Re: How to kill a <grav> tank :) [longish]

What appears to be three guys with one email address wrote:

<blockquote>
The front is armoured to resist penetration by tank rounds.
So are the sides; to a lesser extent.
So is the back to a even lesser extent.
But are the engine air intakes armoured?
Is the underneath armoured?
What about climbing on top and opening the hatches?
Or put a grenade down the barrel?
You would have to be as limber as a monkey to do this with M1 tanks, but
it could be done.

What about the engine heat radiators?
Stick things in things that move.
Put satchel charges on crew hatches.
Block view ports with mud or own bodies.
</blockquote>

this summarises quite well most of the infantry tank-killing manoeuvres
suggested so far (along with being a very, very lucky Iraqi with an
rocket, and, in one of the more imaginative suggestions, pouring burning
fuel into the air intakes - Kentucky Fried Armoured Cavalry). these are
all highly lethal and doable by trained and brave infantry, of which
most armies have a good supply.

(a few points: underneath - yes, is armoured, but less than front and
sides; air intakes - maybe not armoured, but covered with a big metal
grille to stop footsloggers throwing grenades, satchel charges, used
underwear etc down them; opening hatches - i always assumed that these
would be bolted from the inside; grenade down barrel - the barrel, along
with the rest of the gun, is designed to contain the blast from the
shell propellant going off, and so might well survive a grenade; heat
radiators - see air intakes; stick things in things that move - movement
of things that move, such as tracks, breaks things stuck in them;
satchel charges on hatches - can't argue with that!; block view ports
with mud - ok, try that in the middle east - or own bodies - ok, so
that's what you use in the middle east ...)

However ...

they do all depend on being (a) quite close to the target and (b) still
alive. the whole point of tanks is that being (i) very mobile (ii) very
well armed (iii) fitted out with good sensors, this is not easy to do.

that said, it is pretty easy to do in close terrain such as jungle or
urban zones; however, if you take tanks into this sort of terrain
without infantry cover, you are almost certainly a bit soft in the head.

still sticking with tanks for now,

Tom

"If I have seen further than other men, it is because I stand on top of
a big pile of ordinary-sized people" - Me, pace I Newton