Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Welding thick high hardness introduces a large number of problems into the manufacturing process. As a result, a significant number of early T-34s had manufacturing defects, chiefly cracks in the...
View ArticleMulticyclone Performance
The air filter was the Achilles' heel of early T-34 tanks. The early Pomon air filters were inefficient and had to be cleaned often, which was not always possible in the heat of battle. These filters...
View ArticleSlippery Slope
"Award OrderName: Popov, Semyon YakovlevichRank: Guards SergeantPosition, unit: assistant driver, 83rd Guards Tank Regiment, 18th Dniester Guards Mechanized Brigate, 9th Dniester-Rymninskiy Guards...
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High Caliber Convertibles
History often repeats itself. This well known fact is often confirmed in tank building. For instance, Soviet SPGs, especially heavy ones like the SU-14, were created in order to mechanize artillery....
View ArticleLend Lease Review
"Brief Report on combat experience of tanks of the 252nd Tank Regiment of the 45th Dniester Mechanized Brigade of the 5th Mechanized Corps from December 1943 to present timeThe 252nd Tank Regiment was...
View ArticleIS-6 Drama
"To GBTU representative, Engineer-Lieutenant Colonel comrade MarkinHaving taken the post of the GBTU TU representative at factory #100 in April of 1944, I already reported that my work at the factory...
View ArticleVideo: Russian Renault and MS-1
Now that my latest book is off to the publisher and I have some more free time, I decided to experiment a little and put my YouTube channel to good use. Enjoy!
View ArticleHeroic Tractor Driver
"Award OrderName: Tikhonov, Ivan GerasimovichRank: Guards Red ArmymanPosition and unit: assistant tractor driver of the 88th Order of the Red Star Army Evacuation Company of the 6th Guards Tank Armyis...
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Book Sale
Morton's is having a sale of their back issues on Pocketmags. In addition to other titles from their military history series, the digital version of my book can be had at a steep discount for just...
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A Captured Chassis
The overall concept of Soviet SPGs was fixed by the start of 1943. The light SU-12 (SU-76) and medium SU-35 (SU-122) were already in production, and work on the heavy KV-14 (SU-152) began in early...
View ArticleSoviet Tank History: T-26
The feedback has been good so far, and so I prepared another video, this time on the T-26. Let me know what you think!
View ArticleKing Tiger Penetration Trials
"ACTResults of investigation of the T-6-B (King Tiger) tank to discover weak spots and penetration, carried out on September 2nd, 1944, near the city of Staszow (Poland) by a commission composed...
View ArticleSherman Rammer
"Award OrderAstakhov, Vladimir MikhailovichRank: Guards SergeantPosition: Mechanic-driver of the 84th Guards Tank Regiment, 30th Guards Mechanized Brigade, 9th Guards Mechanized Corpsis nominated for...
View ArticleStudy Guide
"ApprovedDeputy Commander of the 2nd Tank ArmyMajor-General of the Engineering Tank ServiceYukinSeptember 9th, 1944Directions for planning combat training of tank commanders and tank driversDue to...
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More Tank Archives
Some of you may have noticed that there's a new link in the sidebar of this blog. Now that all the setup is complete, I would like to officially introduce the Tank Archives Facebook page!Fans of the...
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T-26 as a Minesweeper
As armoured vehicles were built and improved, methods to combat them appeared as well. The race was only between shells and armour at first, but anti-tank mines appeared soon after. They could be used...
View ArticleSoviet Tank History: T-35
Another video is up. This time I'm taking a look at pre-war heavy tank development in the USSR and some tanks that could have been accepted into service instead of the T-35, as well as what aspects of...
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Cast vs Rolled
The question of cast vs rolled armour is often encountered in specialist literature. It is typically accepted that cast armour needs to be about 10% thicker to provide the same resistance as rolled...
View ArticleEmcha Condition
"ApprovedCommander of the 1st Krasnograd Mechanized CorpsGuards Lieutenant General of the Tank Forces, KrivosheinACTOn the technical condition of tanks arriving from repair factories #382, 97, 137 (12...
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Next Generation Light SPG
The SU-76 was off to a rocky start in early 1943, and was eventually replaced in production by the more reliable SU-76M. Meanwhile, there was another SPG that could have possibly replaced it, had the...
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