Overlord’s blog on Project Foil

February 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Q5JFELlOverlord’s blog has posted an article and some diagrams from the archives describing the history of the failed British “Foil” multiple rocket launch system.

The project was to design a multiple rocket launch system for the British Army. This had become possible with recent advancements in rockets that had made them more accurate than the area weapons of the Second World War. So with this in mind the British started looking at large calibre unguided rockets. Phase one of the project was finished in 1969, with talks about a joint German and Italian collaboration the following year. It seems that the rocket chosen was the same one as used in Project JAWL, which ran from 1963 until 1968. Foil in turn lead to the RS-80 project of 1974, which got killed off by the United States MLRS system, which had a massively faster reload due to the rockets being loaded in pods.

Read the rest of the article at Overlord’s blog

Filed Under: Historical Vehicle News Tagged With: ,

British General condemns transfer of Saxon APC to Ukraine

February 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment

saxon_l2The Telegraph is reporting that the former head of the British Army has condemned a decision to deliver dozens of retired British Saxon armored personal carriers to the Ukrainian government as “nothing short of immoral”.  General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff between 2006 and 2009, described the Saxon armored vehicles are “quite useless”.  Said Dannatt: “I took these out of service by the UK Army in 2005/6 as completely unsuitable for current operations, so I find it incredible that they are being sold/gifted to Ukraine. I am incensed by the thought we are supplying, even via a 3rd party, SAXON APCs to the hapless Ukrainians.”  Ukranian sources said that 20 Saxons have been delivered to Ukraine, with another 55 expected to arrive soon.  Full article here.

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Valentine IX Trails in the USSR

February 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment

valentine-9-1For the Record has an interesting post translating information on the Valentine infantry tank in Soviet service provided by Russian researcher Yuri Pasholok.  The post relates the results of Soviet testing at Kubinka in March of 1943 of a Valentine IX tank.  The IX variant was equipped with a larger turret and 57mm 6 pounder gun as compared to earlier versions of the vehicle which had the 2 pounder gun.  The report concludes that the Soviets were less than enthusiastic about this varient of the tank due to the lack of an HE round for the main gun and lack of coaxial machine gun.  The test results can be viewed at the Archive Awareness website.

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Altorfer Bros. Co. armor piercing tank shells

February 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment

abc tank ammoThe Washington Times-Reporter (Indiana) has an article about the Altorfer Bros. Company of East Peoria discussing their production of armor piercing tank ammunition during World War II.  Altorfer Bros. Co. (A.B.C.) was a manufacturer of washing machines prior to the war.  During the war they switched over to the production of war materials, including tank ammunition.  The article is written primarily based on the remembrances of 91 year old Hank Altorfer and his sons.  Much of the information is frankly either incorrect or exaggerated, but tank enthusiasts will still find the article of interest.  Unfortunately the article does not mention the type, or even the caliber of shell that A.B.C. manufactured.

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From the Vault: “The Big Picture” Armor episodes

February 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment

the big pictureFor those old enough to have grown up during the early days of the Cold War, you may remember a series of films produced by the US Army called “The Big Picture.”  These half hour episodes aired on ABC-TV from 1951 to 1964.  Fortunately, these films have been digitized and we can watch some of the episodes that centered around tanks and armored forces.

See all six videos below:

[Read more…]

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Book Alert: Images of War T-34/76 & T-34/85 in Combat

February 16, 2015 by 1 Comment

Images of war T-34Amazon has listed the Pen and Sword Books upcoming title Images of War: T-34/76 & T-34/85 in Combat as having a May 19 release date. Readers familiar with the Images of War series will have a good idea of what to expect from this book.  As with the other titles in this series, the book is written by Anthony Tucker-Jones and promises “rare photographs from wartime archives.”

Publishers Description:  [Read more…]

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Paul Hannah AFV Photo Gallery

February 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment

hannah collectionToday we present a gallery that is truly outstanding.  Paul Hannah, (known as “vagabond” over at the AFV News discussion group) has been able to travel all over the US and Canada, taking pictures of tanks wherever he goes.  He and his wife have assembled an amazing photo gallery of tanks from all over, not just museum pieces but also gate guards and individual vehicles sitting out in front of VFW and American Legion halls.  If you like pictures of US armor, be prepared to spend plenty of time in this gallery.  Visit the gallery here.

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Jagdpanzer 38 restoration

February 15, 2015 by Leave a Comment

HetzersWar History Online has an interesting article about the restoration of a Jagdpanzer 38 “Hetzer” by Axis Track Services for the Australian Armor & Artillery Museum.  The article contains pictures of the restored vehicle next to another preserved Jagdpanzer 38, one of which is an early model, the other from later in the production run.  Both vehicles are actual war-time “Hetzers”, not the post war Swiss G-13 variant.  Read the full article here.  Readers will also find the website for Axis Track Services of interest.  They are currently selling vehicle props used in the film “Fury.“

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WoT’s Chieftain posts new article: US Centurion Part 1

February 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment

chieftains hatchOver at The Chieftain’s Hatch section of the World of Tanks forum, the Chieftain has published a new article.  The beginning of the article is posted below, please follow the link at the bottom to read the entire piece.

US Centurion Part 1 – You will recall that some time ago I covered the US Army’s evaluation of the Sherman Firefly in three parts comparing it to the M4(76) and the M26. Frankly, Firefly didn’t fare all that well. The Cruisers didn’t do all that well against Sherman in either British or American tests either. Well, a couple of years later, a similar, albeit less rigid, set of tests was conducted, comparing Centurion to M26 and T29. 

These tests were a little more generic, as they were more focused on the tank as a whole rather than, as in the Firefly’s case, the weapon installation effectiveness. I’ve come across three Centurion reports so far, and I’ll go over then over, again, a period of articles. Interestingly, they are not in the sequence you might expect: The first two reports were filed on the Centurion III in the first half of 1950, the third was of the Centurion II in the second half of the year.

Click here to read the full article at The Chieftain’s Hatch.

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From the Vault: Type 95 Ha-Go tested by US troops

February 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment

SNAFU! blog today posted a link to a new youtube video posted by Digital Implosion showing footage of a WWII era Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go light tank being tested by US troops.  The first half of the video shows the Ha-Go being tested over various terrain features.  The limitations of it’s simple suspension are quite apparent in these videos.  Later in the video, various measurements and armor thicknesses are shown.  The video ends with footage of a race between the Ha-Go and an M5 Stuart.  The Stuart wins by a small margin.

Filed Under: Historical Videos Tagged With: ,
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