....)
I am no Russian expert, but from what I have seen and read about them as a people my impression of them is that they hold their history close to them. Much of the common Russian's lives over the last few hundred years has been rather bleak, ill served by those who lead them (Czar's, Communists and the current bunch) and abused by their neighbors (Swede's, French and Nazi's). Suffering is the common coin they have and their military history is one of the few otherwise bright spots in their collective memory. This trait id complimented by the tendency to hoard or save equipment well past the point where most other countries tend to scrap such things. We in the west often lament that so many of our historical relics are lost before we know it. In this we could learn something from the Russians.
Russian tanks? The Communists had the habit of not throwing away functioning albeit obsolete weapons. Old tanks were put in storage and after some time partially buried in concrete to serve as 'pillboxes'.
The ruskies seem to enjoy hoarding antique military equipment. We get regular shipments of Mosin-Nagants, Tokarev TT-33s and SVT-40s here in Canda -- the guns are straight out of Russian armories (and usually still have the 1950s-era grease on them). A few years ago there was even a big batch of Nagants (the revolvers -- the one designed in 1891) that came in. The same goes for the SKS -- which is why you can buy one for 200 bucks over here. I know they do the same thing with tanks (T-54/55s), and I presume that other armored vehicles are no except. Its still not as bad as Gaddafi (desert littered with warehouses of unused Russian military equipment), North Korea (where the MiG-15 is still on air force rosters) and Cuba (apparently the T-34/85 is still a front-line tank).
God Damn tracks (or at least the people who drive them)! It’s not just the Russians, I witnessed these events in the 2ID in Korea: 1. In 1982 a tanker parked his M48A5 on a frozen rice paddy in Korea - the ice gave way and it was some weeks before they could get the tank out. 2. In 1983 an MI 2Lt insisted on being “Track Commander” of the S-2 M577. Instead of following the other vehicles in his column, and despite the objections of the driver, he insisted on being as far right as possible when crossing a wood and earth bridge on a dirt road. The edge of the bridge gave way and only the top few inches of the tracks armor catching on a concrete railroad bridge kept the vehicle, and several men inside, from falling into a 10 ft ditch. 3. In 1983 someone sent an M113 up a dirt track on a frozen hill. They had removed the rubber pads thinking the metal cleats would grip the ice - it didn’t work and the track slid, backwards, down the hill and (I think) rolled over.
