Crewing the Cold War Chieftain tank (265)

Alan Hodges was a Royal Tank Regiment Chieftain tank commander and troop SGT in West Germany. Mick Hadfield was his 17-year-old gunner. The affection between the two is still apparent even today and Mick still calls Al his army Dad.

Mick met Al in 1987 straight out of his armoured corp gunnery training at Catterick. They served for 3 years together in 1st Royal Tank Regiment in Hildesheim from August 87 to December 90. 

They share detailed insights into the operations of the Chieftain, the training, the camaraderie of a crew as well as important details like how you go the loo in a tank..

As part of 1st Royal Tank Regiment they were at the time (the most forward-facing Tank unit in BAOR and given a 2-hour life expectancy. They were told that if the Soviet 3rd Shock army crossed the border, each Chieftain would have to knock out a minimum of 10 Soviet tanks before they got overrun.

0:00 Introduction 

4:07 Mick's journey into the army and Al's family military background

10:04 Experiences with the Chieftain Mark 2 tank and its components

16:40 Structure of the tank regiment and regional recruitment

23:59 Training process for the Chieftain crew and simulation experiences

34:06 Cold War threat discussion and ammunition types

42:49 Physical experience of being in a tank and recalling incidents

47:25 Reality of fighting in AFVs and potential for motion sickness in a tank

57:04 Relationship between a crew and their tank, tuning for performance

1:02:40 Knowledge of the battleground and teaser for the next episode

1:03:30 Closing remarks and invitation to the Facebook discussion group

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