D-25 Muzzle Brake
"October 13th, 1943#1610sTo the Deputy Chair of the GAU ArtKom, Major-General of the Engineering Artillery service comrade ZhevanikCC: Chief of the Gorohovets ANIOP, Engineer-Lieutenant-Colonel comrade...
View ArticleControlled Impact
"Order to the Red Army Air Force #0194September 23rd, 1944MoscowCommanders of the Air Armies report that fighter pilots still use one of the most complicated attacks, namely ramming, to this day. In...
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Tank Armies
Despite its very young industry, the USSR was focused on building a large amount of tanks right off the bat. It might seem weird to focus on something like that so early on, but once you see the...
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An Opponent for the Tiger
The capture of two Tiger tanks by the Red Army on January 18th, 1943, had a significant impact on Soviet tank building. Trials of one of the tanks revealed an unfortunate fact: the F-34 76 mm gun, the...
View ArticleThe Future of Tanks
"Theses of the report by the commander of the Armoured and Mechanized Forces in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, Marshal of the Armoured Forces Rotmistrov, titled "Tanks of the Soviet and Foreign...
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PzIII Armour in British Hands
I previously shared how the PzIII did in Soviet hands. In summary, the 30 mm plate proved far too brittle under fire from a 45 mm gun, shattering into pieces from just one hit. Curiously, British...
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Soviet Schurzen
I posted some information on Soviet protection research before, which included experiments spaced armour. Here is another such experiment, performed in the summer of 1943 at factory #112.A drawing of...
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Reused Tank
"Female soldiers fight the enemy exceptionally well. Senior Sergeant Voyevodina's 45 mm gun crew consisting of Komsomol members Rofanova, Zibirova, Bartinkova, and Abramova opened direct fire at enemy...
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Lee and Grant: American Generals in British Service
The United States was seen by Britain and France as a giant factory that could aid them in production of military hardware back before the First World War. That is what ended up happening, although...
View ArticleUparmour
"Order of the People's Commissariat of Medium Machinebuilding of the USSR #268ssMoscowJune 29th, 1941In accordance with the decree of the USSR SNK, I order:To the director of factory #174, comrade...
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Tough IS-2
"During the fighting for Roben, having broken enemy resistance by the end of March 23rd, 1945, the brigade approached Roben proper. On the night from March 23rd to March 24th, units of the brigade...
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Hide Your Guns
The need to hide artillery appeared long ago, but the military took development of camouflage paint schemes seriously only on the cusp of the 19th and 20th centuries. Progress in observation methods...
View ArticleReplacement Engines
"Order of the People's Commissar of Medium Machinebuilding of the USSR #319ssMoscowJuly 11th, 1941To carry out State Committee of Defense Decree issued on July 9th, 1941, "On the facilitation of...
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T-64A's Birthday
"Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSRDecreeMay 20th, 1968On the installation of a more powerful set of armament into the T-64 tank.The Central Committee of the CPSU...
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Short-Term Queen of the Desert
The Matilda is arguably the most famous British tank of WWII. This fame is well deserved. At the time of its appearance this slow moving but thickly armoured tank was the best the British industry...
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Canadian Sten
The Sten Gun earned a reputation for being cheap and shoddy, but trials showed that it wasn't all that bad.Seems acceptable. Let's compare it with the results of Soviet submachinegun trials. The...
View ArticleMix and Match
"Order of the People's Commissariat of Medium Machinebuilding #301ssMoscowJuly 6th, 1941On the order of introducing design and technological changes to tanks and artillery tractorsFurther developing...
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Compare and Contrast
An interesting document was posted the other day on the War Thunder subreddit.While very interesting on its own, there is one particular part of the trials that popped out at me.The armour penetration...
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More MKb.42 Impressions
"Operational research department, 3rd Shock ArmyInformation Summary #01January 1944The model 1943 carbine-machinegun is designed to be used by infantry divisions that fight in forests. Two divisions in...
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Pershing With A Long Hand
The opinion that America could win the war with tanks it already had in production was common at the start of 1944. This attitude backfired in the summer of 1944, when it turned out that even the...
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