Egyptian T-62 in 1973 Yom Kippur War/ Trumpeter 1/35th T-62 Mod.1967

The Egyptian army received approx. 200 Soviet built T-62 mod.1967 MBTs between 1971-73. These tanks equipped Egypt's 15th and 25th armored Brigades which were each divided into 3 tank battalions. The new T-62 spearheaded the mechanized forces that crossed the Suez canal on Oct. 6th, after Egyptian combat engineers breeched the sand ramparts of the Israeli fortified "Bar-Lev" line using high pressure water pumps. After crossing into Sinai, Egyptian forces advanced virtually unopposed. After three days, Israel had mobilized most of its forces. On Oct. 17th,1973 Israel's 217th Armored Brigade equipped with Centurion Shot tanks ambushed 96 Egyptian T-62s in the largest tank battle on the Sinai front. The Egyptian armored force lost between 50-60 tanks in this engagement, others were damaged or abandoned after entering into mine fields laid by the Israelis during the war of attrition. In total the Egyptian 25th Armored Brigade lost 86 of it's original 96 tanks in 2 days of fighting.

 

The model: This is the Trumpeter T-62 Mod. 1967 which is easily recognizable from later versions by it's lack of an A/A commander cupola machinegun mount. The model is in 1/35th scale. This was another fun model to build with tons of possibilities. Not to say their aren't flaws, these have been expounded on in many posts on other websites. The bottom line though, it looks very much like a T-62. The only other kit of this important tank is the now very old Tamiya release (which I built a couple of those as well). I decided to build a model from both Egypt and Syria to add to my collection. The Egyptian camouflage scheme is tough because no really good photos clearly showed the tank in a 1973 scheme. The general colors I used are Green/Red-Brown and Sand, but there were other colors and patterns used for sure. The real interesting feature of these tanks is the "Rattlesnake" pattern applied to the gun tube. The crew figures are the "Warrior" Arab Tank crew 1950s-70s.