TANKS! FOR THE TANKS!

Jared's big birthday gift this year was a "Climb On" tour of the Tank Museum.  His friend William and he got to geek out with the museum docent (and owners son) on and in eight different tanks for two hours.  The rest of us tagged along or took side trips throughout their tour.  Lance was enamored with the old cars, Titus with the mini tank battle going on and everything else we explored.

(In Jared's Words)

Upon arriving at the AAF Tank Museum, we checked in at the front and the lady working there told us to pick out our 8 tanks before our docent arrived. We had actually arrived so early, in addition to picking out tanks to tour, we got to watch an RC Tank Battle in the museum's arena, and tour the uniform part of the museum. Once the time came, we met up with our docent, Mr. Daniel, and the tour began!

The first tank we toured was the German Panzer Mark IV. After receiving the do's and don'ts of entering a tank, William entered the turret hatch (commander's seat) and I entered the driver's hatch, located on the hull.

In the movies, they make entering a tank look as easy as entering a car...it's not. You need some serious arm strength to get in and out of those hatches, especially tanks where there's a long way down in the turret.

I sat down on what I thought was the seat. "You're actually sitting on the ammo rack," Mr. Daniel called down to me from the turret hatch, "The seat is further down." It was then I understood how CRAMPED a tank was! Your legs were squeezed in-between the sides of the tank, with the 2 levers (for driving the tank, one controlled each track) in-between your legs, and Mr. Daniel showed me that the automatic transmission was right next to me! If I had used that as an armrest when the tank was operating, I would've gotten burnt! And as for visibility...there is ZERO visibility. The only thing to look through was a little slit not much bigger than 2 pencils stacked on-top of one-another.

William and I switched spots, and I lowered myself into the commander's seat. To my left was the gunner's seat, to my right was the loader's. One thing I was always curious about WW2 tanks was whether or not there was a wall in-between the driver and the turret. There is not. "During WW2 the crews didn't have fancy headsets to communicate with each other," Mr. Daniel informed us, "As the commander, you had to yell orders to everyone in the tank. And the other 4 people in the tank had to do whatever he said immediately. If 1 person fails to do there job for a moment...everyone's dead." He also answered my question regarding if it was true that German tank doctrine said you weren't allowed to leave your tank unless it was on fire. "That was true for almost all armies. You never leave your tank. You don't even leave if you have to use the restroom. If you had to go in a possible combat situation, you held it, or you went. It doesn't even matter if your friend is dying next to your tank, you never leave. It's sad and it stinks, but like I said, you have to do your job. If you don't, you've just killed 4 other men." I exited the tank with one of the hatches located on the sides of the turret, and we moved on to our next tank.

The second tank we toured was the M60A2 Patton, one of only a few left! This tank was much taller than the Mk. IV, and much heavier as well (57 tons to the Mk. IV's 27 tons). Climbing into the turret (and later the driver's seat) was once again a challenge, but at least there were real seats on the inside! One of the coolest features of this tank was how to move the turret. The gunner had what looked like a video game controller that he used to operate the turret. Turn the controller to turn the turret, and tilt the controller to move the gun up and down. The commander also had his own set, and he could override the gunner's control of the turret with the flip of a switch. The M60A2 also had a second, smaller turret on top. This housed a 20mm machine gun, and the mini-turret could be operated independently from the main turret. The driver's hatch was very cramped (there was no assistant driver in the M60s). The hatch was positioned in a way that prevented it from opening if the turret was pointed forwards. Mr. Daniel told us if the tank was hit when the turret was in that position, the driver couldn't get out the hatch! Thankfully, some tanks have an escape portal on the floor of the driver's compartment.

The third tank we toured was the M247 Sergeant York Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun. This tank was another one of the Pentagon's billion dollar failures. The idea was to take the hull of an M48 Patton, and slap a turret with 2 40mm AA Guns on top. This design was reminiscent of the WW2 German Flakpanzer. The problem was...it was terrible at hitting aircraft. On top of that, The M247 was so slow, a plane it tried to attack could immediately circle around and eliminate the Sergeant York. The example we toured was one of the tallest tanks at the museum. The inside was very open, except for the 2 seats, some optics, and A LOT of wires! At this point we were starting to feel the heat inside of these armored vehicles, Mr. Daniel said they could get between 100-120 degrees Fahrenheit easy in a combat situation. Not exactly a joy ride😂!

The fourth tank was technically not a tank. It was the M55 Self-Propelled Howitzer. This behemoth was mounted with an 8in Howitzer. The Cold-War Era M55 was used to shell targets once off-shore batteries like destroyers and battleships were out of range. In today's warfare, the job of Self-Propelled Guns has been mostly taken over by planes and drones. There were, in fact, 2 M55s on display at the museum, one the Army version, the other the Marine configuration. The only major difference between the two is the Army M55 has a cabin, while the Marine one is open-topped. This was by far the most roomy tank we toured, but it was not without its share of fun quirks and features. One being how to load the 8in gun. In order to load it, the gun would have to be level (pointing forward) before the shell was loaded. The shell and the power were loaded separately, with how many powder cases depending on how far away the target was. Once the gun was loaded, the gun would be raised, usually well over 45 degrees. Once the order was given, the gun would fire, and the barrel would be lowered again before loading the second round. One question we had for Mr. Daniel was whether or not the M55 could be used in an anti-tank roll. The answer was a resounding NO! Mr. Daniel said the gun was so inaccurate at short range, that it probably couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, much less a moving tank! He also said this vehicle would never be deployed anywhere near the front lines, as the 8in Howitzer could fire over 12 miles, it should never see the enemy on the battlefield.

The fifth tank we toured was the Soviet T34/85. This tank was arguable the best tank of WW2, though the one we toured was produced after the war in Czechoslovakia (modern-day Czech Republic). Even though the T34 had the most rust of any tank we toured, the tank was still drivable! Although, it would spew oil and smoke everywhere when it started. We asked Mr. Daniel if that was because it was old. "Nope," he said, "That's just Soviet tanks. If it doesn't make a big mess, there's something wrong with it." After entering the tank, William sat in the driver's seat and I stood where the commander's seat would've been (the seat was missing). Mr. Daniel then directed our attention to the many wires and different parts around the turret, and we noticed that each one was a different color. "Imagine who would be operating this tank," Mr. Daniel explained, "It's going to be farmers and factory workers who are illiterate [can't read or write]. So instruction manuals were useless. The Russian solution to the problem was to color code the tank. Green is broken, Red needs to be replaced, Brown is non-operational. It made it easy for any civilian to jump into a tank and be able to operate and fix everything with little to no training." Things you never think about! A funny moment did occur when touring this tank. I banged my head for the (surprisingly) only time when touring the museum! And this was one of the more roomy tanks😂.

The sixth tank we explored was the US M1917 Light Tank. This tank was a carbon copy of the WWI French FT-17, with only some miner changes. The tank we toured was used in multiple movies, including the Gary Cooper film For Whom the Bell Tolls. The M1917 is one of the rarest American tanks in history, so it was extremely special when we were allowed to tour it! I didn't think I was going to fit inside of that tank, due to its very small size. Surprisingly, the M1917 was the easiest tank to get into! One of the special things about touring this tank was it only had 2 crew members, so when William and I were both in the tank it felt like we could actually operate it! The thing that stood out the most to us was how advanced it was, from the suspension, to how to drive it, to the shape of the tank itself, we had to keep reminding  ourselves this tank was designed in the 1910s. This was William's favorite tank at the museum.

The seventh tank was, like the M55, technically not classed as a tank. It was the M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer. This vehicle was the most successful American Tank Destroyer of WWII, with an impressive 2.4-to-1 kill-to-loss ratio. It had one major drawback though. "The armor has a maximum thickness of half an inch," said Mr. Daniel. "The designers traded armor for blistering speed. Meaning, while it could go 55mph on a road, it would be destroyed by any non-small-arms weapon shot at it." This M18 was hit in the turret by a 20mm anti-aircraft gun. While it didn't disable the tank, it did sadly kill the gunner (who still haunts the M18 to this day...or so we've heard). Speaking of the turret, it was open topped. While that did mean the commander, gunner, and loader were all exposed to bullets, grenades, and shell fragments, it did have 1 major advantage. American Tankers in the Hellcat could see everything! They didn't have to look through small slits to find their targets, meaning M18s had a better chance of spotting, and firing at an enemy tank before said tank could see them. This, along with it's great speed, was crucial to the M18's success. One feature worth noting was the .50cal machine gun mount. The .50cal was mounted on a circular rail that the commander would stand in. If the rail wasn't locked (like it was at the museum) the machine gun could traverse 360 degrees, allowing the commander to fire the deadliest machine gun offered to American ground units in any direction. The M18 Hellcat is by far one of my favorite "tanks."

The eighth and final tank William and I toured was the Soviet T72A/M1. This tank was one of the largest we toured today, measuring over 22 feet long! It was also the most modern. That said, it was the HARDEST to get into! When we first lowered ourselves into the turret, I nearly moved my shoulder in a way that it wasn't supposed to go, I also scraped (no blood) my leg when I lowered myself down. If you have claustrophobia, DON'T GO INTO THIS TANK! William and I were very cramped in the forest of wires, dials, levers, buttons, and electronic equipment.

The T72 was the only tank we toured with an auto-loader. Unlike other tanks (including the US M1A3 Abrams tank), you don't have to reload shells after each round is fired, the tank does it for you. We asked why more modern tanks aren't equipped with this feature. "Despite the increased speed in loading, there were many problems with the auto-loader," Mr. Daniel related. "The auto-loader would sometimes malfunction, and in many cases, cause the round to explode prematurely inside the tank." Makes sense why most main battle tanks don't have an auto-loader!

Outside the tank, Mr. Daniel directed our attention to a V-shaped strip of metal on the frontal armor. "Sloped armor is by far one of the best shapes for armoring a tank," Mr. Daniel explained. "But it does have one drawback. In between the turret and the hull is a small gap, which is very weak. If a round hits that lip, the tank is destroyed. Tank designers realized that sometimes, instead of a round deflecting off the sloped armor, it would slide up the slope right into the gap. The solution was this V-shaped strip of metal, which guided the round away from the turret! There was even a smaller version of this on the T34." WOW! So simple, yet so effective!

The final fun feature of this tank was in the driver's hatch. If you shined a light at the gauges, they glow in the dark! Very helpful in the dark, cramped environment.

With that, our tour of the AAF Tank Museum came to an end. After thanking Mr. Daniel, we picked up some COBI sets from the gift shop and headed out, not expecting one final adventure. We were driving down NC-540 when it started to rain, no big deal, right? The rain soon turned into a downpour, and we saw many brake lights ahead underneath an overpass. Thinking it was just people who couldn't drive in the rain (a VERY common occurrence in North Carolina) we didn't think much of it...until there was a loud "CLANG!" on the roof. In a split second, we went from a downpour, to zero visibility thunderstorm with marble-sized hail! Lance, who was driving, quickly slowed down and went onto the shoulder, with his cautions on. We crept under the overpass where many other drivers were already sheltered. William, who had been sleeping, woke up. "I'm awake now!" He said with a smile, which gave the rest of the car a needed laugh. We waited a few minutes for the storm to pass and we headed home.

The trip ended with us watching MIDWAY and William and I playing Memoir '44. We all had a great time at the museum, and I can't wait to go back!

(Back to Mom)

In fact, most of his birthday week involved war movies, Memoir challenges and lots of pizza; much to Jared's extreme pleasure. We finished it all off in traditional style with an ambush and Spice Cake!