How do you get onto a tank.

[antarmike]

Whilst playing alonside John Attlee and the Cent and Conqeror ARV's he has always insisted that the only way to get on a tank is to climb the front Glacis plate. Climbing up the sides risks getting tangled in the tracks should the tank move off unexpectedly.

 

How do you get onto a tank?

 

The Royal Armoured Corps saw it differently in WW2.

[Bodge Deep]

presumably if they're the crew... the tank isn't likely to move... unless the handbrake is off!

 

I know how to get onto a sherman... just ask Adrian... he'll tell you how good i am *ahem*

[Mark]

Tricky one, if the tank moves off when climbing the tracks then you are sure to get hurt, equally so in my mind if you use the glacis plate then you get run over. :sweat:

[rambo1969]

I got into a tank once, took me bloody ages to get out of it!:-D

[longydagun]

If the plonker left a 30 tonne tank without the hand break on someone needs to ask why the hell was he driving it in the first place? On the hellcat however i prefer using the tow hitches on the front and the lighting rails to clamber abord. To get down i slide down the side however i have fallen face first from the top of the hellcat to the ground and it bloody hurts so dont try it

[ferretfixer]

If the plonker left a 30 tonne tank without the hand break on someone needs to ask why the hell was he driving it in the first place? On the hellcat however i prefer using the tow hitches on the front and the lighting rails to clamber abord. To get down i slide down the side however i have fallen face first from the top of the hellcat to the ground and it bloody hurts so dont try it

 

The British Army instruction used to be, that ALL Armour should be approached from the front.

This was for safety reasons. If a vehicle does begin to move, you have room to effect a manouver to get out of trouble. (In theory!)

You can imagine the damage if a foot got caught in a track or crushed in a wheel movement!

In practice/ reality, with a lot of vehicles, it was upto the individual. how they got on any Armour.

[gritineye]

Don't know about getting in, but I was once looking at a Churchill and wondering how on earth a person could exit through the circular side hatch between the tracks in an emergency, when someone standing beside me who knew about these things said "Fear is a great lubricant!"

[sirhc]

One good reason for getting on at the front is that the driver can see you there, so is likely (unless you are the enemy!) to make sure you are safely on before he starts to move.

[Adrian Barrell]

There is of course quite a difference in military use and civilian. In service a driver wouldn't move off without a ''driver, advance'' command from the man who can see best.

 

In civilian use, it's usually the driver who makes that decision. I always insist that passengers climp up the front for the reason Chris states, so that I can see them!

 

How does Bodge climb up? Towing eye, final drive housing, roof plate, turret top (all good so far) drivers head, drivers shoulder, turret top, into cupola....... Bless him!:-D

[ArtistsRifles]

Not sure if the OT counts as a Tank but.... Recommended way there according to the Soviet manual is from the rear. Grab aerial base, one foot on L/H rear door hinge, pull up, other foot on water deflector and swing up onto mudguard.

 

My preferred method - given that I am the driver is from the O/S front - left foot on drive sprocket, grab lifting handle of engine cover, pull up, swing right leg up and brace against light guards then swing up onto the top....

[Big Al]

Has already been said allways from the frount so the driver can see you!

Al

[Grasshopper]

When in or on an armored vehicle, i find it best to move slowly and with care (like an arthritic 80 year old) as there are many sharp, hard and pointy things to hurt yourself on.

[Snapper]

block and tackle in my case.

[john fox]

remember seeing a propaganda/training (?) film clip once of Soviet T34 crews doing a Le Mans style mount where the driver cleared the floor and was in his hatch without touching the sides and, IIRC used only one hand on the gun barrel to spring up there doing a sort of twist and fold in mid air.

 

The grab rails helped the turret crew get in but even so they were all rather fast

 

can't be bothered to see if its on the net somewhere but was very impressive. of course helps if you are only 20 something and fit (and less rotund than this correspondent!)

[Adrian Barrell]

Back in the late 80s and early 90s, I was fairly often driving/ playing with Comet tanks and had the climb into the drivers seat down to a fine art, it looked like one fluid movement. The last time I tried, I resembled a geriatric escapologist!

[Grasshopper]

Being short and of slim build i like to think it look quite good when i plop myself down into the CVRT drivers seat in one movement.

[mcspool]

I once got off a Centurion over the side, only to find out there´s a very hot exhaust to seriously take into account on that route!

 

I understand that was also a problem in Dutch service (at one time the largest user of Centurion after the UK) when they were training with mounted infantry. This was in the early days before the APC, when infantry rode on the back à la WW2 Soviet style.

 

Better to get on and off over the front.

 

- Hanno

Edited April 20, 2009 by mcspool

[Adrian Barrell]

It's ok for you Hanno, you can get on top of a Sherman in one step! :-D

[mcspool]

It's ok for you Hanno, you can get on top of a Sherman in one step! :-D

 

That´s right, but as a true Dutchie I normally grab the handlebars, swing my right leg over, hop on and drive off

 

H.

Edited April 20, 2009 by mcspool

[Adrian Barrell]

:rofl:

[Richard Farrant]

When in or on an armored vehicle, i find it best to move slowly and with care (like an arthritic 80 year old) as there are many sharp, hard and pointy things to hurt yourself on.

 

Your words remind me of an incident I saw once. It concerned a Ferret Mk2, belonging to a regimental museum in a Commonwealth country and crewed my ex-members of the regiment. We had just got back to barracks and parked the vehicles up, when there was a shout, we found one of these guys, hanging upside down from the top of the Ferret. He was shutting the turret hatch, stepped back and got the leg of his coveralls hooked over the aerial mount and lost his balance. Luckily it was only his pride that was hurt.

[Great War truck]

I normally climb in through the door next to the sponson. It is a WW1 thing.

 

Tim (too)

[AlienFTM]

I am sure we have all seen Kelly's Heroes. In my case, it was only a couple of years before I joined up and it was a cult film.

 

In 1978 I attended a Royal Armoured Corps Control Signaller, Armoured Fighting Vehicle class 1 course at Bovington. Needless to say, as a bunch of cavalrymen and tankies on a swan in Bovy, the Tank Museum was always a place to visit.

 

I can still see one of the lads, espying a Firefly, grabbing the barrel and swinging himself up the glacis plate in the stylee of Oddball, complete with all the Donald Sutherland-isms. He was instantly spotted by a member of museum staff and given a load of verbal from the other side of the hall: apparently the museum was now a lot less tolerant than it had been when my companions had been Boy Brat Junior Bleeders of people climbing on "their" tanks.

 

Not to mention the explosion there'd have been had an IG (Instructor, Gunnery) seen the event: he'd have been told in no uncertain terms how much damage he might do to the trunnions.

 

I remember one troop leader / vehicle commander had his own method for mounting a CVR(T). He ran at it and jumped. Never once did he catch the float screen mounting plate and break his nose. Then there's the question of wet aluminium alloy armour and slipping in DMS boots ... As others have said, he was young and fit and we were all immortal.

[Enigma]

At Beltring I was in the Grizzlyfly using propane to fire its gun.

I got out of the righthand hatch, grabbed the barrel and burned my wrist.

[Jack]

How does Bodge climb up? Towing eye, final drive housing, roof plate, turret top (all good so far) drivers head, drivers shoulder, turret top, into cupola....... Bless him!:-D

 

Sorry Bodge - but Adrian is spot one.

 

- I still wake up in the middle of the night with this image in my head.:sweat:

[Jack]

- never been in a tank