The American M1A1 "Abrams" main battle tank is a big loss on the battlefield in Ukraine this time!
Since arriving in Ukraine in October last year, this tank has not only not been built for more than half a year, but also lost 6 of its own; One of the most humiliating was in March, when an "Abrams" was sent away by a Russian T-72B3, although the Ukrainian M1A1 tank is a "castrated" product, but it has never been taken away by its old opponent who has suppressed it for many years in the past few decades.
Some defeats on the battlefield are still understandable, after all, this war can be said to be the last time that the "king of land warfare" will stand on the platform as the "protagonist", and it is estimated that the next large-scale tank cluster will withdraw from the stage of history; No matter whether you are ranked No. 1 in the world or from a famous family, you will not be able to escape the fate of being destroyed, and this is the case with Germany's "Leopard 2" and the British "Challenger", so the American "Abrams" can only accept this fate.
But now Russia is "playing" a little bit of a flower, or "killing people"! Not to mention the "Abrams" main battle tanks, they also took great pains to drag back these tanks that had become scrap metal, and then transported them to Moscow for the world to see; The United States has had a "dream" for so many years, that is, to drive its own tanks into Moscow, and this time they can be regarded as "wishing", but their identity has changed, they are not "invaders", but "prisoners of war".
What is even more ironic is the operation of the Russian exhibition staff, who have given priority to the embassy personnel of the United States, Britain, Germany, France and other countries in Russia, as long as the diplomatic employees from these countries do not have to queue up and can enter directly.
This operation is a bit unbearable? But I like it...
Seeing that his "weapon of the country" was humiliated overseas, Lao Mei made a decision that violated the identity of a strong country for the sake of his "face", that is, to evacuate all the surviving "Abrams" from the front line and transport them to a safe place in the rear to hide;
The reason given by the United States at the time was this: considering the surge in the number of drones on the battlefield between Russia and Ukraine, it is difficult for any tank to survive its strike, so we hope to temporarily withdraw these American-made tanks, and then work with Ukraine to readjust the existing tactics before making a decision...
In fact, to put it bluntly, the United States has lost confidence in the weapons it has aided, and before the withdrawal announcement was issued, the Ukrainian army had already lost 5 "Abrams" (the first one was knocked out at the end of February this year), accounting for one-sixth of the total amount of aid, and at this rate (5 lost in two months), if the M1A1 runs on the battlefield for a year, all 31 tanks will be reimbursed.
This announcement was made at the end of April, after which the Ukrainian military also sent this message in the form of an order to the units using M1A1 tanks.
However, although this order has been issued for more than ten days, the Ukrainian 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade using these tanks has completely ignored the order, and the "Abrams" tanks are still fighting on the battlefield, and on the 7th, another M1A1 was destroyed by Russian troops in the Avdiivka direction.
Why is this so? Do even the Ukrainians dare not listen to the orders of the old United States?
Recently, a British military expert, Alexander Mercuris, revealed the reason, he said that the Ukrainian army's top brass intended to remove the M1A1, but the 47th Brigade refused to carry out this order, because once these tanks were removed, then the brigade would not have a single tank;
The command of the 47th Brigade believed that without the Abrams their soldiers would suffer more losses, so the troops would not hide these tanks, and they performed "very well."
So far, the remaining 25 M1A1 tanks in Ukraine are still running on the front line and have not withdrawn from the battle.
Finally, the British military expert said: "Abrams" main battle tank came to Ukraine is actually a mistake in itself, the United States and Ukraine originally thought that as long as American-made tanks appeared on the front line, they could "scare" the Russian command, because this is a "powerful force" from the United States; But after a short period of actual combat, the Russians found that this thing was much more fragile than imagined, and it was completely an outdated weapon, and at the same time that the M1A1 was destroyed, the "Abrams" also disgraced the entire military-industrial complex in Washington, and finally the Pentagon generals had no choice but to give the order to withdraw the M1A1.
The analysis of British experts is quite reasonable, now that the tanks are in the hands of the Ukrainians, the so-called "generals will not be subject to the orders of the kings abroad", for the Ukrainian troops whose weapons and equipment are depleting day by day, it is already good to have tanks, who cares which "mother" it was born from? You Americans want to save face, but we Ukrainian soldiers want to live!
I have to admire this combat brigade in Ukraine, which dares to be tough with Lao Mei;
Let's take a closer look at this mechanical brigade that refuses to carry out orders!
Ukraine's 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade was established in 2023, it was formed on the basis of the original 47th Commando Regiment, when it was formed for the purpose of the implementation of the "Great Counteroffensive" operation.
At the stage of the "great counteroffensive", the brigade was involved in offensive operations in the Tokamak direction, after which it moved to Rabotino;
At the end of October, the brigade entered the Avdiivka front, where the brigade fought fiercely for more than four months, suffered heavy losses, and then fought in Bertich and Ocherotino.
Before the arrival of the M1A1 tank, the main equipment of the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade was the German "Leopard" 2A6, and at its peak it was equipped with 21 "Leopard" 2 and as many as 99 M2A2 ODS "Bradley" infantry fighting vehicles; The brigade is the only unit in Ukraine to be equipped with this type of infantry combat vehicle, specifically the "ODS", and at the end of last year, an M2A2 ODS of the brigade used a cannon to destroy three Russian MT-LBs and an M2A2 knocked out a T-90M earlier this year.
In addition, all 31 M1A1 main battle tanks donated by the United States were distributed to this unit to replace the original "Leopard" 2A6 tanks (all of their German-made tanks were transferred to the 21st Mechanized Brigade), and of course, all the losses of the "Abrams" tanks were also caused by this brigade.