David Fletcher’s Tank Chats No.1: The A13 Cruiser

The Tank Museum has released a new video featuring tank expert and historian David Fletcher in the first of a series of “Tank Chats.”  This first episode takes a look at the A13 Cruiser tank.

Description from the youtube page: The A13 was the first British tank to have Christie Suspension. With a top speed of 40 miles per hour, it was much faster than the German Panzers, and had one of the best guns of its time. Despite this, many were lost in the battle for France in 1940. They fared better in the desert when their speed enabled them to cut off and defeat a huge Italian Army at Beda Fomm in Libya.

Massimo Foti AFV Photo Gallery

Massimo FotiHere is another excellent Flickr gallery of armored vehicles from one of the regular contributors over at the AFV Discussion Board.  This gallery is primarily of vehicles located in European museums and locations.  The albums for the Saumur Musee des Blindes and the Thun Panzermuseum both contain over 400 photos while the album for Bovington Tank Museum has over 700 photos!  There is enough here to keep a tank history enthusiast clicking for quite some time.

Book Alert: Ampersand Publishing announces three new books

US halftracksOver at Armorama is a post announcing that Ampersand Publishing is going to release three new books for American AFV fans. The first is a new hard cover book covering American half-tracks.  At 456 pages, this promises to be a very comprehensive look at the ubiquitous US armored transport.  Ampersand’s Son of Sherman is one of the definitive books on the Sherman tank.  It can be hoped that this book on US Halftracks will continue that tradition of quality, in-depth coverage.


The Military Machine, Volume One – U.S. Half-tracks
The development and deployment of the U.S. Army’s half-track vehicles, Part one
By David Doyle, 456 pages, hardcover. $49.95. ISBN: 978-0-9895547-6-3

Also announced are two additions to the Visual History series with books covering the M103 tank and 6-ton trucks.

[Read more…]

From the Vault: Yank Magazine on Axis Vehicles

yank1smLone Sentry.com has a nice photo gallery and transcription of an article from Yank magazine from January 21, 1944.  The article is about captured axis tanks and equipment being examined at Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

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At Aberdeen’s Ordnance Research Center, inquisitive experts finds what makes an Axis vehicle tick, and their tests produce facts worth remembering.

By Sgt. MACK MORRISS and Sgt. RALPH STEIN, YANK Staff Correspondents

Aberdeen, Md. — The first thing you learn at the Foreign Material outfit here is never, ever, to call a Nazi tank a “Mark Six” or a “Mark Four.” The correct designation is PzKW VI or PzKW IV. “Mark” is a British way of saying model, whereas PzKW means what it says: Panzer Kampfwagen, or armored battlewagon.

For more than a year captured enemy vehicles have been arriving here from every battle front on earth. The first was a half-track prime mover that came in sections and required three months of trial-and-error tinkering to be completely reconstructed. Missing parts, which were requisitioned from North Africa, never arrived; mechanics in the Base Shop section made their own.

To read the rest of the article, please click here to go to Lone Sentry.com.

“For the Record” article on A28 “Infantry Cromwell”

A28 infantry tankOver at For the Record there is write up by contributor “Okinoshima” about the British A28 “Infantry Cromwell.”  This was a concept for an infantry tank based on the Cromwell A27 cruiser tank that never progressed past the paper stage.  Only one drawing of the proposed vehicle is known to exist.  The full article can be read here.

Book Alert: Hitler’s Light Panzers At War

hitlers light panzersOn March 19, the book “Hitler’s Light Panzers at War” by Paul Thomas is slated to be released.  This book is part of the Images of War series from Pen and Sword Publishing.

Publishers Description: Hitler’s Light Panzers at War is a highly illustrated record of the German light tank from its beginnings in the 1930s to the key battles it fought in Poland, France, North Africa, Russia and North Western Europe. [Read more…]

50 tanks, 40 missile systems enter Ukraine from Russia

pro russian tanksReuters is reporting that according to the Ukrainian military, approximately 50 tanks, 40 missile systems and 40 armored vehicles crossed overnight into east Ukraine from Russia via Izvaryne border crossing into the separatist Luhansk region.  According to the article Luhansk is a strategic transport hub that has been the focus of heavy fighting in recent weeks.  The Ukrainian spokesperson said that the tanks and other military hardware had crossed the border “despite statements by Russian officials about the absence of Russian military equipment and forces on Ukrainian territory.”  No details were included in the brief article noting the type of tanks and armored vehicles, nor were any pictures included.

For those interested in pictures of the tanks and armored vehicles being used in the conflict in Ukraine, there is an extensive thread devoted to the topic on Tank-net.com.  Crisis in Ukraine – The Photos

Another source of interesting photos is the website Lost Armor.  This site is in Russian, but can be translated quite easily in google chrome.

AFV Register of historical vehicles on display now available for GPS

USA registerFor several years the fine folks at the AFV News and discussion board at Com-Central have hosted a series of AFV Registers. The registers consist of lists of all the tanks and armored vehicles known to be on public display in a particular area in PDF format.  Currently, the areas covered include the USA, Canada, the Netherland, Belgium, France and Poland.  Last week it was announced that USA AFV map & Garmin GPS files of the Registry are available for download.  According to regular board poster “vagabond” – “Over the last 2 years, I’ve been working on making Google Maps broken down by state of the AFVs listed in the USA AFV Register. [Read more…]

Final proposals for Joint Light Tactical Vehicle submitted

JLTV_Competitors_updateDefense News is reporting that yesterday manufacturers AM General, Lockheed Martin and Oshkosh Defense delivered proposals for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV).  The Army plans to make a decision and award a firm-fixed-price contract to a single vendor this year. The award period will cover three years of low-rate initial production and five years of full-rate production. The Army plans to buy approximately 50,000 JLTVs for the Army, and the Marine Corps would buy 5,500.  The JLTV is being described as filling the gap between Humvees and the larger, less MRAP vehicles.  The competition pits AM General’s Blast Resistant Vehicle-Off road (BRV-O),Oshkosh’s Light Combat Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle (L-ATV) variant, and a joint Lockheed Martin-BAE Systems offering.

British armor invades German garden! (by accident)

soM1mS3Iela6gxSNT7z8WQq4d5eZ0oBwTip2vS (1)For the Record has posted about a humorous accident that happened in Germany recently. The incident happened on the road in Borchen Paderborn (Paderborn district) on Tuesday morning. A British Warrior IFV being used in a driving training exercise suffered a malfunction causing it to fishtail and crash into a residential garden.  The track of the powerful vehicle damaged only in the boundary wall and crushed the hedge, but spared the house. The vehicle occupants were unharmed, police said.  Ulrich Tilsner was about to leave for his granddaughter and help her move when he heard the crash. “My grandfather called me and said, ‘I’m a bit later. I have a tank in the garden, “says 23-year old Stephanie Ney.  Stefanie Ney called her mother Manuela, who also lives in the house, but at the time of the accident was not at home. “My daughter said, ‘Mom, in your front yard is a tank’ I first thought that she was making fun of me.” Manuela Ney describes the call. Slowly the information her daughter broke through to her and she realized what had happened: “After it was then clarified that the grandparents were safe, my first concern was our dog? How’s Lucky”  The recovery of the powerful vehicle lasted several hours. “They closed the road here and the tank was then pulled out,”