МХNUMX "Abrams". Fighting
Unlike its older brothers M48 and M60, M1 did not have a chance to fight on the battlefield. For the first time, Abrams sniffed gunpowder in 1982.
According to the story of a Soviet military adviser who was taking part in the training of Syrian tankers who had just arrived in Syria Tanks T-72, this incident occurred during a break-in march by three T-72 tanks in the region of Southern Lebanon shortly before the Israeli aggression against this country (Operation Peace Halle). The column, moving along the road, went around a large hill, and when the first tank, in which the narrator was located, began to leave the hill, he unexpectedly discovered at an distance of about 800 meters three unknown tanks that were not similar to Israeli ones. These tanks also moved in a convoy and, finding Syrian vehicles, quickly began to rebuild in line for the attack. Unknown vehicles were the first to fire, our third tank, which had just left the hill, got into the tower. The tank didn’t penetrate the projectile, however, due to a strong dynamic impact, the car died out. The crew at the same time received a medium concussion. The second enemy tank, firing almost immediately with the first shot, hit the T-72 medium tank in the convoy in the stern compartment, disabling the engine.
Seeing such aggressive behavior of strangers, the narrator, being the commander of the tank, gave the order to open fire on the rightmost tank and after its defeat on the middle one. Here, the adviser noted the high proficiency of the Syrian gunner, who did not allow any delay during aiming and firing. It was decided to use BPS. Having made two shots with an interval of approximately 7 seconds, we achieved two hits, both of which hit the towers. The third tank, which remained intact, retreated behind the two wounded, tried to evacuate the wounded and killed. However, I could not completely do this, since the T-72 opened fire from a coaxial machine gun. Having taken the wounded, the unknown tank quickly retreated. Arriving at the wrecked vehicles and making sure that no one was dangerous, the crew, getting out, inspected the tanks. Doubts that these were not Israeli tanks were confirmed, since they did not resemble the Centurion, the M60, or even the Merkava, which had just appeared, the adviser saw his photos and therefore could not confuse him. the form of the two killed tankers was also not similar to the Israeli one. They wanted to take one tank in tow, however, considering the remaining fuel (it was necessary to tow their tank), we decided to get to the unit and report to the authorities on the location of the enemy vehicle, and then take measures to evacuate. The contused crew, having regained consciousness, was able to start the tank, and the column moved back. However, the planned time for the route for technical reasons tripled, and the tanks arrived home only at night. Reported on the form of what happened, they decided to send intelligence immediately in the morning. However, there were many doubts that something would remain, which was confirmed the next morning. In the square where the battle took place, there were no wounded tanks, however there were many traces of wheeled vehicles, apparently tractors, which evacuated the tanks. Subsequently, when comparing photos of the identification of tanks with which the collision occurred, it was, surprisingly to many, identified the American МХNUMX Abrams. Apparently he passed the test in Israel in order to familiarize the Israeli specialists with the tank, but why it was necessary to start the battle, if the tank was secret, no one understood. Some suggested that having a faster tank and, as the Abrams ’crews believed, a more reliable booking, they wanted to impose a battle at distances that were favorable to them and, if possible, probably take the trophy, because T-1 is neither from the Americans nor the Israelis at that time was not. The outcome of this fight, which can be said with confidence, was up to the Syrians, raised to a higher level, the assessment of security and efficiency weapons new Soviet tanks.
Another more significant and well-known episode of the combat activities of the M1 tanks was the conduct of the land phase of the war against Iraq, which captured Kuwait in 1990. After the declaration of war to Iraq by a coalition of member countries, which in addition to the United States included Great Britain, France, Syria, and so on, a powerful tank group was assembled that comprised 5600 tanks. It was based on the American M1 series tanks. The first Abrams in the M1 and 1РМ1 modification from the 24 Mechanized Division arrived in Saudi Arabia in August 1990, where the main forces of the American expeditionary force were concentrated. By November their number was 580 tanks МNNUMX and 1 М123А1. However, the possible threat by the Iraqi side of chemical and bacteriological weapons forced the American side to reconsider its attitude to the further use of the M1 equipped with an 1-mm gun in combat operations. The latter had limited ability to protect the crew against weapons of mass destruction, as well as the low damaging properties of 105-mm guns during a possible meeting with tanks of the elite units of Iraq, which were Republican Guard armored units equipped with Soviet-made T-105М and T-72М72 tanks.
These machines are in 1988 — 89's. have been upgraded to enhance the protection of the upper frontal parts of the tank hull. This was achieved by welding an additional armor plate with a thickness of 30 mm with an air gap equal to the same 30 mm. This measure was taken by the Iraqis after studying the possibility of protecting tanks against various 120-mm ammunition of the British rifled tank gun L11A5 mounted on Iranian Chiften tanks captured by Iraq during the last war between the two countries. Carried out reinforcement of the hull, and the tower of the T-72 tank kept the English shells, allowed not to break through with the same shells at a distance from 1000 meters. Therefore, the US Army decided to use the arrived M1 tanks and its advanced IP model M1 in the second tier of the coming forces, relying on them to destroy secondary targets as well as outdated T-54 and T-55 tanks, which were used as long-term firing points . In the first echelon of the advancing forces, it was decided to use tanks in versions М1А1 and М1А1NA, as they had a more advanced system of collective defense against weapons of mass destruction, more effective 120-mm cannon and booking. For this, parts of the 7 Corps, which formed the basis of American forces in the Desert Shield and Desert Storm operations, as well as divisions of the US Marine Expeditionary Forces, were urgently re-equipped with the above tanks.
By February, 1991, the American troops in Saudi Arabia had 1956 tanks M1A1 (1223 M1A1NA and 733 M1HA1). As the arrival of new cars, which were mainly from West Germany, they were modernized. Knowing the low road performance of the T156 tracks, the tanks changed to the new T158. However, by the beginning of the land phase of the war, only 20% of all vehicles had undergone this retrofit. A great danger to the advancing units was the minefields set up by Iraqi troops in the front line of their defense. To solve such a complex task as breaking through such obstacles, a part of the Abrams, who entered tank anti-mine companies, was upgraded to install a plow-type mine sweeper. The decision to equip with just such a device for trawling was chosen after comparative tests with an Israeli-made wheel mine trawl, which in turn was created on the basis of the KMT-6 Soviet trawl. The official opinion on the mine plow was based on the fact that the former was lighter on 7 tons (4 versus 11 on a wheeled one).
Recently, however, in the press, there were reports that the cause was not only a smaller mass. During the explosion, which was accompanied during the trawling of a wheeled trawl, the front torsion bars and hydraulic shock absorbers of the Abrams did not withstand, and the car failed. The presence of a mine plow imposed restrictions on the tank when an enemy applied a WMD, since the design of the trawl provided for the driver to dismantle the periscope for wiring the hydraulic trawl control hose. To bring the plow into position, one of the crew members must get out of the tank and remove the safety checks. Although the presence of a plow-type trawl prevented the tank from exploding mines, however, there was an increased power consumption during trawling, which, in turn, in conditions of high temperatures in the desert caused the oil to overheat in the engine and transmission system, as the tank mass increased to 67 tons (in version М1А1NA). Therefore, the use of a mine trawl was limited and was used when the ground was loose. In other cases, elongated charges and regular mine detectors were used.
Launched on 17 on January 1991, the offensive air operation of the MNF continued on the 43 day. Its task was to destroy Iraq’s air defense systems, the country's strategic facilities and targets for the operational and tactical defense of Iraqi troops. In total, according to the American press, during the aerial bombardment near 500 tanks, over 500 guns were destroyed, almost all airfields, air defense radar stations, anti-aircraft missiles and 476 aircraft were destroyed. 24 February of the same year, fighting against Iraq entered the second phase of the air-land operation “Desert Storm”. The US forces were divided into three operational groups: the main one, as already mentioned, was the 7 corps, consisting of the 2 armored cavalry regiment, the 1 armored cavalry division, the 1 armored division, the 3 armored division, and XNUM th mechanized division. The second group was the 1 th airborne corps, which included the 18 th armored cavalry regiment and the 3 th mechanized division. On the coastal direction, there were expeditionary forces of the marines consisting of two tank battalions of marines and parts of the second tank division of the USA. The groups acted on three different directions: on the Central - 24, on the Western - 7, and on the Primorsky direction - expeditionary forces. The main attack was laid on the US 18 Army Corps, acting jointly with the British 7 Panzer Division. Their joint action was carried out from the area of the junction of the borders of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq with the task of cutting off and surrounding Iraqi troops in Kuwait. 1 VDK attacked in the direction of the settlements of El-Shuba, Nasaria with the task of defeat in cooperation with 18 AK USA, 7 AK Iraq and on the fifth — eighth day to reach the line of the final task, to the Euphrates River. Another strike in the direction of Wafra, Al-Jah, and Kuwait was inflicted by expeditionary forces, with the task of defeating Iraqi divisions of the first echelon 7 AK and in conjunction with the airborne assault forces 3 of the United States and the Egyptian and Saudi troops by the end of the third day to seize the capital of Kuwait.
The ground group of Iraq in the south of the country and in Kuwait had the task of holding tight positions by holding a tough defense, inflicting tangible damage to the MNF on the offensive and forcing the leadership of the United States and its allies in this war to compromise acceptable to Baghdad. However, in the conditions of the seizure of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties of the strategic initiative and its complete domination aviation in the air, the solution to this problem was impossible. Having suffered heavy losses during 38 days of continuous MNS airstrikes, being cut off from the strategic rear and experiencing serious shortages of ammunition, fuel, water and other supplies, the Iraqi command nevertheless took a desperate step - to organize a centralized withdrawal of troops from the enemy surrounded areas, which in the end she succeeded. True, most of the equipment had to be abandoned due to lack of fuel, while the Americans presented to the press such an amount of allegedly destroyed equipment by the successful operation of their army and aircraft. To ensure the withdrawal of its main forces, the Iraqi command organized separate attempts to go beyond the line of its defense with the aim of counterattacking and holding in battle the advanced units of the MNF. On February 25, one of the motorized infantry battalions of the 12th Panzer Division of Iraq, equipped with T-59 tanks, entered into combat contact with 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which was armed with M1A1 tanks and operating at the forefront of 7 US AK.
Despite the almost complete defeat, the Iraqis, however, were able to gain time for the withdrawal of the main forces of the division. Sometimes it happened that the Iraqi tankers in the fight against a strong opponent, who was, in particular, "Abrams", had to use the real miracles of fiction and courage. For example, the combat clash that took place last February 26 around 6 o'clock in the morning on the outskirts of Kuwait metropolitan airport. An 16 Iraqi motorized infantry division tank unit equipped with X-NUMX T-9 tanks and attempting to leave the encirclement used an unusual tactical maneuver against the 62-1 1 M battalion of the US Marine Corps. To put down the enemy’s vigilance, the Iraqis, turning the towers back and throwing out white flags, advanced in the direction of a breakthrough. American tankers, having bought a ploy, loosened control over the approaching enemy, for which they paid. When the distance between the cars of the opposing sides was reduced to 1 meters, the Iraqi tanks, unexpectedly deploying the barrels of their guns, inflicted a powerful fire attack on the enemy. In this fleeting battle 3005 X was destroyed and almost as much received various damage. The Iraqis, having passed through the orders of the Egyptian troops, joined the 1 AK units of Iraq. In general, in view of the fact that the Iraqi command in this situation put its main task in maintaining the combat units and withdrawing them to the operational depth of defense in Iraq, there was practically no serious resistance. As a result of this more or less large tank battles were few. The most noteworthy was the fighting between M 1А3 and Iraqi T-1 in the Iraqi military airbase Saman, in 1 km east of Baghdad According to the Soviet military attache in Iraq, Colonel V Potsalyuk, Americans lost 72 tanks in that battle, most of them these were the Abrams. In confirmation of this, photographs of the destroyed 300 M were sent to Moscow under the “secret” stamp.
The rest of the 2 battles took place at night in the Basrah area, the Americans' RNG Iraqi units were the opponents of the Americans. There was no exact information about the combat losses in those battles, but the Iraqi Defense Ministry representatives said they were very pleased with the military survivability of the T-72 Soviet tanks, which easily hit the Abrams "In confirmation of these words, we can say that the American units did not achieve their goals, in particular, to break up the RNG units and to assist the opposition government of Iraq to the Shiite rebels who were in the neighborhood The idea of - confirms the validity of the views of the Iraqi side. In total, for all the time of operations in Kuwait and Iraq, American tank units irretrievably lost a little more than Abrams 50 tanks. Despite significant superiority over the enemy, who had mostly obsolete models such as T-54 / 55 / at that theater of operations. 62, such a number of lost cars can be considered large. Especially recently, environmentalists say that in the Arabian desert, at a place of hostilities, there are scattered around 20000 uranium cores from tank guns, threatening the environment With the help of uncomplicated arithmetic, it is possible to calculate how much ammunition each 500 shot down by T-72 accounted for; such expensive Abrams shells were hardly used for T-55, the initial statements of the Western press that no tank was lost, they were later refuted. A little later, it turned out that the Soviet 125-mm. The first-generation BPSs that existed in the Iraqi T-72 still pierce the armor of the Abrams tank, albeit at a distance of about 800 meters, and the technical reliability of the tank itself left much to be desired, which we wrote a little higher on. The “expelling” panels, which were intended to become a radical means of saving the crew during the detonation of the ammunition, also showed dubious significance; an example is the photo of the destroyed Abrams just because of an internal explosion of shots. Despite the departure of the plates, the hull of the turret of the tank cracked, and all the insides destroyed by the explosion, eventually the tank burned out.
The subsequent episodes of the use of the M1 tanks in Yugoslavia, Kosovo and Somalia, despite all the assurances of the Western press, can only be called combat fights. The use of tanks in the form of mobile firing points at checkpoints after what was tested in Iraq did not in any way confirm the opinion of the Americans about the “best” tank in the world. So the statement that only the German gun and the English armor are good at the M1 deserves the most serious approval.
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