News for all things related to Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles
This picture recently appeared in the “Dead Iron” thread over at the Tank-net forum. It’s a colorized photo of a destroyed German WWI Beutepanzer. Obviously this was originally a British tank, although we are not sure exactly what Mark it is ( we would guess a Mark IV male?).
The Tank Museum at Bovington has announced a new exhibition featuring every member of the Tiger tank family to be on display in April of 2017. The Tank Museum will be receiving an Elefant tank destroyer on loan from the US Army Ordnance Training and Heritage Center. According to the image of the display on the Tank Museum website, the featured vehicles will be Tiger 131, the Elefant on loan from the US, a Jagdtiger, a King Tiger with “Porsche” turret and a King Tiger with “Henschel” turret. Oddly, the painting at the top of the page for this exhibit shows a different mix of vehicles, two Tigers, a King Tiger, Jagdtiger and a Sturmtiger. Chalk it up to artistic license we guess. As far as we know, the only surviving Sturmtigers are one in Russia at Kubinka, and one that was at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in the USA which is now at the Munster Panzer Museum in Germany. Bovington is said to have the 380mm mortar from a Sturmtiger, hopefully this artifact will be part of the Tiger Collection exhibit.
Event Description (from Tank Museum website):
The new exhibition, which will be unveiled in April 2017, is aimed at enthusiasts of German armour and will feature new and previously unseen crew interviews and testimonies and account from those who faced them in action.
The development and technology employed in these huge machines along with historical detail about the battles in which they were fought will aim to assess the extent to which these tanks deserve their mighty reputations.
Veteran accounts will include reminiscences from those who were present at the capture of Tiger 131 and the story of Gunner Joe Ekins of the Northamptonshire Yeomanry, who in August 1944, knocked out three Tigers in his Sherman Firefly within a matter of hours. It is believed that one of these Tiger tanks was crewed by famed tank ace Michael Wittmann.
In an interview conducted before his death in 2012, Gunner Ekins recalled; “We were in the orchard, looking out over a couple of thousand yards of flat, plain land. Suddenly there were three Tigers coming across our front. We waited until they were about 800 yards. My commander said ‘target the rear one’ and I fired two shots at him and hit him. We pulled out again and fired at the second tank, hit him with the first shot and it went up in an explosion so, obviously we hit the ammunition or something. By this time the first tank of the three had realised what was going on and he started looking for cover, so it turned a bit towards us, we fired two shots at him and I hit him as well”.
Of course, the German perspective will also be presented. At TANKFEST 2015, former Tiger 1 driver Wilhelm Fischer was interviewed by Museum staff and research is being carried out to identify further personal accounts.
With veteran stories, supporting artefacts, unseen imagery and the stories unique to the vehicles on display, the exhibition will showcase the Museum’s collection of what were arguably the most feared and famous tanks of the Second World War.
This video has been circulating around the internet for a few days. It shows a raccoon stuck trying to fit itself into the drivers hatch periscope hole of an M41 Walker Bulldog light tank.
Remember folks, when filming with your cell phone, hold it sideways to achieve the proper aspect ratio.
The Tank Museum’s David Fletcher takes a look at the Char B-1 heavy tank from 1940.
Last week we made a post about a video of an Iraqi Army M1 Abrams tank being struck by an ISIS anti-tank missile. The video is rather dramatic, showing a huge stream of fire erupting from the tank following the missile impact. As can be expected, the video has resulted in a number of news stories, some better than others. Most of the articles seem to based off a National Interest piece by Dan Goure titled “Are Tanks Obsolete? : YouTube Video Makes the Case for Active Protection Systems.” Aside from the rather cliche question in the beginning of the article title (we say the answer is “no”), the article is well written and makes a good case for the authors central argument; that the US Army needs to speed up development and/or acquisition of active defense systems for its armored vehicle fleet. Of course, as Mr. Goure’s article gets re-interpreted by various media entities, the hyperbole starts to increase. Business Insider picks up the story in an article that casts the video in far more ominous terms, declaring that:
Such an attack represents a big win for ISIS, a loss for the Iraqi people trying to reclaim the city of Mosul, and a glaring warning to US soldiers and Marines: Next time it could be you.
But the true champions of hype are across the pond at the Daily Mail. In this stunning piece of overstatement, they declare that “US made tanks are all but obsolete” and that this is “the video that will chill the blood of every American Tank Crew” as “ISIS obliterates M1 Abrams tank with handheld Russian missile.” Nothing like a little bit of hyperbole to sell some extra copies (or get a few extra clicks.)
One thing we have not seen any article mention is that part of the reason for the dramatic fire coming from the Abrams tank is due to the location of the missile hit. The missile strikes the turret rear where the ammunition is stowed. That part of the vehicle is equipped with blow-out panels that are intended to direct the blast upward and away from the crew in the event of a detonation. How effective were the blow-out panels in protecting the crew in this particular instance? We can’t really say without more evidence, but we certainly do not envy any crewman who happened to be in that tank. What we can say though, is that if the ISIS missile crew were looking for the most sensational video possible, they hit the Abrams in the exact perfect spot to achieve their goal.
One other question not addressed in the articles concerns tactics and training. While these articles treat the question of tank vs missile as primarily a technical one, how much of the fault for the destruction of this tank rests on the training and tactics of the Iraqi soldiers? Certainly, we don’t see any fire being directed toward the launchers of the missile after the Iraqi tank is stuck, which does not seem to speak well of the other soldiers accompanying the targeted tank. While we don’t know much about the exact tactical situation in this particular incident, it seems that it does merit some serious questions regarding how the Iraqi Army is conducting its operations if their valuable Main Battle Tanks are being left easy targets to enemy ATGMs.
Instead of a “Photo of the Day”, we are doing a “Website of the Day” feature today. And the website we would like to focus on is Tank-Hunter.com. For those interested in surving historic armor, there is much to see here. The author of the page, Craig Moore of the UK, has posted an impressive amount of content. The site features galleries of vehicles from each of the combatant countries of WWII (as well as some neutrals) with descriptions of each of the surviving tanks. Aside from the photo history section, there is also a shop section for those looking to purchase some model kits. All in all, a very entertaining and useful website!
While there are hundreds of photos at this site to choose from, we rather like this one of a Churchill II tank from Bovington Tank Museum.
Last Friday we make a photo of the day post titled “Casting a Tank Hull” which showed a red hot Swiss Pz 68 hull being lowered into a vat as part of the hull manufacturing process. We came up with the title of the post rather quickly, and frankly, it’s a sloppy title. As several readers have pointed out, the image does not depict the actual casting process, but rather the heat treating of the hull after it is cast. As one reader in the comments section noted:
Looks like oil bath tempering of the pre-heated casting. The hull will have been cast , fettled (de-scaled), runners and risers removed, then reheated to homogenize, before quenching.
So yes, we admit it was a less than accurate headline. Normally we would move on without mentioning it, except for the fact that this post has, as they say, “gone viral.” It would seem that Facebook is to blame. Typically, our facebook posts reach a number of people in the two digits range. “Casting a Tank Hull” has reached 83,155 people and been shared 231 times. And while we are very grateful for the exposure, we really wish it hadn’t been for a post with an inaccurate title. Oh well, any publicity is good publicity, as they say…
We don’t know any details regarding this photo, but it appears to be an early model M4 Sherman modified to look like a German Panzer. We would guess this picture comes from a US training area in the South-West USA.
Here are a few articles concerning AFVs that are circulating the internet today. These articles are a rather mixed bag in terms of quality. In particular, the Daily Mail piece on the Ajax comes off as a rather shoddy piece of journalism. That said, it’s bound to be read by a good many people so we figured it was worth pointing out. As always, click on the title to read the full article.
The Indian Army plans to buy 464 advanced T-90 battle tanks from Russia for deployment on its western borders with Pakistan. The Rs 13,448-crore contract will include a Make-in-India element for integration at the Heavy Vehicles Factory in Avadi near Chennai. The 10 new regiments of T-90MS tanks, equipped with thermal imaging night sights to allow the tank commander to hit at enemy locations even during night battles, will strengthen army’s fire power along the land border stretch with Pakistan-from Jammu in north till the western flank in Gujarat.
Just how far can you soup up a tank from the 1960s? The M60 Patton was the mainstay of the U.S tank fleet in the 1960s and 1970s, before being replaced by the M1 Abrams tank currently in service. However, more than five thousand Pattons remain in service in the armies of nineteen countries. Earlier this year, Raytheon unveiled its Service-Life Extension Package (SLEP) upgrade featuring a new engine, fire control system and 120-millimeter gun. This M60 SLEP is in competition with a pre-existing three-tier upgrade offered by Israel Military Industries for their M60 Sabra. Sabras in Turkish service, designated the M60T, are active on the battlefield of Northern Syria today, while older-model Pattons are fighting on both sides of the war in Yemen.
A huge contract to modernize the British Army’s main battle tanks could see much of the work go abroad. The Ministry of Defense is updating its 227 Challenger 2 tanks with the digital capabilities needed to be an effective part of Britain’s military might, as well as extend their service lives. The Daily Telegraph understands military chiefs have now whittled down the bids to just two, who will each be asked to build a prototype vehicle as part of a final assessment phase. One of the groups is a consortium headed by BAE Systems and General Dynamics UK. Also involved are QinetiQ, Leonardo, Moog and Safran. The other joint venture is led by Germany’s Rheinmetall, which is working with Supacat, Thales UK and BMT.
The Army’s new £3.5billion mini-tanks are ‘death traps’ that are only useful against ‘incompetent enemies’ who cannot hit them with heavy artillery, it is claimed. Hundreds of Ajax mini-tanks are due to be supplied to the Army next year with the full order of 600 delivered to the Ministry of Defense by 2024. Sources have claimed the delivery could be delayed due to complications with a revolutionary weapons system fitted on board each tank, although the MoD has insisted the project will be completed on time and will provide the ‘best’ tanks. Critics claim the ‘lightly armored’ tanks cannot stand up to heavy artillery and say the weaponry on board is not sufficient – with the gun having already ‘stopped working’ during foreign trials.
China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) debuted its VT5 lightweight main battle tank (MBT) at Airshow China 2016 in Zhuhai. The VT5 has been developed specifically for the export market and has a combat weight of between 33 and 36 tonnes, depending on the armour package fitted and measures 9.20 m (gun forward) in length, by 3.30 m (with side skirts) in width, and 2.50 m (turret roof) in height. The baseline hull and turret is all-welded steel armour to which a modular protection package can be fitted depending on the end user’s operational requirements. This can include advanced composite armour, explosive reactive armour (ERA), or a mix of the two.
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