I have seen unditching beams (other nomenclature?) on armour from WW1 to present but I have no idea how they are used. Does anyone have a description and/or photos of one being used with the more modern (T-62 onward) Soviet armour?
Many thanks
Bill

On World War One British tanks, the unditching beam was a reinforced timber fitted with a pair of chains that could be shackled to the tracks. If the vehicle bogged down, the tracks would pull the beam down under the tank where it could grab the mud and allow the tank to pull itself forward. The tank was fitted with an angle iron skid structure on top that would carry the beam completely over the vehicle, allowing it to make more than one pass through the mud, if necessary.
In more modern vehicles, unditching beams are inserted by hand under the tracks to give the cleats something to grab onto, if the tank is stuck in deep mud.

Some BMP's with the beams stowed.




Many vehicles have them just wanted to know how they used them.
Bill

Gerald
Thank you for that explanation, it makes sense. Any photos of this (modern method) in action?
Regards
Bill

Hi William!

From where this photo is? And is some annotation under image? From what unit that BMP's are?


All the best!

Taras
This is all I have, no caption, just the image. I was interested in the unditching beam in the picture, any insights?
Bill

Hope this helps.

Taras
Wow that is great!
Thanks very much for sharing these.
Bill

Taras,
thanks for posting those sketches! a picture is worth a thousand words and that's the best explanation I've seen how the unditching beams are actually used.
Terry