![]() More than 48,000 of them were built and used by Allied armies. The Shermans cost $55,000 and took only eight months to design. Army’s main battle tanks, the M-4 Shermans, which were faster, more maneuverable, reliable machines. The Tigers had thick frontal armor and outgunned the U.S. In World War II, Nazi panzer divisions pushed tank warfare to its current form, deploying infantry-supported Tiger tanks in divisions that blitzkrieged Europe and Africa. Under fire, crews battened down the hatches and operated with periscopes, almost blind and vulnerable to infantry attack. ![]() Each tank had a rotating gun turret and two or three machine guns. The Germans countered by building armor-piercing anti-tank weapons, which forced the Allies to build bigger tanks with thicker armor and more fire power that, in turn, resulted in development of more powerful anti-tank weapons, and so on.īy World War II’s start, basic tank design was fixed, with a driver down in front and a gunner, loader and commander up in the turret. The first tanks-simple, ungainly tractors protected by bullet-proof armor-were built by the British in 1914 to fight the deadly machine guns of entrenched German infantry. Watching the 3rd Cav deploy across a dry lake bed in a classic, trapping defense and later engage Op-For’s two mechanized regiments, it was obvious that tank warfare had changed little over the years. A hit turns on a flashing yellow light atop a tank, signaling it is dead. Sensors strapped on fighters and vehicles record laser hits and relay information to computers in the war room. ![]() Weapons are modified to shoot laser beams, not bullets or missiles. They even have video instant replay.īattlefield conditions are so realistic that the only things missing are blood and death. Its rugged desert battlefields, experts say, are the largest, most sophisticated training facilities anywhere, with instructors and analysts linked to combat units by laser technology, microwave radios, satellites and computer nets. are overlooked because it’s so big and powerful.”ĭebates about the future of armored warfare and the M-1’s capabilities are unlikely to be resolved soon, but most agree the best place to see the big, low-slung tanks in action and learn how well crews perform is at the training center. has a stabilized turret and night firing capability,” he said, adding fondly that the M-1’s “beauty and agility. can go across country at better than 30 miles an hour. William Desobry, a World War II tanker who helped design it before retiring as commander of the Army Armor Center at Ft. Proposed modifications would raise its price to $3.2 million each, up from $2.7 million, officials report. And arguments are heating up again as the Pentagon seeks more money for the M-1. of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank used by Congress and the Administration to evaluate the nation’s war capabilities. This is a movie that makes you feel like you’ve been to war,” said Yoav Donat, who in the film relives the director’s role in the war manning the tank’s cannon.The M-1 is too costly, too heavy and too vulnerable to high-tech anti-tank weapons, and what the nation needs now are lightweight anti-tank fighting machines, said Bill Taylor Jr. “This is not a movie that makes you think ‘I’ve just been to a movie’. Packed with tension and graphic scenes that can be difficult to watch, the film thrusts the audience onto the battlefield by shooting the action almost entirely from inside the tank and through the cross hairs of the gunner’s lens. What seems a routine mission quickly spirals out of control and turns into a death trap as the tank breaks down and loses its way in hostile territory. The movie follows four inexperienced soldiers inside a tank dispatched to “mop up” enemies in a Lebanese town that has already been bombarded by the Israeli Air Force. So harrowing was his experience as a 20-year-old conscript in the conflict that it took Maoz 25 years to muster the strength to write “Lebanon,” which has its world premiere at the Venice film festival on Tuesday. Film director Samuel Maoz (C) and actors Michael Moshonov (L) and Zohar Strauss attend the "Lebanon" photocall during the 66th Venice Film Festival September 8, 2009.
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