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...but not lethal (to judge by subsequent reactions and eventual emergence and actions of second crewmember). Nonetheless, it sure looks to have been alarming:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6Ra8JcY7k8

(The gun doesn't seem to recoil, so I gather this was some sort of re-enactment for the crowd and therefore a simulator charge?)

Back in the early seventies when I was a gunner on a chieftain on the ranges we were firing away when the loader said that the bag charge was damp at the end.. I told him to put it in back to front and carry on.

This he did but what he hadn't realised was that it was damp all the way through. When I fired the main armament there was the popping sound of the vent tube and then a loud whistling... I turned and looked and there was a large amount of propellant gas venting from the breech ( the bag charge was just burning rather that igniting).

At this point I noticed that I was the only one in the turret so I made a quick exit on to the top of the turret and watched my commander & loader beating a hasty retreat back to the firing point.

It must have burnt for about five minutes, the mess was indescribable and it took us ages to remove the HESH round from the breech. Held up firing for about two hours.

On another occasion the Sqn Ldr decided to have a shoot and his loader managed to trap the bag charge between the breech ring and block (very hard to actually do). When the gun was fired the turret roof was quite badly burnt and the round actually only managed to travel about 500m. They were lucky enough to emerge unscathed.

Don't ya love "Dog & Pony" shows, Back in 1970 we put on one at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho, we rumbled out in a "Zippo" (M67 flame tank) along with two M48A3 gun tanks, the mix in the fuel tank (napalm) had sat over night and and was perfect for a shoot. The gun tank fired they'er blanks and the crowd OOWWWed and then we in the "Zippo" (I was the gunner..I loved shooting a Zippo) drove out next to the service road which ran along one of the runways, the first rod (thats Zippo talk for a hot fuel shot) was solid right to the junked car target, and the crowd went wilded, the next shot some of the fuel bounced off the car (that mix was good and thick) and landed on the service road..you ever seen asphalt burn, by this time the Air Force was not to happy with us but the crowd going nuts. I still had another 20 sec or so left to shoot and let the rest of the load go in nice long shot and the Air Force went ballistic..it was a hell of a fire..but fun.
We put the show on aSat. and when it was over we parked the tanks and locked them down till the following Mon. morning, we would drive the vehicle some 60 miles back to Boise across the desert, there would be a crowd of Air Force types waiting for us (Capt, Majors, light and full Cols) All wanting a ride on the tanks..who were offering in turn flights on their aircraft and thats how I got to fly in B 52Gs, F111, and a duel place F102.

- oldertop

Don't ya love "Dog & Pony" shows

Sometimes, they go a lot worse...they used to do a "firepower" demo for the soon-to-graduate class of the USMA at Knox trying to lure them into branch. At one of these when I was there, they demo'd an M-72 LAW which blew in the tube, killing the Lt. next to the NCO that fired it and taking off the NCO's arm. I'm sure the West Point class in the bleachers was duly impressed.

- Doug_Kibbey

...but not lethal (to judge by subsequent reactions and eventual emergence and actions of second crewmember). Nonetheless, it sure looks to have been alarming:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6Ra8JcY7k8

(The gun doesn't seem to recoil, so I gather this was some sort of re-enactment for the crowd and therefore a simulator charge?)

Yup, seen something similar before. Back in the late 1980's at the Duxford MV show we used do some Pyro and effects to please the crowd. One year in particular it was decided that we would fire a simulated round from the Conquerer (black powder in the barrel) during a "battle scene". Trouble is nobody realised that the shell case acted as a seal in the breach, so turret crew got burns and temporarily deafened (Bob Fleming and hs wife were in the turret for the ride, thats how his ear drum got perforated)!

David

Smoke escaped from that T72 from the muzzle, the two hatches and from the turret ring. Makes you wonder just how well sealed for CBRN that vehicle really was. (CBRN the new acronym for NBCD or NDBW as you prefer.)

- Maple_Leaf_Eh

Smoke escaped from that T72 from the muzzle, the two hatches and from the turret ring. Makes you wonder just how well sealed for CBRN that vehicle really was. (CBRN the new acronym for NBCD or NDBW as you prefer.)

I would be more concerened if it drew the smoke in! I should think its an "over-pressure" system.

David

I think it happened during "Closing day" or better to say "Tank Day 2006" of Technical museum Lešany, the Czech Republic. The crew of this T-72 consisted of "Active Reserve" guys and the comments of TG were unprintable...
They used some pyro/imitation charge and there was a "backflash" into the turret (gun breech is not completely closed when gun is fired). My experience is - it is not wise to do such stupid things like firing illumination flare through open breech...

Certainly NBC system fills the interior of tank with cleaned air so it is overpressurised (as said before).
What more to say - the guys inside did not expect such SMELLY and HOT SMOKE EFFECT inside the vehicle and they kept hatches not locked completely - may be that caused the effect of blast so harmful to TG.