As you know the fight between AD and Res was real and on full display in ODS. Since 4th Tanks did so well that when 2nd Tanks tried to get back in the action the grunts said thanks but no thanks those weekend warriors are pretty good and no need to change, too paraphrase Jeff Dacus book ‘ Desert Storm Marines: A Marine Tank Company at War in the Gulf’. A very good and interesting book on 4th Tank BN in ODS if anyone is interested in the topic. As I recall also had decent photos of their Abrams. Not sure where I placed my copy to double check.
I am not privy to the whole truth so take this for what its worth. I was in the 8th Tank Bn and had no physical association with 2nd tanks. I heard their CO was a cowboy with his own agenda. I know we trained with 6th Marines for the breakout into Kuwait. When given the chance, 6th Marines chose to keep the M60A1 reservists over 2nd tanks with M1A1’s. There is more to this I believe and I don’t know where things fall. At the end of the first day when were to be resupplied a single truck of ammo showed up. When asked where the hell is the rest of the ammo the response was that this was all that was ordered. We were expected to take 85% casualties so no need to order more ammo. With that statement, was the plan to waste the M60A1’s on breaching and replace the breaching team with 2nd tanks? I don’t know. However at the end of the day we were intact, we cross loaded and stood by tor the next mornings advance.
It says that it belongs to the 1 Infantry Division. Its unclear to me which tank battalion this M1 belongs to but its not 2-34 AR as they have a different numbering style.
Best Regards,
Lukas
I must have been good coz Santa got me both the Panda 1.35th M1 and Ipm1 kits and a set of Trumpeter T156 tracks.Still got a kit of the original Tamiya M1 so ive got a few to keep me occupied guys.
Richard
Hello,
thank you for your positive feedback! I just printed the first parts together with other items. I think, they are quite nice.
Yes, I can print some more, look into your PM.
I’m not a modeler anymore, but because I was at one time, I’ll share these here. They are detail shots of an iffy quality Desert Storm photo that show markings on a platoon of Abrams. The overall photo shows all four tanks of the platoon, but I’m just sharing the bits where painting is visible.
My father was in 4th platoon of Lightning Troop in the 2nd ACR during Desert Storm. Thus, the tanks are marked L41 to L44. They called themselves “The Iron Horsemen of the Apocalypse” or “The Four Iron Horsemen,” something like that. They had this stenciled on the front of the hulls along with the silhouette of a cavalry trooper. However, they got in trouble for this, as some rule dictated that tanks couldn’t have nose art until AFTER they had been in combat. So the guys quickly covered the markings up with paper and then had it all sprayed tan to match the hull. Once they officially “saw action,” they ripped the paper off to reveal the markings again.
I have no other photos and no one is around to ask for more details.
