GRAPEVINE

By DAVID ELLIS

U.S., British and French military men couldn't wait to paw over some of the Soviet-supplied Iraqi tanks littering the Kuwaiti desert. They expected the abandoned armor to be a boon for battlefield training and analysis. But many tanks were reduced to smoldering hulks by guided missiles. Others, taken out by A-10 attack planes, at first appear to be in good condition, until survey crews discover a small hole in their exteriors. That hole indicates that shrapnel produced by armor-piercing shells has destroyed everything inside. Although the allies captured thousands of Iraqi tanks, the Americans have found just five reasonably intact specimens of the T-72, the top Soviet model.

With reporting by Sidney Urquhart