KarnickelEater

Former German Army Leopard weapons systems mechanic here (mandatory 12 months of service).

I got to shoot once too(*), took the loader station (because of best sight and most space, the gunner only has his sights and sees nothing else). We had the hatches open and I knew the gun was VERY loud, so I was a little bit afraid of the bang. However, it was MUCH more quiet inside the tank just a few feet from the muzzle than it was 100 yards away for those outside - with the hatch open no less. I think that one shot cost the taxpayer around 1000 DM (that was before the Euro).

Most impressive shooting I witnessed was a night shooting maneuver of 12 battle tanks, what a fireworks.

By the way, what really surprised me was how much different it felt to drive this behemoth right over rough terrain. It felt like being on a ship riding steep but gentle waves, very different from the rough ride I would have expected from experience in normal (off road) vehicles.

Now some IMHO: Even if I say "impressive" and while liked that job, I was always aware that it was all a huge waste of taxpayer money for show. And to all who regret not having been deployed: 99% of the time on deployment is utter and total boredom - and when you DO get into a fight much of the time it will be a complete surprise, so you probably won't be prepared and will take losses, and by the time you get your act and cool together the enemy will already have withdrawn, if they have any sense (because your weapons are indeed much better than theirs - but they know that too). Kids play way too much Battlefield 3 these days, with constant action and respawn after the virtual death. Best place in a real battle is at least 1000 miles away from it.

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(*) We said we needed to "test" the main weapon. Everyone knew we were lying, but they played along, probably thought it was fun to let the "Inst" ("Instandhaltung" = maintenance, the mechanics) have a shot. It was great to be a mechanic - we had the generators and the coffee machine, so a grunt mechanic was on the same level as a battle tank commanding officer since they wanted our coffee. MUCH better than having to fight in those big, heavy metal coffins - in a real war (not just against under-armed semi 3rd world armies) tank crews are totally expendable.

Admit it, you only responded so that you could claim a legitimate reason for writing that username.

No. I've been inside a T-55 once (for those who don't know, that's a 1950/60s era Russian battle tank, you can still see them on CNN when they report from some 3rd world type conflict zones), other than that, only my Leopards.

From your pictures it looks similarly cozy in your Abrams :-)

By the way, what is an interesting aspect of those tank stories for those who've never been inside them for a longer period of time is how tiny and cramped it feels the first few times you have to do some work inside. During my first weeks of training I ALWAYS bumped my head somewhere each time I was in there. After a while, however, the space seems to magically expand (like that tent in the Harry Potter movie). After the first few months I NEVER bumped my head again, even though I wasn't looking. Somehow your brain got to know the location of all the obstacles and automatically adapted your movements to avoid them, without requiring conscious thinking. Totally fascinating.

Oh and I just remembered, we didn't have a heat issue (in Germany), but during the first major maneuver I participated in in late fall almost ALL the tank crews complained about water leaking from all hatches. For those who don't know: The tanks are supposed to be safe from chemical attack - but they don't have to be airtight (too difficult with the heavy rotating turret). Keeping the contaminated air on the outside is done by sucking in air trough a filter system and creating n air pressure higher than on the outside, with air flowing from the inside to the outside through all the little holes, and only the filter system as the way in. Great idea - only now engineers and us mechanics where not much concerned with leaks, so the crews got wet and cold.

One thing that's different between Leopard and Abrams is the SOUND I think, with the different type of engine in the Abrams? The Leopard has 1500 PS too - but from a V12 Diesel engine. What I liked about it has nothing to do with battle readiness at all: The DEEEEEP bass sound. You don't need ears, you can hear this engine with your belly - literally. The only thing better is a fighter jet turning on the afterburner just as it passes by and heads away from you, up into the clouds, or, the next level, the start of a rocket or space shuttle. Or does the turbine produce a similarly bassy sound? Impossible to tell from sound clips on the Internet, and I never encountered (a running) one in real life.

Gosh, I just thought of another thing I think may interest readers: The armor plates!

We once tried to drill a hole into an about 0.3 inches thick plate of the exact same steel as was used for the real armor. Of course we used a steel drill, and could go through regular kinds of steel quite easily. However, however we tried, after 10m we gave up on the idea. We had just barely scratched the surface of the steel. So that armor is indeed some really tough steel and not comparable with what normal people think when saying "steel"!

I'm sure one can read all about it on the Internet today, but to get a feeling this little experiment did more for me than reading lots of literature (2years of "material science" with 1-2hrs/week was part of my education and had left MUCH less of an impression than those 10 minutes).

I don't reminisce a lot, or at all, about the past, but thank you for starting this thread, it WAS a nice exercise to see what I remembered - and to see if any of the things I did where useful (to me) on any level (they were, but then I had always thought so).