Book Alert: General Lesley J. McNair: Unsung Architect of the U.S. Army

April 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment

download (3)Amazon has posted at April 7 release date for the book “General Lesley J. McNair: Unsung Architect of the U.S. Army” by Mark Calhoun.  McNair was chief of staff, General Headquarters from 1940-42 and then commander, Army Ground Forces from 1942-1944.  In that capacity, he had a great deal of influence on the formation, doctrine and policies of the US Army, including the Armor and Tank Destroyer branches.  It is not uncommon to find his name mentioned in online discussions about US WW2 armor, particularly when it comes to the debate over the late introduction of the M26 Pershing tank into the ETO.  Often, McNair is presented as the villain in such discussions, a characterization that is most likely unfair.  While it is probable that the issues concerning tank deployment and development that so fascinate tank aficionados will only comprise a small part of this book, hopefully there will be much of value here for those interested in the development of the US Armor force in WW2.

Publisher’s Description:

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Paladin M109A7 “PIM” program moves forward

April 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment

BAE-Paladin-PPIM-in-desert-300x199Breaking Defense has posted an article on the Paladin PIM (Paladin Integrated Management), also known as the M109A7.  The article points out that PIM is a substantial upgrade to the hull of the vehicle, replacing the old automotive systems of the M109 with that of the Bradley IFV, including a more powerful 600 volt power system and replaces the turret hydraulics with a new electric system.  The article quotes BAE head of combat vehicle programs Mark Signorelli saying “M109A6 built a new turret and put it on the old chassis,” “M109A7 put a new chassis under the A6 turret, with a few upgrades to the turret, and effectively in two steps the Army built a new howitzer.”  Certainly, the M109A7 is not as radical an upgrade as the cancelled Crusader SPG program which was ended in 2002 or the XM1203 Non-Line of Sight Cannon that was proposed as part of the “Future Combat Systems” program which was cancelled in 2009.  However, M109A7 has one great advantage over these previous, more ambitious SPG programs; the ability to successfully survive the US Army’s less than stellar procurement system.

Read the Breaking Defense article here.

Filed Under: Modern Vehicle News Tagged With: , ,

M10 Applique armor

April 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment

m104Over at Status Report blog, contributor “Vollketten” has written a description of the applique armor system found on the M10 tank destroyer.  The article is well researched and includes a nice selection of images drawn from wartime photos, patent applications and existing display vehicles.  Vollketten has a reputation as one of the more knowledgeable and worthwhile participants at the WoT forums, we look forward to seeing more of his articles at Status Report.

Article excerpt:

Today, there appears to be only a single example of the M10 left anywhere with this spaced armour and it is this one on public display at Veckring near Le Hackenberg. The side armour is complete on the left hand side and missing a piece at the front on the right. Even then, the side armour could well just be re-fabricated post war. This particular vehicle has undergone restoration and repainting as at some point in its life it used to be known as ‘Rose Coombs’

Read the full article at Status Report.

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Issue #2 of The Armor Journal released

April 7, 2015 by Leave a Comment

armor journal 2Issue #2 of The Armor Journal has been released this week.  Subtitled “the ultimate guide to rivet-counting”, this issue of the Armor Journal features articles on the 40/43M Zrinyi at Kubinka, the Soviet View of the King Tiger, Chinese Amphibious AFVs, and the Panzerfahre ferry vehicle.  Also featured in this issue is an article on the Chieftain MBT written by noted author Rob Griffin!  The magazine is available in either print or PDF version and can be purchased at The Armor Journal website.

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Shipwrecked Sherman Tanks Video

April 7, 2015 by Leave a Comment

A video of several Sherman tanks lying on the sea bed has been making the rounds the past few days.  The video shows a scuba diver swimming over at least seven Sherman tanks.  These vehicles are from the shipwreck of the SS Empire Heritage located of the north coast of Donegal in Ireland in 70 meters of water.  SS Empire Heritage was a 15,000 steam tanker torpedoed in 1944 by German submarine U-482.  The ship took all 113 of its passengers down with it.  The location is a popular spot for divers due to the scattered tanks and other interesting debris.

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Captured Cromwell tanks in the Korean War

April 7, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Cromwell smallThe blog “Thank you for Your Service” has posted an interesting article about captured Cromwell tanks in service with the North Korean Army during the Korean War.  The article states that there has been a good deal of debate over how a handful of British Cromwell tanks ended up in the hands of the North Koreans.  The answer to the question seems to be a battle in late 1950/early 1951 called “The Battle of Happy Valley” in which several Cromwell tanks were captured.  The article notes that many of these Cromwell tanks were later recaptured by UN forces, and in one instance, a Cromwell was shot and destroyed by a British Centurion tank.   The article also mentions a Cromwell in North Korean service that was captured by South Korean Marines during the Inchon landings.  All in all, a rather interesting read accompanied with some good photos.

Read the entire article at “Thank you for Your Service” blog.

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Czech Army on lessons learned regarding Russian armor in Ukraine

April 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

M004f9eb2_INC_0684Status Report has posted a translation of an interesting article from Czech news source natoaktual.cz reporting on recent observations by the former Czech army chief of staff on lessons learned from the fighting in Ukraine.  The article contains a rather harsh critique of Soviet/Russian designed tanks, criticizing them for their lack of interior space and poor crew safety.  The author of the article concludes the article with the recommendation that the Czech Army should get rid of their Soviet designed vehicles and replace them with Western designs.

Article excerpt:

The Soviet armor concept is built around small dimensions and low silhouettes. Combined with the relatively high quality of armor as well as sharp armor plate angles, when these vehicles were introduced, they were considered highly effective. The development roots however reach back to the 50’s with the development continuing in 60’s and 70’s.

This Soviet concept required many solutions that were far from optimal. Especially the inside of the vehicles is so cramped that the crew often does not have enough space to perform their functions. This increases the crew fatigue especially during longer operations, leading to tiredness and mistakes. The worst issue however is the fact that the crew was limited to three members by replacing the loader with an automatic loading system.

The full translation can be read at Status Report.  The original article in Czech can be viewed here.

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From the Vault: Panther Videos

April 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Today we present for your viewing pleasure various videos about the German Pz. V Panther.

We will start with this Youtube playlist of clips of Panther restoration.  For those interested in seeing various components of the Panther up close, these should prove satisfying.  There are 20 clips in the playlist, click here to view.

Next is a playlist of five clips of Panther tanks moving around.  These are nice in that they give the viewer an idea of what this vehicle actually sounded like.

Below is a clip called “Panther Graveyard” showing damaged and destroyed Panther tanks filmed at the end of the war.

 

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WoT’s Chieftain posts new article: US Centurion Part 4

April 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

chieftains hatchWorld of Tanks researcher Nicholas Moran, aka “The Chieftain” has published part 4 of his article on US testing of the Centurion III tank.  Part one dealt with the US assessment of the Centurion III’s fighting compartment.  Part 2 dealt with automotive tests.  Part three covered the gun control systems.  Part four examines the fire on the move capability of the Centurion.

All the Chieftain’s articles can be read at The Chieftain’s Hatch.

Article excerpt:

This is the last in the series of articles stemming from the US Army’s testing of Centurions II and III in late 1949/early 1950. We’ve already seen that they concluded that Centurion was a fairly competent vehicle, albeit that it was expected that the next generation of American tank would be no worse than equal in various characteristics, but they were particularly curious about the stabilization system as up until that point, nothing had been put into service on a tank which was claimed to provide a true fire-on-the-move capability. The gyrostabilised guns on American tanks in WWII, being single-axis only, could not make such a claim. As we go through the observations below, I suspect that even in the M4 the Americans had already started noticing such things, but it is still interesting to see how they are officially reporting them below. Anyway, I’ll let you read the observations, and will come back to you afterwards.

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WW2 tank unit commander Larry Lantow tells story

April 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Larry LantowThe Tulsa World is running a series of articles documenting the stories of US WW2 veterans.  This particular piece focuses on 92 year old veteran Larry Lantow, a former US tank commander who served in France.  His story mirrors that of the fictional film “Saving Private Ryan” in that he was shipped home early by Presidential order due to his family losing two of his brothers in combat.

The Tulsa World article can be read here..

Filed Under: Historical Vehicle News Tagged With: ,
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