Combat Bulldozers: The Most Formidable Beasts on the Battlefield

if there's anywhere in the world that's a bad place to be it's probably in the middle of a war zone don't let the movies the novels or the fortnite map for you a battlefield is a terrible place to be and on the battlefields of modern war there are an abundance of reasons why you definitely do not want to be there war planes and helicopters streak overhead coming and going with no way to predict them or stop them in the chaos of battle tanks and heavily armored gun trucks roll through the streets blasts ringing out in all directions and every person you see is armed to the teeth and trained to achieve victory even at tremendous cost but even among the pandemonium and the Panic of a modern Battlefield there is one terrifying sight that looms Above All Else a beast so heavily armored so utterly undaunted by the battle around it that it is the Unstoppable Force against which no object is immovable this is the combat bulldozer and it stands among the toughest war machines ever [Music] created [Music] now it may not be the most glamorous job in a modern military but there are few roles more critical to military success both on the large and small scale than the combat engineer if an army's war machines are going to thunder their way towards City or Countryside if an Air Force's planes are going to be of any use on the front lines and if infantry are going to survive on mass while making their way through enemy territory it is the combat engineer who is going to make it all happen every time an army needs to cross a river or natural barrier every time the enemy has left a mfield behind every time tanks and other heavy Vehicles need to travel off the best kept roads and every time somebody's got to punch through a roadblock the combat engineers are called in to do their job they're one of the lynchpin groups that allow a modern military to function and without them both individual battlefields and entire War efforts would become far tougher or even possible to navigate but the mere fact that a combat engineer's role isn't to capture targets or eliminate enemy troops doesn't mean that it isn't a dangerous job in fact it's often the job of a combat engineer to do their work either in the periphery of an ongoing battle or even in the worst of the violence unlike an ordinary Soldier combat engineers don't have the luxury of focusing on the threat of an enemy when it matters most instead they've got to think clearly and tackle the critical often complex problems in front of them without which a larger combat operation might be frozen in Place indefinitely men let me ask you something say you're on your way to a date you're fresh out of the show you style your hair if you have it you make yourself smell good you do everything you can to make yourself look good what's the number one thing that everyone is going to be looking at including the lucky lass or lad that you're going to be meeting up with the answer is simple it's your face isn't it you want to 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their low Sensers of gravity their low speed their heavy duty Force bearing components and their use of continuous track Treads instead of Wheels even the bulldozers that you'd find on a construction site can take some serious damage take one of those machines bolt onto it as much heavy armor as you can while still allowing it to drive and replace its standard bulldozer Blade with a slab of metal that's thicker than your average person is wide and you've now built a terrifying monolith of a device that could probably get an an entire bomb dropped on top of it and still come out without a scratch and a combat bulldozer is fit for a lot more than just simple demolition work it can push through soil and rock in order to carve paths for tanks and infantry Vehicles it can dig trenches or create defensive burms of sand or dirt and it's heavy and strong enough to rescue some pretty massive vehicles from being stuck or overturned if you need a Minefield cleared and don't have the time to wait Drive the combat bulldozer through it and watch the fireworks if you come across an improvised explosive device try hitting it with a bulldozzer and see what happens at the expense of one mly concussed but explosives friendly combat engineer who probably having the time of his or her life well you've no longer got a problem you've got the memory of an enemy's Force's best attempt to stop you and you've got a bloody massive bulldozer slightly dented definitely smoking yet still pushing its way onward [Music] underd the first combat bulldozers to who ever see a battlefield were brought to the front lines of World War II by the British in preparation for the Allied Advance across Western Europe one of a series of specially made armored vehicles collectively known as hobart's funnies alongside things like flail tanks armored ramp carriers and Spotlight tanks these early armored bulldozers were adapted from the same civilian technology that's going to sh up again and again throughout today's video specifically bulldozers made by the caterpillar company known as the D7 series The bulldozers Britain chose for the task are still in use today albe it's in far more modern versions regardless of when they were built throughout history d7s tend to have roughly the same dimensions about 4 M long and with a square front-facing profile about 2 and 1/2 M wide by 2 and 1/2 M tall they also happen to be very very heavy with modern models hitting a weight of about 14,500 kg that's £ 32,000 or about 16 tons other models like the ones the UK adapted for combat uses were a bit longer and they sat closer to 11,000 kg or £4,000 the D7 bulldozers were taken and prepared for war in the months prior to the D-Day Landings after a prior Allied raid on the German occupied Port of D had proven unsuccessful when the D-Day operations finally kicked off Britain's armored bulldozers proved more than capable of Smashing through anything the Germans had put on or around the beaches and they were instrumental in preparing the area immediately around the French Coast for an assault Inland they filled in bomb craters on the roads pushed through wreckage and with a backbone of the effort to transform Normandy into a staging area for a far larger Landing of troops and Equipment unfortunately the d7s were unable to join in the rest of the advance ultimately proving too slow to keep up ler generations of armies would solve that issue by transporting their bulldozers on heavy flatbed trucks and other quick movers but in World War II the British already had another solution ready to go its name was the Centaur and like the other British war machines of that same name it was a tank but in this case it was a tank that had its turret removed and its front end equipped with a heavy bulldozer blade equipped with pneumatic I systems to raise and position the blade and capable of traveling just as fast as any other centor tank in the British Arsenal these bulldozers turned out to be far more capable of keeping up with the rest of the Allied advance and they would help seed the British all the way into Germany itself those same tanks would remain in service through the Korean war in the following decades most of the world's major military Powers would ensure that their comat Engineers had equipment of this type at their disposal the United States utilized the m728 combat engineer vehicle starting in 1965 with a toal of 312 built equipped with a hydraulic bulldozer blade as well as a winch and a retractable crane the m728 was the United States's goto combat bulldozer of the Vietnam era and all the way through to the Gulf War it traveled alongside A specialized mine plow for mine clearing operations and it featured an onboard demolition gun that could demolish barriers Bring Down the Walls of buildings blow through concrete and obliterate field obstructions often working in tandem with the bulldozer blade to dismantle inconvenient barriers in record time also on board were two machine guns for the M7 28's own defense it finished its service life in 2000 as it was unable to keep up with the topof the line Abrams main battle tanks over in the Soviet Union it wasn't until 1982 that the first real Combat engineering vehicle hit the front lines known as the IMR 2 it was made out of a repurposed tank hole and with well over 600 of them produced they made their way across the Soviet Union and all its battlefields at home and abroad it was used to great effect during the Soviet war in Afghanistan and both the first and second chrum Wars using a t72 main battle tank chassis the IMR 2 replaced a far less widespread combat bulldozzer the original IMR the second generation Dozer proved to be capable and versatile in combat situations and it still serves with the Russian military today including in Frontline roles during Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine however several dozen IM mr2s have also been left behind by Russian forces at various moments in the conflict and Ukraine has quite happily taken the gift turning them around and putting them right back to work against their former owners those join the wealth of IMR 2s that Ukraine already had on its Arsenal prior to the war because you know post Soviet Nations fighting Wars with post Soviet military arsenals in the uned Kingdom it's the fb80 combat engineer tractor that's taken the place of hobart's funnies of old a versatile and modular machine the fv1 180 is able to do a lot more than just combat bulldozer work but insulated under Honeycombs aluminium alloy and carrying a large front bucket that could be switched out for other tools it's more than capable of filling the war bulldozer role the fv10 is unarmed but it's able to survive the vast majority of what an enemy ground force can throw at it and it's equipped to handle nuclear biological and chemical attacks it's currently in the employ of India and Ukraine while in the UK it's since been replaced by an even bigger and bad cousin the terrier armor Digger which are 60 terriers in existence it's a far less widespread tool but it's faster more heavily armored and far heavier than the combat engineered tractor and it's even got 36 KN degree Vision on board but believe it or not militaries aren't the only people to have constructed combat ready bulldozers so and at this point we've got to talk about the kild Dozer a modified kamatsu construction bulls oer that just happened to end up in the hands of one Marvin heire of grany Colorado Marvin he was a lot of things but suffice to say mentally well was not on that list after years spent building a long list of grievances against public officials local press and other citizens of his little town of Grandy hear sought out an exceptionally violent revenge in one of the most unique plots ever after acquiring his bulldozer of choice for a total price of $16,000 at auction trying to sell the thing and failing to do so am it's broader Financial ruin that brought upon himself by trying to sue his town HEI believed that it received a sign from God to start a mission of Retribution how he chose to enact that retribution was by modifying the living hell out of the bulldozer in his closed down Muffler sharp over the course of a year and a half's work he covered it in makeshift armor plating across the cabin engines and parts of the tracks using not just half inch thick sheets of Steel but layers of concrete that were up to a full 1T thick and fitted with several video cameras encased in 3-in thick bulletproof polycarbonate so that he could see what was happening outside while driving completely insulated inside his composite armor cage he added three gunports fitted with the weapons he wanted to use filled it with enough food and water to last a week fitted it with an air conditioning unit named it Marv's catsu tank and spent well over a year openly telling his friends and Associates that he was going to use his bulldozer tank to hurt people in down that apparently set off zero alarm Bells until the so-called kildo a rampage in which hear used his tank to attack just about the entire town nobody was killed in the incident but it did feature several employees of a concrete plant trying to wedge items under its Treads one of HEI arch nemesis is attempting to duel with the thing while riding his own front end loader a state patrol Trooper climbing on top of the kildo and riding it like a bull while attempting to shoot inside it and Legions of police officers jogging next to the bulldozer as it continued to Rampage through the town all this while hear continued to devastate gramby at a speed of 5 mph with the tank absorbing upward of 200 rounds of Amun munition and three external explosions with no visible indicator of damage although the governor of Colorado was forced to consider whether to authorize the National Guard to destroy the thing using a hell far missile and an Apache attack helicopter the incident ended a full 2 hours after it began when heire encountered issues inside the bulldozer and chose to take his own life no fewer than two films have been made as a result of the incident and thankfully no copy attacks have ever been pulled off but even in comparison to historical and modern military combat bulldozers he's creation proved incred resilient to destruction and more than able to fulfill what a military bulldozer would consider its Mission role when it comes to combat bulldozers of the 21st century none around the world have gained quite as much notoriety as those of the nation of Israel there the bulldozer of choice is the caterpillar D9 a commercially available model that Israel modifies heavily in order to make it survive a combat environment although the specifics on any given bulldozer will vary they generally weigh in at around 55 tons or so with the potential to tow of full 70 tons if needed crewed by two operators Israel's d9s are equipped with a heavily armored cabin featuring glass made to protect not just against rifle bullets but bomb explosions and high powerered guns a cage of slat armor around the bulldozer serves to deflect rocket propeled grenades and it can come complete with grenade launchers or machine guns for either offense or defense they're functionally impervious to landmines and they're among the Israeli defense forces's primary instruments to enforce Israel will in the West Bank as well as serving as a crucial part of the idf's war fighting capabilities in recent months the D9 fleet has seen heavy service during the Israel Hamas War but their history goes back much further they've been used to clear explosives and build Israeli fortification since the 1980s in both the West Bank and the smaller Enclave of Gaza as well as in Northern goolan Heights they're generally Tough Enough To Survive anything that Palestinian militants could launch throw or fire at them and they've been employed offensively to raise houses to the grounds where armed Palestinians have attempted to withstand sieges or use hostages in the past typically the use of d9s in these scenarios will lead to a quick Surrender by militants rightfully worried that they'll be buried alive they've earned criticism across the world for their use in raising civilian homes and other structures both in retaliation for suicide attacks and as part of efforts to demolish entire villages in the West Bank during the Israel Hamas War they've been used to expose Hamas tunnels destroy barricades and defenses put up by Hamas to prepare for urban combat and Destroy physical infrastructure during offensive operations against what the IDF claims areass targets including hospitals outside of Israel the vast majority of combat bulldozers today are the multi-purpose modular designs that have been popular for decades using the chassis of a tank and a formidable bulldozer blade alongside other engineering tools in the UK the most impressive in the Arsenal is the Trojan armored engineer vehicle or AV made by ba systems based on a challenger 2 tank chassis the Trojan uses a powerful wedge plow to clear mines on mass and it can tow and launch a rocket propelled hose called the python across a Minefield the python is packed full of explosives and it detonates once it hits the ground clearing the mines in front of it for several hundred meters in a path wide enough for most vehicles to travel at least two ab breast crewed by three and armed with a remote controlled machine gun the troan has proven its efficacy in Afghanistan although with just 33 in existence it's a rare sight across Global battlefields as for the US the Army's current combat bulldozer of choice is the M9 armored combat earth mover or AC oh with a weight of just over 24 metric sitting at just past 6 M and a width of just past three the AC is operated by a single driver and is unarmed although the full nature of its armor plating is not known to the public it's known to be resistant to shrapnel and nearly impervious to Small Arms fire it's equipped with smoke discharges it can travel at up to 30 miles or 48 km an hour and it's protected against weapons of mass destruction 447 of the machines are in use by the US Army and they operate in companies of seven machines each traveling alongside American soldiers in all manner of hostile environments AC Earth movers plowed through through both mines and Iraqi Defenders alike during Operation Desert Storm bulldozing an elaborate trench system that was meant to be Saddam Hussein's first line of defense and burying Untold numbers of Iraqi soldiers alive with zero American casualties also in America's Arsenal is the m150 based on the M1 abr's tag chassis it was used by the US Marines from 2009 to 2023 and is still in use by the Army today although it's far more common for m clearing operations than combat bulldozing on top of all that the US military also employs more traditional heavily armored military ad ations of Civilian bulldozers filling the Army's ranks with the caterpillar d7r while the Marines tend to prefer the John Deere 850 with that 850 we presume standing for you can throw 850 mines at this thing and it'll just keep on going when ending into active combat these bulldozers are typically modified to have smaller bulletproof windows and they're surrounded by cages to keep shrapnel and grenades from impacting the cab directly combat bulldozers ented up on both sides of the international war against the Islamic State dur in the 2010s on the Coalition side the Iraqi Army used on mass in order to take back the city of mosul with over aund of the beasts in Iraq's Arsenal by that time these bulldozers were the tip of the spear in a massive offensive and while The Operators inside were critical in plowing through Isis held positions all across the city they were also Sitting Ducks because of a relative lack of insulation compared to some of the world's hardiest models on the other side of the war the Islamic State brought its own armored bulldozers to Bear modifying captured civilian dozers with thick armor plating and slat armor that made them resilient to Rocket Propel grenades with the Islamic State's willingness to launch suicide attacks and the potential for a bulldozer to both carry several tons of explosives and produce a truly mindblowing amount of shrapnel upon detonation they were a weapon of choice for the Islamic State to wipe out large buildings and launch other devastating attacks finally the rise of autonomous War fighting Vehicles has raised one more possibility for the militaries of the world remote control bulldozers and potentially even bulldozer drones that can operate on their own the US military has been experimenting with this sort of technology for years testing the concept with hopes that bulldozer operators aren't put into the line of fire directly many of Israel's d9s can be remotely operated clearing explosive charges that are too large to justify letting a man's bulldozer attempt to detonate them China claims to have built a fully autonomous bulldozer while that may have military applications of its own hypothetically speaking a drone bulldozer could be capable of even more breathtaking Feats than modern bulldozers already are driving headlong into the most dangerous situations with no fear of harm to a human operator that concern eliminated a combat Dozer is left in a straight contest between what its armor can handle and what its enemy can throw at it and that sort of battle is one that will almost always swing in the bulldozer favor just before we end today's video don't forget to check out te Hanley by clicking the link in the description below for that exclusive offer your skin will thank you and thank you for watching

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 224,362

Keywords: moments in battle, history shows, armored attack, weapons at war artillery, military heroes

Id: a5QpcinBFvs

Length: 20min 1sec (1201 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 28 2024