Entre Les Murs

Tanks in the Streets

Paris woke this morning to main battle tanks in the streets. Quite literally, in our case. It is remarkable that, when so much attention is paid to stealth in other areas of military endeavour, that no one seems in the least interested in muffling the sound of a tank. They make an astonishing din. With the window open, there could be no mistaking the convoy going by at 6:15 in the morning for merely a fleet of semi-trailers.

Presumably our early morning wake-up call was courtesy of downtown Bastille Day parades. Over the course of an hour and a half, we saw an array of military equipment go past, including armoured personnel carriers, missile launchers, armoured ambulances, a variety of logistics vehicles, and so on.


Pictures of the tanks themselves came out as a blur in the dawn light; but this APC was not significantly quieter than its heavier cousins.

posted 14.7.06