Crewing the Cold War Chieftain tank (265)

Cold War Conversations

Ian Sanders

Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.8 • 758 Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2022

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alan Hodges was a Royal Tank Regiment Chieftain tank commander and troop SGT in West Germany. Mick Hadfield was his 17-year-old gunner. The affection between the two is still apparent even today and Mick still calls Al his army Dad. Mick met Al in 1987 straight out of his armoured corp gunnery training at Catterick. They served for 3 years together in 1st Royal Tank Regiment in Hildesheim from August 87 to December 90. They share detailed insights into the operations of the Chieftain, the training, the camaraderie of a crew as well as important details like how you go the loo in a tank.. As part of 1st Royal Tank Regiment they were at the time (the most forward-facing Tank unit in BAOR and given a 2-hour life expectancy. They were told that if the Soviet 3rd Shock army crossed the border, each Chieftain would have to knock out a minimum of 10 Soviet tanks before they got overrun. 0:00 Introduction 4:07 Mick's journey into the army and Al's family military background 10:04 Experiences with the Chieftain Mark 2 tank and its components 16:40 Structure of the tank regiment and regional recruitment 23:59 Training process for the Chieftain crew and simulation experiences 34:06 Cold War threat discussion and ammunition types 42:49 Physical experience of being in a tank and recalling incidents 47:25 Reality of fighting in AFVs and potential for motion sickness in a tank 57:04 Relationship between a crew and their tank, tuning for performance 1:02:40 Knowledge of the battleground and teaser for the next episode 1:03:30 Closing remarks and invitation to the Facebook discussion group Table of contents powered by PodcastAI✨ Cold War history is disappearing; however, a simple monthly donation will keep this podcast on the air. You’ll become part of our community and get a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank you and you’ll bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, We also welcome one-off donations via the same link. Extra videos and photos here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode265/ Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
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0:35.6	One of the first days that I was in the regiment was asked to go into the regimental headquarters
0:39.9	they had little cutouts of chiefs and tanks stuck on the wall our regiment was laid from floor
0:45.0	to ceiling 57 objects and tanks and things like that then the rest of the 140 feet was the
0:51.4	rest of the third shock army 10,000 pieces of paper.
0:54.7	It just put it into stark contrast what we had to do.
0:59.7	This is Cold War Conversations. If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to first-hand Cold War history accounts.
1:09.6	Do make sure you follow us in your podcast app or join our
1:13.1	emailing list at Cold Warconversations.com. Alan Hodges was a British chief and tank commander
1:22.2	in the Royal Tank Regiment in West Germany. Mick Hadfield was his 17-year-old gunner. This is a great conversation
1:30.7	between two army mates and the affection between the two is still apparent even today. Mick
1:38.0	still calls Alan his army dad. Now Mick met Al in 1987 straight out of his armoured core gunnery training at
1:47.8	Katarik. They serve for three years together in the first Royal Tank Regiment at Hildesheim
1:53.4	from August 87 to December 1990. They share detailed insights into the operations of the chieftain, the training, the camaraderie of the crew,
	...

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