Tank Chats #108 | M48 | The Tank Museum

I served 15 months on the dmz in Vietnam on the M48. The tank was amazingly reliable and could go anywhere. The NVA really hated it as they destroyed two of my tanks. "love juice" was hit by an rpg at Lang Vei west of Khe Sanh on the Laotian border, she burned and exploded ammo for hours. "cheap thrills" was my new tank, Near Con Thien we hit a 250 pound B52 bomb rigged as a mine. The tank was destroyed and all crew medivaced, all survived. As for the M2 50 cal, they were never mounted in the cupela as they were were hard to reload in there. All were tripod mounted on top for range of fire and ease of reload. I have many pictures of my tour and destroyed M48s, they took a lot of them out. I loved the M48 and it saved my life many times. A GREAT TANK!

“Come take a look when all this other fuss is over”... David Fletcher, you are a treasure.

"When all this fuss is over." Well put Mr Fletcher.

“You could even fire the 50 cal from inside the tank. Probably not terribly accurately, but enough to make a noise and frighten people away.” - Lord Chandler, Duke of Bovington

"A 50-cal adds class to any vehicle." - The Chieftain.

This legend doesn't get enough credit in the public square...I'm of course talking about both Sir Fletcher and the M48 Patton.

Is David feeling well? I don't recall him talking about anything negative.

Fun fact: According to the official color US Army documentary, “Patton”, both the American and German armored forces used the m48 tank at the 1943 Battle of El Guettar.

I spent years in an M48 A5 drove like a sports car. Dual machine guns for the Loader and the TC. No .50. And the Israeli hatch for the Commander. Great platform. The M68 105was a great gun as well. Coincidence range finder was easy to yes and accurate. The ends are ears. Every M48 I was in had an electro mechanical computer that input the correct super elevation for the range and round. As you dial in the range it whirred and the tube ratcheted up. For the time it was a very good system. That tracks are live and very quiet

Who doesn’t like a mounted 50? Put it on a pickup, fishing boat, tractor, train, plane, fan boat, donkey wagon doesn’t matter. Everything’s better with a Deucey.

"The muzzle brake is the T shaped thingy at the end". Another great Fletcherism. :-)))

Let me enjoy this moment in my 3 decades of life on this Earth and post the first comment under a David Fletcher video.

30 some years ago, when I was learning to drive tanks as a civilian contractor, myself and a couple of colleagues were shown around the Bovvy museum by Mr Fletcher. What a day that was, what a raconteur

Served on an M48 for 6 years. Thank You for this!

I was south korea marine tanker and I 've ride M48A5K at army armored school (Korean modified version with KM68 105MM gun + Crosswind sensor , laser rangefinder to Fire control module + Enhanced smoke granade luncher + M1 cupola that i like!) and I lovin it cuz it has a larger space than K1 tank , and It's small cute turret above main turret lol :) My girl was K1 tank but I've heard M48 crew are pretty easy cuz she can't do moving shot precisely so crew have to stop tank when they fire and M48A3K(Also Korean modified version with 90MM M36,M41,M41E1 gun + Crosswind sensor , laser rangefinder to Fire control module) s 90mm ammo are lighter than 105,120MM so loader always smile lol ... And I've heard ' some legend ' from senior crew that when he was riding M48A3K at island somewhere in korea (can't mention) and he faced very long scarp road and he's driver push to the limit M48A3K and he said to driver " hey , how fast now? tell me the speed! " and driver said, " Its almost 100km I think! " (believe or not...) And there was joint operation with USMC and he was passing by USMC officer group and many of them raise their thumbs up cuz our endless oldman abusing lol 90mm gun M48A3K were serviced in ROKMC but they replaced by K1E1 tank sadly K1A2 / K1E1 / K2 are gradually replacing M48 nationally in korea now cuz costeffectiveness :( north korea still use T-34,54,55,62/TYPE - 59 so There's noting we can't do! In my opinion, Instead retire this reliable old man, we have to swap this oldman's AVDS 1790 power pack to K1,2'S 1200 ~1500 HP power pack + Tusk(Tank Urban Survivability Kit)+ 20mm M61 vulcan and use this as a 20mm infantry assistant land vulcan platform in case when Allied forces facing chinese troop seriously :)

6:40 I never seen a soldier so happy with the Ma Duce.............

One of my favorite tanks, presented by David Fletcher himself!

“ when all this other fuss is over “ , definitely Mr Fletcher , just try keeping us away . So great to see you ( and the M48)!

As an engineer, I'm so impressed by that 0:42 casting, especially getting the turret ring to come out un-warped. Especially as this is essentially mass-produced (>12,000 made) part, before computerised temperature control through casting and cooling was really possible.

Love David’s snappy summary of Covid-19 “all this other fuss” 😀