Anybody else watch "Greatest Tank Battles" on The Military Channel last night? It was very interesting. I like it a lot. New episode next Wednesday at 10 PM EST.

I caught it and saved it. Next week…Battle for the Golan Heights. I plan to burn the set on to DVD for myself. I burned many of the different series from the military channel, Great Planes, Top Ten, Battle Field, and the many newer Iraq war stuff.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

I too love those series and try to catch as many as I can. With all that's going on lately I completely forgot about the Greatest Tank Battles, will be looking forward to it from now on

I DVR'ed it and watched it last night.

Overall, I liked the program and what the USA soldiers experiences on that day in the desert. I think it also showed the USA sodiers using their equipment to its fullest and how the Iraqis were just shocked by the impact of the Abrams tank and Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV). I did like the sabot round sequence of showing the round going out the Abrams tank main gun tube, the sabots coming off the penetrator and then the impact on the T-72, with the tracer element on the base of the penetrator.

Now being a treadhead and a nitpicker:

The Abrams tank shown most of the time was the M1A2, not the M1A1 mention and used in 1991.

The BFV that was used by the 2nd ACR was a M3 Cavalry Fighting Vehicle (CFV), not the M2 Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) that was mentioned. Also, the BFV's 25mm cannon did (does) fire a Armor Piercing Discarding Sabot (APDS) round that can take out opposing light armored vehicles (BMP; BTR; BRDM), but could not penetrate the front armor of main battle tanks. When the M3 CFV was firing down on the T-72 it could have penetrated the top armor, but it may have been too close to the target. Most USA armor defeating rounds (sabot, HEAT, ATGM) do not 'arm' until 66 meters out the gun tube. This is the range when the sabots are off the penetrator and the ATGM's warhead arms and is active.

The show went over the Abrams 120mm rounds, but it did not go over the TOW IIa that was fired by the CFV's.

The above was small stuff and I will be watching the entire series.

I dont get The Military Channel anymore . So I have missed alot of great stuff.

Also noted the T-72's appeared to be "flipped": i.e.: IR searchlight on wrong side, likewise the exhaust, commander's cupola, and I believe the gunner's sight. Also no Dazzler.

IMHO, it is a decent series. I dvr'd the four episodes depicting wwII tank battles: North Africa, two on battle of the bulge, and the Hochwald gap. I enjoy watching the interviews with the veterans.

For those who don't get this channel, you can find the episodes, although broken into multiple parts, on YouTube.

I finally caught the Battle of 73 Easting episode, and wow, does that instill some patriotic fervor! I thought it was well-done, but I'm probably biased as an American and because I was of military age back during Desert Storm-- that would have been my war. I can't believe I let the 20th anniversary slip past without flying the flag out in front of my house.
The episode on North Africa was dull in my opinion. They described rises and ditches and 3D terrain, but the computer modelling was flat as a pool table, so I struggled to envision what they were trying to portray. Also, why did they keep saying that the hull-mounted gun caught the Germans in profile?
I guess they put more effort into some than into others.
-Sean.