Russian tank reseacher Yuri Pasholok has posted a number of videos from Tank Day at Arsenalen (the Swedish Tank Museum) on YouTube. There are twelve in total, we have posted them below.
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Videos from Tank Day at Arsenalen – The Swedish Tank Museum
September 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Weald Foundation
September 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
For those interested in the restoration of historical AFVs, be sure to check out the website for the Weald Foundation. Located at the Weald of Kent UK, the Weald Foundation started out as the SdKfz Military Vehicle Foundation, restoring a collection of German WW2 reconnaissance vehicles. They have since expanded their efforts to include some First World War vehicles as well as any other “interesting vehicles missing from the National Collection and those which would be considered unique or rare elsewhere in the world.” The Weald Foundation offers a number of volunteer and training programs centered around the restoration of historic vehicles. They maintain an online magazine called “Inside Track” which is available to members. A sample of articles can be read here. A gallery of their vehicle collection can be viewed here. Some of the most notable vehicles in the collection include a JagdPanther, a Stug III, a Renault FT and Panzerspahwagen 232.
Poland introduces new variants for Rosomak 8×8 family of vehicles
September 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Jane’s is reporting that Polish Armaments Group (PGZ) unveiled several new developments and variants of the Rosomak 8×8 family at the MSPO defense exhibition held in Kielce from 1-4 September. These include the modernized Rosomak-M, the uprated Rosomak-XP, a Rosomak direct support vehicle armed with a 120 mm cannon, the first production-model Rosomak-WPT engineering support vehicle, and a new unmanned ZSSW-30 turret prototype. Details about each new variant can be read at the Jane’s website.
Child taken to first day of school in BMP-1
September 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Yahoo news has posted an amusing story about a father who took his son to his first day of school in a BMP-1 Infantry Fighting Vehicle. The father and son live in the Donstsk in south-eastern Ukraine. As might be guessed, the boy and his father were a big hit with the other school children, who clambered all over the vehicle for pictures. Parent Vitaly Dolgorukova said: ‘It’s not unusual to see tanks around here but I’ve never seen one doing the school run before, I thought it was a really fun idea that took away the nerves of a lot of the new kids.’ The boy’s father, the tank commander, is believed to be a member of a Russian-backed separatist militia.
Picture of the day: Tank meets Car
September 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment
This is what can happen if you run a red light.
Inside the Chieftain’s Hatch: M53/M55
September 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
A new episode of the “Inside the Hatch” series of videos starring World of Tanks Nicholas ‘The Chieftain” Moran has been posted. This installment looks at the M53 and M55 self propelled guns.
Book Alert: Conqueror Heavy Gun Tank
September 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Later this month Tankograd Publishing will be releasing a new book on the Conqueror Heavy Gun Tank by Carl Schutze. This will be a softcover book of 64 pages with 12 color and 94 b&w photos and 17 graphics. Text is in both English and German.
Publisher’s Description:
The FV214 Conqueror heavy gun tank was developed and fielded by the British Army in the early years of the Cold War to counter the threat caused by Soviet heavy tanks such as the IS-3 and the T-10. If the Cold War had turned hot, the Conqueror would have served as a tank destroyer to knock out enemy armor at a range superior to that of the Centurion main battle tanks.
This publication describes the development history, the technology, variants and the only eight year long in-service life of the Conqueror heavy gun tank. Also covered is the Conqueror armored recovery vehicle.
Slovak-Polish Diana Self-propelled Howitzer debuts at MSPO
September 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Jane’s is reporting that at Poland’s MSPO defense exhibition in Kielce, the new 155mm Diana tracked SPH was unveiled. Developed for a requirement by the Indian Army, the Diana SPH is a product of Konstrukta Defense and consists of a Slovakian autonomous 155mm L55 armed turret mounted on a Polish Bumar-Labedy UPG-NG tracked chassis. This turret was originally developed for use on an 8×8 wheeled chassis. According to the Jane’s article, the primary reason the Polish tracked chassis was selected was because it shares many common components with the T-72 main battle tank, a vehicle used by many of the potential customers for this artillery system. The UPG-NG vehicle was initially designed for the Krab SPH, but was dropped in favor of the SOuth Korean K9 chassis.
Jane’s article here.
For those that would like more information on both the Polish Krab SPG and the Diana SPG, and are willing to use google translate, this Polish Language LiveJournal post may be of interest. Here are the stats for the Diana SPG as provided in the LiveJournal post:
Diana (like Zuzana 2) using the automated loading system is capable of five shots in the first minute of opening fire, or 13 shots during the three minutes. Manual loading is possible if required. SAU Diana has a very impressive ammunition load of 80 rounds and 80 charges, out of which 40 projectiles and 40 charges placed in the automatic loader, and the other 40 projectiles and 40 charges – lie in the aft hull. The combat weight of Diana is 50 tons, length is 11, 8 m, width 3.5 m, height of the tower on the roof of 3.69 m. Engine S12U. The maximum road speed of 60 km / h on the highway cruising range to 650 km.
Video from Russian Military Festival
September 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Today we present some videos posted a couple weeks ago from the Military Festival outside of Moscow on August 9, 2015. Several WW2 era vehicles in running condition are shown in these videos. As far as we can discern, some of these vehicles are genuine, some are replica’s using some original parts. These videos are from the Russian language youtube channel belonging to “yolkhere.”
Light tanks T-60 & T-70
Valentine Mk III & M3 Stuart
T-34 Model 1943
SU-76 SPG
10.5cm sFH18 (Sf) auf Geschutzwagen Lorraine Schlepper (f)
PzKpfw II tank replica
PzKpfw VI “Tiger“ tank replica
IS-2 heavy tank & ISU-152 self-propelled gun
From the Vault: Newspaper articles on US Korean War tanks
September 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment
It’s been said that newspapers represent the “first draft of history.” We were reminded of that quote when a reader recently sent us a link to a newspaper article concerning UN tanks in the Korean War. The reader figured we would be interested since the article makes mention of the term “Ronson” to describe the Sherman tank, a topic we have looked at in previous posts. Reading the article got us curious as to what other newspaper coverage there was of US armor in the Korean war and how they represented US armor. We found a number of articles, fourteen of which we have included in a gallery in this post. Many are from the first year of the war when UN forces found themselves having issues dealing with North Korean T-34/85 tanks. These articles tend to focus on the new line of tanks the US has coming out (M41, M47) while also generally praising Soviet tank design. It is interesting that many of these articles mention the IS-3 in quite glowing terms, stating that the US has nothing in it’s arsenal comparable. As we know now, no IS-3 or any other Soviet heavy tank was used in the Korean war. The articles from later in the war tend to focus on the new US tanks entering service. It’s interesting to note that these articles regularly describe the new US vehicles as more maneuverable than the older WW2 era Sherman tanks in service. This is not a view shared by some veterans who drove these vehicles and found the Sherman more suited to the very rough and mountainous terrain of Korea.
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- Tuscaloosa News July 22 1950
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- The Owosso Argus Press Aug 3 1950
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- The Southeast Missourian Aug 3 1950
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- Sydney Morning Herald Aug 17 1950
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- Milwaukee Journal Aug 23 1950
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- Eugene Register-Guard Aug 23 1950
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- The Sunday Star Aug 27 1950
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- Spokane Daily Chronicle Sep 2 1950
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- The Evening Independent Dec 21 1950
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- Milwaukee Journal June 20 1951
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- Milwaukee Journal Mar 14 1952
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- Herald Journal Mar 23 1952
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- Toledo Blade Apr 17 1952
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- St. Petersburg Times Jun 1 1952
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