Point d’intérêt
T-72 tank
A low turret and an automatic loader shaped the interior of this tank.
Langue du contenu
The T-72's low silhouette resulted from a layout that dispensed with a separate crew member to load the gun. An automatic loader took over that task, reducing the crew to three people. In a traditional layout, the loader had to work standing up; replacing him with a mechanism allowed the fighting compartment to be lower. The T-72 family's main armament was a 125 mm smoothbore gun.
The tank was developed in the Soviet Union in the early 1970s and was subsequently manufactured in other countries. Poland and Czechoslovakia were among its producers. The museum in Witoszów Dolny added a T-72 to its collection of heavy military equipment. Alongside the Goździk howitzer in the same collection, it represents a different category of vehicle: a main battle tank rather than a self-propelled gun.
Pour les enfants
The T-72 had a crew of three. A mechanism called an automatic loader helped load its gun. It replaced a separate crew member who did this job by hand in other designs. That person needed enough space to work standing up. Using a mechanism helped the designers make the inside of the vehicle lower and reduce its overall height.
The T-72 family's main weapon was a gun with a calibre of 125 millimetres. Calibre describes the diameter inside the barrel. The tank was developed in the Soviet Union in the early 1970s. Later, this family of vehicles was also built in Poland and Czechoslovakia.
The museum's T-72 belongs to its collection of heavy military equipment. The collection also includes a Goździk. Both have tracks and a weapon mounted in a turret, but they are different kinds of machine. The T-72 is a tank. The Goździk is a self-propelled howitzer, an artillery gun with its own engine. Similar shapes do not mean identical jobs.
Question 1 sur 2
How many people made up the T-72 crew?
- Emplacement
- Outdoor display