Category: Historical Articles
Inside the Chieftain’s Hatch: Goliath – Coin-Operated and Ready to Ride
Inside the Chieftain’s Hatch: Get inside Kanonenjagdpanzer Part 1
TAP Special #10 : VBC 90
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WARNING: PICTURE HEAVY!
The 90 mm-turreted armored fighting vehicle is a 6-wheel drive vehicle which uses most of the mechanical components from the VAB. It is equipped with the GIAT TS 90 turret armed with a new high-performance gun firing an anti-tank round with a high muzzle velocity.
Its high strategic and tactical mobility, its great autonomy, its discretion, its great ergonomics make it a particularly suitable vehicle to fulfill long-distance reconnaissance missions. Its powerful gun fires a hollow charge round with a muzzle velocity of 1000 m/s, making it suitable for anti-tank combat in all forms. It also features a N.B.C. protection.
The VBC 90 equips the Armored Group of the Gendarmerie Mobile in Satory.
Manufacturer: RENAULT VEHICULES INDUSTRIELS
Technical information from the manufacturer’s manual listed below:
TAP Special #9 : Batignolles-Châtillon DP 2
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The Compagnie Générale de Construction de Locomotives Batignolles-Chatillon presented in 1935 a prototype for an amphibious tank, produced at the request of the Section Technique des Matériels Automobiles de Combat (literal translation: Technical Section of Combat Automobile Materials).
The first tests took place in March 1936, but the machine sank at the end of the demonstration. The tank was modified by the manufacturer and tests continued until 1937, but the development proved to be difficult.
The project then was suspended, and it seems no actions were taken afterward.
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Inside the Chieftain’s Hatch: Get Inside Jagdpanzer IV Pt.2
SU-152: From Assault Gun to Tank Destroyer
Article from warspot.ru. Author: Yuri Pasholok
Work on Soviet SPGs assigned at the plenum of the Artillery Committee held on April 14-15th reached their logical conclusion by the end of 1942. The light SPG concept turned into the SU-12, designed by factory #38’s design bureau and S.A. Ginzburg (the future SU-76). The most promising medium SPG was the U-35, designed at UZTM. By the end of December, the first vehicles of the pilot batch were complete.
The heavy SPG was in a more difficult situation. The project that started as the «212» bunker buster radically changed several times. The ZIK-20 SPG was to go into production, but the process dragged on. Even a model of the casemate was not completed on time, to say nothing of the SPG itself. In the end, another vehicle was developed, the KV-14.
An alternative from Chelyabinsk
After the story with the KV-7, the Chelyabinsk Kirov Factory (ChKZ) did not involve themselves in SPG development. The factory had enough to do with putting the T-34 and KV-1S into production. Nevertheless, regardless of who designed the prospective SPG, it was going to be produced at ChKZ.
ML-20 mount in the KV-14, December 1942
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Inside the Chieftain’s Hatch: Get Inside Jagdpanzer IV Pt.1
TAP Special #8 : Char articulé Jacquet
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On September 25, 1944, Victor Barthélémy Jacquet filed a tank patent with vertical obstacle clearance capabilities.
This vehicle consists of 3 cabins articulated by ball joints. Each module has motorization and transmission, which are either independent or connected. The front cabin can be lifted by means of jacks while still being able to be oriented to the sides. The machine should be able to vertically cross a height of 2,50 m. The middle cabin houses the operating device.
The rear cabin can carry a 75 mm gun. The armament, composed of machine guns, anti-tank guns and mine launchers, is spread between the three cabins, the heavy armament being located in the rear cabin.