Wilson Henry - M1 Abrams Tank: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by
PEN & SWORD MILITARY
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Copyright Michael Green, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-47383-423-1
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Contents

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this book to the late Dr Philip W. Lett, Jr. considered to be the father of the M1 Abrams tank. He was the head of the Chrysler Corporation Defense Division design and development team for the vehicle, which later became part of General Dynamics Land Systems Division. Prior to working on the M1 Abrams tank he played an important role in the design and development of both the M48 and M60 series of tanks.

Acknowledgments

A s with any published work, authors must depend on a great many people for assistance. These included over many years, my fellow author, and my long-time mentor, the late Richard Hunnicutt. Others who greatly assisted me in acquiring the research information and photographs needed for this work include Randy Talbot, the Command historian for the TACOM Life Cycle Management Command (LCMC), and Peter Keating, director of communications for the Land Systems Division of General Dynamics (GDLS).

The US Army Brotherhood of Tankers (USABOT) also provided valuable assistance in the preparation of this work. The organization is committed to preserving the history of US Army tankers and their tanks. Those interested in joining USABOT can find the information needed on their website (www.usabot.org). Additional pictures were acquired from the Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS). For the sake of brevity, it will be listed as DOD in the photo credits.

Foreword

T he mantra of the tanker is to move, shoot, and communicate. No better tank was ever created to do this than the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank. In its various stages of evolution over the past four decades, no vehicle in the history of land warfare has been able to accomplish these three core requirements better than this tank. Not only is it fast and highly mobile, but it can destroy targets with a first round hit thousands of meters away in day or night while on the move, and can communicate by providing key battlefield information to the crew regardless of the chaos of battle.

When I was first introduced to the M1 as a young soldier it was like nothing I had seen before. Sleek, fast, and with the latest technology, it was a vision of the future. I would go on to serve on other armored vehicles before I was finally able to command an M1A1 in 1988 while serving as the commander of Delta Company, 3rd Battalion, 35th Armor, 1st Armored Division in Germany.

The Cold War was beginning to thaw at that time, although there was plenty of uncertainty in the minds of soldiers serving in Europe. The training was still rigorous with semi-annual tank gunnery exercises where we fired hundreds of main gun rounds and thousands of machine gun bullets against tough standards. Field training was equally demanding with the creation of the Combat Maneuver Training Center (CMTC) at Hohenfels, Germany, nicknamed NTC-East in homage to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California. And of course there were frequent alerts, deployments to local assembly areas, and exercises in our general defensive positions.

Had the Cold War gone hot, the tankers serving on the front lines of Europe would have deployed to their battle positions in the best tank in the world. The armored protection, power of the main gun, and Nuclear-Biological-Chemical protection it provided would have allowed the crews to not only engage and destroy enemy forces, but to live to fight another day.

Many of these same highly trained M1A1 crews who witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Warsaw Pact found themselves facing a new enemy not even identified in early 1990. When US forces engaged the Iraqi Army in February of 1991, the performance of the M1A1 tank proved that it was a magnificent fighting machine.

When the Abrams rolled in Bosnia a few years later, the opposing forces knew immediately that this was not a vehicle to tangle with. And, when US forces rolled again into Iraq in 2003, it was Army tank battalions that led Thunder Runs into the heart of Baghdad to formalize the end of the Hussein regime. This most battle tested tank of modern warfare had made its mark in history.

Author Michael Green has produced an exceptional work on the M1 series tank that is easy to follow and understand. Green captures how the Army has upgraded and adapted the Abrams to meet the changing combat environment it must operate in; from the plains of Central Europe, to battles fought in the deserts of the Middle East, and in large urban environments. His easy to follow narrative and photos make this a read to be enjoyed by veteran tankers, history buffs, and those who simply want to learn about the history, and future, of this great tank.

Colonel (retired) John D. Blumenson, US Army Reserve

Notes to the Reader