News for all things related to Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles
Tomorrow morning we will be making the trek to Cleveland to attend the MVPA Homecoming Military Show and Swap Meet at the Cleveland Tank Plant (I-X Center). We plan to be there Friday afternoon and evening. If any of our regular readers plans to be there, shoot us a message at tanksonthebrain@gmail.com.
A new book on the Soviet T-10 heavy tank is now available courtesy of Ospry Publishing. To those that like reading about tanks, Osprey is primarily know for their 48 page softcover New Vanguard series. This book however is an entirely different creature, being a hard cover volume of 232 pages. This book certainly has to be the most exhaustive study of the T-10 published in English. Two well established authors contributed to this book, the UK based author James Kinnear and US based author Stephen “Cookie” Sewell. As with other Osprey hardcover offerings, this is a very handsome volume with high quality paper and numerous photos and illustrations. If you are a fan of Soviet cold war armor, this title is highly recommended.
Publishers Description:
When it was introduced into service in 1953, the T-10 represented a return to the “classic” Soviet heavy tank. Although considered a major threat to NATO tank forces, it also represented the end of an era. All gun-heavy tanks like the T-10 would eventually be made effectively redundant by later models like the T-62 which had powerful next-generation armament and new ammunition types. The tank was gradually withdrawn from service in the 1970s, though the last tanks would only leave Russian service by decree of the President of the Russian Federation in 1997. As such the T-10 outlived the Soviet state that had created it.
Never exported outside of the Soviet Union and rarely used in combat, the T-10 has remained a mysterious tank, with many of its variants unknown in the West until very recently. This study, written from original Russian and Ukrainian primary source documents that have only recently been made available, uncovers the history of this enigmatic tank using 130 stunning contemporary and modern photographs of the T-10 as well as full color side-view artwork.
Available from Amazon at Soviet T-10 Heavy Tank and Variants
The Tank Museum at Bovington has released a new video documenting the restoration of a Vickers Light Tank Mark IV. It’s rather fun to see how little this tank is compared to the Leopard 1 tank behind it and Museum director David Willey standing next to it.
For those that like seeing footage of AFV restoration projects, check out this video series from SABOT Videos showing a WWII era German Flakpanzer being brought back to life by the crew at the CFB Borden Military Museum.
World of Tanks forum member Volketten shared with us a link to a digital library containing old newsletters from Allison Transmission company. In regards to tanks and armored vehicles, Allison is primarily known for the CD-850 series transmission found in the Patton and M60 tanks and the X-1100 transmission of the Abrams tank. We thought these newsletters might be of interest to anyone that had family that worked at Allison or is curious about the history of the corporation. View the full library here.
We have created a gallery below of the 1952 AllisoNews Special Edition focusing on military transmissions.
Episode 13 of the Matilda Diaries, documenting the restoration of the Matilda tank at the Tank Museum at Bovington.
David Fletcher of the Bovington Tank Museum takes a look at “Michael”, the second Sherman tank ever produced.
When it was introduced into service in 1953, the T-10 represented a return to the “classic” Soviet heavy tank. Although considered a major threat to NATO tank forces, it also represented the end of an era. All gun-heavy tanks like the T-10 would eventually be made effectively redundant by later models like the T-62 which had powerful next-generation armament and new ammunition types. The tank was gradually withdrawn from service in the 1970s, though the last tanks would only leave Russian service by decree of the President of the Russian Federation in 1997. As such the T-10 outlived the Soviet state that had created it.
