The War in Ukraine

[Cloud Cover]

Graphic. ATGM strike and Russian tank driver jumps out covered in flames. What’s on that side of the tank to do that only to him?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1847310978628636983

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Looks like he got flashed by a propellent burn that likley set his oil covered clothes on fire. Poor bugger, at least his crew tried to help him.

 

[PrairieFella]

Looks like he got flashed by a propellent burn that likley set his oil covered clothes on fire. Poor bugger, at least his crew tried to help him.

I was going to say the same thing. I wonder if there was an ignition of hydraulic fluid that zippo'd the dude too. There shouldn't be anything that flammable in an MBT. This is a tankers nightmare.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

I was going to go with hydraulic fluid from the turret traverse, too.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I was going to go with hydraulic fluid from the turret traverse, too.

Do they use hydraulic traverse systems?

 

[Kirkhill]

In the 1968 book The Liberators, about the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, the claim was that the Russians were using vodka for hydraulic fluid.... but the troops were drinking it.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Do they use hydraulic traverse systems?

So says the internet, yes.

 

[KevinB]

In the 1968 book The Liberators, about the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, the claim was that the Russians were using vodka for hydraulic fluid.... but the troops were drinking it.

It’s not Vodka, it’s a methyl alcohol base however, as from the 60’s till currently the Russian tank crews have been known to filter it (often via bread) and drink it. It has been known to blind people…
It’s used in the turret and brake line hydraulics.