![]() When one of his lieutenants in Germany quoted to him Patton’s famous line, ‘I don’t want to die for my country I want the other son of a bitch to die for his country,’ Elvis replied, ‘Damn right!’) The soldiers cleaned tanks and fired them out on the range they took the engines out and put them back, changed the tracks, and ran formations. This was Patton’s division, and they trained on the sixty-ton M48 Patton Tank. “ During the long days at Fort Hood, Elvis was in the middle of advanced individual training, learning to be a tanker. Hood, in particular, TexasMonthly columnist Michael Hall provides us this backstory, which also ties in nicely with the tank’s namesake: Nonetheless, the Patton tank earned a claim to fame from a pop culture standpoint, as the tank crewed by none other than The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Aaron Presley, during his brief but momentous Army career, first with the 2nd Armored Division (“Hell on Wheels”) at Fort Hood, Texas, followed by the 3rd Armored Division in Friedburg, Germany. Since the Cold War luckily never blossomed into WWIII, American M48 crews in Europe never got to test their mettle against their Soviet adversaries. two PT-76 amphibious tanks and one BTR-50 armored personnel carrier (APC) destroyed. and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), the tally was one Patton tank damaged with two crew members KIA vs. In the Battle of Ben Het in March 1969, which was the only tank battle between the U.S. tank engagements during this war were relatively few, not even close to matching the frequency or volume of such battles in WWII, the Indo-Pakistani Wars of 19 alike, or the various Middle Eastern wars. The majority of the M48’s usage herein was in the infantry support role, as tank vs. – and her Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) allies – during the Vietnam War, with over 600 being deployed to the Southeast Asian conflict. ![]() However, on the other hand, the poorly-shaped armor of the M48, combined with its relative thinness on the sides – a mere 76mm in thickness – left the American-designed tanks distressingly vulnerable to the Centurions’ 20-pounder (84mm) guns.Īs far as combat use of the Patton by American troops was concerned, the M48 was the most heavily used tank by the U.S. ĭuring this South Asian subcontinental conflict, on the one hand, the Patton tank performed reasonably well against Indian armor, and the tank was well-regarded by both sides. More specifically, the Patton tank was the mainstay for the Pakistani Army in their fight against India’s British-made Centurion tanks during the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War. tank combat test, ironically enough, at the hands of a non-NATO nation, and against the tanks built by a NATO ally no less. ![]() The development of the M48 variant in particular was given an additional sense of urgency after the painful lessons of the Korean War.Īlthough built by and for Americans for the purpose of fighting Soviet tanks, the M48 actually got its first major tank vs. The M46 in particular was built as a replacement for the WWII-vintage M26 Pershing and M4 Sherman, whilst the M47 – as noted by my 19FortyFive colleague Peter Suciu, “was largely seen as a stopgap – a marriage of the T42 tank prototype and M46 chassis.” The M48 was indeed America’s first generation of tanks to fit the MBT concept, but actually, was the third tank to bear the famous general’s name, following a direct linear alphanumeric sequence from the M46 and M47 Pattons. So with that in mind, let’s look at the M60’s predecessor, and one which was officially named the Patton: the M48 Patton MBT. would readily agree, that one good Patton tank article deserves another. Last week, we at 19fFortyFive published a piece on the M60 “Patton” main battle tank (MBT) – and yes, we acknowledged that the M60 was never actually officially christened the “Patton.” Well, as the tank’s gregarious and flamboyant namesake, General George Smith Patton Jr.
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