Repair vehicle and units - Page 2

Marek_Tucan · #1 December 21st, 2008, 06:54 AM

Re immobilisation, I recall an incident from 6th Para Div landing in Normandy, the Tetrarch got stuck in a tangle of parachute webbings, the crew tried fruitlessly to cut the ropes etc., but in the end they had to risk a bit - they borrowed a flamethrower and set the ropes on fire en masse.
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EDIT: Re. changing the tire under fire, it was enough for me to change it in a side lane on a mtorway, with trucks passing right behind my back...

RERomine · #2 December 21st, 2008, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marek_Tucan

Re immobilisation, I recall an incident from 6th Para Div landing in Normandy, the Tetrarch got stuck in a tangle of parachute webbings, the crew tried fruitlessly to cut the ropes etc., but in the end they had to risk a bit - they borrowed a flamethrower and set the ropes on fire en masse.

That's interesting and a quite creative solution.

Quote:

EDIT: Re. changing the tire under fire, it was enough for me to change it in a side lane on a mtorway, with trucks passing right behind my back...

I've done that before and agree.

gingertanker · #3 December 21st, 2008, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Just to make sure everyone's clear, I don't think any of us has disputed this. The issue is one of the instant load/unload rather than it happening at all. It should take more than one turn to do it, and with the way the load code works, this isn't possible.

It takes between 10 to "you name it" minutes actually.

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Towing away a disabled tank probably would depend on the current situation. It doesn't seem to be something they would likely attempt if there is a great risk of losing the ARV. Losing the ARV wouldn't help anything. I'm not saying it's not done, but that it would be something that would be evaluated on a case by case basis.

You dont need an ARV to tow a tank. You can do it with any other tank or tracked vehicle that is strong enough.

RERomine · #4 December 21st, 2008, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gingertanker

Quote:

Towing away a disabled tank probably would depend on the current situation. It doesn't seem to be something they would likely attempt if there is a great risk of losing the ARV. Losing the ARV wouldn't help anything. I'm not saying it's not done, but that it would be something that would be evaluated on a case by case basis.

You dont need an ARV to tow a tank. You can do it with any other tank or tracked vehicle that is strong enough.

True. I was getting a bit of tunnel vision. Another tank could tow one as long as the tank being towed isn't mired where it can't easily be reached. There are lots of examples where tanks were just left stuck where they were, but there are also lots of examples of tanks being towed out. In the end, it boils down to the desire to do so.

Marek_Tucan · #5 December 21st, 2008, 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RERomine

That's interesting and a quite creative solution.

Also quite dangerous - I take it the crew were pretty desperate about the stuff. i cannot imagine non-desperate tanker aiming a flamethrower at his wagon, esp. if it is full of ammo and fuel...

gingertanker · #6 December 21st, 2008, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Also quite dangerous - I take it the crew were pretty desperate about the stuff. i cannot imagine non-desperate tanker aiming a flamethrower at his wagon, esp. if it is full of ammo and fuel...

Not to mention a Tetrarch with all the protection of an ice cream cone.

m113apc · #7 December 21st, 2008, 08:39 PM

The longest salvage operation I have been a part of took almost 48h.
It was a Leopard 1 MBT back in 1999.

We used two Leopard1 ARV to winch with and 4 Leopard 1 MBT as anchorage, with a couple of big trees as well to anchor the 4 MBTs.

If I don’t remember wrong, we winched with 170t (total, with all safeties off), then we got it out of the march. It was so deep, that we only saw the tip of the cannon, and the cannon was elevated to the maximum, so we had to send down engineer divers to hook up the wires.

I saw it went down, all the crew made it, the driver and loader was send to hospital with march water in their lungs, they had to wait to the compartment was filled with water, before they could evacuate through the commanders hatch. It took about two long minutes before we saw them in the water. An ice block blocked the loaders hatch.

Good it was peacetime exercise.

Anyway, this was an interesting topic with many good answers and stories.
Thx...

RERomine · #8 December 21st, 2008, 10:38 PM

How did they end up in the water in the first place? Did you see it happen or just part of the recovery operation?

gingertanker · #9 December 22nd, 2008, 02:13 AM

saw one that took about that long. Merkava Mk 2 stuck in mud, another came in to tow it, got stuck. A D9 Dozer came to help and got stuc kas well. Seriously bad mud that was. They brought another D9 that pulled out the first D9, than both towed each tank out.

Marek_Tucan · #10 December 22nd, 2008, 04:57 AM

Inj my father's unit (Signal Corps) once a ZIL (carrying generator) got stuck, not even in the mud, but in spot of soft ground. The rest of the column were Praga V3S medium trucks, no chance to pull the ZIL out. They borrowed from local agricultural combine a heavy tractor (for work in forests, that big beast with a joint in the middle and four big wheels), tried to pull the ZIL out, instead the tractor broke at the joint. They had to wait for recovery Tatra 815 (8x8)...