Old T-55 Soviet tanks still rumble through the east German countryside in a cloud of dust and ex-haust fumes, but have no fear, they pose no threat to the world order as we know it. The tank crews are not soldiers but tourists who have paid 140 euros for the chance to be a weekend warrior at the wheel of a 34-tonne vintage armoured vehicle for half an hour.

蘇聯老式T-55戰車仍隆隆駛過德東鄉下，揚起漫天灰塵和廢氣，但別怕，就我們所知，它們對世界秩序並未構成威脅。這些開戰車的人並不是士兵而是遊客，他們付140歐元（約台幣6,700元）來當周末戰士，駕駛34噸重的老式戰車半小時。

Every year some 10,000 thrill-seekers from all over the world pass through the so-called "Tank Driving School" in Beerfelde, a tiny town between Berlin and the Polish border. It was founded in 2003 by a former soldier in the now defunct East German army, Axel Heyde, 47, who said he has been obsessed with tanks all his life.

每年有來自世界各地約一萬名尋求刺激的人到這所位於柏林和波蘭邊界小鎮比爾菲德的「戰車駕駛學校」。這所駕駛學校是由2003年一名47歲的德東陸軍士兵海德所創立，現在他已經不存在了，他說他一輩子都很迷坦克。

But Heyde swore that bashing through a pot-holed field on the edge of the forest in a piece of basic but near indestructible machinery has nothing to do with nostal-gia for the communist period. "Our customers come from all over Germany but also from abroad, from the United States or New Zealand. In fact, they are not necessarily war game machinery freaks. What draws people to driving tanks is that they feel they get to slip into a secret world, open only to a select few, and one that is also a little bit dangerous," he said.

但海德誓言，坐在一個原始但幾乎無法摧毀的軍械上，在森林邊坑坑洞洞的原野上「發動攻擊」，和懷念共產統治時期無關。「我們的客人不只來自德國各地，也來自國外，包括美國或紐西蘭。事實上，他們也不見得各個都對軍事演習狂熱著迷。驅使大家來駕駛戰車的是他們覺得可以溜進一個異想世界，這個世界只對極少數人開放，而且帶點危險性，」他說。

Heyde said he salvaged the vehicles-- T-55s made in Poland or the former Czechoslovakia in the 1950s -- from the post-Soviet scrap heap. The tanks have been partly disarmoured, which involves not only spiking the guns but also removing bits of armoured plating in order to obtain a leisure operations license.

海德說，他從後蘇聯的軍品廢物堆中把在這些1950年代在波蘭或前捷克製造的T-55戰車搶救回來。這些戰車已經部分解體，不只拆除戰車上的槍砲，還除掉一些武裝鐵板，之後才能取得娛樂營業執照。

At the end of their maiden drive, most new tank commanders emerge covered in dust and glory to pose proudly with elbows resting on the hatch like bat-tle-hardened veterans. They can even take home a DVD of their exploits thanks to a camera installed inside the tank.

在學員初試身手結束後，大部分新戰車指揮官再冒出來時，往往全身是灰，但一身榮光。他們把手肘放在艙口上，擺出一副身經百戰的老兵姿態。由於戰車內裝了一具攝影機，他們甚至可以把英勇的戰績製成DVD帶回家。

"It was wonderful," said Werner Roeder, a technician from Berlin who posed with his wife beside the tank. "It was her present to me for my 60th birthday. My only regret is that it was too short and that I did not go faster."

「太棒了，」柏林技師羅德說，他和他太太在戰車旁留影。「這是她送我的60歲生日禮物，唯一遺憾的是時間太短，我動作又不夠快。」

Photo shows an instructor of the Heyse Panzer fahrschule helping a visitor into a protective helmet be-fore he drives a Czech-built Soviet T-55t armoured vehicle (known as a "wrecker") at the school's driving range near Beerfelde.

圖中德國比爾菲德附近海斯潘澤駕駛學校一名教練，7月7日正在幫一名學員戴上防護鋼盔，他要在訓練場開的可不是普通汽車，而是捷克製造人稱「毀滅者」的蘇維埃T-55t戰車。