Magach: The Israeli M48?! | Part 1

Historical video alert! Hungry for knowledge? We got you covered 🙏 Let's take a look at this 'Israeli M48' 🧐
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[@nelbax2084]

I served a year on the DMZ in Vietnam on an M48, actually two. My first tank "love juice" was destroyed by an rpg during the 1970 Cambodia invasion. I was moved to Quang tri on the dmz with 1/77 armor. My new tank "Cheap Thrills" was destroyed by a huge mine near Con Thien near the DMZ. The M48 was a great tank.

[@johndillard8588]

It protect you both times.🇺🇸👍

[@johndillard8588]

Thank you for your service.🇺🇸

[@PSGE7]

I was with A Co, 1/77 Armor. My first mount was A-13, 1st platoon. Since I was a new TC, they gave me the oldest tank that needed the most maintenance. On it's turret a cartoon artist had created a psychedelic inebriated water buffalo done as a tribute to an agitated water buffalo that had continuously rammed it one night. Welcome home bro.

[@shainemaine1268]

Wow were you on board when the mine went off?

[@samholdsworth420]

​@@shainemaine1268American Strong

[@glengearhart5298]

Laughed my butt off to the toilet paper remark.🤣Not only did we carry actual toilet paper, I had a folding chair with a toilet seat attached (yes 90% of the metal seat was removed). There was no squatting for my crew!!! When not in use, we would cargo strap it down on the turret with our GP Hex and Camo Netting.

[@SonsOfLorgar]

You, sir, by that alone is a shining example to the global NCO community! 😁 /A conscript trained radio specialist

[@gusgone4527]

Also known as a bum-per dumper.

[@vigilantobserver8389]

Smart! 🤓

[@davefellhoelter1343]

Yeap I'm an in the ziplock bag guy WITH wet whips! and a 5 gal bucket multi tool mostly on small boats or the desert? And I loved whipping the "historic" grease from his finger back onto History! That's "historically" accurate!

[@glengearhart5298]

@@SonsOfLorgar Sorry, just a lowly Specialist, owner of the all powerful Shamshield. LOL

[@johntodd6755]

I was on a M48 A3 in Nam which had a diesel engine and later served on M60A1s. I did train on M48A2s at Fort Knox which had gas engines.

[@wesleythomas1594]

My dad was there in late 1966- early ‘68, he trained in M-48A2Cs, then he was transferred to a unit training on what was the then brand new M-551 Sheridan, a vehicle he came to absolutely hate. He was a trained as a tank commander in the Sheridans.

[@johntodd6755]

@@wesleythomas1594 my regiment in nam had m 48s and Sheridans as well as acavs. Wasn't to impressed with the sheridans, had to many issues.

[@JohnStark72]

Army, I take it? Field artillery here, Germany. Thanks for your service.

[@joqu6971]

Good thing the M48 WAS given to Israel

[@rickschultz9589]

Just read the Wikipedia article about Yuval Neria. He was awarded the Israeli Medal of Valor for his activities in the 1973 war on the Sinai front. He participated in several engagements where he took command of 10 different tanks before being inured. So this tank may be one of the tanks he commanded, but not one he spent a lot of time in.

[@EliteAmmunition]

Book was written about him.

[@xray86delta]

When I served in a mechanized artillery unit in the army, the rear marker lights, used for night driving identification, were referred to as "cat eyes". Even in a stateside unit, Road marches at night were always an adventure!

[@patraic5241]

My National Guard unit was equipped with M48A5 tanks in 1984. We transitioned straight into the M1 in 89-90 missing the M60 series entirely.

[@tomhenry897]

Think all did that. If had a m48

[@_Panzerkampfwagen_VIII]

i like that this series is still going, its the best thing about WoT

[@gusgone4527]

My son lives on long island.Guess where this old British soldier just added to his holiday "to go" list . Another great video Colonel, Sir.

[@tommyblackwell3760]

I was a Cav Scout, and still keep a roll of TP in a ziploc bag in the trunk of my car. Better to have and not need than to need and not have lol!

[@SonsOfLorgar]

I keep one TP zip-lock and an entrenching tool in my EDC kit i keep in the taxi I drive for the exact same reason. If I got to go, I got to go, and anyone who disagree can take their complaints to the turd when I'm done and gone... (They'd have to unbury it first)

[@rhietpas]

Fellow Cav Scout. Always kept baby wipes in my right cargo pocket.

[@jaylee5692]

baby wipes and tp for the win, 19D from many moons ago

[@Irish37]

I'm an M1 Abrams-series man. But somehow, in a very quiet and gradual way, the M-48 has become one of my favorite tanks.

[@F4Wildcat]

For me it has always had a special place in my heart. There is no underlooked, underrated and ignored tank series as the M47-48 and 60 series. I like the looks. My grandpa hated the german manufactured tracks of the M47 because they would often break or throw themselves off. He had to ship alot of them around in leopoldsburg & Arlon.

[@ralphjacobson8815]

The Abrams was a sweet duty assignment, but I loved my time on the M48A5.

[@alantoon5708]

By the way, in the '70's and '80's, M48 and M60 crewman had the same MOS in the U.S. Army, and were named simply "M48/M60 crewman"...

[@iandougall7169]

I admire the way the Israeli ordinance people could take older equipment and completely upgrade it

[@petesheppard1709]

Thanks! During my formative years the M48 was the then-current tank I was most familiar with (M60s getting little publicity), mostly due to Vietnam; so I am very interested in any content showing these machines.

[@donbeary6394]

Very good , I'm remembering your phrase "Dino Tanker" ;-) Seeing the engine deck louvers sparked a thought as to why don't they make them in a chevron cross section so there is no straight through path for shrapnel (unlike WWII Panthers/Tigers/etc's) .. and was pleasantly surprised when you opened it

[@RushZ3r]

I love the M48 series tanks so much, thanks for this video!

[@libertycosworth8675]

Awesome to see you having more tanks to do your entertaining and familiar Chieftain's Hatch routine of taking a good overall look at the tank.

[@tommygun333]

Nice to see the series back again 😊

[@99Racker]

You walked by both tow cables. I know how easy it is when you walk around so many tanks with similar features. Thanks for the video.

[@hond654]

The Budge collection! I just learnt about that a few days ago by accident when I looked for T-34/122 from Egypt. The customization of tanks are very interesting - on good base (M48, T34, T55 etc) there were a lots of conversions, all interesting in its own.

[@davidoverschmidt9312]

Very glad you're showing the M48 series some love. A lot of folks like to dog the 48/60 series but people really don't realize how good of quality these vehicles really were comparatively speaking with other tanks of the era. I hope you continue to show M48 and especially M60 series episodes. I would like to see you do an episode specifically the M60 during the Gulf war. I myself like many others don't feel the M60 in particular ever actually had its real due in the hands of experienced and well-trained tankers of the US. Cheers!

[@genericpersonx333]

Well, that is really the unspoken strength of the whole of the US P-tank line from M26 to M60: they were not the "best" in most particulars most of the time, with something else usually having better firepower, protection, and/or mobility, but they were very straight-forward for crews to get good at using to the best of the tank's potential. Like the M4 Sherman, the M48 was beautifully practical for the American way of war: easy to produce in huge numbers, easy for average citizen soldiers to master, easy to keep running in large numbers far from home, and powerful enough to have a fighting chance against anything it was likely to meet. If the P-Tanks, as I like to call the M26 through M60 series, had a flaw, it was the fuel economy was impractical for anyone other than America. The official figure out roughly 300 miles on something between 336 and 385 gallons of good American gasoline is only if you are talking very good roads the whole way. Off the best roads, you can be burning four gallons-a-mile over seemingly good "tank country." This was alright for the USA, the world's leading oil-refining nation and one of the leading oil-producers, but if you were Germany or Israel, depending on imported fuel, you sweated bullets over your fuel supply every day you had a P-tank formation to move around.

[@grandadmiralraeder9608]

though the Centurion wasn't half bad... (and in the Indo-Pakistani wars did usually beat the Pattons it came up against...)

[@genericpersonx333]

​@@grandadmiralraeder9608 India and Pakistan both saw heavy losses in different places, with the big factor seeming to be the quality of the personnel going into the fight, not so much what they went into the fight with. In the grand scheme of things, both Britain and the USA agreed their tanks were competitive with each other, with the latest Centurion and latest Pattons being considered interchangeable in terms of capability. Obviously, put an early Centurion against the latest M60, you are fighting an uphill battle in the Centurion, but it would be same as running the best Centurion against an un-upgraded Patton. Either way, a really good crew in the old tank would still make life hard for an inexperienced crew in the new tank.

[@grandadmiralraeder9608]

@@genericpersonx333 fair point. Indian crews did seem to have been slightly better (as far as im aware) so that may well acount for the slightly better figures

[@wesleythomas1594]

The M-48 series is my absolute favorite, Chieftain, thanks for the video. I find the photo you have used for the title page to be very interesting; it shows a modified M-48A2C with the 105mm M-68 main gun replacing the M-41 90mm, but interestingly the vehicle seems to still be equipped with the original AVI-1790-8 gasoline engine since the vehicle still lacks the addition of side or top loading air cleaner boxes on the rear fenders. I am assuming this is a photo taken shortly after the 1967 war. The Israelis had also received a quantity of M-48A3s directly from the U.S. prior to the June ‘67 war, a few of which - 20 is generally the number I have seen - were refitted just in time with 105mm M-68s to participate in the war. There are a couple of photos I have seen of these tanks taken during the war where the gun is airbrushed out to disguise the fact they had the new gun, but the giveaway that they are not M-48A2Cs is that these tanks in the photos have the rear fender mounted air cleaner boxes, and five return rollers characteristic of the M-48A3s, which of course were primarily just heavily modified M-48A1s.

[@SonsOfLorgar]

Personal TP in some kind of plastic bag is definitely an essential part of the 'extras' you add yourself to the outdoors kit regardless of your experience comes from military training/service wisdom, scout jamborees, family vacation camping trips, LARPs or summer music festivals...

[@ROBERTN-ut2il]

Been a long time, but very familiar to anyone who served on M48's or M60's (Me? M48A5's, M60A1's, M60A3 TTS's)

[@DK-ed7be]

Correction on the driver's IR night viewer. The driver wouldn't swap out the front periscope, he would drop the center periscope to a hanger position and instal the IR viewer in the hatch.

[@sysop007]

We used baby wipes in the field. Worked great for removing camo face paint too. Grunt life. 😂

[@TheEnricoMicheli]

A weird story I was linked to in an Israeli book and found some confirmation in Italian literature, is the first conversion to 105mm were supposed to be done in Italy in the mid 60s. The tanks were sent from Germany but got stopped at the border for some reason and that caused a public outrage when discovered, leading to the thing being cancelled. In addition to the factory not existing when the Israeli representative came to Italy to check it out.

[@paoloviti6156]

I know very well this story because this train was stopped on purpose for political reasons both by the trade unions, the left and of course the Palestinians. No surprise here....

[@trevorhart545]

Italian Factory with a contract NOT existing, sounds pretty normal to me.

[@gottjager760]

8:52 it would be my assumption that the tank was sunk, abandoned, recovered, shot, recovered, repaired and sold

[@mathewweeks9069]

Awesome video you rock be safe out there 😎👍

[@juliusdream2683]

Your in bethpage . We went on a school field trip to old bethpage . It’s a whole little town and everyone is in period dress from the 1700,s it was like a time warp. There’s a lot of stuff on western Long Island .

[@clarencehopkins7832]

Excellent stuff bro

[@christopherseivard8925]

Tons of info, ( and a valid TP tip! Thanks.

[@ralphjacobson8815]

I spent a number of years on the M48A5 before we transitioned to the M1IP. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

[@alantoon5708]

And the vehicle in the picture was probably a Jordanian tank captured in 1967 and modified by the ever resourceful Israelis. Our designation was M48A4; and was the inspiration for our M48A5.

[@EliteAmmunition]

The second we knew we where going to the field 2 things happened. 1) 2 guys were deployed to the chow hall to steal every bottle of hot sauce off of every table, in fact got so bad the after awhile the Mess SGT. just put a case of it by the door when he knew we where going out, 2) Every loader from each tank stole/ requisitioned every damn roll of TP in the barracks including popping the barracks floor supply door lock and emptied it of TP.

[@briansmithwins]

Thanks for not playing the background music so loud we can't hear the discussion

[@paoloviti6156]

You have mentioned the great modification converting from gasoline engine to diesel engine, not a bad thing at all, but among many modifications one thing IDF did early was actually by eliminating the cumbersome and complicated commander's turret. Good job again as always 👍 👍👍

[@hunterfabio]

Very fascinating to be honest, during the Six Day War they monumentaly outperformed their enemies in every sense (specially with the early attacks on the Egyptian airforce) but also in the battlefield, the Russian provided tanks were outclassed by a small amount of these beasts as well as the Centurions.

[@McRocket]

Forget the rest of the tank. Just do the ENTIRE video on track tensioning. ☮

[@americanpatriot2422]

Great video!

[@DK-ed7be]

The end connector isn't going to come off unless the wedge bolt drops out. The turret ventilator fan doesn't extract air, it pulls fresh air in and causes the fumes to be pushed out through the several openings of the turret.

[@thomaswilloughby9901]

Right on the money. I was hoping some one would offer the correction.

[@alimanski7941]

There were a few Magach models in service in the IDF. The Magach 6/7 (Based on M60/A1) were finally scrapped about a decade ago from reserve service. However, there are still Magach 5 in service (based on the M48A5), having been converted into AT mobile armoured launch pads, as the "Pereh", disguised as ordinary tanks. They have a faux turret and their missile launch system reveals itself to fire Spike missiles. Its existence was only recently declassified. Pretty remarkable that a tank can serve so many decades and still be in active service.

[@wacojones8062]

6-day war June 5-10, 1967, in the Sinai northern area battle vs IS-3 one of the books about the battle mentioned this rear end hit that caused a transmission fluid leak. In all my reading that is the only one listed.

[@tcofield1967]

TP and babywipes. I always brought peanut butter and jelly and a loaf of bread as well. Sometimes you just don't feel like more than a quick snack and a peanut butter and jelly (grape mind you) was necessary.

[@TheAKgunner]

I love track tension!

[@craigmorris4083]

I've been bringing my ow TP with me since I was in cub scouts :)

[@than357]

Just a note - the driver's night vision device would not fit through the center periscope well; it fitted into the fitting in the driver's hatch and allowed rotation and elevation.

[@juliusdream2683]

Hey chieftain hope you enjoyed your time on Long Island my home town. Your probably in Nassau maybe in Suffolk county’s anyway good of you to visit.

[@sgtsnake13B]

9:51 Personally i bring wet wipes, as they can be used to also wipe off face paint, gunk from your hands, and a bit of cleaning of other things like weapons and eqiupment

[@jimhenry6844]

I'm an old armor developer ,love tanks and wanted to be a tank commander in the Vietnam era. I thank you for briefly mentioning the woefully inadequate 4.25 inch cast armor on the M 48, but I wish to hell someone would actually devote time to describing the armor itself. Was it face hardened? What would 4.25 inches at 60 degrees defeat? What was the Vickers, Brunel, or Rockwell hardness of the cast Steel? I do recall during the 1970's, that Israeli mothers prayed their sons would get posted to Centurion units rather than Patton units. [ I don't blame them]. The U.S. tank designers and review board managers should have been shot at sunrise for the inadequate armor on the M46,M47, M48 and finally the slightly thicker M60 armor. The Abrams finally was the first U.S. tank series with superior armor. You should spend an episode on armor. Regards.

[@seanmalloy7249]

9:50 Back when I was in the Boy Scouts (decades ago at this point), toilet paper had the standing nickname of "Nuf", because you never had 'nuf... It was light enough that keeping a spare roll tucked in the bottom of the backpack was a good enough backstop for someone failing to rinse all the soap off the cooking pots before they got used for the next meal.

[@harrycallahan9733]

9:25 That toilet paper gag was unexpected, and funny :)

[@user-dx5ng2xm9j]

Good. Thx!

[@sammymartin7891]

the night-vision Periscope was installed in the Drivers Hatch not in the Hull

[@russwoodward8251]

Most excellent! Thanks Chieftain!

[@jasonz7788]

Thanks 👍

[@williamsnellen4901]

❤ Videos ❤ awesome info thanks

[@George_M_]

Heeey the Littlefield M48 with the RPG hit to the rear tow thingie! It's like seeing an old friend. Illustrates the action of an explosively formed penetrator.

[@andrewkirkland1452]

Magach 5 and 6 look awesome on wot console big old brutes with blazer era.

[@abntemplar82]

not a tanker, but yes we would use regular tp rather than mre/c rat TP.

[@mrbaab5932]

It is pronounced 'Long Guyland', NY. I also worked a little on the M48A5 thermal sights.

[@robertg3921]

Did you heared that WOT the Patton has a good front armor that dont needed to angle

[@tsechejak7598]

this with Blazer is the coolest version of M48 especially since Israelis got rid of the large cupola replaced with urdan, makes for a nicer lower profile turret.

[@jjsmallpiece9234]

What is the effective range of the IR searchlight to detect and then to identify a target?

Nice Video. Dont you just love it when you are shooting a Video and someone gets out a hammer nearby? :)

[@SonsOfLorgar]

Less disturbing than crying kids or whining karens

[@johnallison820]

I went to the Tulsa museum, being a retired tank rider. They have Mauldin's compete production. It was hilarious. But they don't have the money to fix the broken torsion bars of their displays...

[@corneliusx1811]

Why didn't they use the same system as the T34 for keeping track pins from coming loose? The Russians just had protruding steel flanges which just pushed the pin back in when it came loose. Very simple and functional. Thanks.

[@HazmatUnit]

Because you don't do that on higher quality tanks.

[@tsmgguy]

Looks like the British M68 gun? Zenon ANVSS-1 visible/infrared spotlight?

[@chuckcribbs3398]

I just built this model recently.

[@user-vc7zk7wh3l]

amazing

[@user-rt9ur6tp9d]

The M48 ordered by Israel from US in the early 60s but supplyied from the German inventory. About 35 Israeli tankers went incognito to Germany (some of them holocoust survivers) and instructed by German tank instructors (some of them ex wehrmacht tankers).

[@crispyfryy3972]

Always good to see the chieftain

[@RonJohn63]

14:46 Interesting how the bore and stroke are equal.

[@Wadser]

I didn't bring TP, I just brought an extra pack of baby wipes. The MRE TP can knock off most of the poop residue. One or two baby wipes can do the rest.

[@sparkycjb]

OK, but can we talk about that Studebaker US6 parked to the right side of the tank? I can't recall ever seeing one with a roof hatch that leads to a gun ring.

[@white88ss]

gmc cckw not a Studebaker

[@sparkycjb]

@@white88ss My mistake. Looking closer I missed the louvered sheet above the fender that Studes didn't have and the curve to the front fender. Guess I have to pay closer attention.

[@Shvidcomix]

We need an Israeli line in WOT plz.

[@bCKization]

The mres had the best toilet paper in the form of a single wet wipe just combine it with the other toilet paper and you have something that won't penetrate your rear hatch

[@AThousandYoung]

2:17 lol the frog 8|

[@SatanKarma1]

i see the frog and now i can't unsee it

[@robertthiry9712]

Toilet paper (because you've only got so much undershirt), dry socks and as much ammo as we could carry (old Grunt here) 😁

[@Archeangelous]

We called it John Wayne MRE TP in the 90s because it would take no sh!+

[@Jargolf86]

Whoever was once in the Field without real Toilet Paper, will NEVER forget it again.

[@joejoyal7196]

To be clear the Cadillac controls in this tank came from Cadillac Gage which is not associated with the Cadillac Car company not anything to do with GM

[@freeholdtacticalmed]

Toilet paper, hot sauce, canteen/cup/stove stand, multi tool, TQT

[@Bundesrepublik_Deutschland1949]

Only Gaijin would such thing as reuse the magach for the Israeli tech tree

[@brainlessnukerperson2748]

There called the Magach series of tanks, also I would like a Israeli tech tree and a Israeli crew voices, wargaming, DO IT

[@SingleMalt2]

When are you going to do an inside the hatch on Merkava! Someone in Israel! Invite him over!

[@larry1873]

look good

[@stephenwarhurst6615]

hope is a teaser for a new Israeli tank line for 2023 in WOT

[@abchaplin]

Your artilleryman/cameraman can't have spent much time in 105mm howitzer batteries. We always had oodles of bog roll for cleaning the bore -- no need to bring any in Ziploc bags from home. Mind you, if you were in a forward observation officer's party in close support, you were advised to, as the supported arms' CQMSs could not be relied upon the way your own BQMS could.

[@bremnersghost948]

When you can't have a Centurion, Have a Magach 3 instead ;-)

[@xxxlonewolf49]

ALWAYS bring extra TP & wet wipes.

[@Chris-dz3rs]

Are they finally adding an Israeli line to WOT ? I mean ,they have an Italian one for some reason !!

[@tsechejak7598]

M48 is very sexy! M60 not so much. M1 still king. I also really like the m48a1 even though it was the efficient low range tank that didn’t serve very long in the US army.

[@sadwingsraging3044]

Single ply? Barbarians!

[@abrahamlevi3556]

Magach is an acronym in Hebrew for Merkevet Giborey Chayil which translates to something like a chariot of valorous soldiers. Shot- means a whip and kal stands for the abbreviation of Continental, the engine which had replaced the British Meteor engine and transformed the tank to what it is.

[@omrikad]

Actually the magach acronym has been a very popular myth that stuck around for too many years 😅, lieutenant colonel Amiad brezner who was the main historian of "yad lashirion" has written about it: "The meaning of the name Magach, that was given to the m-48 patton tanks, is "battering ram". Unfortunately for the magach, that it's name wasn't plainly understood as other tanks names, also Israeli school graduates at the time who knew hebrew only on a sufficient level, found it hard to explain the tanks name. Therefore it was accepted as an odd or mysterious name that needed explanation." - Bitaon yad lashirion 30, page 24.

[@Eric_Von_Yesselstyn]

Or redesign the shell...

[@coreydarr8464]

It is called white gold, TP is a commodity!😁

[@howiethehowitzer7398]

Wet wipes > toilet paper

[@gordonking4360]

I know you know how to use MRE tp

[@ProjecthuntanFish]

When you talk about track tension (little joe comes to mind) and grease points non tankers really dont care. Real world tankers know all about greasing and adjusting track though, LOL!

[@bencarver8164]

Toilet paper and those little butt wet wipes were a field essential for me. It's the little things