T-43 Reliability Trials
"To the People's Commissar of Tank Production, comrade MalyshevTo the Commander of the Armoured and Mechanized Forces of the Red Army, Colonel-General of the Tank Forces, comrade FedorenkoAccording to...
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Dead End Reinforcement
The design of the T-34 tank left a lot of reserves for modernization. The chassis dealt with a 5 ton increase in weight during its production run. A result of a thorough modernization, the T-34-85,...
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"ReportOn the trip to the city of Gorkiy with a group of American specialists from May 13th, 1943 to June 5th, 1943Goal of the trip:To train the command and technical staff of the 5th Tank Brigade,...
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Accounting 101
"SecretCopy18th Army CommandOperational Department#5159/43December 8th, 1943Reports on the number of destroyed tanks1. Precise reports on destroyed or knocked out tanks are of great importance for...
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Armoured Confusion
Works on Soviet tank building are published with striking regularity. Some are the results of many years of archival research, but many are based on prior works. There is nothing shameful about this,...
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Warspot Article: Second Fiddle
The Pz.Kpfw.IV became the workhorse of the German army, serving from the first day of the war to its last. However, one could hardly have predicted this in 1941. The British developed quite a negative...
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Book Review: How to Kill a Panther Tank
Many of my readers are avid historians themselves, or at the very least dabble in primary documents, with small libraries of scans tucked away in your collection, and a lucky few may have visited...
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Light and Long Lasting
The light tank as a cheaper and more numerous version of a medium tank was obsolete by the end of WWII. The Germans were one of the first to stop building classical light tanks, the USSR followed soon...
View ArticleTeletank Revival
"To the Chief of the Tank Directorate, Engineer-Colonel AfoninRE: development and production of teletanks (your letter #1148978)October 2nd, 1943Modern telemechanical devices for tanks consist of a...
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Designing the T-34 eBook
Probably the most frequently asked question about my book has been "is there going to be an ebook". I am excited to announce that the ebook version is finally here! Morton's designed variants for...
View ArticleExport to Czechoslovakia
"Chief of the General StaffWorker and Peasant Red ArmyJuly 5th, 1936#20032/ssTo the People's Commissar of Defense, comrade K. Ye. VoroshilovWhile in Czechoslovakia I met with the Chief of the General...
View ArticleDriving the T-34
Vadim Elistratov is a renowned restorer of armoured vehicles, and has extensive experience in driving the tanks he and his group restores. In a recent interview with TacticMedia he recounts the...
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Rifle vs Tank
The British were the first to invent the tank during WWI, and so the Germans were forced into the position of being the first to undertake the difficult task of developing anti-tank weapons. The...
View ArticleLandlocked T-40
"Meeting minutesAugust 20th, 1941Present:Factory #37 director LevitanskiyChief of KB-1 AstrovChief of the 1st Department of the GABTU BTU, Military Engineer 1st Class PavlovChief of the 1st Section,...
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An Amphbian's Missed Chance
Plenty of PT-76 tanks were in service in the early 2000s. The Vietnamese army alone had about 500 units and the total number of functional but obsolete tanks was about 1000. An idea came up to...
View ArticleMuzzle Brake Requirements
"USSR NKOGBTU KATank Usage DirectorateJuly 4th, 1944#542526To Assistant Commanders in charge of Armoured and Mechanized Warfare of FrontsCopy for the Assistant Commanders in charge of Armoured and...
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Warspot Article: Voroshilov Abroad
The KV-1 tank was a mystery even to the USSR's allies, but it didn't remain this way forever. Both the US and UK received a sample to study and both made some conclusions from the tanks that inspired...
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ISU-122 Frontline Impressions
The Soviet ISU-122 heavy SPG is often overshadowed by its more famous siblings, the IS-2 tank and ISU-152 SPG. The similarity in the designs gave birth to the myth that the ISU-122 was an ersatz...
View Article75 mm Gun vs KV-1
"Secret, copy #1On the organization of enemy anti-tank defenses in the sector ahead of the 178th Tank Brigade and type of damage dealt to knocked out and burned KV tanks.The enemy organized active...
View ArticleOne Piece
"To the People's Commissar of Ammunition of the USSR, comrade VannikovChief of the Red Army GAU, comrade YakovlevDeputy Chief of Armoured and Motorized Vehicles of the Red Army, comrade KorobkovIn...
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