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"The Beast" Eats Direct Hit from Islamic State RPG Gunner
Published 2 years ago
An Islamic State RPG Gunner scores a direct hit on a lone Iraqi Abrams during the 2016 Battle for Mosul. The RPG hit impacts with the vehicle's tracks, which you think would disable the vehicle.
Unfortunately for the Islamic State fighters in this video, they just shot The Beast.
For those of you out of the loop, the Iraqi Army utilized three M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks during the Battle for Mosul. Two of those tanks broke down before the operation kicked off, leaving just one M1A1 Abrams for the Iraqi Army to conduct their assault into Mosul with. Most tank crews would probably sit the fight out if they were tasked with operating in a highly urban environment entirely independent of any supporting tank. The crew of this M1A1 Abrams however did not sit out.Instead, these brave Iraqi bastards rolled straight into Mosul, moving from gunfight to gunfight to support Iraq and Kurdish forces along multiple lines of advance throughout the city. This same Abrams can also be seen in the infamous video where the Free Burma Rangers rescued the little girl from the pile of dead civilians, causing one of them to be shot through the leg in the process. In fact, any video throughout the Battle of Mosul where you see a lone Iraqi Abrams in action, it's these guys.
While the tank itself has become the stuff of legends in the Iraqi Army, most people from outside of their circle don't know that it was just one tank crew. During the battle, U.S. SOF teams who were supporting Iraqi Operations thought that the Iraqi Army had multiple tank platoons in the city supporting the advance of Iraqi and Kurdish infantry troops. It wasn't until the conclusion of the battle that the SOF teams realized they were being supported by a lone Abrams tank with an insane crew of Iraqi Soldiers who credited their skill to western training.
We can't hear it from the Islamic State perspective, but inside of the tank I bet all you can hear is the tank commander shouting "Traverse left." in Arabic. Wrong tank Abu Hajaar.
