Re: AFV Driving was RE: Titanium snails

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Atkinson" <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com>
> --- Ryan M Gill <rmgill@mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> > The US seems to really favor the T-Bar as a method
> > of control. The  M114's have them as well.
>
> It's easy to use and fairly simple.  What's not to
> like?  You start screwing around with complex levers
> and soforth and if you have to crew your tanks with
> kids fresh from basic training you'll start getting
> foulups.

It seems there's more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to
driving
AFV. A quick check through my assorted books on tanks, shows not only
the
already-mentioned side levers (T-34, and T-54 too), steering wheel
(Tiger
tank) and T-Bar (M1) but also a steering yoke similar to that used on
airliners (BMP, Merkava) and levers  mounted between the driver's legs
(Scorpion). There doesn't seem to be a single, obvious, best way to do
it.

BTW.driving with side levers doesn't seem to be that difficult.
http://guns.connect.fi/gow/T34tank2.html describes driving a T-34 as
fairly
easy. It probably had to be for the often poorly trained Russian drivers
who
brought them all the way from Stalingrad to Berlin..From the report,
maintenance was a bitch, however.

Greetings