{"id":47856,"date":"2022-06-29T23:25:53","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T21:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=47856"},"modified":"2024-06-29T00:59:36","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T22:59:36","slug":"a-graveyard-of-british-tanks-and-armoured-personnel-carriers-in-the-island-of-cyprus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/06\/29\/a-graveyard-of-british-tanks-and-armoured-personnel-carriers-in-the-island-of-cyprus\/","title":{"rendered":"A graveyard of British tanks and armoured personnel carriers in the island of Cyprus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1960, the island of Cyprus became independent from the United Kingdom, which had leased it in 1878 and annexed it in 1914. But there were two exceptions.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/06\/05\/the-lonely-remains-of-sherman-tanks-that-fought-in-the-battle-of-normandy\/\">The lonely remains of Sherman tanks that fought in the Battle of Normandy<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/05\/15\/the-armored-vestiges-of-the-cold-war-a-tanks-graveyard-in-germany\/\">The armored vestiges of the Cold War: a tanks graveyard in Germany<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mfa.gr\/images\/docs\/kypriako\/treaty_of_establishment.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the treaty establishing the independence of Cyprus (see PDF)<\/a>, signed by Greece, the United Kingdom and Turkey, <strong>the bases of Akrotiri and Dekelia, located in the south and east of the island respectively, remained under British rule.<\/strong> These bases, considered \"sovereign\" (ie UK territory), <strong>included six training camps: Goshi, Akamas, Lefkoniko, Polis, Ayios and Prastio.<\/strong> Specifically, the Akamas Peninsula field was stipulated for artillery fire, demolition and naval bombardment.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, urban explorer Bob Thissen, on his YouTube channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/ExploringtheUnbeatenPath\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Exploring the Unbeaten Path<\/a>, posted <strong>a video showing a British training ground on the island of Cyprus:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rvs6HMOD9ms\" title=\"ABANDONADO | Encontrado un cementerio de tanques en Chipre\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The video points out that it is an active British fire range<\/strong>, but it is unlikely that they would be allowed to camp there, or even access it, if so. <strong>I believe that what appears in the video is the Akamas fire range<\/strong>, which was returned to Cyprus between 1999 and 2001.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52182669213_ba15bc8d43_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>In the video you can see some tanks in a terrible state<\/strong>, even with the guns cut.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52183148950_d9acd35344_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The video misidentifies these tanks as T-80s<\/strong>, due to the fact that the Cypriot Army uses this type of Russian tank. <strong>These are British FV 4201 Chieftain tanks<\/strong>, a model used by the British Army until 1995.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52183148895_e4409c4bf5_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>It is common practice to use decommissioned tanks as artillery targets<\/strong>, at least if those vehicles are not going to be part of any armored reserves.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52182669193_b68a2d5981_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Also featured in the video are British FV432 armored personnel carriers<\/strong>, which Thissen misidentifies as American M-113s. What he is right about is the fact that <strong>the vehicles were filled with concrete to increase their durability.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1960, the island of Cyprus became independent from the United Kingdom, which had leased it in 1878 and annexed it in 1914. But there were two exceptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,10617],"tags":[9997,14646,15304,16934],"class_list":["post-47856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-explorando_en","tag-british-army","tag-chieftain","tag-cyprus","tag-fv432"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}