Inside my tank...

[California Tanker]

The lads were nice enough to give me the VHS tape from most of my Table VIII run. Unfortunately, the night runs were taped on top of the day runs, so the first couple of day runs were deleted/overwritten.

Anyway, it's the video from the tower's camera, while the audio is recorded from the tank's jump radio to hear all the internal conversations. You might find it interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFuMPaByIbk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChEbUe9kEw0

NTM

[hptmurphy]

very interesting..could you please explain some of the terminology..especially what I understand to be 'obscuration'.....meaning? Target obscured?

[tonyrdf]

Very intersting stuff, were you firing training rounds or warshots? What usual for that table?

[mutter nutter]

Never realised how confusing operating a tank could be...how do you keep track of what everyones saying and doing?
or is it just something you learn to do throuh experience.

[California Tanker]

"Obscuration": Cannot see because of the blast from the main gun. Particularly bad in the desert. :P. There's one shot where the camera pans over the tank, you can still see the dust cloud even after the MG engagement after the main gun. In theory, obscuration time starting from after the loader give 'Up' is deducted from your engagement time, used to calculate your score. Note obscuration time is much less at night: Thermals see pretty much right through it.

What other terminology threw you?

training rounds or warshots?

Training rounds (Main gun). Standard ball for MGs. Warshots are rarely fired, I did a warshot gunnery in Iraq. In theory, the ammo shouldn't matter for the table: The tank's ballistic computer has solutions for training rounds. Could theoretically be an issue for the auxilliary sight, but most auxilliary sight engagements are a kilometer or less.

how do you keep track of what everyones saying and doing

Sometimes you just screw up. The last day engagement on the first video, I mistook the loader for the driver, didn't realise he had acquired his target. Ordinarily you can tell the difference by voice, but that was the first time I had worked with either person. In theory, you can also have "Loader reports troops" as a call, but I've never heard it.

However, you think that's bad, I was utterly lost the first time I did a platoon engagement on the move in the field. Not only do you have the fun inside the tank, you're also trying to keep an eye on where the other three tanks are compared to you, where you are/where you're going on the map, and work the radio as well. It's why officers are usually assigned the best gunners, who usually will take care of the inside-the-tank operation: The officer will usually just trust the gunner knows what he's doing, and give "Fire and adjust" which gives command of the engagement to the gunner.

NTM

[hptmurphy]

You seemed to get misfire at one stage...Drill seemed a little strange, was it a misfire or a slowburning charge?

...instant changes of ammunition type..was this for the recording or how fast can a specific type of amunition be selected.?

..or was it a mistake in the command for a specific type of ammo that was countermanded.?

Big difference from AML gunnery here seeing its all done on the move.

[California Tanker]

About 2/3 of the engagements are stationary: The tank only moves forward far enough to clear the gun tube.

Couple of misfires: Official misfire drill is:
1) Announce "Misfire"
2) Announce "On the way", try again using Master Blaster (Manual firing device, it is a hand-cranked generator) in case the electrical trigger died.
3) Announce "Misfire"
4) Loader conducts checks: Circuit breakers, loader's panel Gun/Turret Drive switch, breech position. Gunner checks his switches.

On occasion you hear "Breech", means the breech failed to correctly open or close.

Ammunition change is announced in the fire command. "Fire, Fire sabot" instructs the loader that the next round is to be sabot. Gunner also replies "Sabot indexed" meaning that he's switched the computer to sabot.

NTM

[hptmurphy]

Thanks for that..interesting insight.