Tag Archives: t-54

Cold War & Beyond: Polish BAT-M, Warsaw Pact engineer vehicle now used by NATO!

Cold War: Approximately 1947 (due to U.S. President Harry Truman’s Truman Doctrine) to 1991 (Operation Desert Storm, collapse of Soviet Union).

Based upon a backwards Soviet T-54/55 battle tank chassis/lower hull, the BAT-M (бульдозер артиллерийском тягаче модернизированный, Bulldozer Artillery Tractor-Modernized) is basically a bulldozer, but western/NATO military analysts prefer to call it by the more mil-speak sounding title of ‘route clearing vehicle’.  The lower hull of the T-54/55 was rotated so that the power pack (motor/transmission) and drive sprockets were at the front of the vehicle.  It uses a manually operated transmission.

The BAT-M crew-cab is a widen/modified ZIS truck cabin. Supposedly 35-thousand were built by 1979, when production stopped. Today, most are rusting away, some are for sale.

Beyond: Post Cold War, Balkan Wars, War on Terror, Battle for Ukraine, 1992 to present.

Former Warsaw Pact-Poland becomes NATO-Poland in March 1999, despite a February 1990 promise by the United States Secretary of State, James Baker, that NATO would not expand “one inch eastward”.

The Museum of Military Technology, in Poland, uses a BAT-M as a tour bus!

Museum of Military Technology: BAT-M

Wowing the tourists with a 360 degree turn in a BAT-M.

Photo via Polish Defense Ministry, 17FEB2010. Notice the old ‘spider web’ style road wheels.

Quick, silent U.S. Army video from June 2013:

Polish BAT-M helping to build a new tank training road on Trzebień, Poland, 08FEB2024. U.S. Army photo by Sergeant Summer Keiser.

Video by U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Rakeem Carter, 08FEB2024:

Warsaw Pact vehicles now used by NATO: POLAND

Cold War era Warsaw Pact BAT-2 engineer vehicle now NATO’s Kosovo car basher!

Cold War & Beyond: MIKOYAN-GUREVICH MIG-29

How to use C-4 & Thermite to kill a Zombie Tank

Yes, Virginia, steel will burn!

A captured Serbian T-55 awaits destruction by C-4 ‘plastic’ explosives, and thermite grenades, in the field artillery area of Camp Dobol, Bosnia & Herzegovina. U.S. Army (USA) photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 15MAR1997.

Planks of C-4 plastic explosive duct-taped to the turret ring, just wanted to see what would happen. USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 15MAR1997.

C-4 was placed inside the turret. The next day, Thermite was placed in the barrel, engine, and transmission. USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 15MAR1997.

Boom! USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 15MAR1997.

Apparently, the C-4 plastic in the turret was set-off first. USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 15MAR1997.

USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 15MAR1997.

USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 15MAR1997.

USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 15MAR1997.

USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 15MAR1997.

A U.S. Army First Lieutenant tries to extinguish flames caused by the C-4 explosions, so they can try-out the Thermite. USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 15MAR1997.

Is it safe to install the Thermite? USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 15MAR1997.

Thermite grenades placed on the ‘powerpack’ (motor/transmission), then mud was packed on top in the hopes it would direct the thermite plasma downward. USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 16MAR1997.

The Thermite was set-off next. In the foreground you can see the hands operating an electrical blasting/firing device. You can see the electrical cord leading into the main gun barrel, to set-off the Thermite. USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, photo is dated 16MAR1997.

A blurred knife in the foreground. Engineers used the knife to attach the electrical cord to the firing device. USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 16MAR1997.

Checking-out the damage. USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 16MAR1997.

2-thousand-200 degrees (F) of heat that oozed out of the thermite hand grenades onto the transmission. USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 16MAR1997.

End result. USA photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 16MAR1997.

Vehicle I-D: COLD WAR ZOMBIE TANK T-54/55, THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!

Peacekeeper ’95: Remember when Russia invaded the U.S., in preparation to invade Bosnia-Herzegovina? 

Vehicle I-D: Cold War Zombie tank T-55, they’re everywhere!

I calls it a zombie tank because it’s six decades old and refuses to die.

People’s Republic of China, 2021:

CHINA’S TYPE 59D, UPDATED COLD WAR T-54/55, TO LIVE-ON AS A ROBOT TANK?

CHINA STILL USES THE NATO GUNNED TYPE 88 WARSAW PACT BASED T-54/55 TANK

Lost your hull?  No problem, mount your turret on a truck trailer:

Syria 2012 to present:

Date and location unknown, possibly inside Syria, a T-55 somehow ended up on its turret!

Government T-55s.

Insurgent T-55.

With a mine-roller.

Iraq 2020: They still like those Chinese Type 69s. See more in Iraqi Armor after the Invasion.

Romanian T-55s taking part in NATOs Saber Guardian, June 2019:

U.S. Navy photo by Lieutenant Alex Cornell du Houx, 13JUN2019.

Video August 2018, Afghan government T-55 Boom Stick in action in Sangin District, while U.S. Marines watch:

Kurdish Peshmerga T-55, Iraq, May 2016: 

U.S. Army photo by Staff Sergeant Sergio Rangel, 29MAY2016.

Click here to watch extremist insurgents execute captured Syrian soldier with a T-55 tank!

Romanian T-55s, April 2016:

African Union T-55AMV, 2015:

African Union female T-55 crew:

Bamyan, Afghanistan, 2012:

An old T-54.

See more in Steel Skeletons of Soviet Afghanistan.

Daymirdad, Afghanistan, 2011: 

T-55, U.S. Army photo by Sergeant Sean Casey, 09JAN2011.

Iraq 2010:  U.S. BRINGS DEAD IRAQI T-55 BACK TO LIFE!

Iraqi T-54/55 ARV, Salman Pak, November 2008:

U.S. Army photo by Specialist Chase Kincaid, 15NOV2008. 

U.S. Army photo by Specialist Chase Kincaid, 15NOV2008.

T-55 Salman Pak, Iraq, November 2008:

U.S. Army photo by Specialist Chase Kincaid, 15NOV2008.

Al Ja’ara village, Iraq, January 2008:

U.S. Defense Department photo, 14JAN2008.

Iraq 2003:

Chinese Type 69 (‘upgraded’ T-55). USN/USMC photo.

See more in Iraq 2003 Battle Damage.

Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, 2002:

Ventilator on turret top and small hole for bow machine gun on front slope indicates this was a T-54. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate First Class Arlo K. Abrahamson, 29MAY2002.

Cambodia: 

Iraqi Chinese made T-55 assaults Iranian infantry line during Iran-Iraq War:

Vietnam, T-54:

Supposedly upgraded Nicaraguan T-55:

Bosnia & Herzegovina 1996-98:

Croat (HVO) T-55 crew fires-off their 12.7mm gun, on the Barbara Range in Glamoc, Bosnia and Herzegovina. U.S. Department of Defense photo by Staff Sergeant Kim Price, October 1998.

A U.S. Army First Lieutenant tries to keep flames from spreading. This Serbian T-55 was deliberately blown-up with C-4 plastic explosive by the U.S. Army, on Camp Dobol, Bosnia-Herzegovina. U.S. Army photo by Sergeant Angel Clemons, 15MAR1997.

T-55 ‘upgraded’ with vulcanized rubber armor, Broko area of Bosnia-Herzegovina. U.S. Department of Defense photo by Staff Sergeant Jon E. Long, January 1996.

Iraq 1991:

What’s left of an Iraqi Type 69, a Chinese ‘upgrade’ of the T-55. U.S. Department of Defense photo by Staff Sergeant Robert Reeve, March 1991.

Smoldering Iraqi T-55 on the border with Kuwait. U.S. Army photo by Specialist Joel Torres, 28FEB1991.

CzechoSlovakia 1989:

Just a few years before the end of the unofficial Cold War, Czechoslovakia upgraded their T-55s with ‘Western-NATO’ targeting systems.

CzechoSlovak T-54, date and photographer unknown.

Egypt 1985:

Notice the ‘Western’ style square search light. U.S. Department of Defense photo by Captain Mark Beberwyck, August 1985.

U.S.A. 1987:

Captured T-54/55, Foreign Materiel Intelligence Group Training Detachment, Fort Irwin, California. U.S. Army photo by Donna Fulghum, 10MAR1987.

Peru 1983:

Factory fresh/parade ready T-54 (indicated by the bow machine gun hole in the front slope), 1983(?).

U.S.A. 1984:

Photo taken by ‘yours truly’, while on a California Army National Guard drill weekend on Fort Irwin, National Training Center, California.  You can see the hole in the front slope of the hull for the bow machine gun, which is typical of the T-54.  Early T-54s also had a ventilator on the turret top.

T-54 (it has a ventilator on top of the turret) captured by Israel then turned over to the United States, notice the U.S. military antenna mast mounted on top of the turret. Photo dated November 1984.

Israel 1974:

Photo dated May 1974, location unknown, however it appears to be captured T-55s put to use by the Israeli Defense Forces.

Being cannibalized for parts.

Egypt 1974:

Egyptian T-55 destroyed by Israel, 1974. Notice somebody marked the penetration hole in the turret.

Iraq, November 1963:

Iraqi T-54 during coup led by pro-Egyptian (Nasserists) against the Ba’ath Party, November 1963.

Germany 1961:

U.S. Embassy photo. The then brand new T-54/55 is deployed in response to the U.S. deploying its then brand new M48A1, which were deployed in response to older T-34-85s being deployed in what became the Berlin Crisis which led to the creation of the Berlin Wall.

See (photos & film), and read, more in BERLIN KRISE, ‘GAME OF CHICKEN’ M48A1 VS. T-54/55!

This is a terrible Cold War era U.S. Army vehicle I-D image of a T-54.

Soviet Union:

Cold War film, late 1950s or early 1960s, Soviet T-55s getting decontaminated in NBC (Nuclear Biological Chemical) exercise:

A variety of variants:

So many model kits, so little time!

 

T-55 data @ ArmyRecognition.com

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