I've seen a few aftermarket manufacturers offering sandbag armour for M48's , and yet I can only find twoor three photos of M48s using this kind of additional armour. I've tried "Googling" and yet I can't seem to find any other photos.
My question is, was this a common type of additional armour ( and I just have bad reference)or it was just used in a few isolated cases.
Any help would be appreciated
Cheers
Joker

good am,
not the norm where i was at...the delta
cheers
c6o
carpe diem

Spare track links all over the turret were much more common, almost standard. Sandbags were rare. At least that's what all the photos I have suggest.

Pawel

To me, the sand bag armor looks to be a feature of a tank used in the static defense. With the tank hull protected by earthworks, all the sand bags are used for is to prevent RPG rounds from striking the turret.

I would think they would be of limited use in offensive operations for two reasons. One, the hull is still exposed to RPGs and two, cross country travel would cause the sand bags to shift and hinder turret traverse.

I'll have to look, but I believe that in one of my Vietnam armor books there is a photo of an M48 in a prepared fighting position with the turret covered in sand bags.

It does look cool though.

Of all the tanks that I saw in Nam, I did not see the sand bags used on them . As Sabot said they would hinder the operation of the turret and beside with all the rain we got would have added a lot of weight to an already too heavy tank. The crews had all they could do to keep them from getting stuck. Nam was not a great place for heavy armor. Most of the tanks I saw were used for road and bridge security. I did see some M 41 tanks of the ARVN troops in the Saigon area that had sand bags on them. These were near the presidential palace and the US Embassy. These vehicles were for the most part stationary. I do not know how the Marines set up there tanks as they were up north.