Hmm thanks for mentioning the typo
I was at my uncles house on christmas and he has a second production run version of the book and there you see it actually says T-72 in there...
I also talked to my grandpop again.
It seems they actually tested T-62 near Stendal in the late 1970s, seems they got em directly from the soviets shipped over just for that. Seems they were quite happy about that tank and there were even some typed up for purchase but that was cancelled when the actualy order for T-72s went out 81.
"Funny" thing is he was quite sure about it when we discussed it all when helped a little for an earlier SPMBT build, even claimed he has seen upgraded variants, but that then might have been T-72s or something.
Until the 1973 my Grandpa was Batallion CO in the "Erzgebirge" near the FRG/GRD/CZ border.
After that he was in "Wehrbezirkskommando" Potsdam responsible for the seciton regarding mobilization of regulars and reserves, and then then from 1982-87 he was first assistant Chief of Staff and then Chief of Staff for the whole Kommando.
Apart from that my uncle's did spend their three years in the mid 80s and my father was in the border guards until 'the end'... Was even scheduled for duty in Berlin on November 11th 1989...