Tank Chats Reloaded | S-Tank | The Tank Museum
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2024
- In this episode of Tank Chats Reloaded, we are delighted to be joined by Stefan Karlsson, the director and curator of The Swedish Tank Museum. He shares his remarkable journey with the S-Tank, from his first experience driving it at the age of nine, to his later service in the Swedish Army. Stefan's passion for the S-Tank is evident, and his story is sure to captivate and inspire.
Watch the original Tank Chat here:
• Tank Chats #117 | Stri...
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00:00 | Intro
00:57 | Beginning of a love story
02:47 | Military involvement
03:32 | Love or Hate?
08:16 | Would the S-Tank have fared in battle?
10:06 | Operating the S-Tank
14:16 | Maintaining & Running
18:00 | S-Tank Legacy
#tankmuseum #TankChatsReloaded #TankChats #STank
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Let us know what you think of Stefan's amazing story in the comments down below.
I won't be watching any videos you've promote with a tiktok style short.
Lovely! Just love this format and Stefan made it work so beautifully.
With the top attack on tank nowadays like NLAW/Javelin do. A new design s-tank with entry/exit on the back instead of top on normal tanks. Wouldn't that prove a way of making a tank safe nowadays
I am happy and honored that Stefan shared his interesting and fascinating story with us. It is admirable how much he loves his passion. I think Stridsvagn 103 is an amazing tank and engineering masterpiece, it's very good that there are people in the world like Stefan who take care of such a beautiful technical wonders
@LukkyLuke80 modern day tanks are break through vehicles , The turret is essential.
Did my military service in 1980 as a sergeant with the S-tank. Lots of hours in the garage and I hated cleaning the 3 KSP-58, almost as tedious as cleaning the gun on the tank. Luckily we got a mechanical gun brush working with compressed air doing the heavy in and out pushing and pulling work named Baldur. Lots of maintenance work, as is said in the video, as we were only three to do all the work.
My fun memories are brewing coffee inside the tank with the little electric kettle (fogging all optics), making hot sandwiches on the gas turbine exhaust (well wrapped in foil) and the rear driver keeping vodka in the smoke grenade magazine on winter manoeuvres. Winter was fun! Got more power from the gas turbine and did triple pruetts on the frozen groud in 50km/h. The memories come back……
Soldiers will always find a way to use vehicles to make there life better in the field
Telling us about when you were 9 years old and seeing the S tank in the snow-covered forest was a wonderful memory for me to listen to. I agree when we are young, we are imprinted. Take care.
I can vividly remember a pair of Hercules flying over when I was playing with friends, maybe 8 or 9. In my memory you'd think it was hardly flying 100ft off the ground. Was amazing.
Always a treat with the Tank community crossover collabs. Stefan is a wonderful person
The best!
I always enjoy listening to his stories about the S-Tank and the Centurions.
The way it poops the shell casing out the back is adorable 😊
And that audible splash in the puddle the first time they show the stock footage. :)
Stefan's comments really bring home what the tankers' experience in the S tank was like. Brilliant video.
I've never seen anyone so enthusiastic about the smell of hydraulic oil. Great video.
Same enthusiasm drillers have for their mineral exploration rigs
Perhaps the best way to describe it is not a tank hull with no turret but as a turret with tracks.
Yes it all comes down to the perspective of the commentator.
The first Tanks had no turrets either. Even late WWI British Medium/Light Tanks still had no turret until after the war.
Brilliant design, purpose built for the Swedish needs and limitations- only needing 3 man crew, operable by one man, ideal for defensive ambush, not really a multi-purpose MBT but incredibly effective in the designed role.
The design in this tank is simply amazing, but like all amazing designs they suffer from the limitations of the technology of the time
Yes I know a certain nation that desperately needs tanks rn.. too bad some rich dude doesn't have a whole warehouse of tanks just laying around 😒
True, I wonder how a modern 'electric' version of the same concept would fare? Gas-turbine, or the 'Mother-of-all-LiPos'? (Caution - they tend to fizz a lot when shot-at etc. - ask Hammond : )
@@KrolKaz If you look though what might be in that market is likely to be older than what they began the war with. The stuff that nations like Serbia, Estonia, Hungary and Poland upgraded from. Some of that has already been sent to Ukraine. The Brits, Germans and US tend to have moved most of the stock either to allied nations OR de milled and scrapped for parts, use as static displays/museum pieces or even sunk as artificial reefs. Also the Leopard 2 (which is still very much a front line MBT) has a range on full tanks of about 250km per full fuel load (road and X country mix) The Abrams manages only 200km range cross country of 200 km BUT refueling with jet fuel can be needed every three hours or so in mobile opeations.
@@MrDportjoe I think that your quoted distances are off by at least a multiple of three.
Imagine the S-tank with Chobham armour, current hydro-pneumatic suspension, digital fire-control and optics and either a Royal Ordnance or Rheinmettal 120mm.
His fondness of this vehicle is so visible.
And I for one think it is one of the most fascinating combatvehicles I know of.
What a great contribution - so insightful and brilliant to hear so much of his personal experience!
The S-Tank is a marvel of engineering. I love it! One of the coolest and most unique MBTs.
I've always loved the S-tank because of how strange it looks. Hearing from someone who worked with it and loved it is great.
Seriously underrated tank.
As a child in the 80s I loved reading about tanks. The S-Tank was my favorite.
A unique vehicle that performed a specific mission. I've never thought it was bad, just a vehicle designed for specific terrain and a certain type of battle.
Customised for design, development, manufacture and use by Sweden to suit their particular requirements during the Cold War.
I've always been a little surprised that no-one else took a good, hard, long look at equipping their tanks with bulldozer blades to guarantee a hull-down position no matter what. If every grunt has a trenching tool, why not every tank?
@@aaronleverton4221 The Soviets did have an attachment for ordinary T-55's to dig themselves in.
I have seen Irish/American, and a former US tank commander, during the Gulf War, "The Chieftain's" test of an S-tank and he liked it very much, both the handling and the use of an auto loader!
I love this guy, I would urge anyone interested q Swedish armour should watch his museum videos they really show the unique approach that the Swedish had on armour design.
Great to see him on the channel again.
I don't care for tanks at all, but hearing someone talking about their interest in a passionate way is a joy in itself, the emotions rub of.
🫨🫨🫨
I much agree with how one commentator put it: an ambush tank. Select favorable terrain. Dig in. Hunker down. Fire. Reverse. Repeat. The S is my lifelong favorite. At 72 y.a., I remember it fondly as almost an alien vehicle compared to humdrum tanks by the thousands. Sort of like a Volvo or Saab (which I still own and treasure) compared to a Vauxhall or VW. The S's designers had imagination galore.
These were young men who went off to war and changed the course of history.
The sad thing is that we look at todays youth and all I see is weak minded people who are entitled and do not appreciate the sacrifices made by our forefathers.
Thank you for sharing this and preserving history
Thank's to Stefan Karlsson the Karlsson in the S-tank as we in Sweden also had the Karlsson på taket ( Karlsson on the roof ) by Astrid Lindgren.
And a big THANK's to The Tank Museum.
You forgot Erik on the roof Karlsson worlds best rally driver who drove his very own S-tank aka SAAB 92, 93 and 96 hehe
The sound of the tank firing and ejecting the case at 7:20 is almost comical: KA-BOOM, kling, bloop!
Personally, ever since first learning about the S-Tank, it has become one of my all-time favorites.
Great to have someone who actually served in the vehicle giving the chat.
This is one of my favorite tanks, and I believe one of the best in terms of how well it fit the intended role.
Great video and always great to see Stephan. I know a lot of ex tankers and it's the same thing. Some loved it and some hated it. When they talk about "diesel and dust" some of them speak of it like men remembering an ex lover, and others speak of it with disgust.
I would love to see a modern s tank would look like, with modern optics, gun and suspension system.
It just blows my mind that this Tank had both a diesel and turbine engine. Best of both worlds!
What a magnificent historical artifact, and such a nice tank he's sitting on. Stefan is great.
Alltid trevligt att se & höra om 103:an.
Very cool piece of gear. I definitely understand what role it filled. Thank you for having a veteran crewman for the S-tank do the commentary for this video. I very much enjoyed this content.
Some machines are almost like a work of art. S-tank feels to me like one of them. Not to be downgraded but many tanks learned from its best and worsed qualities to get inspiration. The Abrams and Merkava come to mind.
As a defensive design it's fantastic! Get into a prepared position to cover the lower hull or on the rear of a slope and there's virtually nothing showing for the the enemy to aim at, and what is showing is severely sloped. It's fantastic! The Soviets would have had a miserable time breaking through the defensive line. Much love for the S Tank here.
You can tell that man has a good mix of diesel and hydraulic oil in his veins. Excellent vid again 👍
Stefan is indeed equipped with hydropneumatic suspension.
Crew ergonomics aside and ankle deep in oil I still think its a fantastic design. It seems to me it would still work today as blueprint defending against attacking forces. Imagine a new version with a longer 120mm smooth bore from the Leopard and modern armour on the roof
Much awaited much appreciated, Stefans insights are extremely valuable and entertaining.
It is exiting to listen to your stories about the S-Tank, Stefan Karlsson.
The S-Tank played a role in a special time and alternatives might have cost Sweden much more and not left You guys with as much pride and satisfaction. Keep it running. :D
This episode is superb. A really heartfelt chat with Stefan’s passion (and self-deprecation) coming over so well.
Sweden had very unique requirements that dovetailed into their national strategy. They did not need to be offensive weapons, and a "super-STuGIII" made a lot of sense. Historically the most effective tank killer the Germans had, on any front, was the STuGIII and for the same reasons. It had a good gun on a small, easily concealable chassis; using tracked-mobility to displace from firing position to firing position.
It's a missunderstanding that it wasn't an offensive weapon. What Stefan meant is that Sweden wasn't going to invade anyone, not that the tank would only be used defensively. The role of the Swedish armoured and mechanised brigades was always to launch a mobile counteroffensive against a Soviet bridgehead in southern or central Sweden.
@@Shenordak this exactly. People keep parroting that it's a purely defensive tank but it definitely was not according to doctrine
Tank Museum, I would love to see a video about the people who repair and maintain these tanks! It's always interesting and I can't find a lot of first-hand accounts on how this stuff is actually done
Oh they have. Check out workshop diaries for Instance. In their playlists I do belive.
@@sigarius1783 Workshop diaries is a channel or a part of this channel?
@@Cam64viper same channel mate - set up your notifications and check their back catalogue of videos for the Workshop Diaries. There's another good tank channel - www.youtube.com/@ausarmour - that does a workshop series every week.
Check out "Arsenalen-the Swedish tank museum"
Stefan Karlsson has a video showing a Swedish mobile field-repair station.
Maybe it's not what you were asking for but it is really cool what kind of maintenance they could do out of a few trailers and tents in the middle of the forest.
@@JH-lo9ut This looks real interesting! Thanks for sharing homie!
I love the s tank, but I never had to use it, nor rely on it with risk of Soviet invasion so my opinion isn't worth much. 😋 Great story! Getting a ride in a tank at age 9 is so cool. I'm jealous!
In an alternate world where modern electronics never developed to create active stabilization good enough for high speed firing.
The S Tank was a tank beyond its years.
The S Tank was just so on point for the future as immediately seen during it’s development.
What a Joy for a young person. Delighted to discover this . Maney years I thought a great design 40 years ago.
i love what he says about people missing their tanks. i got out of the army for a year and now that im back i couldn't be happier. i love my tank. the abrams has its quirks and difficulties but there's nothing like being a crewman for a tank. its home.
Excellent presentation 🇸🇪👍👍
Stefan's passion for the tanks' past and preservation is great.
He could recognize this tank in a pitch black ally way just by the smell of it's different lubricants🤣👍💚
I owned 3 SAABs' and 1 Volvo during the 1970's to 90's💚
Very informative, well put together with archive films.
I'm 72 living in New Hampshire 🇺🇲☮️✌️
Great tank, great colab, great video!
It was great for what it was made for DE fence . I am a Old Tanker . been on everything from A M48A5 , M60 , M60A1 , M60A3 , M1 ,T62 ( OPFOR ) ,cross training - leopard 1 , Kanonenjagdpanzer .
Good to hear a person that actually used it and the love he has for it a very interesting Tank with design that was amazing with what it could actually do even down to the angles it could do so to improve it’s armour thickness.
Many things (sounds, smells, situations) trigger fond memories of my time as a Turbine Engine Mechanic in the US Army. I only have a few memories that aren't good and all those center around specific individuals. Just the other day I heard a 4-blade helicopter, but couldn't see it and I tried to identify it by sound alone, which was something we did on FTXs all the time.
I absolutely love this tank. It looks fabulous and the ideas behind were just brilliant. And it has a little butthole to poop out spent shells!
This is one of my favourite armoured vehicles and I can just imagine it completely covered in shrubbery and parked in a hedgerow waiting to put holes through the enemy.
Thank you. I have always been absolutely captivated by the strv 103!
I have always liked Stefan and his Channel. This video gives more in depth info as to why and how the "S" Tank would be used. A machine of its time/era. So please do not compare to now. At least it could travel lots and lots of km, unlike Chieftain.....LOL.
Stefan is brilliant, so is S-tank!
Like the Merkava, a tank designed for the local conditions of the nation it was designed to defend.
In 1954 the movie "To Hell And Back" came out. I was 12 at the time, and living in a small town in Wyoming USA. They parked a tank in front of the theater for publicity purposes. I remember crawling inside the tank(I don't remember what tank it was, but in my mind I thought it was a Sherman). As with the narrator, that experience has stayed with me all these years. This was a time with no internet, u-tube and wee didn't have a tv. Something like a tank parked in front of the movie house, and be able to actually crawl inside, and then watch a movie about the most highly decorated American veteran of WW2, was really amazing, especially in a small town in the middle of nowhere.
The S-tank (or strv 103) was purpose built for defensive action against an invasion. Considering the AT weapons available at the time of designing it (1960's), it is a really clever design. The profile is low, which is excellent not only for concealment but makes it much harder to hit (if, for instance, your adversary mainly uses APFSDS-penetrating ammunition.) Also the front is really well armoured and the flat angle of it made it really difficult for any AP/HEAT/HESH rounds existing at the time to connect and penetrate the front. Nowadays we have powerful top attack munitions and they would have spelled disaster for the S-tank. The top and sides weren't well armoured, so it wouldn't stand a chance in a modern conflict. Maybe if one were to plaster it with modern ERA, it could still sort of make it, but then you have the issue with the gun which is not by any way up to par with Abrams, Challenger or Leopard's guns. I do think it could do well against the T-62/64/72 tanks though, after all - it was designed to take out those types of vehicles. I saw many out in the woods during my military service, and I still love it despite all its debatable quirks and flaws. As a matter of fact, I have a scale model of if in my bookshelf. Bought at the very museum Stefan curates. I highly recommend a visit if you happen to be in the vicinity of Strängnäs city.
Side armor … the Leo 1 shares that weakness
Trots alla moderna tanks så är S-Tanken min favorit! - och har varit så ända sen den kom ut! tack för en superfin presentation! - Hälsn,Levi i Jönköping
Though all modern tanks now, the S-tank has always ben my favourite, and still is! - Levi in Sweden
Wonderful insights into the S Tank by someone who served in it. I always thought it looked cool, but I was in the navy what would I know about tanks.
Sweden was always expecting to have to fight a defensive action coming most likely from Russia, so to design a tank that in essence is more of a mobile, defensive pill box than a traditional tank with more offensive capabilities probably made perfect sense to the designers of the "S" tank.
It was meant to be used as a traditional tank according to doctrine though
I put this up in the background and i almost thought i heard Henning Wehn talking about his experiences with the S tank.
" in the mid 90's...."
2:46 - LOL !!! "dropping off the kids at the pool"
I joined the MOD at Chertsey as an appretice at 15. If I remember correctly the S Tank had a Rolls Royce K60 as a 'run about' engine and it's gas turbine for battle. Just to sort of prove myself - did you ever get the power increase from the K60 you wanted and how well did they do in your patrol boats ? You could have used the Chieftain (BMC ruined) L60 but you would never have got as far as the hanger doors in the early days. The Sturmgeschutz did well so why not the S Tank.
3:17 I use Turbo in my World of Tanks S-tank(s), and I'm happy to see turbo is used in a real S-Tank also, haha.
I have always loved the Swedish arms and armor. They have made some world class stuff, and often thought outside the box to fulfill their often very specific requirements.
My second favorite tank after the Sheridan. I have a thing for tanks that push the boundaries of technology, even if it gives them mechanical issues.
is no one gonna talk about how that tank just did a perfect j turn at the start?
It was genious design. I love this idea and how it was done.
By far one of the coolest tanks ever
This is one of my favorite tanks, for sure.
This is great stuff. Stefan is a favorite.
Seems like it would have a really interesting self-propelled gun. Of course, it would need to have a better solution for elevation but that shouldn't have been too hard. I have always liked the S-Tank. It was just soo different from other tanks.
Stefan is a favorite. I watch him on the Arsenalen channel too. A really great summary of this tank. Thank you.
This is a really cool format for videos, keep it up!
Absolutely fantastic 😀
What a wonderful initiation story! I feel envy :)
For worse or better, that can't happen today any more... like me as a child watching a farmer doing his job on the field, and the farmer asks if I like to watch on the tractor... wonderful memories.
thanks, stefan, that was great!
The smell of some things are almost magic. Anyone who has ever been on a USN warship knows "that smell". They all smell the same below the weather decks. I first learned about it as a Cub Scout on a "good will" tour in Norfolk as a child. Almost 20 years later as an Ensign I was aboard the LPH-7, USS Guadalcanal when I smelled it again. That same smell from my days as a child. I loved it. It smells "like victory".
I love this reloaded series
Love the video, and the whole opinion on the tank. Fantastic!
Fantastic insight into an amazing tank from someone who has experience and great knowledge of this unique vehicle. More of the same please 😊
Love the reloaded content!
Amazing! Thanks!
Great first hand account of being part of a crew in this tank
Great Tank Chat! I've always loved the lines of the S-tank. Hearing Stefan's personal story of encountering the vehicle in the field at the age of 9 is heartwarming and priceless.
Brilliant video, nothing better than something a bit different.
I was a conscript in 1971. But since my primary "weapon" was a typewriter, I'm still using that skill.
Too bad Sweden can't send a few hundred of these to Ukraine!
Do we have any left anymore?
One of my favorite tanks!
Stefan is always very good.
One of my favorites 😍
Such a cool technical accomplishment.
my favorite tank in WoT by far. :)
This would have been a great "smart tank." Just ahead of its time. Loved the story of this unique tank design when I was young. Still do!
One of my favourite tanks NGL
Awesome tank!
This is a critical point that many 'top trump'/gamer 'enthusiasts' miss is the doctrinal application for the hardware developed.
In this case the S-Tanks were designed to fight a purely defensive engagement. Sweden was a steadfastly neutral country at the time, with a long history of neutrality. So, in that mind, all they needed was what was effectively a mobile AT gun. Their doctrine was very much a defence in depth, to retreat slowly and cause as much difficulty and losses to the enemy as possible in the process.
It's the same with the commentary surrounding the M4 Sherman (which is thankfully starting to shift, in no part due to the hard work from the likes of Nicolas Moran), about it being rubbish and underarmoured and undergunned for it's role. It's role was to be a single do-it-all tank that could serve in all the different theatres that the Allies waged war, and to be able to be transported there in numbers. For that it was the perfect design.
For the Swedes at the time, the S-Tank was what they needed.
The thing with the S Tank is, as he stated, it was more complicated than most tanks were at the time. When you have something more complex you run the risk of having more things failing, but how it was going to be used, from all I have seen, it was the tank that they wanted and needed. That is what people either forget or don't think about is how Sweden was going to use the S Tank.
Always fun to note the difference between Stefan and the guys from the Bovington museum. Stefan is usually in coveralls with dirty and oily hands, the Bovington guys are usually in shirt and tie with a jacket. No oil on their fingers. Just a point - they are all extremely knowledgeable and interesting to listen at.
I think it's obvious that the reason he looks like a mechanic is besides being manager, curator and god's know what else he has a very small staff of mostly volunteers and operates on Avery small budget and does wonders with it whereas Bovinginton has been established for a very long time ,has a far larger budget and therefore people can specialise.your implication that one is better than the other is based on a flawed supposition ,all the best
@@gorbalsboy
Even though I’m not a native English speaker, I’m pretty sure I was quite clear that did not imply that one curator was better in any way than the other. It was merely an observation from my side.
@@netmanswe I believe you were clear too. The other guy probably forgot what you wrote and went to a bit of tangent as he wrote.
I would have said that because Bovington can employ tank mechanics they don't have to really go in hands first where as Stefan relies upon volunteers and has a far smaller budget so a lot of work is literally hands on.
But all things aside it is nice that we have an ex tankers view of the S tank and the why of it's use inservice along with his practical experience of serving in it and the problems that the crews faced, you don't get that with Bovington I am afraid to say in the main.
The knowledge that the staff there display is phenomenal, yet there is the missing element of personal inter action with rthe AFV's in army service
Always thought this was an amazing design.