SABOT can't penetrate an M1?

[SUBMAN1]

Found this true story on another site and found it interesting that the M1 can stand up to this amount of fire. This particular M1 was from the 24th Mech Div.

This one went around so much, even Tom Clancy picked this one up and wrote an article about it.

-S

During their advance into Iraq it was raining heavily, and there was a really bad mud hole that a particular M1 drove into. Somehow the M1 got stuck. And stuck REALLY BAD. So the rest of their unit moved on and these guys waited for an armored recovery vehicle to tow them out.

So here they are, stuck in a mud hole, in the middle of Iraq ... in an M1. The story doesn't specify which version, but if must have been at least an M1A1 version, since it had a 120mm gun.

Suddenly, over the hill come three (3) Iraqi T-72 tanks that decided to charge right at the stuck tank and open fire! The first T-72 fired a HEAT round that hit the frontal turret armor ... but did no damage.

The M1 returned fire with a SABOT round, hitting the T-72 in the turret ... blowing the turret clean off the vehicle! By this time, the second T-72 also fired a HEAT round at the M1. It also hit the front turret ... and also did no damage.

The M1 returned fire again, with another SABOT round. This time also killing the T-72 (it doesn't say how it died, just that it did). The third T-72, now only 400 meters away ... lets loose with a 125mm SABOT round of its own! It only grooves the front armor plate. This time, the third T-72 decided to bug out and run for cover.

The 3rd T-72 made it behind a nearby sand berm to hide. The M1 spotted the exhaust plume of the engine exhaust spewing up from behind the berm. Guessing where the T-72 was using the thermal sight, the M1 fired another SABOT round ... through the sand berm ... hit and destroyed the last T-72!

But wait, it's not over yet ... By this time, the crew of the M1 is EXTREMELY AGITATED and yelling at everyone on the radio to come help them. Shortly another M1 equiped unit showed up. These guys had M88 tank recovery vehicles with them. They used both M88's, but couldn't pull the damn tank free! Apparently it was stuck for all time ...

So they figured they would just blow it up and move on. So the other M1's (using their own 120mm guns) firing SABOT rounds, at almost point blank range, fire twice at the tank. Both bounce off the armor. So they move around some to get a really good impact angle. So they fire a 3rd SABOT round into it. Finally ... a penetration and a tremendous explosion!

Hold on ... wait. The explosion was vented by the ammo compartment blowout panels, and the fire suppression system killed the fire. It isn't destroyed yet! Dang it, it just won't die!

Well, by this time, they have a virtual tank 'blowing up party' going on and several more M88's arrive. So they try to pull the damn thing out one more time! Finally they drag it out! The book doesn't mention just how many pulled on it before it came free.

So they go examine the tank and find that's it's still operational! The only problem is that the sights are out of alignment from the ammo cooking off. And of course, they have no ammo storage anymore. So they bring it back to the divisional repair yard. The turret was pulled off, replaced with a new one and back into the war the tank went! The damaged turret was sent back to the US for analysis.