M1 Tank Damaged

ferret69 SG

Watched a little bit of BBC/CNN a day or so back and saw an M1 tank opeating in Iraq with a small fire just to the right side of the turret. A member of the crew climbed out with blood all over his left hand and he looked like he was in shock. Didn't see any smoke coming out with the hatch opened.

Anyone know what happened here? All I've seen during this round of Iraq insurgency is RPGs used by the Iraqi insurgents. Could that be what hit the M1? Or some other ATGM or anti-tank rocket.

Anyone betting that this is the new Vietnam for the Yanks?

dragonstar SG

Didn't see that, so didn't know what happened.

Hmm, seemed more like "M1 Crewmember Damaged" instead of "M1 Tank Damaged" :-) Tanks can be incredible resilient but not human. Let's say we build a tank that is so tough that the armour cannot be penetrated by a 120 round, the impact may not damage the tank, but I don't think the crew can get off as lightly.

sprocket SG

It was a Marine Corp M-1 Abrams that was hit by an RPG in the outskirts of Fallujah...

i personally feel that its more like somalia.... with all the insurgents cowardly hiding behind women and children and using them and protected sites as cover to launch their attacks...

eurofighter SG

There was a FF incident in OIF where a AH-1W fired on an M1. Does anyone know what happened to the M1?

Viper52 SG

Another M-1 has been just been pictured hit and burning in Baghdad. The right hand side was quite badly burnt, and looks like it was hit below an highway overpass.

Not sure if this picture will work, but this taken from Yahoo! News:

The BBC showed video footage of this tank burning as well.

sgboy2004 SG

hope the injured ones are ok now....

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ferret69 SG

That's interesting. First time I've seen M1s being damaged/hit, the latest pics showing a disabled M1. I can only suspect an ambush situation. Can this sort of thing happen using an RPG from a range of 50+ meters on an M1?

Even I haven't seen the Israeli's being hit like these and shown on CNN/BBC. Tactical/doctrinal differences between the two armies?

ditzy SG

Probably a critical hit on its fuel line. Looks like a fuel fire from the pics.

SingaporeTyrannosaur SG

Well this is war…

foga SG

so much for an indestructable tank.

Shotgun SG

Come on, the M1 was only known to be indestructable along the FRONT. The sides and rear are still vulnerable. What the M1 really boasted was crew survivability. Ammo Explosions on the M1 is rare… thats why u don’t see the whole turret fly off in the event of a catastrophic hit. Anyway, I guess the crewmember was injured by some unsecured item lying around in his turret when they took a hit.

B29 SG

Actually hor

almost all tanks rears are the least protected area , the front is the best protected one .

M1 is not an exception

Shotgun SG

RPG under 50m probably won’t scratch the ABRAMs along the front, side also quite unlikely. Rear would be quite deadly, knocking out its gas turbine engine which is located there. What i suspect really got that Abrams could have been a really well hidden AT-mine or similar explosive device that was detonated at really close proximity.