XPost: alt.music.rush, alt.usenet.kooks, alt.alien.vampire.flonk.flonk.flonk   
   XPost: free.usenet, rec.aviation.military   
   From: Sm@rt.1   
      
   "Paul J. Adam"  wrote in   
   news:yXmWvAeT7gnHFw4m@jrwlynch.demon.co.uk:   
      
   > In message   
   > ,   
   > WaltBJ  writes   
   >>. The tank experts there told me there are two big   
   >>problems connected with crossing rivers submerged, navigation and the   
   >>lack of traction due to the buoyancy of the tank. First, compasses   
   >>don't work very well inside the steel tank. Second, the volume of air   
   >>inside the tank gives enough flotation to seriously reduce the   
   >>traction on the river bottom and the muddier the river the worse that   
   >>is.   
   >   
   > Related to that - a unit problem, not an individual one - is the way the   
   > bank gets chewed up by successive vehicles. Being able to get one across   
   > is okay, but the real test comes with the last vehicle in the squadron   
   > trying to get through the morass left by the preceding wagons:   
   > especially because, as Walt rightly points out, navigation is a pain so   
   > it's difficult to aim for a specific point on the far bank.   
   >   
   > Suvorov's "Inside the Red Army" contains a tragicomic description of   
   > Operation Dneipr in 1967, when the Soviets demonstrated all this... but   
   > showing how the tanks and APCs could quickly swim unprepared rivers   
   > required massive engineering effort, with concrete roadways and kerbs   
   > laid across the bed and major reinforcement of the banks to ensure that   
   > the motor-rifle regiments were seen to stream across effortlessly...   
   >   
      
   Couldn't resist the title.   
      
      
   bertie   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)