Video: Historically Accurate Panzer '46 - Heavy Tank M26 Pershing

The Americans were the first to get their next generation tank to the battlefield in 1945. How did it fare and what upgrades did they test out that could have been applied to the design had the war gone on for a little longer? Find out in my latest video.

Tank Archives on the big screen

My reenacting group sometimes acts as extras in war movies, but we also decided to make our own! The audio is in Russian, but English subtitles are available.

Track Bashing

 Changing tracks on T-34 and T-34-85 tanks at the Museum of National Military History

As the saying goes, there is no such thing as a light tank. Many operations that seem quite simple are actually very difficult to perform on a machine weighing several dozen tons. Many vehicles from the Great Patriotic War era were anything but light, and servicing them requires a lot of effort.

Changing tracks is a routine but difficult procedure.

The vehicles at the Museum of National Military History are not empty boxes, but rather fully functional military vehicles. This includes the museum's T-34 tanks. Both of them are used in various events. This involves swapping out the tracks from the stock ones to special parade tracks and back. This article will cover the details of this process.

Tank Archives on Bluesky

Numbers don't lie, and the numbers haven't been in favour of my Twitter account for quite some time. Despite an increase in content, growth has plateaued and the effort hasn't been worth it. Fortunately with the latest Twitter exodus, there seems to be a new audience forming on Bluesky. Join me there!

Video: Soviet Super-powered Tank Destroyers

 If the Maus or E-100 reached the battlefield during the Second World War, it would not be anywhere as invincible as it might have appeared. The Soviets had four prospective tank destroyers going through testing by the summer of 1945, each powerful enough to pierce its armour from a long range. Find out how and why in my latest video.

A Paper Alternative to the Panzer IV/70

The performance of German armoured vehicles is often overestimated, particularly of those that remained on paper. It can be anywhere between interesting and sad to watch an attempt to turn a doodle on a napkin into an ultimate weapon that could have changed the balance of power. It is clear why this happened. The thing is that the first German documents to be declassified were the ones with the least value. These were the documents that saw the widest publication even though weapons prepared by other nations for 1945-46 had much more potential.

The "canonical" E-25. The cupola appeared here due to a mistake made by American intelligence.

The E-series is usually the main subject of these fantasies. However, a careful evaluation shows that these projects achieved very little. The E-100 superheavy tank was actually a resurrection of the Tiger-Maus, rejected back in late 1942. At least the E-100 ended up as an unfinished prototype. None of the other E-series projects made it even this far, including the E-25.

Video: T-54 in 1945

The T-54 is best known as a Cold War era tank, but if the war unfolded a little differently it could have seen battle in WW2. Check out my latest video to see when the T-54 was ready for battle and why it took so long to fight. 

Pz.Kpfw.I Weak Spots

"Brief characteristics:

1. Armour: front, side, and turret armour is 13 mm thick.
2. Engine: gasoline.
3. Length: 3.7 m, width: 2.1 m, height: 1.8 m
4. Armament: 2 machine guns, 2 smoke launchers

Video: The Myth of the Disposable T-34

You often hear that the T-34 was a disposable tank that was never intended to survive for very long on the battlefield, so there was no reason to make it particularly reliable, but how true is that really? I run through the numbers to compare where the Red Army wanted its T-34 tanks to be in terms of reliability and how far the tank could actually be expected to travel.

No T-34s were harmed in the making of this video.

 

BA-10 at the Height of Power

It was not a surprise that armoured cars quickly made way for tanks in the food chain of the battlefield. The problem with an armoured car is its chassis. Even the best car falls short of a tank, especially when it comes to cross-country terrain. Because of this armoured cars were relegated to reconnaissance and signals duties. The Red Army was no exception.

It just so happens that there are no aces among armoured car crews due to the special place they occupy on the battlefield. However, that was not always the case. For instance, BA-10 armoured cars played an important part in the battle for Bain-Tsagan and not as a method of reconnaissance.