From the Editor: Panther Reliability

February 8, 2015 by 3 Comments

(This piece was originally posted on my old blog on Feb 18, 2014. We are slowly in the process of migrating the popular material from the blog over to here.)

Panther_tank_42Over at the World of Tanks forum, there have been quite a few debates over the merits of the German WWII medium tank “Panther.”  No vehicles seems to illicit the range of opinions as the Panther does, and judging from how heated the debate often becomes, people are emotionally invested to a surprising degree in this particular piece of military equipment.

One of the more interesting posts on the topic is in the “Chieftains Hatch” section of the forum, it details a postwar report by the French in regards to the Panther tanks they used in the late forties.  This report [Read more…]

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From the Editor: German “Cats” Influential?

February 6, 2015 by 1 Comment

This article was originally the very first post on the “Tank and AFV Blog” published back in November of 2012.   This is a slightly edited version.  

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Royal TigerOne thing I was thinking about lately is how many times I have read books or internet posts that describe the late war German tanks, particularly the Panther and the Tiger 2 as having a great deal of influence on post-war tank design.  The more I have thought about this, the less I agree with it.  In fact, I would argue that the Panther and Tiger 2 were pretty much developmental dead ends with few aspects of their design being adopted in post war vehicles.   These two vehicles were influential  only in the very general sense that they raised the bar in terms of what a medium or a heavy tank could weigh.  Their existence prompted the allied countries to develop heavier vehicles with the appropriate armor and firepower to match the late war German “cats”, but they did not actually borrow many design features from them.  [Read more…]

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Q&A with “Ensign Expendable” of Archive Awareness

February 5, 2015 by 3 Comments

header4For those who regularly visit forums such as World of Tanks, War Thunder or Tank Net, the name Ensign Expendable is a familiar one.  The man behind the Ensign Expendable avatar is Peter Samsonov, creator of the website/blog  Archive Awareness.  Digging through online archives only made available since the end of the Cold War, Samsonov diligently posts on a daily basis, translating Soviet archive material into English for a North American audience.  Armed with his blog, Ensign Expendable is a man on a mission, battling what he sees as a cold war legacy of negative perceptions in the West of Soviet tanks and armored vehicles.

For those interested in Soviet tanks of the Great Patriotic War (World War II), Archive Awareness has much to offer.   [Read more…]

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From the Editor: Debunking Deathtraps Part 1

January 29, 2015 by 31 Comments

(Editors note: this originally appeared in my old blog – tankandavf.blogspot.com – on 2/26/2015.)traps

When it comes to the history of armored warfare in the Second World War, the US M4 Sherman tank is always sure to draw controversy and a good bit of discussion.  Invariably, when this topic is raised in an online forum, someone will bring up the book “Death Traps” by Belton Cooper.  With a forward by popular historian Stephen Ambrose and the backing of a major publisher, Death Traps has become quite well known amongst WW2 history aficionados.  Mr. Cooper has been featured in TV documentary specials as well, including the history channel series “Engineering Disasters“, which has further increased awareness of his book.

[Read more…]

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From the Editor: The Forgotten Legacy of Harry Knox

January 29, 2015 by Leave a Comment

US2093456-0I find it interesting that the names of individual tank designers, or at least the heads of design teams, got much more recognition in the Soviet Union than in the Western world.  Ask the average tank enthusiast to name a western tank designer and you probably won’t get many responses beyond “Walter Christie” or “Ferdinand Porsche.”  However, start reading about Soviet designs and you will run into all sorts of names like Koshkin, Kotin, Morozov or Kartsev.   Of course, part of this has to do with the Western tendency to attribute vehicle design to a corporation while the Soviet system relied on design teams named after the lead designer.   [Read more…]

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Interview with Steven Zaloga

January 27, 2015 by 24 Comments

armored champion w zaloga From the Editor: Last October I had agreed to do a phone interview of author Steven Zaloga for a piece that was going to run in Battlefield.scout.com.  Unfortunately, Battlefield did not achieve their target readership numbers and the editor was forced to put it into hiatus before the Zaloga interview was posted.  Rather than see it get lost, I received permission from the editor of Battlefield to publish the interview on my blog.  I have since moved the interview from the blog to Tank and AFV News.com. I want to thank Battlefield for helping set up this interview and for Mr. Zaloga for giving his time.  I highly recommend any book by Mr. Zaloga.  Be sure to check out his upcoming book “Armored Champion” when it comes out this spring. 

[Read more…]

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