iannima

Heavy armoured vehicles obviously require a lot of maintenance, both in barracks:

and in the field.

in both cases the soldiers wear the black overalls that were used for maintenance jobs only. With some exceptions sparsely documented only in later years, the NVA did not use special black uniforms for the tankers, as their Soviet friends (and fascist ancestors :evil:) did. In particular the wearing of dress shoulder boards piped in pink over the black overalls, is frowned upon in the living history community to which I belong, as a sign of despicable fascist tendencies :angry that CANNOT :nono: be condoned, as only subdued shoulder boards are historically accurate, and the NVA was NOT :nono: the Wehrmacht with the unmentionable symbol :evil: removed...

Although I suspect that it was done to accommodate the mine rolling contraption:

Whereas bigger rivers with stronger currents required the services of the Engineers who would put together these pontoon bridges. I have read somewhere that the idea was copied by NATO forces too.

I don't quite know why the wheel-arches are cut that way :sweat:

For smaller streams they obviously just forded them without much preparation:

The terrain of Western Germany, which would have been the battle field of a war fought with conventional forces, is crossed very frequently by canals and rivers running from South to North (roughly), i.e. potentially blocking the advance of the invading (defensively :rotfl:) Warsaw Pact forces. The ability to overcome water obstacles quickly was therefore essential for all vehicles, in order to maintain the momentum of the advance. For the tanks that meant wading with snorkels and it is in this respect that the original T54 had to be modified at several stages.

Here we have (probably T55s) emerging from one such exercise:

This is one of my favourite pictures, obviously of an exercise under NBC conditions.

I scanned this photograph from one of the many photobooks celebrating the NVA during the DDR.

The armoured personnel carrier on the left is a BTR152, which basically is an armoured version of the ZIL157 and had very traditional layout in many ways similar to the half-tracks of WW2. By the end of the 1960s, because of its inability to swim, and generally being obsolete, it had been relegated to supporting rear guard tasks, like communications etc.

What is entertaining to notice here are the DEEP :shocked: ruts made by the tanks in the soft sandy soil which is often to be found in Eastern Germany. I bet that the bottom of the hull was often dragged over the surface... Obviously those would be a nightmare for the wheeled vehicles with a narrower track width, and in fact it seems that a dual carriageway is being developed, with another BTR 152 in the background trying to escape the main alleyway to the safety of a side lane :laugh:

And now a thread for the predecessor of the T72 in NVA service

My sources indicate that the NVA never had the T62 or the T64. Over the years T54s and 55s produced often in Poland or Czeckoslovakia would be upgraded/refurbished in the massive Panzerreparaturwerk (Armour repair workshop) in Neubrandenburg. I have been driven past it and it still remains a massive compound with still an entertaining (for me :angel:) mural painting of an NVA soldier.

Again distinctions are often subtle...

I am rather enamoured with it now :-)!

Just don't blame me

These are -to the best of my knowledge- not East German, but it is difficult not to include such a vista on a T72 themed thread... Perhaps they were lined up for sale... :kiss:... and no, I don't think they are computer generated to look more numerous...

And this is -I think- is how they all ended...

a sad end indeed as most of these were scrapped

more parade...

Comrade! You'll find that all vehicles delivered to the NVA, regardless from which fraternal socialist brothers, were first sent to a depot and "Germanised". Therefore one can only really tell by the standard of Germanification when they entered service, and with a little luck and expedient research, whence they originated. It was rumoured that the socialist brothers of the NVA had changed the T-72 so much, that they were not 100% compatible with those from their peace-loving socialist neighbours, and infinitely better than those used by GSFG.

Genosse, you appear to know a lot more than I do, and will therefore promptly bow to your superior knowledge I shall merely post the pics I have collected... after all, the five years plan assigns different tasks to each one of us...

parade...

miscellaneous pics

Unterwasserfahrt i.e. wading...

in snowy fields

at speed...

On exercise in the field:

The T72 had a dozer blade at the front to dig a trench for itself:

This progressive section of the HMVF is not generating the activity it is supposed to under the five year plan I think we should each submit an auto-critical report :-D and strive to do better to emulate comrade Stakhanov :nut:

As a first attempt on my part... I am going to dedicate a thread to my favourite tank: the T72 in NVA service.

There are several versions of the T72 and I cannot distinguish them all and therefore will not attempt to. I understand that a crucial distinction is the slope of the frontal armour of the turret but this is often shrouded (quite appropriately) by a nestle of smoke dischargers, so an exact identification of the variant is beyond me. I am going to restrict myself to T72s in NVA service. Most of these I understand were of Czechoslovack production under license. I am going to group by context. Most of these photographs have been picked up on various internet fora, years ago or scanned from period photobooks on the NVA.

Nice to see a Gaz67 carrying the red flag

So sweet :kiss:

And lovely to see (or so it appeared) that they had the support of the police in the vehicle movement - looked like police cars and personnel doing the traffic directions?

I think it was another one of them. He looked like he was wearing military police uniform and he was waiving the little flags that were used for convoy and other signals in the Warsaw Pact. All vehicles should have a set. (I am yet to find the optimal position in mine ) I also think that the car was a vintage one. At a guess the eastern equivalent of the Fiat 124. I am sure they had cleared it with the local police beforehand, as I think you are supposed to do in this country too for a convoy bigger than so many vehicles. They certainly look like a dedicated bunch of people! :-D I would love to join them, if I could be excused the early morning exercise!

Very nice indeed! :-)

Are the sledges too military issue? :-D

Very nice video indeed:-)! Thank you for sharing it. I think these guys are Czech as there are a couple of Prahas and I believe also some early Tatras, together with a Zil131, and a Gaz69.

Much as I love the snow, I don't think I would have joined them in camping overnight and the early morning sport... :shocked: Re-enactment can be carried too far...