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Pz.Kpfw.II Ausf.a through b: An Unplanned Tank
The light PzII tank played an important role in the structure of the German tank forces. Despite the opinion born of German generals' memoirs, this was not a training tank. On the contrary: at the time...
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Pz.Kpfw.II Ausf. c-C: At the Spearhead of Blitzkrieg
The story of the PzII tank was an unusual one. In many ways, it owes its "accidental" existence to the attempts of mounting a 20 mm autocannon in the Kleintraktor (future PzI). Due to issues with...
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Soviet Rear Turret Tanks
The idea of a rear fighting compartment was first implemented in several KV-4 projects. This concept was picked, for example, by K.I. Kuzmin, P.S. Tarapanin, and V.I. Tarotko, who took second place in...
View ArticleLeningrad Guntruck
"Decree of the Military Council of the Northern Front #53/ssJuly 8th, 1941LeningradContents: tactical-technical requirements for the installation of a 45 mm gun in a half-armoured ZIS-5 truck and...
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KV Visibility Diagram
The issue of visibility was a known sore spot in early war Soviet tanks. The commander's cupola was not a popular feature until the T-50, but it took until 1942 for such a cupola to be developed for...
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Mosin Penetration
This article was originally posted on Soviet Gun Archives.My other blog talks a lot about how much armour a cannon can punch through, but there are many things other than steel on the battlefield. The...
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Pz.Kpfw.II Ausf. D-E: Unlucky Torsion Bars
Worldwide tank building progressed rapidly in the second half of the 1930s. This can definitely be said about Germany's tank industry, which developed tank suspensions, along with everything else....
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Pz.Kpfw.II Ausf. F: Third Time's the Charm
There are few cases when a tank that is accepted into service is replaced by a modification that is inferior to it. In Soviet tank building, one example of this is the KV-1S, a necessary measure. It...
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Whose Helmet Was Better?
Comparisons of one's own weapons and equipment to the enemy's was not just a pastime of common soldiers, but of senior officers as well. Throughout the Great Patriotic War, captured equipment was...
View ArticleStuart Commander
"Award OrderName: Karev, Yuriy NikiforovichRank: MajorPosition, unit: commander of the 258th Independent Tank Battalion, Northern Group, Transcaucasian Frontis nominated for the Order of the Red...
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Exotic Trophies
"September 15th, 1945To the commander of the Armoured and Mechanized Forces of the Red Army, comrade FedorenkoI present to you brief descriptions of the "Maus" superheavy tank, a self propelled AA gun,...
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Armoury of the Moscow People's Militia
In September of 1941, things weren't looking so good for the Red Army. The possibility of the German army reaching, and even taking, Moscow was on the horizon. A People's Militia was formed to defend...
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An Aryan From Poland
The Red Army GABTU had a very vague idea about the armoured vehicles of its potential enemy at the start of World War II. The same could be said about the other members of what would become the Allies....
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Marder II: Light Tank Destroyer
By the end of 1941, the Germans began to understand that the time of light tanks was over. This also applied to the PzIIÂ tank. By that time, it's main enemy was medium tanks with shellproof armour,...
View ArticleReliability and Repairs in the 2nd Tank Army
At the beginning of the 2nd Tank Army's offensive during the Battle of Kursk, on July 16th, the army's technical services performed an inventory of their vehicles' remaining service life.TypeNumberOf...
View ArticleSG-122 Conversion
"To the Chief of the Red Army GAU, Colonel-General comrade YakovlevReport on the SG-122 SPGsIn December of 1942, factory #40 produced 20 SG-122 SPGs on the chassis of German PzIII and StuG vehicles....
View ArticleKS-77: M-8 on T-40 Chassis
"Meeting minutes for the technical meeting on the issue of producing the first batch of the KS-77 vehicle.Moscow, Compressor factory, October 7th, 1941Present:Factory director, M.I. BoganovNKOM TO...
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GVG Machinegun
The Red Army started WWII with two infantry machineguns: the light magazine fed handheld DP and heavy belt fed mounted Maxim. Both were quite aged designs by the time, so a replacement was considered....
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Necessary Improvisations
The American movie Fury, which came out in 2014, was memorable, in part, due to the unusual exterior of the tank, which effectively became one of the main characters. Even though Fury's equipment was,...
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Israeli Sandwiches
When Israeli armoured vehicles are mentioned, one often thinks of Merkava tanks first. Without a doubt, these vehicles are a point of pride for Israel. However, the backbone of the Israel Defense Force...
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