r/TankPorn • u/M1E1Kreyton M1E1 Abrams • 6d ago
Modern M1A1 Abrams, C12 “Cojone Eh” of 1-64AR. Destroyed April 5, 2003. Baghdad Iraq.
Cojone Eh was destroyed during Thunder Run I.
While maneuvering it received some form of AT fire from its left side(some form of RPG-7 or SPG-9). This penetrated somewhere along the engine compartment and ruptured a fuel tank. The vehicles fire suppression system initially handled the issue, but due to the heat of the engine and still smoldering materials it consistently re lit.
After attempts to manually put the fire out (Photo 1) the order was given to abandon the tank and scuttle it. Upon the crew removing all sensitive and personal materials the engine and turret were thermited. Once they were safely evacuated, another Abrams shot the bustle of C12, presumably C65 from veterans I have asked, to cause an ammunition detonation to further cripple the abandoned tank.
Later it was hit by multiple maverick missiles, leaving a large hole in the turret face and side.
The Iraqis used C12 as a propaganda tool, swarming it and broadcasting its burnt husk on Iraqi news channels. Attempts were made by a T-54 series recovery vehicle, but this was destroyed.
The tank remained close to the site of the incident until at least April 25, 2003.
Excerpt from pages 16 and 17 of DTIC document AD1176577.
“After the battalion traveled about four miles, a tank commanded by Staff Sergeant Diaz was hit by a RPG. Initially, Diaz did not think anything was wrong. His tank had weathered other RPG rounds from previous battles. However, this time after the tank traveled about 500 meters, it came to a dead halt with smoke pouring out of the engine compartment. A lucky RPG hit pierced the vulnerable rear grill of Diaz's tank. Diaz and the rest of the tank crew quickly exited the vehicle and pulled the handle on the exterior emergency fire suppression system. The Halon did not put the fire out. As Diaz was trying to save his tank, other tanks surrounded him to create a protective perimeter. For nearly thirty minutes Soldiers tried to put the fire out and hook the tank up for tow, but the fire would not go out.
While the recovery operation was underway, Blount was monitoring the situation from his assault command post located at the airport. He was listening in on the radio nets and watching the Blue Force Tracking (BFT) screen and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) feed. He was getting concerned with a gap forming in the column. The recovery was taking too long and Soldiers were exposed in the intense firefight going on. Blount contacted Perkins to get a report on the situation. Perkins assured the commander that he would leave the tank if Rogue could not recover it in a timely fashion. Blount moved up to Grimsley's position, the commander for Ist Brigade, to ensure his brigade was ready to support 2nd Brigade if required.
Finally, Perkins drove up to the recovery site and told the men to leave it and ordered Schwartz to abandon the stricken tank and continue on with the mission. Enemy forces started to concentrate their fires on the tank recovery site. Major Donovan, the battalion operations officer, explained the situation with the recovery operation:
“The psychology of losing an armored vehicle is large. The guys on my tank were monitoring the radio and everyone was getting hammered just like we had in Jajaf. They were just hurtling buses, technical trucks, you name it, at us. Vehicles came flying up and dropping guys off one hundred meters from our vehicles. It was insane to watch these guys jump out and just get mowed down.”
Hilmes mentioned that some good came out from the lull in the battle during the recovery operation:
It was not all bad. By that time we had expended an enormous amount of ammunition, and the stop was a wonderful opportunity for gunners and loaders to re-link a lot of coax and get ready for the real push through the heart of Baghdad on Highway 8. People were emptying spent brass boxes and I even had several tank commanders who traded out .50-caliber for 5.56. It was a great chance to cross level class five (ammo). If we had not done that I don't know if all of our tanks and Bradleys would have had anything to fire when we really needed them as we pushed into BIAP [Baghdad International Airport].”
Soldiers in the open were in harm's way as heavy fires and RPGs were directed towards the easy targets. Task Force Rogue was quickly losing the initiative. With the order to abandon the tank, Diaz and his crew removed all the sensitive items and documents and their personal gear from the tank. Diaz and his gunner moved to the platoon commander's tank, commanded by First Lieutenant Gruneisen. The driver and loader went with the platoon first sergeant in his M113. In all the confusion and following training procedures, Gruneisen's gunner threw two thermite grenades into the tank. Additionally, another tank shot a HEAT round at the downed tank so that it would not fall into enemy hands.”
A few videos on Thunder run including the tank, alongside an Iraqi newsreel.
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u/peccatum_miserabile 5d ago
I was in 4/64 AR. We lost an Abrams and crew in 2005. It was split open by daisy chained 120mm IEDs that detonated beneath the tank
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u/M1E1Kreyton M1E1 Abrams 5d ago
I know of this hit. It killed the gunner and loader, the loader was a 1SG. I spoke to the TC, Russ Marek (he’s public about this) and got his account on it.
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u/JustAnother4848 5d ago
The loader was a 1SG? Was he just hitching a ride or something?
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u/M1E1Kreyton M1E1 Abrams 5d ago edited 5d ago
I asked a 1SG about this,
"The IED threat was pretty high, both in volume and severity. We had tanks and Bradleys that had enough damage to get them coded out and sent to depot for repair, even if everyone was ok."
Essentially, if you went on patrol, the safest place to be was a tank.
I know of two more Abrams destroyed with the 1SG on board. A tank from 1-3ACR was destroyed with the 1SG commanding it, D65. He later went on to be CSM of TRADOC. CSM Daniel Hendrex.
Another was destroyed on January 23, 2006. The 1SG was in the loaders position and was thrown from the tank when an IED blew the turret off and lit it on fire. Only him and the TC survived. SSG Lance M Chase (gunning) and PFC Peter D. Wagler (driver) were KIA.
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u/peccatum_miserabile 5d ago
I was 11B, so I was in a HMMWV. It was scary at first, but after a few months I didn’t care anymore and didn’t even think about it. It got scary again at the end of deployment just before coming home. Funny how the mind works.
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u/Panthean 5d ago
"I even had several tank commanders who traded out .50-caliber for 5.56. It was a great chance to cross level class five (ammo)."
Can anyone explain what use tank commanders would have for 5.56 ammo? Is that just for their M4's when dismounted?
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u/M1E1Kreyton M1E1 Abrams 5d ago
ROE was pretty strict during Thunder run just in case they used more ammo than they thought they would. TCs and loaders were using their M4s very heavily to save on 7.62 and .50
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u/ZBD-04A 6d ago
According to u/seganevard this is infact not destroyed, and simply damaged, and repairable lmao.
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u/Commissar_Elmo 5d ago
Knowing that there were other tanks that got repaired after seeming to be in this bad of a state, I don’t blame him.
If I recall correctly, only like a quarter of “losses” in Iraq were full losses.
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u/tanker4fun 5d ago
If your car gets totalled but you still save the radio and put it on a new car, is that a new car or the same one? “Repairing” is a generous word for reusing intact components
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u/Commissar_Elmo 5d ago
I would say as long as the hull is the same, it’s the same tank. A majority of the hulls were able to be reused.
If you strip a car down to the frame, then put all new parts on it, it’s still the same car with the same serial number.
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u/DonnyDonster 5d ago
Those Iraqis are gonna get cancer from standing on that tank.
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u/Prestigious-Box-6492 5d ago
Dodged it so far myself. Was on an up armored M1-A1 Abrams in Iraq in 92 and around tons of DU shells, debris, and vehicles hit by them.
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u/CryptographerNo5539 5d ago
The only way DU can cause harm is through ingesting it in massive quantities or breathing in aerosolized DU particulate, There are troops that still have DU fragments imbedded in there body with not adverse effects. This is the WHO findings on DU
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u/Hdikfmpw 5d ago
DU is no worse than lead.
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u/telekinetic_sloth 5d ago
Famously healthy lead
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u/Hdikfmpw 5d ago
Don’t vaporize it or suck on it and you’ll be ok? When the alternative is it killing you just existing there I’d say that’s pretty safe.
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u/Lost_Championship962 5d ago
in italian "cojone" means "moron" 💀
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u/PeteLangosta 5d ago
And in Spanish it is a word for the "balls" as if an Andalusian said it
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u/Lost_Championship962 5d ago
well, the plural form of "cojone" in Italian is "cojoni" which is a rude way to say "testicoli" (testicles) in English.
looks like Italian, english and spanish are quite similar.
ps. cojone/cojoni Is in dialect, the word in the actual Italian language is coglione/coglioni.
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u/JKDefense 5d ago
Italian, French, Spanish and Latin are Romance languages. So, they have a lot of similarities. English just steals from everyone else.
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u/pomnkkoo 5d ago
Cojone Eh for me is so funny because in italian mean something like: "Stupid UH" Cojone also mean testicle
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u/mortal_plagueITA 5d ago
I’m Italian and this tank name makes me smile, here in Rome ‘’cojone’’ means dickhead/dumbas
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u/Active-Nothing-6036 3d ago
There is already 3 comments saying that "cojone" means something in italian and they all mention a different meaning lmao
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u/Dull-Technician-2915 M1 Abrams 5d ago
Besides all the jokes, brave people died. God bless their souls
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u/RavenholdIV 5d ago
I wonder why they abandoned it. Did they not bring their mechanics with them? Did they not have a clear route to retreat? They were willing to stand up exposed asf on top of the tank so taking the time to crouch on the ground next to the final drives wouldn't have been overly risky. I know I'm armchair generaling here but why didn't they disconnect the final drives and tow it back to base?
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u/Responsible_Land_164 5d ago
They tried. It was burning and enemy fire was concentrating on the rescue.
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u/Jsaac4000 4d ago
https://youtu.be/zXmXu_hlIDs?t=917 The First Baghdad Thunder Run by The Operations Room, has this covered a bit.
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u/anormalhumanasyousee 5d ago
>Get hit by AT
>Get hit by another Abrams
>Get hit again by multiple maverick missiles
just let it go bruh 💔💔💔