GURPS: Getting Run Over by a Tank

[Ashtagon]

Anecdotal second-hand story time...

My dad used to be in a tank regiment. He tells me of a time when a convoy of tanks was travelling on an autobahn in Germany at high speed. Civilian traffic was understandably stopped for the convoy. Someone apparently decided to try driving his car through the convoy between two tanks. The convoy didn't slow down, and his car (and him) were reduced to a fairly thin layer (for an ex-car) on the road.

[thrash]

On the other hand, my unit in Germany had an aviation warrant officer (former enlisted soldier) whose nickname was "Chock-Block," both for his somewhat ample physique and for the fact that he'd once been run over by a track. It apparently happened on muddy ground, but he said that he was essentially unharmed -- just pushed into the mud. Not something I'd want to bet my life on, but not a sure-kill, either.

Note that incidents like this that don't result in injuries or property damage were not reportable through the safety system at the time, so we wouldn't necessarily know how common they are.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

...of course there are also the ground conditions. If you're on concrete, you're taking everything the tank can give, whereas on soft mud, a suitably resilient character might be pressed down into it.


(SNIP)

I actually know a guy who saw this happen.

He served with a signal intelligence unit based in Fort Bragg, attached to the 82nd Airborne.

In addition to the Spanish language radio interception work he did, he'd been cross-trained as a medic. So, when the base had a large exercise, he got put on medical duty.

During one particular exercise, things went more pear-shaped than usual. It had rained for several days before the everything took place, and field where the airborne units were supposed to drop had turned into a lake of knee-deep mud.

So, the way it was supposed to work (I guess...) was that the paratroopers and light armor would drop together and then move out.

Well, they dropped together, alright, but the "moving out" part didn't go so well. A lot of the troopers and vehicles hit the muddy field and just sank into it.

However, the tanks actually did okay. The treads spread the weight out enough that they could make progress -- albeit slow and they kicked up a bunch of thick mud as they went.

Well, this one trooper landed just in front of a tank that was moving along pretty well, sank into his knees in mud, and then fell over backwards in front of it. The medics (including my friend) watched in horror as the tank promptly ran right over him.

So, they got in their APC and roared over. They found the guy with his face barely above the mud, and a the marks from the tank tracks in the mud right over where his chest would be.

As they pulled up, every medic started to yell, "Don't you move! Don't you f***in' move!" However, the trooper kept saying he thought he was okay.

The medics weren't having any of that. They got out a back-board, slid it down in the mud underneath him, lifted it up gently, then mummy-taped him down.

Four of them then lifted him up on a stretcher, put him in the APC, and then hauled ass back to the base hospital.

Once there, the doctors found some good-sized contusions across his ribs, but no broken bones and no spinal damage. The mud had been so soft that the tank smooshed him down into it as it rolled over him, and caused practically no harm.

His unit decided he was the luckiest paratrooper ever born.

Edit after thrash's comment: Makes me wonder if it was the same guy. :)

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Treads aren't flat, so things they flatten get tread patterns on them.

Anything that sticks up from the surface will take a larger amount of pressure than just a random spot on the ground. It will be crushed or driven into the ground until the pressure is relieved enough that it can hold. That's why you want to be on mud, the ground is the weak point.

Originally Posted by ColBosch

First, I've seen an accident involving one M1A1 Abrams slamming into another. ... An unprotected human struck by that much force absolutely would've been killed.

One thing that sometimes surprises people not familiar with them: modern MBTs - especially the Abrams - are fast.

[Ashtagon]

The soft ground (especially mud-soft) thing with people sinking in is very believable. MBTs have a ground pressure per square inch that is about a tenth of an adult standing on the ground, and also significantly less than that of a typical private car. As long as the ground is soft enough that whatever is on the ground can be pushed into the ground, it's unlikely to do serious harm. However, if the ground can resist such a "puncture wound", then the person doing the "puncturing" will be crushed instead, as the full weight of the tank will be on them.

[thrash]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Edit after thrash's comment: Makes me wonder if it was the same guy. :)

Doubtful. He was definitely not airborne, and would probably have joked about having to be palletized if someone wanted him to jump. Gifted aircraft mechanic, though -- got his maintenance test pilot certification by passing the final check ride, without ever taking the course.

[smurf]

Originally Posted by Andrew Hackard

"You are dead."

Originally Posted by Kromm

GURPS Action 5: Dictionary of Danger, p. 36 has you covered:
...

That's the action-movie-optimistic version, of course . . . if you think there's anything optimistic about possibly surviving if you make a bunch of HT rolls. If you're just smashed into by the tank and chewed up in its wake, use ramming damage, which those rules give as around 18d for tanks. Then you eat 63 crushing, which just kills the average human outright, no saving throw.

The exceptions to the rule if only anecdotal still do not beat the answers like these.

From the Beast of War rolling over a prisoner to the Buffalo Soldiers "we crushed a bug". May watch the latter some time soon.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

Anecdotal second-hand story time...

My dad used to be in a tank regiment. He tells me of a time when a convoy of tanks was travelling on an autobahn in Germany at high speed. Civilian traffic was understandably stopped for the convoy. Someone apparently decided to try driving his car through the convoy between two tanks. The convoy didn't slow down, and his car (and him) were reduced to a fairly thin layer (for an ex-car) on the road.

My father was in an AFV recovery and maintenance unit in the Army of the Rhine back when - well, Centurion was actually a tank not a rank, but it was a long time ago.
Two of his more "interesting" callouts were to:
1) a motorcyclist who rode at high speed into the front of an MBT late at night. The MPs ... and possibly the Orpo, who knows ... eventually decided that the biker had spotted two oncoming lights, assumed that, being too far apart to be a car and too low for an HGV must be a couple of other motorcyclists and decided to do a high speed buzz between them...
2) a civilian car that had been parked in a layby on a road across the training area - a Conqueror had rolled through a hedge without noticing it and flatpacked it. Thankfully it turned out that the car was empty...

In neither case was the tank even slightly damaged so I'm not sure why they needed a reccemech team ... maybe it was precautionary thing?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Anything that sticks up from the surface will take a larger amount of pressure than just a random spot on the ground.

Worst case, it takes the entire weight supported by that section of the suspension, which is unlikely to be more than a quarter the weight of the tank. Which is plenty to flatten a normal human, mind you.

[Rupert]

Assuming that the weight of the tank is fairly evenly spread over its road wheels, as most modern tanks have around 5-7 wheels per side, the weight a bump might experience could be as little as 10th of the total weight. So 'only' 4-6 tons.

I'd just use the collision and trampling rules, even if they're not perfectly accurate, for ease and consistency.