T-55 in Action in Syria

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Hello everyone,

thanks to Looser for this one! An interesting video from the Syrian war, featuring a government T-55 shelling terrorists in Jobar (a part of Damascus) in December 2014.

 

 

As you can see, the old tank still has some teeth. The video was shot by Russian AnnaNews – the journalist mentions that the war in Jobar turned out to be a positional one, with government forces routinely shelling the terrorist-occupied area with direct and precise fire, demolishing terrorist firepoints one by one.

The T-55 tank is using AP shells, that penetrate two or three buildings. The army’s task is to contain the terrorist forces, so they don’t threaten the civillians of Damascus. The Syrians are using the T-55 because it’s not a primary battle zone and the vehicle’s rifled gun is quite sufficient to knock out enemy strongpoints at larger distances. Notice how the tank intentionally stops firing when there are civillian cars on the road not to hit them by accident.

Must be really strange to live like that… normal life a couple kilometers from a warzone.

At 5:40 notice a beautiful shockwave, I wish we had that effect in World of Tanks…

80 thoughts on “T-55 in Action in Syria”

  2. “Must be really strange to live like that… normal life a couple kilometers from a warzone.”

    Not sure if this qualifies as a normal life but I imagine this is what Palestinians are going through every day … except that in their case attacks obviously don’t stop when there are civilians in sight.

    • The Palestinians who voted for Fatah on the West Bank lead a completely peaceful life, the Palestinians who live in Israel vote in elections, and due to mandatory conscription fight in the IDF (they have a regular unit, and an smaller elite unit) to defend Israel.(another oddity is that although the Palestinians are a minority in Israel, they make up a proportionally larger group of the Israeli police force!)

      The Palestinians in refuge camps in places like Lebanon have a settled but difficult life.

      The Palestinians who have the most difficulty are those who live in Gaza, and voted to be ruled by Hamas. Hamas has fallen out badly with Hezbollah and the Eygptians, and so has no allies nearby, and persists in shooting rockets at Israel. Hopefully next time there is an election in Gaza, the Palestinians there will have worked out voting for Hamas tends to lead to rocket fire, whereas voting for Fatah leads to peaceful negotiation.

      So your comment “Not sure if this qualifies as a normal life but I imagine this is what Palestinians are going through every day” is too much of a generalisation, because you appear to be focusing exclusively on Gaza, and not on all the other Palestinians.

    • To Bloodyshyte:

      We Israel’s live by the motto:
      “killing 10 palestinians a day keeps the doctor away”.
      An Israeli who does not drink the blood of a Palestinian boy during Passover is ostracized from Israeli communities.
      An Israeli who does not kill at least 1 Palestinian before breakfast is denied food for the rest of the day.
      An Israeli who sees a peaceful Palestinian brandishing an axe, waving it peacefully at some brutish Israeli’s head should simply allow the far sighted Palestinian (who mistook the Brute Israeli’s head for a block of wood to be used for heat/cooking) to continue. since killing Israeli’s is condoned by all, and heavens to betsy, Israeli’s should actually defend themselves. Jews are not allowed to do that.

      In short, FUCK YOU, and have a shitty day.

          • How do u compare wanton murder like what the Syrian regime is commiting, like ISIS is commiting. to Israel defending it’s own land and civilian population from terrorists?

            • Make no mistake. Israel is here to stay. The invention know as the Palestinian people can cry to kingdom come.
              All of the workers brought in from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon in the late 1800′s constitute the forefathers of this invention called the Palestinian people.
              That is a fact.

                • I will never regret these words boyo.
                  Israel is the home of the Jewish People.

                  Any1 looking to change the ownership is welcome to take a shot.

                  Your brethren have tried many times. Your best shot was to mount an attack on our holiest day. And even then you couldn’t take advantage of your surprise attack simply because your kind is inferior in every possible way.
                  72 male virgins await u Hedi. come and get us!!!

                • No they won’t. Don’t be stupid. It’s people like you who make it seem as though the majority of Muslim’s hate Israel…
                  Loud minority.

                • dxzit.
                  go pop your zits, and stop talking about IQ.
                  If u don’t agree with my views, go sit on a spike for all I care.

            • ”Israel defending it’s own land and civilian population from terrorists?”

              Em what ? what land ? what did you take illegally by force in 1947 ? israel is historical mistake and not legit country . Not single normal human will accept illegal state of israel .
              Europe are with palestinians and no matter what freedom fighters did they elected Fatah or Hamas . And jews can go suck hitlers dick because I don’t see difference between nazi germany and israel ……

              • Oh no!!!
                You don’t accept Israel as a country? What shall we do?

                And BTW, the Hitler references don’t make you look too good boyo!!!!
                Kinda weak really.

                EDIT:
                And it was 1948. 1947 was when the UN voted for partition of Israel, a partition plan which was rejected by the arabs, who then went to war and LOST, then again in 1956, 1967, 1969, 1973, 1982, and on and on.
                Only to finally realize that they can’t win, and then recall the 1947 partition plan.

                EDIT#2:
                Kinda like 2 sides making an agreement, then 1 side violates terms, sues, loses, sues again, then loses again and again. Only to then try to get the original terms. WEAK!!!

              • To LatvianTroll

                and I guess u r a “single normal human”, right ?

                U r using the Iseraeli-Palestinian conflict to promote your antisemitic agenda. It is that obvious. Ignorance is the worst disease,

                BTW,
                I guess mental hospitals should avoid access to internet

                • RZ – yes yes please more whine about anti semitism . And remember to ask pay rise to your employer from JIDF , because bad LatvianTroll did says so ”horrible” things about your little nazi state of israel ……

                  Da_Zohan when Islamic State will come to ”friendly visit” don’t cry for EU help , because you will get none .

                • For LatvianTroll

                  One thing we learned from Nazis is that we should have the ability to defend ourselves no matter what. Just don’t get in our way. We leave (along with the Muslims citizens of this country) in a free country, in welfare and prosperity. We don’t need you nor your idiotic advice.

                  What drives u crazy all ani-semitic pro Hitler guys is that we can defend ourselves. We win, we build, we educate, we create, we move forward with our lives.

                  When ISIS come, we know how to defend ourselves.
                  Do you know ?

                  Whine to EU ?? best joke I heard in the past month

      • For Da_Zohan:

        Pointless idiotic response.

        And I am an Israeli in case u want to flame me.

        Speaking Hebrew for u to undestand – “Metomtam”

        • RZ
          Hapes mi yezayen otcha ya smolani ben zona.
          I don’t care what anyone thinks here. Whomever is against my country can go to hell.

            • And this is how wars start kiddies, an idiot from one country attacks another in some shape or form while spouting patriotic battle cries. Such shame Da_Zohan

            • For RZ,
              Ha ohev shemezaynim oto batachat, sa le aza, sham batuach timtzah et mi she sam zayin al ma sheyesh leha lomar..

    • OP – Gaza should be Nuked.

      The West should unite in the holy crusade to kick them out of Europe, because of the European lefty camp who preach peace & love; now the muslin hoard of barbarians take over France, England and soon the rest of Europe, remember the holy roman emperor, remember Jesus & the pope, fight against the heathen

      good day sirs.

  4. Terrorists? ISIS? Or are these the rebels? Remember that Putlers Russia is almost only country in the world supporting the “goverment” of Syria. I trust ruski news as much as…. There isn’t a word small enough to describe how little i trust this. Except maybe Putlers penis. That is small enough.

    Sad to see Damascus in that shape, was there on a holiday 2010.

    • its funny how most of the great people like M.L.King was telling everybody to think for themselves, yet they stopped thinking almost completely…… when i was in US i was sad that most of the young people were so freaking stupid i cannot even describe it…….. they replicated everything media told em

      they believed every single thing…. brainless sheep….
      to connect this to your point of view on russia, i would just say this: there were numerous less promoted news sites that reported horrible crimes commited by islamic stat loooong before war in syria started…. just because they renamed it “pro-democratic rebels” doesnt mean they are….. there is cia report you can read somwhere like 6 months before gas attack that says “terrorist can develop chemical weapons”, was it in the news? noooo, that would discredit government wouldnt it?

    • These are the Syria Revolutionaries Front iirc. One of the largest branches in the FSA. But obviously, SS, who doesn’t know anything about this conflict, just labels any dissenters as terrorists. I’m sure those protesters in 2011 were terrorists, too.

      I came back to Aleppo in 2010 to meet family, and now I have 7 less family members (thanks to “great leader” Assad’s airstrikes.)

  5. ANNA – Abkhazian Network News Agency. This is not Russian. Republic of Abkhazia is a disputed territory and partially recognized state.

    • Yes, of course. Not at all russian.It is recognized as a state in the same way Crimea was. More or less.

    • Abkhazia partially recognized state… by Russia.
      Same as South Ossetia, Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh and now “want to be” East Ukraine’s Novorossia.
      So much pain due to ambitions of some pro-Russians.

      By the way, some russians go from one war zone to other and live on pain, suffering of others. Example Strelkov (Igor Girkin).

  6. Its just luck, that they dont hit a civilian car. How should they intentionally stop firing when they dont even see the cars coming. If they really care about collateral damage, they should have blocked the street in the first place. Imo they dont give a shit about civilian casualties.
    Actually Jobar is held by rebels, who are just fighting for the same rights like we have it in the western world, so dont call them terrorists!
    Apart from this, i have to say that i really appreciate your work! ^^

    • How do you know who are they fighting? there are barely any true rebels left in Syria. It’s a complete cluster fuck of al-quaeda branches, talibans, mercernaries, ISIS and the very few rebels that havent fleed yet.
      Dont you watch the news? the true rebels suffered so many loses because these fucking terrorists trying to confiscate their revolution, that they asked either US to help them better or they will lay down their weapons and call it a day. And i really dont blame them. They dont even know who to shoot anymore. The ISIS, the mercenaries, the army.

      It is sad what has become of Syria.

      • When you say “the news”, could you possibly be less specific?

        Huffpost, Foxnews, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, Vice, Spiegel?

    • Anyone who uses the possibility of getting your head cut off, or summary execution for being the wrong religious sect on others is a terrorist.

    • The comentator indicated that fire is directed by observer. You know, 21st century, people are beginning to use radio communication to rely highly elaborate messages like “i see a car coming” or “all clear”. Most armies don’t do that though. So i understand your amazement.

    • Luck is the one thing that brough you in this life, Phoenix. You have no idea how a military operation is conducted so please, stop giving us your ignorant opinion.

  7. Just my 2c, but I oppose videos like that on the internet. People are dying over there and they adjective for the shock wave would probably be anything but “beautiful”…

    • What you wrote as i understand it is that you do not believe images of people dying should be on the internet? Seriously?

      The adjective “beautiful” does not determine if the event/thing is good/bad. Above ground atomic explosions are one of the most beautiful things that i have seen. That does not mean i consider them to be a good thing to conduct.

      • A tank shooting on a firing range and a tank shooting at actual people are pretty distinct.

        I definitely think footage of fighting should be distributed, but admiring the beauty of a cannon shock wave in that context is crass to say the least.

      • Death is the most intimate experience you ever going to make. I am against censorship, but Ialso feel that a lot of our loss in compassion over the last twenty years results from being used to those images and thus developing an understanding that we are threatened everywhere and have to take more and more extreme measures. 25 years back, if you got into a fght here in Germany you could rely on the other guy to stop once you went down. Today you have to assume the other guy is willing to kill you.

        • @alexander__l

          I think you are grossly exaggerating in most aspects of your statement. What you call loss of compassion is actually simple decoupling of investing emotions into every tragedy we see. Necessary ability if we are to be able to keep our sanity but it does not mean we are loosing are ability to feel compassion.
          We are threatened everywhere by everything, that is the way of life. What is wrong though is that the perceived threat level does not correspond to the actual threat level. 2001-09-11, when those planes hit the scrapes over 2.9 k ppl died. The totatl amount of deaths in roadaccidents that year was over 2.7 k in the US, almost the same yet ppl felt more threatened by terrorist then by ppl in cars.
          You are seriously saying that if a guy starts throwing fists around in Germany , ppl assume he is going to kill someone? Wow, the October fests must be real massacres… Or is it just you who needs some therapy?

          • Nice argumentum ad hominem there. You do realize that there are vast differences in German federal states right? Ask someone from Berlin, Hamburg or the Ruhr area. Thats where ppl are beaten to death or near it.

            Your 9/11 example is true the reason People care more about it is due to it being an attack and all those people losing their lives in a matter of hours.

            As I prefaced in the original comment, it is just my opinion that we shouldnt have those frontline videos on the internet for everyone to see.

  8. Well SS that shockwave was also promised by WG many months ago. Just as they promised Havok physics, camo net on tanks and so many other failed promises.

  10. Still waiting for you to post the videos of the syrian government terrorist forces dropping barrel bombs on civilians btw Frank.

    • I would say this is a tank blog, but that hasn’t stopped SS from every so often posting random topics of his liking in the past.

      From my perspective the majority of both sides are bad guys with far from altruistic motives. Just because one guy has a professional army doesn’t make him any ‘better’. So I would steer clear of providing any implicit support for one side or the other.

      But I live on the other side of the world, so I don’t publicised my views on this topic, besides on some insignificant internet comment like this.

      • +1 ,

        approx 200,000 dead, 600,000 wounded, 3,000,000 refugees, The numbers behind the Syrian civil war, and u can’t even tell who are the good guys in this story

    • aaaand you believe that because media told you right?…… but bombs dropped on Baghdad were avoiding civilians, and made Iraq safe place for anyone, where democracy thrive…. well except those 1 million people that died since the war started and women who were deprived of rights given to them by bad boy Saddam…. you are tool bro

      nobody is saying dictators are good but just face the truth…. there wont be anything better…. if you believe it you are idiot

      • Only 120,000 died in the Iraq war. From sectarian violence to US douchebaggery. And there is plenty better than dictators you fuckwit. Why not come live under one and see? I’ve lived in Syria half my life and there are only three good things in Syria: stability, people, and food. Assad only gave us stability. No rights, no proper education, no proper welfare. And if you ask most people in Syria, they’d rather live in freedom than die in stability and oppression.

      • Zoltan – you correctly advise not to believe what you see in media – social and standard – however, I was in Baghdad under Saddam and after the US gained control of the area. When the US was in country it was infinitely more secure/safe and open from a human rights standpoint than under this dictator. I do not currently know the situation after the US has left but I would imagine in that vacuum freedom has worsened. I do take all I see and hear with a grain of salt until I see for myself or obtain trusted information. I could spend days discussing cleared information but for now understand that the coalition is not perfect but it is the best option at this time. Numerous other hotspots have other issues that have other control points to be vetted and directed.

    • They are waiting for the cars to go by before dropping the barrel bombs and chemical agents, so that makes it OK I guess.

  12. At the risk of dragging all this back on topic. Interesting that the old girl is still in active service, specifically because for this relatively low tech mission of knocking holes in buildings.

    It is interesting to consider how the current face of anti-insurgency warfare without front lines actually suits older technology better. The T-55 in the video is doing the job with exactly the same success rate as a modern MBT, but at probably 1/5th the operating cost, and a fraction of the build cost.

    In Afghanistan, the British discovered that close air support required didn’t suit the hardware they had available (Harriers and Tornados). Precision supersonic strikes with smart bombs are all very nice, but restricted payload, no loiter ability, and hugely expensive to run didn’t suit the environment they were fighting in. Someone pointed out that the piston engined Douglas A4 Skyraider, as used in Vietnam by the US, would actually be more use – cheap to build, simple, reliable, rugged, capable of carrying huge payloads and hanging around over the troops for hours. It turned out that the British troops preferred having the US A-10 on station for those reasons, even at the increased risk of blue on blue.

    But, building a load of 1950s low tech stuff isn’t going to keep the Defence companies happy, is it?

    • @Duncan Hamilton

      The A-10 Warthog would be more effective then the A4 Skyraider i believe while still maintainig low operational cost.

      Still, while it would be operationaly cheaper to use the older technology for certain low-tech opponents it does not mean that it would be cheaper overall to maintain a detterent against more sophisticated opponents and a separate deterrente force for every level of military sphistication that you can expect. Thus the high-tech weapon systems are designed for multi-puspose use. So it might be more expensive to use the newer systems in certain circumstances but it is still cheaper overall because you need to be ready for opponents with higher degree of military sophistication.

    • Similar reasoning was behind keeping Buccaneers and Canberras in service long after more modern aircraft (supposed to replace them) entered service, became obsolete and were replaced themselves. IIRC both types were still in action at the turn of the century

  13. Technical: why this tank doesn’t fire HE? I always thought this is the shell designed to demolish the countryside. Maybe they don’t have them? I do wonder where do they still produce shells for 100mm rifled O_O

    • Using up old stockpiles that where not scrapped? Deserts are quite good at not letting stuff rust away.

  15. Fuck you SS. Fuck you and your Assad supporting ass. Don’t post political stuff on a video game blog, especially politics you barely know anything about.

    • Do you really care the terms and words man is using? Do you really think that this words describes his point of view? Be easy, keep calm and things will go alright.

  17. The old tank… I doubt many people know just how powerful an “old” T-55 tank really is. Just like the tried and true AK-47, an exceptional weapon, in the right hands ofc.