For those that like seeing footage of AFV restoration projects, check out this video series from SABOT Videos showing a WWII era German Flakpanzer being brought back to life by the crew at the CFB Borden Military Museum.
The Matilda Diaries Part 13
June 16, 2017 by 1 Comment
Episode 13 of the Matilda Diaries, documenting the restoration of the Matilda tank at the Tank Museum at Bovington.
Tank Chats #39 Sherman M4A1 Michael
June 16, 2017 by Leave a Comment
David Fletcher of the Bovington Tank Museum takes a look at “Michael”, the second Sherman tank ever produced.
World of Tanks: S-Tank in Ten Minutes with Stefan Karlsson
June 13, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Nicholas Moran of World of Tanks presents a short video on the Swedish S-Tank.
WWI Parade “Tanks” Photo Gallery
June 12, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday Steven Zaloga posted a series of photos on his facebook account of various imitation tanks built during WWI and used as public displays for promoting war bond sales. He graciously agreed to let us post the photos here in a digital gallery. These are really quite fun, especially the rather nicely done imitation A7V shown on parade promoting the U.S. Tank Corps in New York City.
Gallery description from Steven Zaloga:
While working on a book in the Osprey New Vanguard series on early US tanks, I kept running into newspaper accounts of tanks on parade in various US cities in 1918, mostly for Liberty Loan drives. There were a handful of British tanks used for this purpose, but obviously not enough to go around. So a lot of cities built their own. This had led to some confusion, as some of these things were identified as real tank prototypes in various accounts. Obviously not judging from the photos of the Plywood Panzers. Here’s a sampling, courtesy of the files of NARA.
Lindybeige on the Panzer III
June 9, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Here is youtube personality “Lindybeige” at the Bovington Tank Museum describing the German Panzer III tank. We present this for your entertainment, although we would argue that some of the details in the presentation are debatable.
Tank Chats #38 Churchill
June 2, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Historian David Fletcher MBE, in the 38th Tank Chat discussing the well-loved Churchill tank. The Churchill in this video resides at The Tank Museum, Bovington and was the last Churchill VII of the production line.
Discover Magazine: Memorial Day Parade 1922: Runaway Tank Kills Veteran
June 2, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Here is an interesting blog post from Discover Magazines website about a tragic accident involving some tanks in a Memorial Day Parade in 1922. We have posted the first couple paragraphs of the post below. The entire piece may be read here.
Memorial Day Parade 1922: Runaway Tank Kills Veteran
By Jeremy Hsu
New York City Memorial Day celebrations have featured parades of military hardware almost since the earliest commemorations following the U.S. Civil War. Barely 15 years after that war’s end, Union Army veterans from New Jersey marched alongside a battery of rapid-fire Gatling guns in a New York City parade described as being “intended to eclipse all former demonstrations.” As World War I loomed just beyond the horizon in 1914, crowds cheered a “wicked looking battery of machine gun troop of New York Cavalry” and the “brave array of war equipment” on parade. But in 1922, one unfortunate military veteran was crushed to death between two light “whippet” tanks on parade after one of the armored vehicles’s engines started up for unknown reasons.
The sergeant of the Bronx National Guardsmen of the 27th Tank Company who died in that freak Memorial Day incident was named Julian Stahlschmidt. A board of inquiry later awarded him a posthumous medal of valor for trying to “stop a tank which had run amuck, threatening the lives of throngs who lined the sidewalks watching the parade.” It’s not clear from the initial New York Times story whether or not the tank had actually been threatening to crush crowds of spectators lining Riverside Drive along Manhattan’s Upper West Side. But it does seem that Stahlschmidt was trying to switch off the runaway tank’s motor when he slipped and fell between the armored vehicle and the tank lined up ahead of it.
“Mad Money” Host criticized by Poland for propagating myth of Polish cavalry attacking German Panzers
May 24, 2017 by Leave a Comment
It’s probably been a while since the Battle of Krojanty in 1939 made the news, but that is what recently happened according to a blog post on the website of FP (Foreign Policy) magazine. The post states that Mad Money host Jim Cramer used the myth of Polish Cavalry attacking German Panzers as a metaphor for the struggling department store Macy’s. This prompted a response from the Polish Embassy in Washington that he apologize for the comments, which they regard as “unnecessary, inaccurate, and insensitive.”
The notion of Polish Cavalry charging German tanks during the 1939 campaign is a rather enduring one in the popular consciousness, despite having been debunked repeatedly by military historians. Nazi propagandists created the story of the Polish Army deploying cavalry against German tanks as part of their attempt to effort to present the WWII Wehrmacht as an ultra-modern, mechanized force. The reality was that much like the Polish Army, the majority of the Wehrmacht relied on horses for transport.
Article Excerpt:
On May 11, Mad Money host Jim Cramer compared the struggling department store Macy’s to Poland’s early efforts against the German Wehrmacht in World War II. “Macy’s is like the Polish Army in WWII — it tried to field cavalry against German tanks and it did not end well,” he said.
The Polish Embassy in Washington issued a fiery response to Cramer, demanding he apologize for comments that were “unnecessary, inaccurate, and insensitive.”
Cramer was recycling an oft-cited tale of Polish lancers who supposedly charged German tanks at the outset of World War II — making it the very epitome of blinkered futility.
The problem is that never actually happened, and it’s become a huge sore spot for Poland ever since.
Read the full post here.
For more information on the Polish Cavalry vs Panzer myth, check out this article from a 1984 issue of ARMOR authored by Steven Zaloga.
Inside the Chieftain’s Hatch: Strv 103C part 3
May 24, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The third and final installment in the Chieftain’s series on the Swedish S-Tank.
Tank and AFV News 