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Marder III: German Tank Destroyer on a Czech Chassis
The start of the Great Patriotic War on June 22nd, 1941, triggered serious corrections to both Soviet and German tank building. The fighting in 1941 showed that the time of light tanks is coming to an...
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Prototype Problems
"To the GABTU Tank DirectorateChief of the 4th Department, Engineer-Major F.A. NenarokovMoscow, 2 Red Square, NKO buildingRE: work of Savin's group on designing an AA gun for a tank.The anniversary of...
View ArticleF-32 in A-34
"SecretTo the ABTU Chief, Corps Commander PavlovNKO House, 2 Red Square, MoscowOn the issue of: production of armour and assembly of A-34 hull and turret.The armour for the A-34 is ready, both for the...
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Canadian Ratte
The German 1000 ton Ratte tank is a pretty well known device, and similar monstrosities described by well-meaning Soviet citizens volunteering their ideas. Turns out, the Western Allies were not immune...
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Mauser Sniper Rifle
"5. Determining the combat characteristics of the German sniper rifleThe results of determining the muzzle velocity of the German sniper rifle are included in attachment #4, where you can see that the...
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Last Request
"Report on the requests of imported armoured vehicles as a part of the 5th protocolM4A2 tanks: 5000T26 tanks: 1000Harley-Davidson motorcycles (preferably with a sidecar): 6000Mobile armoured vehicle...
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Pershing: Heavy by Necessity
The British Churchill tank was the only one supplied to the USSR by the Western Allies en masse. The US had bad luck with heavy tanks. Work on the Heavy Tank M6 hit a dead end. Nevertheless, heavy...
View ArticleIS-3, Take One
"Report on experimental work at factory #100 for the first 10 days of June, 1943Most effort at the factory was directed towards production and assembly of IS-3 components according to altered...
View ArticleT-45
"To Lieutenant-General FedorenkoFactory #37 in Sverdlovsk installed a 45 mm gun on the T-60 tank without widening the turret ring, but in a new turret. The positioning is the same as on the T-70. The...
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Heavy Trophy
The German heavy Tiger tank left a mark on tank building worldwide. Even though propaganda and memoirs are largely to blame for its fame, the Tiger did really have nearly no competition on the...
View ArticleKV-85 Turret Upgrade
"To the Chief of the GBTU Tank Directorate, Major-General of the Tank Engineering Service, comrade AfoninThe senior military representative of the GBTU at the Kirov Factory, Engineer-Lieutenant-Colonel...
View ArticleUpgunned T-38 Trials
"Results of trials of a T-38 tank armed with a ShVAK gun from March 15th to 29th, 1944T-38 tank #4216 armed with a ShVAK gun converted at factory #105 on January 13th 1944 was presented for trials. The...
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Sd.Kfz.222 Under Fire
A while ago, I posted how German armour fared under fire in Soviet trials. Recently, I found information on a similar British test. This time it was a hatch from an Sd.Kfz.222 being fired upon, but the...
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M1 Carbine vs Mkb.42(H)
The precision of the MKb 42(H) at ranges of 100, 300, and 500 meters is 1.5 times worse than that of the American M1 carbine.In automatic fire, the precision of the MKb 42 (H) is unsatisfactory (a...
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PIAT: An Odd Fellow
The British PIAT grenade launcher, a combination of a medieval crossbow and a modern HEAT grenade, became one of the more unusual examples in its class. Heavy and uncomfortable to use, the PIAT went...
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SU-12: The Ill-Fated SPG
Sverdlovsk (modern day Yekaterinburg) was the cradle of Soviet wartime SPG building. The concept of light and heavy assault guns (SPGs) was developed here. However, neither the light nor the heavy SPGs...
View ArticleOBM-43
"To the Chairman of the NKV Technical Council, comrade SatelTo the Chairman of the GAU Artillery Committee, Lieutenant-General comrade HohlovTo the Head of the NKVD 4th Special Department, Commissar of...
View ArticleManufacturing Limbo
"On the T-80 tank: 8 T-80 tanks were built in March and 9 tanks were started, which already have suspensions, engines, and transmissions. Final assembly is stalled due to a lack of armour, elevation,...
View ArticleMosin vs PPSh
"Jume 16th, 1943To the Chief of Staff of the 28th Army1. Totalling up the reports of unit commanders from the division regarding whether or not infantry squads should have rifles or the PPSh, I report...
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Theory and Practice
I covered the precision of the ML-20S gun-howitzer before, but numbers on a table are not quite as fun to look at as the trials themselves. Here are the results from the same gun mounted in a...
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