New member from Germany

[McLenn2025]

Hi everyone :)

 

Even though I have just registered for the USMF, I am no stranger to this site as I have been frequenting it quite often to read all the interesting posts on here without being registered :)

 

The reason why I decided to join as a fully fledged member now, is, that I just acquired a Vietnam USAF grouping, that is the jewel of my collection :) And I thought to myself: Heck, why not join and share it with you guys as I think/hope, you might be interested in seeing it, too ;)

 

Now a bit about myself: I am 21, almost 22, years old, live in Germany and started collecting at around 8 years old, even though the term "collecting" might be a bit far-fetched as I simple liked military history and bought army shirts to wear them. After a stint in the WW2-militaria collecting community at around 14 till the end of my teens - in part due to my liking of the Stooges' Ron Asheton - I ended up with collecting Vietnam War items. Credit, where it's due: I ended up there mainly because of Apocalypse Now, which is one of my favorite movies :D

 

Enough about me :)

 

I wish you all a Happy New Year and look forward to a lively exchange on this forum.

 

Best regards,

Jules

 

 

 

[deddygetty]

Welcome, Jules. Where abouts in Germany are you located? I served in the Army in several locations. Kaiserslautern, Stuttgart, Ulm/Neu Ulm, Heilbronn, Hanau, Weiden, Brand, Marktredwitz, Waidhaus, and Bayreuth/Bindlach. I've also visited Frankfurt, Munich, Nuremberg, Amberg, Bamberg, Vilseck, Garmisch, and numerous other places. Love it, even though I was almost killed just outside Inzendorf near the Czech border.

[McLenn2025]

I was born in Bonn, but moved to Munich when I was 5 :D

Interesting to hear about your being stationed in  Germany :) What division(s) were you in?

[deddygetty]

I started out in K-town training to be a military policeman at 15th MP Brigade headquarters. Then with the 385th MP Battalion in Stuttgart, Neu Ulm, and Heilbronn. Short time with 59th Air Defense Artillery in Hanau and then ended up all over the Czech border with 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment, the oldest continuously serving regiment in the US Army, dating back to 1836. I went to a great concert in Munich once. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer at the Olympic Stadium in 1972. And of course I went to Oktoberfest there once. How could I not?

Dad spent 3-years in Belgium, Germany, and Austria during and after WW II, and another 5-years in Germany during the Cold War. Dad's parents were German immigrants who came to the US in 1904.

[McLenn2025]

That is very fascinating!

How come you transfered from MP to Air Defense and finally Armored Cavalry?

But your history with Germany goes back a long time because of your father and your grandparents :))

[deddygetty]

It's kind of complicated. I was first trained in tanks but my best friend from training and I were getting split up. We had been friends all through basic training and two different tank schools, but now we were going to different places in Germany. So, we volunteered for the MPs to stay together. After training in K-town we went to Stuttgart. Shortly after arriving, both of us were chosen for a special security detail guarding the Air Force 25th anniversary party in Stuttgart. A few months later I got sent to Neu Ulm with a few other guys on temporary duty during some race riots and it ended up being a permanent transfer for all of us. I never saw my friend again.

 

Neu Ulm was great, and I loved it! I made friends I'm still in contact with 53 years later and one I still see now and then. I was having too much fun though and I got in some trouble. Ended up getting transferred out of the MPs into the AAA. They were going to make me a gate guard on a remote mountaintop missile site. Got in some more trouble before that could happen and got sent back to tanks where I finished out my time and went home. Dad, on the other hand, did 37 years.

[McLenn2025]

Thank you very much for this detailed account :) I really enjoy hearing stories such as yours. Service members from the Cold War Era seem to be overlooked sometimes, I think, compared to participants of the major active conflicts such as WW2, Korea and Vietnam, which is unfair because duty stationed soldiers in Germany and other countries were/are also a part of history and have very interesting stories to tell.

By the way, you have been to more German places than I have haha

How long were you in exactly? Even though it sounds like it was not as long as your father, it must have been quite some time...

And was your near-death experience in Inzendorf service related? I understand if you don't want to talk about the last question as I can imagine, that this was and still is an umpleadant memory, to put it lightly...

[deddygetty]

Actually, it helps to talk about it. This will be like a therapy session for me, so hang on. I was only in for 3-years, but it seemed like a lifetime.

 

The incident at Inzendorf. C Troop 1/2ACR was taking its turn manning the border camps in the 1st Squadron sector. Half the troop was at Camp Gates, near Marktredwitz, and half was at Camp Pitman, in Weiden. Our duty was to patrol the border in our sector and man the observation posts along the border, reporting any activity we observed. In an attack, we were the reaction force and Western Europe's first line of defense. Our vehicles (I'll call them a tank, but technically they aren't), the M-551A1 Sheridan AR/AAV (Armored Reconnaissance/Airborne Assault Vehicle), were always fully combat loaded during our time at the border camps. The Sheridan was a very light, agile, and fast armored vehicle used mainly by the armored cavalry regiments in Vietnam and along the Cold War borders with East Germany and Czechoslovakia. Equipped with a 152mm main gun/launcher, operated by the gunner and fed by the loader; a cupola mounted .50cal machine gun operated by the vehicle commander; and a 7.62cal coaxial machine gun mounted in tandem with the main gun and also operated by the gunner. I just drove, like a madman sometimes. The Sheridan was rather unique not only for its massive 152mm gun on such a light vehicle, but also for numerous other factors. It only weighed 17-tons, and it could float by means of a stowed floatation collar. It was small and light enough to transport in a C-130 and drop by parachute. It had a stabilized main gun that would stay locked on the target while the vehicle was moving, the first of its kind. It had eight turret-mounted grenade launchers, four on each side of the turret, for launching white phosphorous grenades, and perhaps the most unique feature was the main gun tube itself, the first of its kind. It was not only capable of firing a 152mm shell, but you could also fire a Shillelagh infra-red guided anti-tank missile, the first of its kind, from the same tube. There were eight of them stowed in horizontal racks in the driver compartment, four on each side of the driver; and two more were stored in vertical ready racks in the turret. Each missile had a shaped-charge warhead consisting of 15 pounds of Octol. That's 150 pounds of extremely high explosives altogether in the missiles. Add to that the twenty 152mm HE (high explosive) main gun rounds in the turret, wooden cases of small arms ammunition strapped inside and outside the turret, and all the diesel fuel to run all that, it made for a volatile mixture.

 

My platoon was at Camp Pitman when we were temporarily replaced at the border camp by another unit so we could take part in an exercise near the border simulating an attack across the Czech border. Our vehicles remained loaded with ammo because we were still the reaction force in that sector. The night of 24 July 1974 my platoon had set up a defensive perimeter in two large pastures on the eastern edge of Inzendorf, midway between Amberg where our 2d Squadron had been headquartered since 1952 and the Czech border. I was driving the platoon leader 1st Lieutenant Andrew Stilley's tank C-16 and was positioned furthest east with one other tank. Two more were in the pasture on the other side of the road, and one more tank in each pasture was positioned closer to town. C-15 was that tank in my pasture.

 

We settled in for the night. It was a clear night, and it got pretty cold for summer. I had the diesel-fired heater in the driver compartment fired up to heat the tank. At night we were required to keep all our hatches open for quick exit in case of emergency, so we draped our ponchos over the open hatches to trap the heat. It was my turn for fire watch on my vehicle, so I swapped places with our gunner/temporary tank commander Sgt. Parmenter. Now I'm in the tank commander's position in the turret with the commander's cupola. I dozed off and was startled awake by a loud noise. I sat there for a few seconds and dozed off again. Then I heard it again, like a loud whooshing noise, almost like a huge fire extinguisher going off. I startled awake and noticed it was light outside. I pulled the poncho off the cupola and poked my head out only to see the light was coming from a burning tank about a hundred yards away in the middle of the field, and I could see someone trying to get out of the driver compartment, engulfed in flames.

 

I stuck my head back in the hatch and screamed "FIRE!!!" as loud as I could and I jumped out of the hatch and off the tank and started running as fast as I could toward the burning tank. For some reason I had grabbed the poncho when I left, and I kept tripping over it and fell a couple times, but I kept the poncho. You know how you feel when you are running down hill and your legs can't keep up? That's how I felt. Before I could get there the guy in the driver compartment managed to get out and was running in a small circle right in front of the burning tank, still on fire himself. I tackled him so hard with the poncho spread out that the fire on him was extinguished by the time we hit the ground. I got him on his feet and gave him a good shove in the general direction of the road to get him moving. I don't even remember if I said anything to him. All I could think of was I couldn't see the rest of the crew and the fire was bad. I started to run around the left-front corner of the tank to where the outside handle for the fire suppression system is but something inside the tank went off and fire roared out of all the hatches like jet engines. It was the sound that woke me up before. Still at a dead run I made an immediate 90-degree turn to my right and ran as fast as my legs would carry me towards a short split rail fence surrounding a large depression in the field about 20-25 yards away. I had just reached the corner of the fence and was diving headfirst over a broken portion in the fence when there was a massive explosion and I was thrown through the air. I landed flat on my back staring straight up, my head pointing in the direction I had just came from. There was a huge fireball going up in the sky and I could see pieces of the tank flying around. I was lying there stunned and just watching it all when suddenly I focused on one particular piece floating around and voice in my head yelled "MOVE!" I immediately rolled on my side just as a 5-gallon can of grease landed where I had been laying. I was alert now but still stunned. There were burning cases of ammunition scattered around and occasional bullets would go off, so I was in no hurry to move.

 

A couple tanks turned on their searchlights and started scanning the area. When the bullets quieted down, I walked back through the smoking rubble up to the road where a few jeeps were parked with their lights on. Staff Sergeant Warren J. Brow was standing in front of one of them, wrapped in a wool blanket. What little was left of his clothes hung from him in burnt tatters. Lt. Stilley was on the radio desperately trying to get a med-evac helicopter to transport SSG Brow. Seems the folks on the other end thought we were simulating casualties for the exercise, so they were simulating sending a helicopter in response. Took quite a while to actually get a helicopter there. For many years I didn't know if he lived or died. There was only one other person on the tank when it caught fire, caused by the diesel-fired heater in the driver compartment where the missiles are stowed and where SSG Brow had been trapped. The other crewman, a sergeant first class, was in the commander's cupola when the fire started and only received minor burns. The other two crewmen were camped outside at another tank.

 

I was later recommended for the Soldier's Medal by Lt. Stilley, but nobody saw what I did so I didn't get the medal. Over 25 years later Andy Stilley found me on the internet and told me Brow had survived and was flown to a burn center in Texas. A few years ago, I stumbled across Brow's son and daughter on Facebook. Their dad had passed away in 2002, about the time Stilley located me.

 

This is photo #4 from the official Army investigation that morning. The numbers correspond to numbers on a sketch drawn of the area showing the locations each photo was taken from and the direction of the photo. The cold remained and the clouds brought a wind driven rain. It was a long day! I'm standing to the far left where I tackled Brow, wearing the poncho I used. The debris of C-15 is scattered behind me. Hard to believe there was once a Sheridan sitting there. I have copies of all the photos from the investigation, and copies of color photos taken by members of my platoon.

 

Looking at the sketch, #8 just happens to be about where I tackled Brow. Ironically 5, 6, 7, and 4 mark the route I took after I tackled him. 4 points toward where the left side of the tanks hull ended up. You can see it in the far-right edge of the photo with the guy behind it. The box with the Xs in the sketch is the fence I ended up behind. 15 and 16 are near where the right side of the hull ended up. You can see it in the photo near the tree with the torsion bars sticking up in the air. The mass sitting closest to the truck in the photo is the engine and transmission, sitting right where they would be if the tank was still parked there. The turret flipped backwards and landed upside down completely out of the photo, marked by the #12 in the sketch. The main gun tube tore loose from the turret and flew about 75 yards, burying itself at #3.

 

 

[McLenn2025]

I am very thankful, that you share your experiences with me and all the other members, who might read this, and took the time out of your day to write this.

Quite honestly, I am at a loss for words, as I don't know what to say in order to convey what I felt and thought while reading your account as I fear, that my choice of words might make my response sound trivial. Especially in the face of your extensive, well-worded and fascinating as well as scary story.
Your telling the story made it come to life, even though I can only imagine how scary this must have been... Especially the fire shooting out of the hatchet and other openings as well as your dodging the grease container.
It is a shame you didn't get the Soldier's Medal for your actions, as I think, that Staff Sergeant Brow would have been wounded even worse if not died if it hadn't been for you...
And this incident took place towards the end of your service, right?
I would be very interested in seeing the other photos you have of this case. And how did you manage to get the sketch as well as the photos from the investigation report?
You said, that you were in for 3 years, which I think is a very long time... Did you stay in longer than the conscription would have demanded? Or was it normal to be in for 3 years? Because I have heard, that it was usually around 2 years...

[deddygetty]

Two years if you were drafted back then, three if you volunteered.

 

SSG Brow would have died, without a doubt. The fact that neither of us died anyway was incredible.

 

I got the original photos and sketch from my former troop commander (name on the folder) when I was filing a disability claim with the Veteran's Administration back in the early 2000's. I made copies of the original's and sent them in with my claim. This is the folder the originals were in, showing the exact time (0150Z), date (25 July 1974), and coordinates (TQ88708265) of the explosion, and the vehicle identification numbers. In 2011 I used those co-ordinates and some old border maps I got from a former 2d Cavalry helicopter pilot who used to fly the border and I figured out the location of the incident. I visited the site that year on the 37th anniversary and two days later celebrated my 58th birthday with the 2d Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck. The photo I'm holding in the 2011 visit is photo #8 taken from where I tackled Brow, showing a closeup of the engine and much of the debris with that same white building in the background proving I had the right place. A friend of mine who lives in Switzerland and also formerly served in 2ACR took me there. He speaks fluent German, so he talked to a few people in the area and found one lady on a nearby dairy farm who was a young girl when the tank exploded and remembered a piece of it went through the roof of her father's barn far off in the background. In photo #8 the engine is in the center of the photo, seen from the front. The large mass behind and slightly to the left is the turret upside down. 

 

[1944m1helmets]

23 hours ago, deddygetty said:

Actually, it helps to talk about it. This will be like a therapy session for me, so hang on. I was only in for 3-years, but it seemed like a lifetime.

 

The incident at Inzendorf. C Troop 1/2ACR was taking its turn manning the border camps in the 1st Squadron sector. Half the troop was at Camp Gates, near Marktredwitz, and half was at Camp Pitman, in Weiden. Our duty was to patrol the border in our sector and man the observation posts along the border, reporting any activity we observed. In an attack, we were the reaction force and Western Europe's first line of defense. Our vehicles (I'll call them a tank, but technically they aren't), the M-551A1 Sheridan AR/AAV (Armored Reconnaissance/Airborne Assault Vehicle), were always fully combat loaded during our time at the border camps. The Sheridan was a very light, agile, and fast armored vehicle used mainly by the armored cavalry regiments in Vietnam and along the Cold War borders with East Germany and Czechoslovakia. Equipped with a 152mm main gun/launcher, operated by the gunner and fed by the loader; a cupola mounted .50cal machine gun operated by the vehicle commander; and a 7.62cal coaxial machine gun mounted in tandem with the main gun and also operated by the gunner. I just drove, like a madman sometimes. The Sheridan was rather unique not only for its massive 152mm gun on such a light vehicle, but also for numerous other factors. It only weighed 17-tons, and it could float by means of a stowed floatation collar. It was small and light enough to transport in a C-130 and drop by parachute. It had a stabilized main gun that would stay locked on the target while the vehicle was moving, the first of its kind. It had eight turret-mounted grenade launchers, four on each side of the turret, for launching white phosphorous grenades, and perhaps the most unique feature was the main gun tube itself, the first of its kind. It was not only capable of firing a 152mm shell, but you could also fire a Shillelagh infra-red guided anti-tank missile, the first of its kind, from the same tube. There were eight of them stowed in horizontal racks in the driver compartment, four on each side of the driver; and two more were stored in vertical ready racks in the turret. Each missile had a shaped-charge warhead consisting of 15 pounds of Octol. That's 150 pounds of extremely high explosives altogether in the missiles. Add to that the twenty 152mm HE (high explosive) main gun rounds in the turret, wooden cases of small arms ammunition strapped inside and outside the turret, and all the diesel fuel to run all that, it made for a volatile mixture.

 

My platoon was at Camp Pitman when we were temporarily replaced at the border camp by another unit so we could take part in an exercise near the border simulating an attack across the Czech border. Our vehicles remained loaded with ammo because we were still the reaction force in that sector. The night of 24 July 1974 my platoon had set up a defensive perimeter in two large pastures on the eastern edge of Inzendorf, midway between Amberg where our 2d Squadron had been headquartered since 1952 and the Czech border. I was driving the platoon leader 1st Lieutenant Andrew Stilley's tank C-16 and was positioned furthest east with one other tank. Two more were in the pasture on the other side of the road, and one more tank in each pasture was positioned closer to town. C-15 was that tank in my pasture.

 

We settled in for the night. It was a clear night, and it got pretty cold for summer. I had the diesel-fired heater in the driver compartment fired up to heat the tank. At night we were required to keep all our hatches open for quick exit in case of emergency, so we draped our ponchos over the open hatches to trap the heat. It was my turn for fire watch on my vehicle, so I swapped places with our gunner/temporary tank commander Sgt. Parmenter. Now I'm in the tank commander's position in the turret with the commander's cupola. I dozed off and was startled awake by a loud noise. I sat there for a few seconds and dozed off again. Then I heard it again, like a loud whooshing noise, almost like a huge fire extinguisher going off. I startled awake and noticed it was light outside. I pulled the poncho off the cupola and poked my head out only to see the light was coming from a burning tank about a hundred yards away in the middle of the field, and I could see someone trying to get out of the driver compartment, engulfed in flames.

 

I stuck my head back in the hatch and screamed "FIRE!!!" as loud as I could and I jumped out of the hatch and off the tank and started running as fast as I could toward the burning tank. For some reason I had grabbed the poncho when I left, and I kept tripping over it and fell a couple times, but I kept the poncho. You know how you feel when you are running down hill and your legs can't keep up? That's how I felt. Before I could get there the guy in the driver compartment managed to get out and was running in a small circle right in front of the burning tank, still on fire himself. I tackled him so hard with the poncho spread out that the fire on him was extinguished by the time we hit the ground. I got him on his feet and gave him a good shove in the general direction of the road to get him moving. I don't even remember if I said anything to him. All I could think of was I couldn't see the rest of the crew and the fire was bad. I started to run around the left-front corner of the tank to where the outside handle for the fire suppression system is but something inside the tank went off and fire roared out of all the hatches like jet engines. It was the sound that woke me up before. Still at a dead run I made an immediate 90-degree turn to my right and ran as fast as my legs would carry me towards a short split rail fence surrounding a large depression in the field about 20-25 yards away. I had just reached the corner of the fence and was diving headfirst over a broken portion in the fence when there was a massive explosion and I was thrown through the air. I landed flat on my back staring straight up, my head pointing in the direction I had just came from. There was a huge fireball going up in the sky and I could see pieces of the tank flying around. I was lying there stunned and just watching it all when suddenly I focused on one particular piece floating around and voice in my head yelled "MOVE!" I immediately rolled on my side just as a 5-gallon can of grease landed where I had been laying. I was alert now but still stunned. There were burning cases of ammunition scattered around and occasional bullets would go off, so I was in no hurry to move.

 

A couple tanks turned on their searchlights and started scanning the area. When the bullets quieted down, I walked back through the smoking rubble up to the road where a few jeeps were parked with their lights on. Staff Sergeant Warren J. Brow was standing in front of one of them, wrapped in a wool blanket. What little was left of his clothes hung from him in burnt tatters. Lt. Stilley was on the radio desperately trying to get a med-evac helicopter to transport SSG Brow. Seems the folks on the other end thought we were simulating casualties for the exercise, so they were simulating sending a helicopter in response. Took quite a while to actually get a helicopter there. For many years I didn't know if he lived or died. There was only one other person on the tank when it caught fire, caused by the diesel-fired heater in the driver compartment where the missiles are stowed and where SSG Brow had been trapped. The other crewman, a sergeant first class, was in the commander's cupola when the fire started and only received minor burns. The other two crewmen were camped outside at another tank.

 

I was later recommended for the Soldier's Medal by Lt. Stilley, but nobody saw what I did so I didn't get the medal. Over 25 years later Andy Stilley found me on the internet and told me Brow had survived and was flown to a burn center in Texas. A few years ago, I stumbled across Brow's son and daughter on Facebook. Their dad had passed away in 2002, about the time Stilley located me.

 

This is photo #4 from the official Army investigation that morning. The numbers correspond to numbers on a sketch drawn of the area showing the locations each photo was taken from and the direction of the photo. The cold remained and the clouds brought a wind driven rain. It was a long day! I'm standing to the far left where I tackled Brow, wearing the poncho I used. The debris of C-15 is scattered behind me. Hard to believe there was once a Sheridan sitting there. I have copies of all the photos from the investigation, and copies of color photos taken by members of my platoon.

 

Looking at the sketch, #8 just happens to be about where I tackled Brow. Ironically 5, 6, 7, and 4 mark the route I took after I tackled him. 4 points toward where the left side of the tanks hull ended up. You can see it in the far-right edge of the photo with the guy behind it. The box with the Xs in the sketch is the fence I ended up behind. 15 and 16 are near where the right side of the hull ended up. You can see it in the photo near the tree with the torsion bars sticking up in the air. The mass sitting closest to the truck in the photo is the engine and transmission, sitting right where they would be if the tank was still parked there. The turret flipped backwards and landed upside down completely out of the photo, marked by the #12 in the sketch. The main gun tube tore loose from the turret and flew about 75 yards, burying itself at #3.

 

 

Wow, this story was really intriguing. Thank you for your service. -BC

[McLenn2025]

Thank you very much for all this information!

It is fascinating, that you could find the exact place all of this took place in with the help of maps and the still existing house! And that there even was a German woman remembering that night!

I don't know if I am allowed or entitled to saying this as a German, but thank you for your service.

And thank you again for the story. I can only agree with BC, that your story is extremely intriguing. So thank you for this - YOUR - story of heroism and courage!

[1944m1helmets]

1 hour ago, McLenn2025 said:

entitled to saying this as a German, but thank you for your service.

It is totally fine to thank someone for their military service, even if you are from a different country👍

[deddygetty]

Thank you, guys. Much appreciated.

A few more photos...

First photo is the turret where it landed upside down, looking at the front of it. The big hole in the front is where the 152mm main gun tube is supposed to be. Second photo is where the gun tube landed and buried about 50-75 yards from where the tank had been parked. The box on top of the gun tube is part of the guidance system for the Shillelagh anti-tank missiles. Third photo is the left side of the tank where it ended up. The tanks engine and transmission are in the background by the tree. Fourth photo is the right side of the tank. Last photo is what a Sheridan is supposed to look like in one piece with all its ammo and equipment displayed.

[McLenn2025]

It is a wonder, that no one got killed! The tank was pulverized! Was this a typical construction mistake and were there more accidents of that sort? Because the way you described it, it kinda sounds like the Sheridan was a ticking time bomb with all the explosives and the diesel fuelled radiator being able to set it all on fire...

[deddygetty]

There were a lot of problems with the design of the Sheridan, and it WAS a ticking timebomb. Lots of stories of them burning, and a few of them being dropped from planes and the chutes not opening, but this is the only one I know of exploding like that. To make it light enough to float and load on planes, they made it out of aluminum instead of steel. The turret was steel, but the hull and body were aluminum. The sides of the body were aluminum plate with Styrofoam sandwiched between. No protection. The main gun was so big and the tank so light that the vehicle wanted to tear itself apart every time you fired the main gun. You had to really hang on because the tank would jump a couple feet. Often times the recoil blew-out electronic circuits or hydraulic hoses and you couldn't fire, not even the coaxial machine gun. The 152mm main gun rounds didn't have a brass casing like normal tank rounds, so no hot brass came out after firing. The casings were a plastic-like material that burned up and went out the tube with the round. There was a pressurized evacuator system that would blow all the burning debris out of the gun tube before the breech opened to load another round. Sometimes the evacuator system didn't work and when the breech opened, all that burning material would fall all over the turret floor and fill the turret with noxious fumes, smoke and burning plastic. And you're standing there with a very large, flammable explosive cradled in your arms. It's an adventure!

 

This particular Sheridan was a special case though. As you well know, winters in Germany can be very cold. Heaters for military vehicles and parts to fix them can be near impossible to find and worth their weight in gold or German bier. C-15 had a non-functional heater and no repair parts available, the problem usually being the igniter that fired the diesel fuel that powered the heater. Cavalry troopers are trained to adapt and survive. In this particular situation, the answer to the problem was stealing a heater from another vehicle, which was fairly common. But in this case, they stole a heater from a different type of vehicle, an M113 armored personnel carrier. The driver of C-15, a friend who I am still in contact with, managed to install the heater in his driver compartment where the old heater had been and got it working. Trouble was, it worked too well. It got really hot and had to be shut down about once an hour to cool. No problem, it was heat! Well, the regular driver was home on leave during the exercise. The night of the accident, the rest of the regular crew was camped at another tank. So, these two sergeants looking for a warm place to sleep and knowing nothing about the heater's overheating problem, climb in and fire it off, falling asleep. The rest is history.

 

First photo shows a piece of the rear hull with the vehicle numbers on it. The engine and transmission are sitting on it.

 

Second photo shows the left side of the hull and left track. That is my tank in the background, giving an idea how far I had to run to get to Brow. The fence I dove over when C-15 exploded is to the left of the hull several yards.

 

The third photo gives an idea the size of the debris field. The photo was taken near where the main gun landed. That is part of the turret poking out on the right edge. The rest of the tank is spread across the photo.

[McLenn2025]

The Sheridan sounds like a real nightmare... It is a wonder, that there weren't more incidents of THAT scale...

 

Thank you again for all the pictures. They make the events very vivid. And that was quite a distance you had to run from your tank to C-15!

 

It was luck, that the C-15 didn't cause any more fires in the nearby tanks with all the debris flying around and rounds going off, wasn't it? Or were the other tanks like your C-16 at a safe distance?

[deddygetty]

They were all far away, but one got a couple small holes in the side.

 

This is the best photo to show how far the main gun went. That's it in the lower right corner. That mass of steel blocking most of the truck is the turret the gun came from. Starting at the truck, count four people over. That rubble to his left between him and the fifth person is where the tank was parked and where the turret came from. The piles of debris to the left and right are the left and right sides of the hull.

[McLenn2025]

I see.

Scary how pulverized the Sheridan was... It is hard to imagine, that this was the likes of an AAV as depicted in post #14.