The
Satria Mandala Museum
On Friday the 6th of May
2011, I visited the Satria Mandala Museum which is located at Jalan Jendral
Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta. I went to this museum after Friday prayers at school and I was accompanied by my driver. At around 1:45 pm, I arrived at the museum. Actually,
this is not
the first time I visited this museum. When I first visited this museum, I was a 3rd grader. "Why I chose to visit this museum?" The answer is
very simple because this museum was my favorite museum in the city of Jakarta
or even Indonesia, other than completing the history subject assignment. Besides those reasons, I am always interested to visit the museum of military history in various countries, including Indonesia. I was not surprised when I had
to pay Rp 2500,00
from my wallet to purchase a museum entry ticket, with a very cheap to buy tickets, you can freely visit all the existing objects in this museum. "Why I say it is very cheap?" Based on my experience from visiting the
museum with the same theme in many developed countries, the average price for
entrance fee in their museum was 46 times more expensive than the price of
entrance fee at this museum. Therefore, do not be surprised if we see
several ceiling had rotted and the roof leaked in the building at this museum,
as well as several conditions of war equipment seems less maintained and
impressed ‘allowed’ to die eaten by the time. That is what happens if the entry ticket price is too cheap, so the budget that actually used for maintenance of
the museum was cut and used for other purposes. In spite of all these deficiencies, I got a lot of information and additional knowledge that
is valuable to me from visiting this museum. Other than that, sense of my nationalism
and my
appreciation to the heroes who have fought in liberating this country is also increasing. Satria
Mandala Museum is a museum of Indonesia’s military (TNI) history, because in
this museum we can see various kinds of war equipment from the Army, Navy, and
Air Force who had owned and operated since the time of independence in 1945. Whenever I visited this museum I was always
interested to visit the garage of the armored fighting vehicles. I concentrate my visit at
the garage where the tank and armored vehicle which was formerly used by the
TNI was parked. There are many collections of former military
used armored fighting vehicles in the garage, including; Panhard EBR Armored
Car, M3A1 Stuart Light Tank, Amphibious Light Tank PT-76 , BRDM-2 Armored Scout
Car, Humber Scout Car, BTR-152 Armored Car, BTR-50 Armored Personnel Carrier
(APC), and several other armored fighting vehicles. I chose the Amphibious Light
Tank PT-76 as one of the museum’s collection that I describe.
 |
| Mil Mi-4 helicopter formerly operated by the Army |
The PT-76 Tank Description
After the World War
2 ended, the
concept of light
tanks began to
be developed in
the Soviet Union (now Russia). They will be used in reconnaissance units and amphibious
capability is needed considering the geographical conditions of the Russian
State, where there are many large rivers, lakes, and swamps. N. Shashmurin who worked as an engineer at the
Leningrad Kirov Factory, succeeded in designing the amphibious light tank
prototype. The vehicle was successful because it has a simple design,
properties of good navigation, and also the ability of a good cross-field. Further
development was conducted in 1949-1951 under the leadership of Zh. Y. Kotin and
formally the PT-76 tank model was adopted in 1952. The production of this tank
began in 1953 in Volgograd Tractor Plant (VTZ) and the Leningrad Kirov Factory.
The 1st model of the tank was produced in limited quantities and
quickly replaced by the production of the 2nd model. In 1958, a
developed variant, the PT-76B was adopted and remained in production until
1968. To this day, there are approximately 12,000 units of PT-76 tanks which
are operated by the military in 25 countries around the world.
PT-76 has an empty weight of 13.5 tons and 14.6 tons in a state
ready for battle. Because this tank has a capacity of amphibians, it is designed
so it can operate in seas with only a thin layer of steel, which is 20 mm in
the tank’s body. This tank has a crew of three people consisting of the driver,
commander, and loader. In addition to reduce the load of passengers, the
commander of the tank doubles duty as field observers, gunners, and radio
operators. The PT-76 dimensions when measured without the cannon have a length
of 6.91 m, with a width of 3.15 m, and height of 2.325 m. Furthermore, the
ground clearance is 370 mm. If measured
by the length
of the cannon and the antiaircraft guns mounted on
the PT-76, the dimensions become: length 7.62 m, width 3.15 m, and
height 3.70 m.
Propulsion
generated from the PT-76 6-cylinder diesel engine with a power of 240 hp (179
kW). This tank has a fuel capacity of 250 liter diesel (HSD), then 60 liter of
water as a radiator coolant and engine lubricant type DCO.50 uses as much as 45
liters. This tank has a power/weight 16.4 hp/tone and uses a torsion bar suspension.
This tank has a cruising range as far as 370-400 km and 450-510 km with
external fuel. In Regular
Street, this tank has a maximum
speed of 44 km/h and when in the water, the
maximum speed is 10.2
km/h. The advantage of PT-76 lies in the power
of the engine, because
it can provide a
good ability to swim toward
the down
payment of 11
km/h for a
distance of 70
km and takes
about 8 hours.
When moving backwards, it has a speed of up to 5 km/h. That is why the PT-76 is
deemed to have qualified as an amphibious tank.
The other
advantages of the PT-76 is the ability to climb elevation of up to 380 in
slope or vertical barriers as high as 1.06 m, it also has the ability to move
stable over a field that has a slope of up to 180, across the trench with a
width of up to 2.8 m or through derivatives up to 0.75 m deep with
surface pressure
at 0.49 kg/cm square and a power to weight ratio at 17.5 horsepower/ton.
The entry angle when the tank will go down to the sea, lakes or rivers is 300
and as it exit to the surface, the muzzle looked angle is 250. The PT-76
electrical power
systems come in 2 pieces
of Accumulator, each
with a 12 volt voltage. As a tool of
communication, PT-76 uses R-123 type
radio.
A PT-76
tank by default has 2 armaments, which consist of primary and secondary
armaments. The primary armament is a low-speed gun D-56T rifled tank gun 76.2
mm caliber and for the secondary armament is a coaxial machine gun 7.62 mm
caliber SGMT type. In addition, PT-76 can also be equipped with anti-aircraft
machine gun DShK type of 12.7 mm caliber placed in the turret, which has a dual
drive system, which consists of manual and electric, which is capable of
rotating a full 3600 within 20 seconds. D-56T cannon have a barrel
length of 3.315 m and are able to shoot straight as much as 40 times with a
speed of 8 to 15 shots per minute and have a range of fire up to 4 km. In
single firing, the effective firing range from the cannon of this type is
capable of reaching 12.8 km. These cannon have the highest elevation angle to 400
and the lowest angle when down is 40. PT-76 carries cannon
ammunition as much as 40 rounds a mixture consisting of ammunition type HE
(High Explosive), HEAT (High Explosive Anti Tank), and HVAP (High Velocity
Armor Piercing). Its coaxial machine
gun weighs 13.8 kg equipped with
1000 rounds which is
divided into 4 magazines. The SGMT machine gun is capable of firing in a row 350 shots per
minute with an effective range 2 to 2.5 km. This machine
gun is located in the
right of the cannon. Furthermore, as a defense of the crew of PT-76 is
also equipped with 18 hand grenades. Specifically on the operational tasks at night, the machine gun
crew is supported with TSK 66 type sights.
 |
| Amphibious Light Tank PT-76 on display at this museum |
The PT-76 Tank History in Indonesia
In the
early 1960s, under the leadership of President Soekarno’s Indonesia is very
close/leaning more friendly with the Eastern Bloc countries, especially the
Soviet Union. Due to the close friendship between Indonesia and the Soviet
Union, Indonesia gets a lot of assistance in various
fields, especially
the military field.
Various kinds of military equipment was received and purchased by Indonesia
from the Soviet Union, consisting of warplanes, warships, armored cars, tanks,
etc. One of them is the Amphibious Light Tank PT-76. Here
is the explanation
of why the
Government of Indonesia at that
time would
prefer to buy
military equipment from the Eastern
Bloc countries.
The recognition
of sovereignty over the independence of the Republic of Indonesia by the Royal
Netherlands at the end of 1949 marked the end of the Indonesian War of
Independence period from 1945-1949. The recognition of
sovereignty itself
is an outcome from the Round Table
Conference (RTC) in The Hague (Den Haag), Netherlands, between the Government of
Indonesia with the Kingdom of Netherlands. One of
the results of
the Round Table
Conference mentioned
that the
Kingdom of the
Netherlands is
obliged to restore
the entire
territory of
occupation to
the Government of the
Republic of Indonesia, including the West Papua or the Nederlands Nieuw Guinea.
On the results of the conference are also mentioned that the Netherlands will
return the West Papua to Indonesia, no later than 1 year after the recognition
of sovereignty or more precisely at the end of 1950. However, 9 years after the
recognition of sovereignty, the Dutch government did not implementing the
results of the Round Table
Conference.
In order
to restore
the West Papua to the
fold of the
motherland, Indonesia took a variety of
diplomatic channels, including
through the UNO (United Nations Organization / United
Nations).
However these efforts stalled, so the Indonesia under the Soekarno’s leadership
then proclaimed the People’s Tri Command (Trikora) that essentially demanding
the return of West Papua (Irian) to the motherland as quickly as possible. The
Dutch responds with strengthening the military in West Irian by bringing the
aircraft carrier Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman. In response, Indonesia decided to solve the problem of
the West Irian through military force to support diplomacy. In the military
field, Indonesia government realizes that the strength of the Armed Forces of
the Republic of Indonesia (APRI) is not balanced in comparison with the Dutch. Therefore, the
Government of Indonesia seeks to bring a number
of military
equipment, which is done with the
purchase of new
and used military equipment from various
countries since
1958. The first efforts
made through the approach to the countries of Western Europe and the United
States, but the results were not satisfactory. This was caused by the high
sense of solidarity from them to the Netherlands who is also a member of the
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) based in Western Europe. The NATO led
by the United States was a counter force against the Warsaw Pact led by the
Soviet Union.
Since the
era of the Cold War began in 1949, the two world superpowers are always
competing to develop influence and its military forces in various parts of the
world. Unfortunately, Indonesia who has a system of independent and active
foreign policy, also dragged into the feud of the two ‘giants’. The victory of
the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) in 1955 elections seen as a threat to
the American dominance in Southeast Asia, so inevitably the United States prefer
to support the Netherlands, who has clearly violated the agreement in the Round
Table Conference. Therefore, the purchase of military equipment by the
Indonesia which is considered harmful to the Netherlands impressed inhibited. Dealing
with such an urgent condition, the Indonesia Government glance the Eastern Bloc
countries, such as the Soviet Union, People’s Republic of China, and
Yugoslavia. Since 1960 a large number of modern military equipment from the
Soviet Union entered Indonesia, and one of them is an amphibious light tank
PT-76 (Tank Plavayushtshiy-76), as previously described.
Since
1962, the PT-76 amphibious tanks purchased by the Indonesian government formally
entered into an APRI (Angkatan Perang Republik Indonesia) cavalry unit. Because
this tank has the amphibious capability, most tanks were operated by the Amphibious
Tank Battalion of the Naval Command Corps (KKO AL), now known as the Amphibious Landing Vehicles
Battalion of the Indonesian Navy Marine Corps. These combat vehicles initially
prepared to support the operations of the largest military campaigns in the
history of Indonesia, known as Operation Jayawijaya, which was held in the
framework of the liberation of Western Irian in the year 1962-1963. Furthermore,
PT-76 is actively involved in various activities in domestic security and
military operations such as Dwikora (1964-1965) in Indonesian-Malaysian border,
Operation Seroja (1975-1979) in East Timor and Integrated Security Restoration
Operation in order to fight GAM separatist movement in the Province of Nangroe
Aceh Darussalam (2002-2005). Today, after 40 years since it was first operated
by the military (TNI), some of the PT-76 tank has been on display at the Satria
Mandala Museum, while about 30 units still operated by the Amphibious Landing Vehicles
Battalion of the Indonesian Navy Marine Corps. If you get a chance to visit the
Marine Corps Headquarters in Cilandak, you will see a number of PT-76 tanks in
the tank garage and still used for combat training. It seems quite reasonable
if the Indonesian PT-76 nicknamed “Battle Proven” aka the legendary master of
war in the Navy Marine Corps environment (quoted from Cakrawala TNI-AL
magazine).
 |
| M3A1 Stuart Light Tank |
No comments:
Post a Comment