Report on British S-tank trials

Swedish Tank Archives has posted an interesting piece concerning a report from British Strv 103 (S-tank) trails from 1973.  In the Summer of that year the British Army on the Rhine (BAOR) sent several tank crews to Sweden to train on the S-tank for four weeks. These crews were then sent to Germany along with the S-tanks to be tested. The Swedish observers of the test considered the results of the evaluation to be highly dubious, claiming that they were conducted in a haphazard and unscientific manner.  They also are quite harsh in their criticism of the BAOR.

Here is an excerpt on the quality of British Tank Gunners:

At the end of the gunnery training, there were two tests with a gun camera, one against a fixed target and one against a moving one, as per usual Swedish standard. The results were bad. The first time these results may possibly be explained by the gunners not taking the trial seriously, but even after they had evaluated their own results and re-did the test the results were very bad. It is possible that more training could have improved the results somewhat, but the more likely explanation is that a large portion of the British gunners simply weren’t suited to their job as gunners. In some cases, problems with bad eyesight were apparent. It should be noted that British tank personnel is not tested in the same way as Swedish personnel before being assigned as tank gunners.

Yikes!

To read the full piece, please go to the Swedish Tank Archives blog.