Were any US Army M1’s equipped w/mine rollers in Operation Iraqi Freedom?
Thx Bwog
Yes, each Armor Company has at least 1 rooler tank in the company to proof mine field breches.
There definitely were.
And actually there is a cool story. COL. Perkins, who commanded the Thunder Run (3rd ID) into Baghdad (First U.S. Troops into the capitol) told us a good story about it when he visited West Point. When they first got to the airport, the Iraqis had erected those concrete highway barriers across the road to try and stop our tanks. So the lead M1, commanded by the Platoon Leader, decided to ram the thing, push it out of the way and then assault the Iraqis shooting at them from behind it.
What happened was, the M1 hit the barrier at about 35-40 mps, the 8 ton mine plow got bent up and actually sent the Abrams airborne over the barrier and onto the other side of it. Broke some skirt plates and messed up the suspension, but was able to engage the guys behind it. And the second tank, behind the PL’s, also did the same thing.
And as COL Perkins said… “I guess you could say airpower took Baghdad. But it wasn’t F-16’s at 20,000, but M1’s at 3 feet.”
Just thought it was an interesting story. Would make a hell of a diorama. If only there were more hours in the day.
Yup, there’s a really good account of that in “Thunder Run”. Check it out!
man that sounds cool, I’m working on an M1 for the build. Ithink you just inspired my dio thx
Les