KILLING TANKS

the satement about killing tanks  should be ammend to read;

anyone with guts and the right weaponry can kill a tank without infantry
support.  

otherwise, they had just hunker down and  let the tank go by unmolsted.

the taliban cavalry charege vs tanks is a fluke event.

i suspect that a detailed  examination of this	action will disclose
that the tanks (all or	most of them) had had their  machine guns
removed and being used elswhere.

this  would mean that the crew, if they remained buttoned up, would be
forced to fire their AKs down the gun-tube to try for a machine effect
on attackers

any living horse/man team or man on foot can outrun a POWER traversing
tank turret-they do not move about as fast as the turrt on an aircraft 

and hand cranked turrets move  even slower.  . . .  

if the crew unbuttons to get better fields of fire  for their small
arms, they lose the benefit of the tank armor and provide plenty of
opportunity for the attackers to use hand grenades or improvished
anti-armor weaponry.

i also suspect that the tanks	had only limited amounts of HE rounds,
and the attack was lauched  so that it provided short areas of	aproach
for the  attackers and limited arc of fire to the  tankers.

how many of the tanks were mobile?

the attack might have  even been a complete surprise to the taliban
crews.

lots of  things to look at here  to see why this worked.

dawgie, who wonders how afghan tankers and their floppy clothes are