My experience with tanks is minimal. I cannot tell you the last time I was close to a tank. It must’ve been at a parade or some sort of exhibition and I cannot for the life of me remember when it was.
So when I’m asked what a tank is capable of crushing with its tracks I pretty much assume it will disintegrate anything and everything. As it turns out, even a 60-ton WWII tank will have trouble crushing certain items. Not that these tanks were ever designed to crush things, in fact, it’s quite the opposite.
You might remember YouTuber Edwin Sarkissian from his recent video where he tested just how bomb-proof a Bomb Squad suit is by using an M67 Frag Grenade and test dummy to see how well the suit holds up. Well, he’s back, and this time he’s secured a 60-ton tank from WWII and he’s down in Texas to see what this tank will crush. He goes to extreme lengths to test the fire extinguisher here which leads me to believe these common red fire extinguishers might be some of the strongest items on the damn planet.
He also tests a ballistic helmet, hard hat, and some other items to see how they’ll hold up to being run over by a 60-ton tank. The video really gets going after the 1-minute mark so feel free to jump ahead. Check it out:
Like them, I’m a bit surprised at how well the hardhat held up. I would’ve expected that thing to splinter into a hundred pieces and shatter, not just crumble up.
What happened to the safe is pretty astonishing. That safe got flattened like a pancake, like how one of those orange water barrels in a highway construction zone might look if an 18-wheeler drove straight over it. That’s not at all what I’d expect to happen to the safe.