Strange tank-related events of the week

Thanks to those two guys who sent this to me (people, post nicknames so I can credit you, not only real names)

Source: der Spiegel

Apparently, the British love the tanks too. In Germany, the police stopped a family car, that was “converted” to resemble a tank, driven by a British driver near Darmstadt:

Auto im Panzer-Look

The vehicle had a fake turret made of wood with a plastic barrel and was pained in camo. However, the attachment of the turret to the vehicle was flimsy and the brakes of the “tank” were not satisfactory either. The 26-year old driver said he was driving a “rallye” from London to Prague, where he was to participate in the “most original vehicle” contest.

Not sure how the police encounter ended, but the vehicle sure as hell is original. The guns look derp :)

And, to Croatia:

Source: 24sata.hr

Apparently, a T-55 fell off a trailer into a ditch. It was being transported from Petrinja to Zagreb. The road actually collapsed under the weight of the vehicle and the trailer slid into the ditch. Noone was hurt and there was no major damage. The tank was actually obsolete and it was phased out of the military.

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53 thoughts on “Strange tank-related events of the week

  1. Lol at the T-55 one :D Well, the road looks really used out, no wonder it colapsed :D :D

    • As far as I remember you can buy it for like 100k Euro if you have connections, armament will be dismantled though.

        • That only about $ 100’000, much cheaper than the StuG IV that’s going on ebay for $900’000

          • If I remember right I’ve once saw a website selling old, obsolete T-55s for around 60k-70k €. You could also buy a SU-100 (~110k €) and T-34s there. Made me lol a lot, especially when they wrote ‘If you’re living in Germany the gun has to be replaced by a dummy, we can do that for you for a little increase in price’ (i think about 5k € more for the fake-armament).

            Would surely be cool as hell driving around in a T-55 in urban areas – I call the damages to the parking cars on the side of the road collateral damage.

            And even if the police shows up – how are they going to stop me? I’m driving a fuckin 40ton battering ram. The only thing that can stop me is the damn army!

            • A guy named Shawn Nelson stole an M60. He drove around for a while with police in (slow-paced) pursuit, destroying some cars and other map objects. Then he got stuck on a highway median (the center part) and they just climbed on top and shot him. Youtube likely has videos of this incident.
              So presumably the cops would just try to evacuate everyone from your way, then wait for the armed forces to arrive or you to get stuck or run out of gas.

    • cap tank, well only one of the most successful tanks in the whole of tank history “crap tank” ofc

        • WHAT? Do you even know what the T-54 and the T-55 caused in the western countries? Do you have any idea what the T-54A that was driven on the area of the british embassy in Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 caused?

          105mm Royal Ordnance L7 is all I’m saying.

          And even today, the modern versions of the T-55 can be quite a threat to modern military vehicles if used correctly. T-55M6, probably you never heard of it, otherwise you wouldn’t post such an unqualified post.

          T-55M6, main armament 125mm 2A46M (the gun used on the T-72B), protection level increased to T-80U level (And that is one helluva tough nut to crack), it’s able to fire either ‘
          9K120 ‘Svir’ AT-Missiles (as the T-72B) or 9K119 ‘Refleks’ AT-Missiles (as the T-80U).
          It’s combat weight is 43 tons powered by a 690hp engine.

          In my opinion this thing is quite well capable of fighting the M1A1 Abrams, the Leopard 2A5 and the Challenger 1.

          And that is a tank first built in 1946.

  2. Awww….I kindda feel bad for the T-55 for some reason.

    I know it is an inanimate object but still….why do I feel sympathy for vehicles?

    • Because it’s still a pretty neat feat of 20th century engineering. Practically one of the coolest and toughest machines ever built by man. A machine that could project the willpower of it’s human commanders over the roughest terrains, in the most unforgiving conditions and against the most implacable of opponents.

      Maybe I overdid it a bit, but I think it’s a human thing, to connect at an emotional level with the tools we make and use, to imbue them with feeling. They become part of us in a way.

        • We always consider, and imbue, cars and trucks, airplanes as “female”…

          Does this apply to tanks as well?

          Any real tankers answer?

          I’m asking since they don’t really have female attributes.. nurturing/helping like cars and planes do… I realise fighter aircraft kill, but they evolved from normal aircraft, tanks were designed purely as killing machines from day 1..

          • Somehow I always thought that tanks were designed to protect and nurture their crew from day one. The killing part is a bonus.
            Also, my favourite tanks in WoT have female names.

    • Not just that it also served for decades and now it will be sold as trash… Its just not right.

  3. well the road looks fine but i think that driver went too fast and too close to the end of the road. if you look at those pic the road is not damaged

    • Trust me, when you drive somethign over 40 tons across that kind of road… no matter how great it is, the result would be the same. Here in Slovenia, basically half a kilometer from my house, there is a retired army barracks where there were tanks back in the 80s. You can still see the tank tracks on the road from the T-55s. Now imagine if the road was near a ditch like in the pic, and imagine the tank was on a very heavy trailer with tires.. it would collapse in any way.

      • Actually, the road where the tracks are still visible on the sides, IS located just over a ditch. But since the road has been built speciall for military use, it’s wide enough and can support such a weight with no problems. During the war in Slovenia, when Yugoslav army took back those tanks, the same kind of trucks were used as seen in the picture above… And the road is still there ;)

      • If the road had given way, you’d see the sides cracked and sagged into the ground. In the pictures the road looks fine, just the trailer skidded off. That’s what Nefertum was getting at. No imagining necessary: the road is fine. Must have been a driver error or maybe he had to brake real hard for other traffic.

        • My thoughts exactly, the road didn’t collapse, the driver got too near the edge and the trailer “pulled” itself over…

          If there was a problem, the edge near the police cars would be damaged as well, since the trailer would have been on a pivot about there and had the full weight of the tank on a smaller footprint.

          Bet he was on Facebook…

          • If anything it was just the unpaved shoulder that collapsed. But from the pics it sure looks like the trailer just tore all the grass up as he slid across.

            Certainly driver error not road conditions.

  4. “Apparently, the British love the tanks too. In Germany, the police stopped a family car, that was “converted” to resemble a tank, driven by a British driver near Darmstadt:”

    LOL! I doubt his “turret” was checked by the german TÜV. (technical surveillance association)

    • AFAIK the TÜV has no business with a temporary load on the roof. Properly securing load on the roof is regulated in the STVO.

        • If the vehicle is not safe for the road, they may have business with them (in cases where an official expert is needed to make a judgement). In obvious cases however, there is no need.

          But I guess you want to say that foreign vehicles passing through do not have to pass the German HU, which is correct. Still… HU !== TÜV

  5. So he was from up north if going to a “Rall-eye”?

    People, whom speak proper, like wot I does would call it a “Rally”

  6. love those guys on the trailer looking like: right how the hell are we going to get that bugger back on the road, i’m not getting payed enough for this kind of shit xD

  7. Some 10 or 11 years ago I remember while I was in the car there was some sort of accident. It was kindda like that with the t-55, another tank also fell from the trailer into a ditch. No idea what model it was. Probably t-55 there are a lot here in Bulgaria

  8. Haha I know this road near Petrinja. There’s a very tight corner turning onto a bridge over the river Kupa. The driver was probobly trying to get the right angle to take the truck through the corner and went off road. Even cars have to go 20 km/h through there, there’s just no other way.
    All in all it was a bad decision on our mlitary police to pick this route. They should’ve just gone through Sisak.

  9. This is perfect example of Croatian and Serbian brotherhood. We make the same roads, useless and shity :) :) :)

  10. Serbia actually got rid of 800+ T55 tanks. They were considered “obsolete” by the Serbian Army. What a waste.

  11. HOW THE ENCOUNTER ENDED:

    Funny enough, I read this in our police report a few days ago. Yes I am a police man, and yes, I work near Darmstadt (~15 km away from it)

    So, here is how it ended:

    The vehicle was participating in a rally that takes you through several countrys, and one of them is germany. They actually won a price for the most original vehicle before start.

    My fellow officers stoped it while it was travveling the Autobahn near darmstadt and investigated it:

    There was a hole sawn into its roof, a “turret hole” so to speak. The gun was from a Abwasserrohr (the big plastik tubes you need for you dirt water, not sure how it is called in english) and the whole turret was made of wood.

    They brought it to the TÜV in Darmstadt, who called an end of the trip. But not excactly because of the turret, but because of some other Issues: As far as I remembe, the main problem was, that the body as well as the steering was coroded, and there were some other minor issues with the car.

    So, it was prohibited to travel any further over the German roads ^^

  12. And thats how ground pressure works.

    Too much weight on too little surface (such as a tank on wheels) and the ground under you will collapse.