The Beasts of Kabul

Thanks to LoooSeR78V for this one!

It’s an interesting insight into how armor works in current Afghanistan – basically the Afghani soldiers keep the old tanks left there by the Soviets alive by cannibalizing others for spare parts. It’s quite impressive actually, not only the fact they keep the tanks at least running in such conditions, but also that someone actually survives the dreadful heat and dust in such a tank.

 

19 thoughts on “The Beasts of Kabul

  1. holy shizz

    the space between the Commander and the Gunner is non-existent!

    is the T-54/55 space better or worse than this?

    • Cant tell about the T55, but i sat in the commanders position of a Panzer III once, and damn it was cramped. The commander sits direktly behind the gun, and i barely fit there. height was ok, but i was too fat – with my 185 cm and 80 kilograms. Panther and Jagdpanther were actually much better, Panther had similar space to a M60, while Jagdpanther hat a very low ceiling, you had a full little room in there, with enough space for everybody. The T62 shown above seems only a little smaller than the Panther, and much bigger than the Panzer III

    • Yes and T-72 is pretty bad as well. Soviet tanks are small to the point of the crews having to be specially picked for their small size. It reduces the silhouette of course, but operating them is kinda difficult.

  2. Good to see some of the beasts survived to this day, I saw a few familiar T-62′s there that I remember working with alongside the NA in 2001/2002, didn’t think they would live this long with how they were treated back then.

  3. These T62 looks alot more compact and smaller than in WOT which looks like a flat barge.

  4. Don’t mind the heat and dust, did I hear right that they are using ammunition from the Soviet invasion era?

  5. Come to Vietnam we have a big number of T-54/55s, T-62s still in service :]]

      • Finland went from a shitty country with a shitty army with FT-17s and Vickers 6-tons to having mainly Leo 2s and being a better country in a very quick time.

        • I believe you and respect Finland and northern countries. But the major difference is our leaders from Romania don’t have any interests in building a strong army as it should be. Hell..we just bought 12 F-16A/B Block 20 !!! from Portugal..who are from 1950′s….they are almost useless…i’m gonna start crying if i continue to thought more about this…

  6. You have too give it to them thought , they are defending their country with 50 year old rusty tanks without fear , now thats love for their country , too put your self at that risk.

    I respect these men.