I know a few American tanks were knocked out during the First Gulf War by Iraqi armor at the cost of hundreds of their own. However, I am not aware of a single incident in which an Iraqi tank is credited with knocking out an American tank during the Second Gulf War. I assume the Iraqis had a lot of T-55s and a few T-72s left. For grins, I checked my reference books. Acording to the range tables I saw, a T-55 has virtually no chance of penetrating the frontal armor of an Abrams, even at point blank range. And to penetrate with a rear shot, it would have to close to 500 meters or less. A T-72 would have a greater chance I'm sure, but where would you find an Iraqi tanker that could maneuver his tank around to an M1's flank. From what I have heard about the Second Gulf War, the Iraqis would have been better off painting targets on the turrets of their tanks and then kissing their butts goodbye!

i dont know of any u.s. tanks in OIF knocked out by iraqi tanks but i know atleast in 1 situation in desert storm an iraqi t-55 hit the side of an abrams turret (i think it was the turret i could be mistaken) and did not blow up the tank, but the tank was paralyzed, i'm pretty sure the crew got out, i saw this on the history channel a while back so memory is a bit rough.

Arab countries have extremely outdated weapons. The soldiers are very poorly paid and very badly treated by their officers. The mentality of an Arab soldier is, and this I've heard first hand, why the would I sacrifice my life for these people who treat me like dirt? Even if thay had modern weapons, their mentality is all ed up because of how the military treats them. Plus they are very poorly trained. The privates join the army cause they have nothng else to do. And the higher ranking officers do it cause there's good money in it. The "TOP" guy has to keep his officers happy so they won't turn against him. Most of them just get the benefits and get fat and then retire at the age of 45, at which time they get a good sum of money which they use to start up some small business to make money. I hate to say this, being an Arab myself, but Arab armies are a joke.

isn't army service complusary in most arab countries?

Yes it is compulsory, and those make up the bulk of what you would call "privates". Then you have people who go to military academies and become ranking officers, Those are the ones who make the mony and get all the benefits. The kids who go in for the compulsory service don't get any kind of real training. They just end up wasting 2 or 3 years of their lives for nothing.

in the bovington tank musuem i found out that one of the tanks which was captured, none of the crew had any boots and one tank crew member almost got shot becuase he would not give up what was in his hand. Was beleived to be a grenade but it was only a poptato, the only food the crew had left after days in the tank. Dispicable!

no coalition tanks were destroyed by iraqi armour during OP telic/OIF.

any abrams destroyed were by either militia with RPGs or improvised roadside bombs. some disbled tanks were later destroyed by the US air force to prevent the technology falling into the wrong hands.

one challenger 2 was destroyed during a friendly fire incident by a tank of the same unit, and a warrior was recently destroyed by an IED.

as has been said the iraqis lacked the equipment and training to hold out against the coalition.

im not sure if US troops engaged iraqis tank on tank, but i know of an occasion when british challengers engaged a mixed force of T55, T62 and T72 to the east of basra, 15 iraqi tanks were engaged and destroyed by 15 challengers, each tank being destroyed with the first round.

this, and the total air superiority is why most iraqi crews simply abandoned their AFVs and ran. this was probably the best thing for all involved!

cheers

joe

Most of the Iraqi tanks we encountered had been abandoned and hit by air, although there were more than a few that were hit by tank fire as well. We did encounter a fully serviceable T55 abandoned between two buildings in Mumahdiyah, according to one of the locals that crew just walked away when the Americans got close to the area. We did run into some crews that wanted to fight near Safwan the first night of the war, but they were equipped with T55's and Type 59's. We began to encounter the T72's of the Republican Guard closer to Baghdad, and found one relatively intact in Balad province along a stretch of road known as Route Sue (aka RPG Alley to the 1st Armored Division convoys to and from Baghdad). Most of the carcasses were being picked clean of any useable automotive parts by the locals.