Magach.

This is coolbert:

While going over the wikipedia web site for the Israeli tank of the family U.S. M48/60, [called "Magach" by the Israeli] this item intrigued me:

"'Source of the name "Magach'"

"Although as stated above, officially "Magach" stands for "Chariot of War Heroes", other versions exist. One version states that the real source of the name is the designation M48A3 (in Gematria 40 is "mem" ("m"), 8 is "chet" ("ch") and 3 is "gimel" ("g")). Yet another version says that M48A3 can be read as MAgAch (4 looks like "A", 8 like "g" etc.). According to another version, "Magach" comes from the Hebrew root "n.g.ch." and is akin to the verb "lingoach" - "to ram".

A popular joke in the IDF says that "Magach" means "Movil Gviyot Charukhot" - "charred bodies carrier", probably referring to the Yom Kippur War losses and particularly to the aforementioned flammable hydraulic fluid problem of the M48."

Merkava is the current name for the Israeli indigenous designed and built tank. Merkava means "chariot".

Gematria is finding word meanings in the numbers represented by the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and also finding numerical meanings in the letters represented by the Hebrew alphabet. As with the Roman alphabet, letters are used also as numerical representation [X=10, V=5, etc.] It is said by practitioners of gematria that "hidden" and "profound" meanings can be found in ordinary words or numbers!!

"Gematria"

Gematria is numerology of the Hebrew language and Hebrew alphabet. Several forms can be identified: the "revealed" form and the "mystical form". The word itself comes from the Greek word 'geometry' and the concept or system is the same as the Greek isopsephy."

[this sort of numerology can drive people crazy!! Also, the Hebrew language is not always insistent upon writing words containing all the letters. It is permissible to write a word without vowels. The word is read and understood just with consonants??!!]

During the 1973 Ramadan/Yom Kippur War, the M48 and M60 were used extensively by the Israeli.

And were found to be exceptionally susceptible to a hit by a HEAT round from an anti-tank guided missile [ATGM] of the Sagger or Swatter variety,

IF HIT IN A CERTAIN EXACT SPOT the result would cause scalding hot hydraulic fluid to course through the crew compartment of the tank, killing all the tank occupants with a horrible death!! This occurred many times during that 1973 war. Presumably the Soviets, either through espionage or examining a M48/60 tank captured in Vietnam, had determined this weakness and tipped of the Egyptians as where to shoot!!

This problem HAS been rectified!!

coolbert.