From: Andreas Mehlhorn (a.mehlhorn@t-online.de)
Date: Thu Feb 06 2003 - 10:56:33 PST
Ronzo wrote:
>Hi Steve:
>
>Possibly because:
>
> 1) they only had a couple of hundred miles of paved roads in all of
> Russia
>
I think you should take some more Geography lessons. May be the former
Soviet Union had more
paved roads than the United Staes of (North) America.
> 2) Tanks on roads are targets
>
Here in good old Europe, tanks usually drive on the roads. A tank stuck
in the mud is a much
better target than a tank driving fast on a road.
> 3) Tearing up the roads of a country you are overrunning is not high on
>your priority list of "things to avoid" while winning hearts and minds.
>
>
Ah, now I know why the Shermann tanks in WW2 had steel tracks.
> 4) Crushed peasants tend to stick to the rubber blocks while steel
>tracks work similar to 'Miracle Blade III' knife sets favored by Chef Tony
>and are therefore self cleaning.
>
>
May be true.
> 5) Cost of 1 track pad equals 1 main gun round or 400 co-ax rounds. Ammo
>wins hands down?
>
Warfare is an expensive game and tanks are expensive toys.
> 6) Sound of steel tracks on cobble stones sounds cool and strikes fear
>in the hearts of citizenry. Also see 4 above.
>
Korrekt!
> 7) Lawyers who sue Russian government over road damage tend to
>disappear.
>
>
There are virtually none.
The real reason, why the Russians didn't use rubber paded tracks is,
because they had big
difficulties to vulcanize rubber and metall together. All Russian and
other Eastern designs
always tried to avoid rubber/metal components. They didn't have the
technology to
produce them in a reliable quality in big quantities.
In the fromer East Germany, the tanks didn't drive on the paved roads.
They had big
unpadded runways parallel to the roads to go to their proving grounds.
Best regards from the Free Western Germany
(Where the tanks have rubber track pads, and my Kettenkrad has them, too)
Andreas
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