Ukraine rebels go to the museum -- for WWII tanks and cannons

[jakeXT]

Source: AFP

Donetsk (Ukraine) (AFP) - Visiting a museum may be the last thing on the minds of hardened insurgents in east Ukraine, but a group of them turned up at one in Donetsk -- only to make off with a World War II tank and two howitzers.

"They had written authorisation to take them away," said a bewildered guard from his sentry post outside the immense World War II museum in the insurgent-held city.

"They loaded them into a big truck. They took the tank that was least damaged. I think they're going to use them to fight," he said, refusing to give his name.

When an AFP journalist visited the museum Friday there were still markings on the ground from where the separatist fighters had revved up their vintage loot and made off.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-rebels-museum-wwii-tanks-cannons-200231480.html

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[davidpdx]

1. Where have I see this before?

Wait for it....wait for it......

Violent life termination, yeah he got that one right.

[christx30]

4. The thing that I first thought of when

I saw the story was on the first episode of Battlestar Galactica. The ship is being retired and turned into a museum. There are no fighters in the launch bay, so they take the Viper mk IIs out of the display area, load them with ammo, and send them out to fight.

[steve2470]

2. crazy story, we'll see soon how they match up against 2014 weapons nt

[paleotn]

3. That's not WWII vintage.....

Looks like a T-62, T-64 or T-72 variant. T-64 if I had to guess. That's 1960's+ Soviet tank technology that just happened to be on display at that particular WWII museum. I didn't think a 70 year old T-34 would be of much use, if it were even operable which I doubt.

[NutmegYankee]

6. T-54

What a damn shame, it was a nice looking museum piece. Given the Russian design of stacking shells around the turret inside, it's going to be unsalvageable after it contacts the enemy.

[Brother Buzz]

8. Definitely a T-54

One could make the argument CS gas could defeat it unless the boys bagged gas masks at the museum, too.

[EX500rider]

9. Actually T-54's are WWII vintage...

Development of the first T-54 prototype started in October 1944 at the OKB-520 design bureau, at the Stalin Ural Tank Factory No. 183 (Uralvagonzavod), in Nizhny Tagil. The initial design was completed in December, with a prototype completed in February 1945.
Trials conducted between March and April 1945, resulted in the new tank being commissioned for service with the Red Army as the T-54

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-54/55

[paleotn]

10. I stand corrected. (nt)

[roamer65]

5. Modern armor piercing weaponry will split it open like a tin can.

It won't last long and neither will its inhabitants.

[Igel]

7. They might use it for fighting as a tank.

They might use it as a mobile artillery unit.

Or as something to hide behind while shooting.

Some older tanks they drove around to "lift moral" and recruit fighters. Gotta be tough when the leader of the DPR says that the DPR looks vaguely like a dick with a Donetsk-shaped tip and with a "weak chances for the future."

In at least one case the DNRovtsy had a kind of fake. Here was a scene with the atrocity of a destroyed tank, etc., etc., but when the Ukr forces finally took the area to remove it they found it had just been towed there. No engine. The tank they thought they'd destroyed had moved elsewhere. (This was early on, when the DPR didn't have dozens of tanks left after scores had been destroyed.)

[happyslug]

11. If the tank is hit by such a weapon.

Obsolete tanks are still better than no tanks. Unless such tanks face such fire power then then a T 54 is an excellent tank. From my reading such weapons are in short supply in the Ukraine.

Furthermore can be used behind more modern tanks to build up any attack force. The Germans did this at the battle of Kursk. Panthers and Tigers were put in front and on the sides. Older German llls and lVs in the inside to give the attack more weight.

Thus the T 54 is a good Tank better than no tank.