The Youtube Channel “Military History” has a number of videos pertaining to tanks and armored warfare in World War II. The narrator has a strong accent but is fairly understandable.
The Chieftain’s Hatch: Patton Troubles
March 7, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Over at the WoT forum, Nicholas “The Chieftain” Moran has posted a second article about the issues encountered during the early testing of the M46 “Patton” Medium Tank.
Excerpt:
Last week, we saw how Armored Board was not entirely happy with the T40 medium tanks which they had received for testing. Bearing in mind that the M46 entered production before Armored Board had even started testing T40, the testing was as much just to prepare Fort Knox for things to keep a particular eye out when they finally did get some M46s to play with. Some defects had been noticed by Aberdeen before Fort Knox received the vehicles, and some modifications incorporated. Some.
M46 #12 as it arrived. This tank survived the testing process. Note the name painted on the side.
These new M46 tanks showed up in the very beginning of 1950, Fort Knox immediately ceased the T40 testing program, parked the four vehicles, and set about the four M46s they received. The first thing they did was break them in gently, running about 200 road miles, and not exceeding 2,200 rpm. Then the testing started. Over the course of the test, the four tanks ran the following distances.
Video of the Day: GoPro Mounted On Iraqi Abrams Tank
March 5, 2016 by Leave a Comment
This video showed up on Youtube two days ago. The description states that “with a GoPro mounted on an Abrams, Iraqi military and paramilitary units teamed up to clear the Alsjarih neighborhood of Ramadi.”
More Armored Oddities of Syria/Iraq
March 5, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Back in mid-January we presented a photo gallery of some of the armored oddities from Syria and Iraq that have shown up around the web. Here is an update to that earlier post.
First, lets start with armored pickup trucks.
Next we have a variety of armored trucks, gun trucks and other wheeled vehicles.
Here are some construction vehicles converted to armored vehicles.
Our final gallery consists of various armored personal carriers modified with extra armor and/or cannons. The 23mm ZU-23 seems to be a particular favorite for mounting on these vehicles.
Credit to LooSeR over at SH forum for digging up most of these.
From the Vault: WO 195-15442 – Resistance of armour to attack by HESH
March 5, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The British have always had a bit of a thing for HESH ammunition. Here is a British report from 1962 on the effectiveness of HESH projectiles against armor plate. The basic jist of the report is that they found a wide difference in plate behavior when hit by a squash head (HESH) projectile.
Osprey Books “Duel Series” Survey
March 3, 2016 by 1 Comment
Osprey Books has posted on their website a survey asking people to vote on which title of the “Duel” series they would like to see.
The options are:
M3 Stuart vs Type 95 Ha-Gō: 1941–42
Churchill vs Tiger: Tunisia 1943
Ferdinand tank destroyer vs SU-152 self-propelled howitzer: Kursk 1943
Cromwell vs PzKpfw IV: Normandy 1944
StuG III vs T-34: Eastern Front 1944
You can go vote for your choice here.
They also have an option where you can write in your own title suggestion.
Here at Tank and AFV News.com, we would like to see a Duel book on “Panzers VS Jabos (fighterbombers): Normandy, 1944.”
Book Alert: M1 Abrams Breacher
March 3, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Tankograd Publishing has announced a mid-March release date for their upcoming book on the M1 Assault Breacher Vehicle. This is a soft cover volume of 64 pages filled with quality illustrations and color photographs and is authored by Ralph Zwilling & Walter Bohm.
Publishers Description:
The M1 Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV) is the newest and long expected addition to the M1 Abrams tank family. The M1 ABVs fielded by the US Army and US Marine Corps marked the end of a very long search and development by the US Armed Forces for a vehicle to clear mines, as well as one that can be used as a dozer to clear battlefield obstacles and to prepare firing positions. Today, the USMC fields 52 M1 ABVs and the US Army procured 187 vehicles.
This publication explains the development history and technology of the M1 Abrams Breacher in great detail. An extensive photo-graphical walk around allows to see all details of the assault breacher vehicle when compared to the main battle tank and shows the specialized engineer equipment.
Photo of the Day: Sonar Scan of Valentine Tank
March 3, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Today we present this image generated by sonar of a WW2 era British Valentine tank lost at sea. Several of these vehicles are at the bottom of Studland Bay and can be viewed as 3-D images here.
“Tank Shredder” company purchased by KMW
March 1, 2016 by 1 Comment
Jane’s is reporting that German tank manufacturer Krauss Maffei-Wegmann (KMW) has puchased GmbH Koch, a company that specializes in dismantling tanks and armored vehicles. According to Jane’s:
The company, which takes apart tanks at a facility in Rockensussra, Germany, is the only NATO-certified company to dismantle tanks, KMW said in a press release. The company has been shredding tanks since 1991, and has dismantled 16,000 military vehicles to date. Battle Tank Dismantling was previously owned by the Scholz Group, a scrapping company.
Here are a few images of vehicles at the GmbH Koch facility. (more images here.)
Spahpanzer Luchs
BTR-50
Panzer 68
Marder IFV
Photo of the Day 3/1/2016
March 1, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Here’s a version of the Maus tank that actually lives up to it’s name.
(Thanks to SuperComrade over at SH forum)
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