One of my boyhood heroes was General George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1995-December 21, 1945). Patton was an early proponent of tank warfare, progressing from a foresighted lieutenant in World War I to commanding the Third Army in World War II, leading armored divisions in the Allied offensive that broke the back of Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht. How apropos then that there are not just one but indeed four U.S. Army tanks that bear his name. We shall now discuss the final installment of the famous foursome, the M60 "Patton" main battle tank (MBT).
The M60 "Patton" was a second-generation MBT. I put the "Patton" moniker in quotes because unlike, say, the M48 Patton, this particular make and model of tank was actually never officially christened as a Patton tank. But then again, to use an aviation analogy, the A-10 Thunderbolt II warbird was never officially christened the "Warthog," yet everybody calls it by the latter name, not the official one.
Initially designed in 1957, this unofficial "Patton" was officially designated the Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105mm Gun, M60, and was manufactured by the famous Chrysler Corporation. Over 15,000 specimens of all variants were produced.
That 105mm gun was a British design that offered a huge improvement over the M4 Sherman's 75mm main gun, which had proved inadequate against the armor of Nazi German Tigers during WWII. The M60's bigger cannon (not to be confused with the M60 infantry machine gun, aka "The Pig") that coincidentally served alongside the M60 tank for four decades was capable of destroying any known enemy tank in service in 1959.
Additional specifications of the M60 MBT included:
As is true of several other American-made weapons systems (such as the F-15 Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, and F-35 Lightning II), the M60 was first bloodied in the hands of non-U.S. forces. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had both the M48 and M60 Patton -- the latter was renamed Magach ("Battering Ram") -- at their disposal, pitting a combined total 540 of these tanks in a desperate fight against the surprise attack of the combined Arab armies' Soviet-designed T-55s and T-62s. The IDF's tank strength was whittled down to a mere 200, but through sheer determination borne of desperation, the intrepid Patton/Magach crews prevailed, working in tandem with compatriots in British-made Centurion tanks to destroy approximately 2,250 enemy tanks.
As for the U.S.-crewed "Pattons," they saw their first combat usage during Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada in 1983, but didn't encounter any enemy vehicles more powerful than Soviet-made BTR-60 armored personnel carriers. However, the M60 would more than make up for lost time and tank vs. tank action eight years later, during the 1991 Persian Gulf War (aka Operation Desert Storm).
By this time, the U.S. Army had transitioned from the "Patton" to the M1 Abrams MBT. However, the U.S. Marine Corps still had the M60A3 TTS variant with a tank thermal sight that gave the crew the ability to pick out an enemy vehicle in the dark. This variant was also equipped with a meteorological sensor device that fed data directly into its ballistics battle movements. During the conflict's epic tank-on-tank engagements such at the Battle of Medina Ridge and the Battle of Norfolk, the upgraded Pattons destroyed 100 Iraqi tanks while losing only one of their own.
Among the many fellow military veterans in my circle of personal friends, I'm proud to include Rick Bogdan, lieutenant colonel, U.S. Army (ret.). Rick was a prior enlisted soldier before earning his commission via Officer Candidate School and becoming an armor officer. He's now author of the excellent semi-autobiographical novel Grunts, Gramps & Tanks. Here's what Bogdan had to say to me about the M60 and its replacement by the Abrams:
"Ha! 'More torque in reverse.' On a serious note, when we heard about the M-1 we were excited until we heard how few rounds it carried vs. the M-60 given the 'fight outnumbered and win' doctrine. Plus, the M-60 could at least cross bridges in Europe vs the M-1. So yes, our trusty M-60 with 5 tanks per platoon seemed to remain a good bet."
This iteration of the Patton was retired from U.S. military service in 1997. However, amazingly enough, "Old Blood and Guts" armored namesake continues to soldier on in seventeen different foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Jordan, Taiwan, Greece, Egypt, and Turkey. Egypt has the largest fleet of M60s, at over 1,000, whilst Turkey has the most sophisticated and fancily upgraded variant, the Sabra Mk II, which has the following upgrades:
· Israeli Military Industries (IMI) MG253 smoothbore 120mm L44 main gun (rather ironic in light of the current state of Turkish-Israeli relations, I know)
· Composite and explosive reactive-armor modules on the turret and hull
· Laser-warning receivers
· Retractable mast with optics for area surveillance
· Remote-weapon station
For the benefit of our Stateside readers who aren't planning either vacations or business trips to any of the aforementioned countries anytime soon and would rather see an M60 in a museum, you're in luck: your choices include (but aren't limited to) the General Patton Memorial Museum in Chiriaco Summit, California, and the First Division Museum in Wheaton, Illinois.