Have you seen the World War Z movie? That’s the scenario I’m talking about.
Even better, a Beehive or flechette round fired at a friendly tank may make the crew regret that they stowed their bedrolls in the turret storage racks, but it will very effectively dispose of any enemy infantry/zombies on the tank.
And presumably if they had been mobilized because of zombies, they’d be loaded with these instead of sabot.
The problem with having enemy infantry on a tank is that they start prying the hatches open and tossing grenades in, or sticking bricks of plastic explosive to your tracks. Zombies would be less of a threat. And as has been said, tanks generally travel in pairs or more, and can scratch each other’s back, so to speak, with their machine guns. Or, presumably, get up close and fire one of those useless sabot rounds over the head of the other one, and kill the squishy stowaways with the muzzle blast.
Do you think they’d all of a sudden switch to ZCMA (Zombie Choreography-Crush Mode Alpha)? All tanks swerving in and out just missing each other and effectively and completely running over zombies. “Killing” them and not just turning them into “grabbers” etc? If not you might want to consider this, hell those of you with a brain will already have…do you know how much fuel a tank uses up? How much each would take to effectively “run over” and actually kill a few hundred zombies in the battle scenario described? Let alone millions upon millions of zombies?
Now add on battle panic. Ever met a zombie? Didn’t think so. Now disregard the ZCMA, it doesn’t actually exist. Think of all the tank drivers being directed by tank commanders screaming at them to try to get them to plough into the right set of zombies. Then BANG you just knocked one of your own tanks onto it’s back or side. OOOPS, huh? Oh shit what if one of our own does that to us? I mean i can see them almost hitting each other all the time (probably already have seen it but put it down to dumb rookies) even from my tiny viewing slit. Never mind the stuff my commander seems to be describing in disbelief. So it’s not just dumb rookies? It’s skilled pros like me knocking our own onto their sides. If not knocking them over then simply shredding their tracks and making them either very good at circles or immobile and therefore sitting in very expensive coffins.
Ohhh no. Now, if we’re still on our tracks and those tracks are still working. If we haven’t had a hole blown in us by someone. If we haven’t had incredibly strong zombies somehow foul up our exhaust system etc (that cripples a tank btw and makes you a sitting duck and/or poisons you if you keep the engine running) or just break in, remember the fuel stuff i mentioned? That stuff that tanks guzzle like crazy even when going in a straight line and trying to be fuel efficient. Never mind while trying to execute ZCMA, oh wait that doesn’t exist. We’re actually not only reversing and swerving as much as a tank can, to very little actual effect, we’re also crippling each other in mad charges into what look like walls of living dead which are concealing tanks. Some are doing the same out of mad panic, some because tank drivers aren’t known for their choreography skills, some because tanks all of a sudden stop when they were about to get out of our way…i could go on for hours but anyone who has been in a battle situation knows there is an infinite amount of things that can and do go wrong in the weirdest ways possible in a fight. Especially a fight against an unknown and furthermore an unknown in large numbers. SO! Who thinks the fuel trucks are gonna come and save us while we’re being swarmed over by millions of living dead human beings? I don’t see many hands.
BAM We’re going to be left to die if we don’t gtfo here. By this time you’ve probably managed to kill, as in completely make inoperable (not just legless or armless) 500 zombies max. And that’s being hugely generous. Let’s say you’re unimaginably lucky and you get some insane runs, i’ll give you 1000 and that’s being extremely unrealistic. In order to charge down huge numbers of them you’d need one of your own not to get in your way for an extended period. And remember ZCMA doesn’t exist yet. Even if the numbers were 10,000 per tank you’re talking a pinch in the arm, not even a bloody nose. There’s millions upon millions of them and they need to be either completely dismembered or shot in a specific space to be taken out of the equation.
So what do you think happens now? There’s very few real heroes when the shit really hits the fan. This knowledge comes from personal experience. Being a true hero generally means accepting beforehand you are almost definitely not going to be around after what you’re briefly contemplating doing and doing it anyway. It also means doing it to the fullest extent of your capabilities, therefore further limiting any chances of surviving. Those are the true heroes and almost none of them are still here to talk about it. Those who are don’t want to or physically can’t and even if they did they probably wouldn’t want to.
So we’re almost outta fuel having basically not even made dent in the enemy numbers. In fact infantry casualties have probably added to them if not levelled them out. Those who mention all the ammo carried, seem unaware, and this is acceptable if you haven’t been part of a tank crew, that very few tanks are stocked to the maximum of their ability. Furthermore as we’re executing what is meant to be, and what probably will become ZCMA, if we manage to get many shots off they’ll be hugely inaccurate and as you have to be accurate enough to either destroy the brain or sever it’s connection at the base of the skull very little of the machine gun rounds will have made any difference. The rounds with flechettes and other assorted anti-personnel rounds will also have done very little damage. Bigger ones unless they are bullseyes similar. Then add on the fact that there won’t be thousands of tanks there, esp in the scene described in the book, and well, you’ve achieved nothing. Apart from knocking over a few of your own tanks, wasting a ton of fuel. Then either making a hasty get away, probably crushing more of your own on your way out than zombies who got behind you. That or standing and using the little fuel you have left to squish a few more, get into a few good firing positions then wait for the zombies to either break in or you to break out. That or sit and die of thirst. And like i said there are very few heroes, also tbqh the latter is more like stupidity than heroism.
Any heroes would be fire-teams willing to plough in and fight off the zombies while refuelling teams refuel tanks. How many of those do you think there’d be? How many of those do you think command would be willing to waste on tanks that were clearly basically of no use to them now? The army isn’t exactly a loving mother unless you’re an extremely competent and at the time useful son/daughter. Regardless of their culpability in your current situation and fighting ability.
There’s no such thing as zombies.
That’s more or less what I thought - You guys are writing hundreds of words criticising the accuracy of a *zombie *movie?
To load the .50 cal you have to open the hatch and load it by hand. In fact only the older models had the remote firing from the inside of the turret with the 100 rounds loaded at a time. So that’s out. So is the loader’s machine gun. You have to be totally exposed to fire it. As for the coax, it would be ineffective because anything but headshots would be useless. The coax is hardly a sniper weapon. So out of all those rounds of 7.62 most would be wasted. The main gun ammo more so.
If the tank is immobilized and in a sea of zombies, starvation and dehydration. Sure you can bring food and water if you were planning on that. Stored in the bustle rack on the outside.
Of course not. We are talking about the book.
If the tank’s sighting system can hit another tank more than a mile away, I think it can make a headshot at 50 or 100 yards with no trouble.
The M240 used for the coax is an area effect weapon. You point at the area of the crunchies and move it back and forth. If you have never actually done this GQ isn’t really the place to tell us your guesses. I have. It is not a precision weapon like the main gun.
We’re talking about zombies now, so I think we already left GQ territory.
Why is it only an “area effect weapon” and not accurate? Any decent rifle is accurate enough to make a headshot at 100 yards. Is the machine-gun inherently much less accurate than that? Or is it not firmly mounted so that it stays in alignment with the sighting system?
Immobilized by what? Zombies don’t have RPGs.
Max Brooks seemed to think artillery and bombs would be ineffective against zombies because you need a head shot. I would think a head shot isn’t necessary if the shockwave and shrapnel separates the head and then obliterates the body the head was attached to.
Plus zombies are basically humans. How many humans can a 60 ton tank roll over? I think the answer is all of them, until it runs out of fuel.
I mean you don’t even really need the army to counter a zombie invasion. Just use the same front end loaders, snowplows and dump trucks you would use for snow removal.
World War Z actually had the best idea at the end of the film where they used loudspeakers to lure a hoard of zombies into a stadium and then blew it up with a giant bomb. Although why they had to use a stadium instead of an empty field didn’t make sense.
Of course, we have the luxury of living in a world with zombie lore, whereas most characters in a zombie film don’t.
A machinegun is pretty accurate out to a couple hundred yards. They have a lot of recoil though, so unless it’s mounted each subsequent shot will be less accurate.
We are using zombies as a way to talk about the capabilities of tanks so I think we are still in GQ territory.
Any open bolt weapon is not going to be as accurate as a closed bolt rifle. Its not designed to be. It’s also only full auto. So you will be wasting a lot of ammo on every single Zeke you happen to get a head shot on.
Someone upthread mentioned that going around running over bodies is a good way of throwing track. And I agree. Unless its open terrain your chances of throwing track are pretty good. And you will only be taking out those that you happen to run over with the track. The others will just go under and pop out the other side. So one tank might take out hundreds. Or even thousands. Can it take out millions?
In the book they were up against a hoard. Possibly a group of millions of zombies. How long before a tank runs out of fuel at 6 gallons per mile? Or has other maintenance problems? Even if you get a head shot with every single round of coax how long before you run out? Will it even make a difference when you are up against a hoard the size of the population of the NYC metro area? That was the point Brooks made and made it well. The equipment and tactics the military used were not effective against a horde of millions that just kept coming. Its been a while since I read the book but I remember that when they turned the tide they changed up tactics. Bite resistant armor head to toe. Much lighter than current issue designed for projectiles. New weapons designed for headshots, light weight small caliber able to carry a lot of ammo. A specifically design vehicle like a plow would work much better than a tank. More maneuverable. Much better visibility. With a tank buttoned up you often have to use the force and hope you don’t run into anything important or roll off a cliff. But you still need infantry to get into those places a vehicle can’t. Because if you leave one behind you, you have lost.
Really? Because to me it seems like for a 60 ton tank, rolling over human bodies is about as likely to throw a track as rolling over a beer can. But I’m not an expert on tanks.
I assumed more than one tank as well.
I’m wondering why no one ever came up with a real-time strategy zombie game to test these theories.
One body? No problem. Thousands? Could be a problem. Especially with the turning and pivoting I would imagine would be needed.
There is simply a lot of terrain that a tank can not travel on. That is the main limiting factor.
IME, water and vertical surfaces are about the limit. Oh, and snow on pavement. Smashes it right down to ice and your tank becomes like an ice cube on a linoleum floor. Very bad.
Other than that, mobility is key. Turning (esp. pivot or neutral turns) could be problematic. Normal turns wouldn’t be an issue. Work the mobs of zombies (are we talking actual undead, here, or “Rage”-infected humans type zombies?) like a farmer mowing a field. Lead them away from your “safe zones,” circle around and do 'em again and again.
The real limiting factor is that 6 gallons per mile.
Well, and however many of these rounds they have. (Video of the rounds Gunslinger linked to.)
I don’t see it really making that much difference between rage type, really fast or regular undead. They are limited to human speed and strength and the military can kill them in masses. I can’t see it being much of a contest. The standard fare of ordinary citizens up against them give it more of a fair contest.