Special Tank Driver’s Training For Beginners

There were four tracked vehicles tearing up the muddy-sandy-weedy soil of the Csobánka base early in the morning. The third-year students of the armoured combat vehicle faculty of the national defence university were ’doing some tactics’ – they had been practicing driving and the occupation of firing positions, all within the topic of ’preparations for defensive combat’.

In the meantime, the guests were gathering at the ‘starting point’ set up on the side of the driving range. Upon the notice of Major General (Eng.) Dr. János Isaszegi, Commander of HDF CTB many visitors have turned up who wanted to try what it feels like to drive the huge tracked combat vehicle.

The general told us: there are many people at the training base and at HDF Kinizsi Pál Non-Commissioned Officers’ Training School who still wear the black beret of tank operators, which means that they used to serve in ’tank’ corps. And naturally, there a number of lecturers at Zrínyi Miklós University of National Defence who started their military career as tank operators. The special driving training has been organized for them in the first place.

"I think this branch culture must be preserved and attended to and this is exactly why we have organized today’s driving traning. Moreover, today’s activity is useful for both the troops and the tracked vehicles, since the troops have an opportunity to practice the tricks of the profession they had already mastered, and the equipments get out of the hangars for a while" – said General Isaszegi, who also emphasized: the tanks of the CTB often participate in various training activities. The impressive combat vehicles are used not only in the preparation of non-commissioned officers but also in the basic training of contracted soldiers.

Of course, anybody wishing to sit behind the ’wheel’ of the tank in the framework of this extraordinary driving training had to complete the preparatory courses which are obligatory for everyone. Namely they had to master the safety regulations, the technical specifications of the T–72 tank, and the basic knowledge required for driving. This was followed by the introduction of the driving range. A makeshift plotting board was used for this purpose, with mock-up tanks and the indication of tracks and obstacles…

Although there were a few participants who thought that the three obstacles constructed by the ’organizers’ on the hardly 800 m long range were not enough, they found out soon that this is what the regulation stipulates for the very first, so-called number 1 driving training of beginner tank drivers. Therefore the voluntary troops – being beginners in tank driving – had to do with driving through a narrow gateway, a curve, and a short slalom.

Lieutenant (Eng.) Dr. Sándor Felházi, Dean of Zrínyi Miklós University of National Defence, Kossuth Lajos Faculty of Military Science also attended the extraordinary driving training. After completing the course, he told us that he was driving a T–72 tank for the second time, and he enjoyed it as much as he did for the first time.

"I believe if we would like to have prepared troops, we have to present these equipments to the command staff as well, and it is useful if the commanders can drive them too" – said Lieutenant Felházi, and also added that it was a fantastic experience to control a more than 40-ton behemoth. And of course, to give a regular driving performance, that is to reach the targets of the exercise.

The lieutenant – who used to serve in a mobile artillery unit back in the 80s – also told us that he was not absolutely unfamiliar with the driving method of tracked techniques. What is more, in his opinion the mobile artillery equipment, i.e. the Gvozdika is a lot more difficult to control than a T–72.