- pineyare they M48's ?
- binder001Either M48A2s or M48A3s. My opinion runs to M48A2 (or A2C). The tanks are M48 types, they have the commander's cupola (rules out M48), they have the IR engine deck (rules out M48A1) and they have 90mm guns (rules out M48A5). They appear to have the "squared off" headlight guards and appear to have three return rollers, both making them likely M48A2s. There were M48A3s with "squared off" headlight guards, but since the A3 was a rebuilt A1 I'm pretty sure that all of them had five return rollers (as on the parent vehicle). I couldn't see the engine deck well enough to verify the presence of the side-mounted air cleaners which would be indicative of the diesel engine of an M48A3. So M48A2s. There's my best guess!
- Joe_DDoug,
Definitely a type of M48A2 Gasser, best indicator is the heater exhaust pipe, Gas engined tanks had them on the left, Diesel on the right. Another good indicator is the gunners sight housing. A3's used the same as the M60, the housings in your pictures are from earlier M48's without night sights. Now determining if they are A2's or A2C's is difficult, but based on the time frame you were there and it being AIT, I would say A2C's, since the rangefinder for an A2 was still the M13 Stereoscopic and not at all similar to the M17 of an A2C that was also used in the M48A3 and M60 series. I'm sure if you used a stereoscopic range finder in AIT you would remember, completely different beast.
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