Mashable has posted a gallery of pictures which they claim depict secret military vehicle tests performed by General Jean Baptiste Eugene Estienne. Taken in 1919, the photos show a crawler style tractor transporting tourists up the slopes of Mont d”Arbois in Megeve, France. Several of the photos include a uniformed officer said to be General Estienne, who was using the tourists as a way to disguise the true nature of the vehicle tests, which were to evaluate the vehicles for military purposes. The vehicles tested were built by the well know French auto companies Renault and Peugeot.
1919 tank tests disguised as tourist ride
May 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment
US Army comic book on “How to destroy a tank”
May 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The War is Boring blog has posted an article presenting a comic book printed by the US Army from 1972 on infantry anti-tank tactic. War is Boring state that they obtained the comic through the Freedom of Information Act and have posted the comic, titled “To Catch a Tank – “Big Game” Hunting Made Easy” in PDF format. The comic was originally published by the Army’s Infantry School. Of course, this is not the only example of the US Army using the comic book format as a training aid. For over 60 years the US Army has published PS magazine, a comic about equipment maintenance featuring some of the most well known comic book artists in the field.
Tank driving fail: Merkava edition
May 13, 2015 by 1 Comment
This clip was posted to youtube today. It shows an Israeli Merkava being driven over a ledge, causing the tank to roll upside down.
Video: Otokar Altay main battle tank
May 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Jane’s has released a video of Christopher Foss describing the final prototype of the Turkish Otokar Altay main battle tank at the IDEF 2015 conference.
Victory Day Parade causes 4 million rubles worth of damage to Moscow street
May 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Moscow Times is reporting that the recent Victory Day parade in Moscow caused up to 4 million rubles of damage to the pavement of the pedestrian square in front of the Kremlin. Known as Manezh Square, this pedestrian thoroughfare saw 194 vehicles, including the new Armata tank, roll over it multiple times during the parade and rehearsals. It should be noted that while 4 million rubles sounds like an impressive figure, it actually comes out to a about $79,000 dollars.
From the Editor: The Importance of the Hyphen
May 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment
A recent article from “Russia Beyond the Headlines” inadvertently illustrates the importance of the hyphen in tank designations. Generally, Soviet/Russian tanks include a hyphen in their designation. Examples of this are MS-1, T-34 or T-80. US designations generally are not written with the hyphen, so they look like M4, M60 or M1. Since US tanks are generally designated with an “M” and Soviet/Russian tanks with a “T”, the hyphen is usually not all that important. However, the tricky part comes with US prototype vehicles, which were often designated with a “T.” For for example, the US prototype heavy tank “T34” is easy to confuse with the much more famous Soviet medium tank “T-34.” The Russia Beyond the Headlines article “Saddling the Iron horse: How Soviet tanks were born and bred” runs right into this common pitfall. In discussing early Soviet tank design, they mention the T-20, a development of the T-18 (MS-1), one of the very first Soviet tank designs. However, the accompanying picture in the article is an American T20 medium tank prototype from the 1940’s. The T20 was the first of a series of designs that would eventually result in the M26 Pershing tank. Very different vehicles indeed!
T20
T-20
(Credit to Peter Samsonov for finding T-20 picture)
Recent articles from “Armored Warfare” website
May 12, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The website for the video game Armored Warfare has been regularly posting articles about the history of tanks and armored vehicles. Below is a list of some of the recent non-gaming related articles they have posted that may be of interest to tank and AFV enthusiasts.
FRENCH ARMOR HISTORY – RENAULT FT
PIERRE BILLOTTE – HERO OF FRANCE
WORST POST-WAR ARMORED VEHICLES
BMPT a no-show at Victory Day Parade
May 12, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The blog War is Boring has posted a new article asking the question “has the Kremlin fallen out of love with it’s killer BMPT?” The article notes that the BMPT Terminator was absent in the recent military parade, a sign that it may have fallen out of favor with the Russian Military. The article reports that the Terminator may be superseded by the T-15 Armata. The article quotes tank expert Steven Zaloga who makes some interesting comments regarding the new family of vehicles introduced at the Victory Day Parade.
“The Russians are not leaping ahead” with their new armored fleet either, Zaloga noted. “This is an attempt to catch up.” Zaloga said bluntly. “A lot of this stuff is really stale.”
Read the full blog post here.
Book Review: The Tank Factory by William Suttie
May 12, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Tank Factory: British Military Vehicle Development and the Chobham Establishment by William Suttie
Publishers Description:
Despite being the inventor of the tank and responsible for campaign-winning tactics, by the start of the Second World War the United Kingdom had fallen well behind other nations in the design and build of armoured vehicles. Here, William Suttie uncovers the history of tank design from a government perspective and the decisions and failures that led to that state of affairs, and details the formation of the Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establishment at Chertsey. Known as the Tank Factory, the Chertsey establishment sought to ensure that the United Kingdom became world-leading in the field of military vehicle research and design, and that the British Army would never be underprotected or outgunned again. Drawing on unpublished sources and photographs, this fascinating book reveals the establishment’s history, its groundbreaking research and its inventions and designs, including first-hand insights from those who worked there.
“The Tank Factory” by William Suttie is best described as a developmental history rather than a combat history of British Armor. Those looking for descriptions of tank battles or tales of tanker daring-do will have to look elsewhere. This book is a history of the institutions and organizations responsible for the design and production of British tanks, not their use in the field. The focus on the developmental aspects of British armor is not surprising given the authors background as a scientist for the UK Ministry of Defense for over 30 years. Mr. Suttie uses his knowledge and access to unpublished materials to good effect, creating a rather detailed and comprehensive study of the topic. While his writing style is clear and understandable, the somewhat dry nature of the topic may deter some readers. The fact that the book is prefaced with a four page glossary of acronyms is a pretty good warning that this book is not light reading!
From the Editor: The Patents of Georges Even
May 11, 2015 by Leave a Comment
A few weeks ago we were looking for interesting patents of armored vehicles for an article on weird and wonderful old time tank patents. While searching we kept coming across patents by someone named Georges Even. All we know about him is that he was French and he was really into the idea of tiny tanks in the 1950’s and 1960’s based on his patents. We thought these were a bit amusing/interesting and so have decided to share them. These designs are somewhat similar in concept to the US M-50 Ontos or the JapaneseType 60 recoilless gun carrier.
Georges Even Armoured Tank 1957
Georges Even Loading device for externally mounted tank guns 1955
Georges Even Armored vehicle 1954
Georges Even diminutive two-men tank vehicle body 1962
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