Cool Pictures

[Brake Weight]

That is bright. I’ll raise you an evening double from last Friday.

[Shape_Shifter]

This is the M110A2 8 Inch Howitzer I was assigned to, broken down on a road somewhere in West Germany (yes, there were two Germanys during the Cold War ). That is a much younger me astride the barrel. 1984

This tracked vehicle is called a Self Propelled Howitzer or Gun. All aluminum except for the gun. Zero armor or protection and only a canvas cover to keep us out of the German winters. The mission of my unit was to fire a 2 kiloton neutron warhead at the bad guys in East Germany. Yes, an atomic cannon round.




I forget the nomenclature of this track but it is a Recovery Vehicle for pulling stuff off the battlefield or road. It is FULLY armored and is built on the chassis of an M60 tank. Basically an armored tow truck. These were even NBC prof (NBC = Nuclear, Biological & Chemical warfare) and were the safest place to be when if nukes started dropping.

[Brake Weight]

Thank you, sir, for your service.

Also, I never knew of such a thing as soft sided tanks. Like a tent tank. With a Godzilla killing warhead nonetheless. LOL. Do you remember the effective range?

[Frank211]

Don't know if this is cool or funny ? LMAO

Sent from my LGMP450 using Tapatalk

[Shape_Shifter]

Originally Posted by Brake Weight

Thank you, sir, for your service.

Also, I never knew of such a thing as soft sided tanks. Like a tent tank. With a Godzilla killing warhead nonetheless. LOL. Do you remember the effective range?

Not a tank - a self propelled gun. Major difference.

The nuke round was a Rocket Assisted Projectile (RAP round). They would go about 25 to 30 klicks. We fired hundreds of high explosive (HE) rounds in training but only got to see a demonstration of a RAP round being fired. It basically destroys the breech of the gun.

To fire the gun normally you would stand on the deck next to the breech, hook a 6 foot cord called a lanyard to the striker, and yank - boom. If you were issued a 20 foot lanyard, it was a sign that you should write home and tell your family, and the rest of humanity, goodbye because shyt was about to get real. You were supposed to yank the 20 foot lanyard from a foxhole next to the vehicle, thus beginning, or responding to the beginning of WWIII.

We trained hard and were very prepared. We were also lead to believe a small scale nuclear war was survivable. Its surreal to think that when my friends back home were seniors in high school I was training for a planned holocaust in Europe.

The Warsaw Pact communists from Russia, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany outnumber the NATO forces (the good guys) in equipment and personnel 10 to 1. So nukes were considered the best defense of Europe. Kids probably aren't taught this in school these days. It was a crazy time.


_

[2mtech]

Originally Posted by Shape_Shifter

We trained hard and were very prepared. We were also lead to believe a small scale nuclear war was survivable. Its surreal to think that when my friends back home were seniors in high school I was training for a planned holocaust in Europe.

The Warsaw Pact communists from Russia, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany outnumber the NATO forces (the good guys) in equipment and personnel 10 to 1. So nukes were considered the best defense of Europe. Kids probably aren't taught this in school these days. It was a crazy time.


_

True, true. My first few years in service in the early 80's we were completely focused on eastern Europe...our forward operating location from NM was Lar, Denmark.

It was almost a running joke seeing the Ft Bliss (Mike Flea) and White Sands Missile Range guys practicing desert warfare...who was ever going to fight a war in the desert??

[Peaker]

"yes, there were two Germany's during the Cold War"

I know actually been many more times to the eastern Germany than the western one, thanks to my commie father and his cronies.

I did never bring my "better dead then red" T-shirt to east Germany, but it was also back in those days i had that shirt,,,,, and yes my father never saw it.
T shirt procured thru some American magazine, maybe SOF magazine.
Yes i know really strange reading for a little Danish kid in the late 70ties,,,, but i never said i was normal or ever attempted to be that.

Raised by a commie in a social democratic monarchy, and have a little,,,,, okay maybe big Texan inside.

Post cold war revealed Denmark was targeted for a handful of small tactical nukes to take out our major installations.
Im sure Western Germany was planned to receive many more of the big flashers.

[BJoe]

Good thing I have several months before the Niece/Nephew is born, I would have one of these on order if it was closer to when I Sister is going to deliver!
https://good-idea-products-shop.mysh...hant-plush-toy

[hpiguy]

HMRB as I jump off this bridge from r/holdmyredbull

[2mtech]

Had to keep the tank/APC/SPG, SPA thing going a bit longer. Would have posted earlier but the good scanner was at work and my stoopid company decided to start blocking Flickr.

My father was a lanyardman on an M40 155mm self-propelled gun during the Korean war ("Red Hot"), not to be confused with a tank or APC ;)

Since this is the cool pic thread, these are some of the pictures he took over there that I inherited:







Here's Dad writing Mom from the crew deck between fire missions:




How politically incorrect would that fuel tank art be now??

[mikemcE]

Those are great shots! (No pun) I remember the ground shook when they let loose. Saw the training graduation many years back, a bud drove one


Hang up and Drive

[STANG KILLA SS]

[JatoTheRipper]

My mom found this leaf. We thought it was really cool.

[BJoe]

That ain't good, that could be insect damage!

[2mtech]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

My mom found this leaf. We thought it was really cool.

That is cool...and it fits well with your signature

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by 2mtech

That is cool...and it fits well with your signature

At first I was like

But then I was like

[Peaker]

As fate would have it, the first 2 RC things i tried to drive was
1: a motorcycle
2: a hovercraft
3: my own 3.5 CCM nitro onroad Graupner car.

You have to remember this was in the very early 80ties


ATM the Danish self propelled artillery are the M109 paladin i think its called ( remember i was not allowed to serve my country )


Most we have seem to be broken down so really we don't have any self propelled artillery at the moment.

ATM it look like the CAESAR 8x8 from French Nexter Systems will replace it.







Personally i am not overly happy with this decision, just like us going with the F35 that i feel are not the right system for our need, at least outside of backing up our American friends where i assume we will rain death on our enemies in the future too.
But that French artillery, i feel there are better options, and really us Danes + French well in history not the best decisions we made.
I prefer what our Swedish neighbors use.

[Shape_Shifter]

Originally Posted by Peaker

A
ATM the Danish self propelled artillery are the M109 paladin i think its called ( remember i was not allowed to serve my country )

The M109 155mm was what I trained on in basic training at Ft. Sill OK.

Back to the "what is a tank?" discussion, note that the M109 may look like a tank but the turret and sides are all aluminum. A rifle round would go right through it like the canvas cover of the M110 I show above. Also the turret of an artillery piece like the M109 will only rotate about 15 degrees left and right.

Beating a dead horse: A tank is intended for "direct fire". That means like aiming a rifle at a target and shooting a flat trajectory. A self propelled gun (and all other artillery) is made for "over the horizon" lobbing of rounds in an arc. That's not to say artillery can't ever be used for direct fire, but it is not really intended for that.

We were trained that if our position was ever overrun be foot infantry from the front - to drop the tube, open the breech, throw in anything metal like chains, axes, ammo boxes, helmets, etc, throw a bag of gunpowder in behind it and blast the oncoming infantry with that maelstrom of metal crap. That could be considered direct fire.....


.

[Brake Weight]

Originally Posted by Shape_Shifter

We were trained that if our position was ever overrun be foot infantry from the front - to drop the tube, open the breech, throw in anything metal like chains, axes, ammo boxes, helmets, etc, throw a bag of gunpowder in behind it and blast the oncoming infantry with that maelstrom of metal crap. That could be considered direct fire.....





.

Tank buckshot....

[Peaker]

Tank buckshot,,,,,, thats called a canister shot though i don't think a tank ever did that.
But in the old days of muzzle loader cannons a canister shot would be the last shot before the enemy foot soldiers reached your line, and that usually chewed a good hole in the advancing enemy line.


As i recall the mariners / navy called it a grapeshot.


Today we call it M134 or if you are a lazy SOB the Claymore.