Today we decided that sometimes the Photo of the Day feature can be a video instead.
Here is a youtube clip of Viivi Pumpanen, Miss Finland 2010, driving a T-55.
Book Alert: World of Tanks books to be released in English
February 17, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The website for Casemate books is listing a March 16 releases for two books in the “World of Tanks” series published by Wargaming.net. These books were originally released in Russia and claim to contain research based on archival materials never before examined or published.
The first book is “The T-34 Goes to War” by A. Ulanov, D. Shein and Dana Lombardy. The book is hardcover, has 224 pages and includes photos, illustrations, tables, diagrams, and color plates. The second book is “SU-152 and Related Vehicles” by Yuri Igorevich Pasholok and Christopher Parker. This volume is 272 pages in hardcover.
Publishers Description:
In 2012, the company that created World of Tanks, the phenomenal worldwide massive, multi-player online game, started publishing a series of books in Russian that utilized Soviet documents and archival materials that had never before been seen by outsiders or published in any language about the design, procurement, development, manufacturing, and combat employment of Soviet armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) during World War Two (the Great Patriotic War to Russians). Now these remarkable books are being published in English with the obvious aphorism The Russian View.
Photo of the Day 2/16/2016
February 16, 2016 by Leave a Comment
World War II reenactor and retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Kose inspects the M4 Sherman Tank. The reenactor was supporting the 728th Combat Support Sustainment Battalion’s noncommissioned officer and commissioned officer development program. More here.
Tiger Tank themed parade float causes controversy
February 16, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Obviously, this is not a real tiger tank. This is a float that was part of a carnival parade in the town of Steinkirchen bei Pfaffenhofen. The message on the side of the float translates to “asylum defense” and is meant as an anti-immigration message. German authorities are investigating whether or not to press charges against the float builders. German law prohibits the public display of the Nazi swastika, although there is no law against public display of the Balkendreuz. More here.
Photo of the Day 2/15/2016
February 15, 2016 by 1 Comment
Kurdish female fighters commandeer a tank during a battle for an air base in north Syria
Tanks inside the Wire
February 14, 2016 by 2 Comments
The Newton Citizen (Georgia) has posted an article chronicling the story of Paul Longgrear, a US Army officer who commanded a special forces unit in Vietnam that engaged a unit of North Vietnamese PT-76 tanks.
Excerpt:
Lang Vei soon received a warning from the NSA to stop patrolling trails. The NSA had overheard NVA orders to set up ambushes and reposition men and equipment. The “beast” was stirring.
“The NVA overran the village of Khe Sanh near the Marine base in late January,” Longgrear recalled. “Apparently they thought the Marines would bail out the village, but our mobile strike force hit the NVA from their rear. We killed a bunch of bad guys, but it caused the NVA to change tactics. Instead of using tanks against the Khe Sanh Marine base, they used two tank battalions against Lang Vei, that’s 16 PT-76 tanks.”
Feb. 6, 2330 hours: Sgt. Nickolas Fragos reports, “tanks inside the wire.”
“That’s when all your training kicks in,” Longgrear said. “We left the TOC to man 81mm mortars. It was pitch dark outside, so we lit up the night with illumination rounds so the Montagnards could see the NVA infantry. A tank without infantry support is a rolling coffin.”
Video: Everything about made-in Ukraine Tanks
February 14, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Ukraine Today has released a new video called “Weapons: Everything about made-in Ukraine Tanks.” As might be expected, the video focuses on the T-64 MBT and has a rather pro-Ukraine tone.
Photo of the Day 2/14/2016
February 14, 2016 by 1 Comment
Considering that today is Valentine’s Day, we thought the most appropriate subject for the PotD would be a Valentine tank. This picture shows a rather unusual Valentine, it’s a vehicle that was in service on the island of Cyprus in the 1960’s. It was missing it’s turret which had been replaced by a simple metal box-like superstructure and armed with a BREN gun. More info here.
Terrier CEV in the News
February 13, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Several news outlets have run articles in the past couple days about the British Terrier Combat Engineer Vehicle. The articles have focused on the introduction of a new telescopic investigation arm for the vehicle as well as it’s nickname of “Swiss army knife.” As is typical with mainstream news articles about AFVs, they Terrier is repeatedly referred to as a “tank” and a fair amount of hyperbole is used to describe the vehicle. An article from The Telegraph is fairly benign, aside from comparing the Terrier to a ‘Transformer.” New York Post claims that the Terrier “has more gadgets than the Batmobile.” The Daily Mail clearly fails to understand the role of a CEV, stating that the Terrier is “Capable of…causing wanton destruction in it’s wake, the British Army’s new battle tank looks like the stuff of Hollywood action films.” However, the award for most sensationalist reporting on the Terrier goes to Huffington Post UK for their headline “Terrier Vehicle Is The British Army’s Latest Terrifying Toy (But Where Will They Use Them?)”
For a more sober description of the Terrier, there is a video featuring Christopher Foss of IHS Janes describing the Terrier circa 2014.
Here is a video from October of last year showing some Terrier CEVs in the field.
And lastly, here is a video on the Terrier made by the manufacturer, BAE.
Photo of the Day 2/13/2016
February 13, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Two Abrams tanks of the 3rd Infantry division alongside a Leopard IIA4 tank of the Polish 10th Cavalry Brigade. More photos here.
Tank and AFV News 