European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 19, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 the stars and stripes june Competition dominated by super tanks platoons from six countries vie for Canadian army trophy by Don Tate staff writer the 14th Canadian army trophy Competition last week was a demonstration of the evolution of tanks from mechanically ornery dinosaurs into electronically sophisticated Iron the new super tanks dominated earlier generations of machinery As 20 elite platoons from six nato countries blasted away through Adverse weather conditions at the Bergen nato training the final which saw the Northern army group Lake the Silver trophy Over the defending Champi on Central army group by Points to was an awesome Victory for High in what was billed As a test of tank gunnery As much As of a platoon Manning the germans latest the mighty Leopard 2 leaped through a crack of Sunshine on the last Days last Battle run to nose ahead of gunners in the americans latest the Abrams my by just 103 Points out of a total to win High platoon Crews in older such As the american m60a3 used by the 3rd army had hoped that great gunnery could still win the Day Over what was clearly demonstrated in this was that great shooters in great tanks would get greater smooth Riding state the Art with Superior sight and firing control took All six High platoon scoring three in each army older tanks the British chieftain and Leop Ard i generally fired Well but nonetheless brought up the a 3rd army div spokesman said that despite the fact that the divisions gunners had fired better than it was the last time the m60s would be used in the next time its the mls for a Veteran tank commander explained the my sight ing advantage in the my the gun is slave to the theres no sense of movement when youre sighting on its like sitting in your living room and watching television when you pull the in some of the older sighting is like running with a pair of binoculars to your eyes the targets jumping on though the format of the biennial Competition was changed in 1983 to reemphasize  rivalry and stress nato observers this year keenly watched the clash of the the germans lop gunners in the 1983 Competition the and the latest Leopard against the the first time photo for by Larry Beverly tankers from co a begin their Battle the super tanks had gone unhappily for the Panzer until the last a dutch team using the Leopard 2 had out shot the Ger mans in their own but then a platoon of four tanks from Panzer in stationed in Landshut and rep resenting took care of on that last thundering Battle firing their 120mm the germans came on like hitting 23 out of 24 main gun targets and mopping up the smaller troop targets with machine for a winning the from the 43rd tank in out of Lan still finished first in and the americans they had finished second in Pla Toon scoring in trailing the germans by nearly this firing with blazing faster than the top germans but hitting one fewer not Only did my shooters finish second but four of the top six scoring platoons were americans in these were two platoons from co 3rd 64th 3rd inf and two others from co 2nd 66th 2nd army div on top of the top aggregate company score for which no trophies were awarded was achieved by co no american platoon firing mls finished with a score of under though at times they fired through rain so hard and Mist so thick they had to switch to night the improvement in both hardware and How to use it is seen when compared to the scores of when Only one platoon in the entire Competition fired for More than the four platoons with four tanks in each platoon firing mls averaged nearly 400 Points better than the six platoons firing the new Leopard a result an impressed British expert called a vindication of the once criticized a British tank commander called the Abrams virtually Thomas commander of the 2nd army div underlined what tank commanders had been saying All that the format of the stressing pure really Doest begin to test the Overall fighting capabilities of the my in terms of Point to Point mane vering Armor and survivability in Tait said that the Leopard 2 is also a great but right now ill have to hang my hat on the my As the Best in the we had a platoon that had to shoot through a Hail and it still hit 22 does that include the Best of the soviets As far As i i know that Bur tankers Are a hell of a lot although took three out of four of High platoon scoring three out of four of the Bottom also fired for Northage team consisted of gunners from the United Germany and the Cen tags Armor platoons came from German and Canadian its time to and the pressures on its on the they have to shoot brilliantly rapidly and and everybody its called gunners at this tankers olympics had a phrase for the they said it Over and but its Soldier its not it translates into the human gelling ready to the the Good and bad the oily sweat that flows up from inner pools of doubt it is almost like going into combat for listen to Richard a gunner from Bravo 3rd 32nd 3rd army 1 haunt been nervous at id been Reading a All of a sudden the voice of this judge move to bound it was like the voice of Ive never dealt with anything like the feeling i 1 dropped the my hands were first i Light up a i Mustoe lit about All the i had my sight cover i looked through and saw people it just hit bad it was very it was like the whole world was watching you got 40 seconds to Lay on a target and hit once the target goes the time went a lot faster than i it seemed like a minute lasted a during it seemed like you had staff Ken a Bravo tank commander you get one you either do it or you the hardest part is the sitting there be fore you re in quarantine for it Rains on you four or five you sit going Over and Over it in your How to do How not to screw you look up and thank the lord if it stops raining for a you want to see the and its very easy to overkill a shoot it two or three wasting the angles can be you cant see the Hole too Good when you hit the targets stay it ought to be like in when you hit the target it blows or at least Falls that the other no matter How Good you you cant control the things happening that Arent in the Dennis platoon sergeant with Charlie 2nd 66th 2nd army div we shot but we could have shot a lot everything that could have gone wrong with Mother nature went she just dumped on it like at one Point so hard we  see 10 feet in front of our it communications went out with the targets Mal they had to Stop our run for 10 or 15 minutes and put a hold you dont want to Stop your youre All psyched you dont want to lose that big big because when you fire and hit that first smell that its like a Good shot of liquor going everything just relaxes and Falls into and you dont want to have to do it 5 Richard a Charlie co gunner it was the Periscope was water condenses on the sight and you see Little starry you get out there after All the mental All raring to knowing everybody depending on and it starts raining and and you have to Stop in the Middle of the run and the air kind of goes out of your balloon a after All that All that and now its your turn and suddenly you cant even see the like god himself was out there deciding the lord but the tank commander kept telling hang with go with and somehow we did pretty Haschke he was contemplating renaming his which he Calls storm Don Tate army photo staff Ken Jones you get one chance1