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During W.W.II, the U.S.’s MBT was the M-4 Sherman tank.
It was nick-named the 'Ronson’, after a popular reliable cigarette lighter,
because it caught fire so easily when hit by enemy rounds.
Most of the Army’s Generals were of the W.W.II era,
and were determined not to have a flammable tank.
The M-1 includes a system that detects fire
and sprays HALON gas into the tank.
The gas is sprayed within 3 milliseconds of the
fire outbreak and extinguishes the fire in 2/10ths
of a second. HALON is an excellent fire extinguisher.
The crew is also separated from the fuel tanks by an armor bulkhead.
The main gun’s ammo has it’s own compartment.
The loader uses his knee to press a switch
to open a door to the ammo compartment.
When he turns to place the shell in the gun, he automatically
has to pull his knee from the switch, thus closing the door.
The ammo compartment is designed w/ a slightly
weaker roof than the sides and bottom.
In the event of an ammo explosion the top blows off allowing
the explosion to be directed away from the crew.
When the German 120mm canon was first put in an M-1,
it was found to change the effectiveness of the system.
The bigger shells detonated w/ more energy,
when struck by a projectile in tests.
The Army’s top civilians and generals wanted to go ahead w/
production anyway, but a small group of generals were
vehement in their refusal to proceed until the problem
was solved, and threatened to make the issue public.
On a rare occasion, the good had defeated the evil.
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