Another historical article from the WoT portal.
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As famous British writer H. G. Wells called the war machines from his sci-fi story “ships”, it was only logical that the design of their real life counterparts would be a Navy project. Thus, on 20th February, 1915, the Landship Committee was created within the Admiralty. Its members—military engineers and navy officers—were true masters of their craft. However, the task turned out to be truly unrivalled in its complexity, and even these experts were unsure on what a Land Ironclad should resemble.
Nevertheless, by the first meeting of the Committee, several projects of the new devastating weapon were prepared. Their appearance was most unusual.
Continue reading “A Hundred Years of Tanks: Land Ironclads – Drawn and Cast”
Category: Historical Articles
T-45: The Obscure T-60 Variant
http://warspot-asset.s3.amazonaws.com/articles/pictures/000/029/217/original/t45s10-232ded4785cbf3667973b2e95f2da19c.jpg
Credit: warspot.ru
I have a new article, but let me apologize first. I wrongly attributed the ZET-1 to another project. I took the word of some websites who claim the two are connected and I wanted to put something out there on TAP. I was being a bit lazy and my morale was low at the time. No one I can blame except me. Hopefully, I can make it up for it with my T-45 article. The sources were originally in Russian and translated by a friend of mine named Nikita Nikitenko.
Introduction
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Credit: Yuri Pasholok
The T-45 was a Soviet WWII light tank project, meant as a stop-gap measure until the T-70 could enter production. It was based on the lesser T-60, but with a new gun, turret and engine. While the T-45 didn’t have any glaring deficiencies and was superior to the T-60, it was nevertheless inferior to the T-70 in a number of aspects. However, there was no competition between the two, and the order to switch to T-70 production reduced the T-45 to a footnote in AFV history.
The Centenary of Tanks. The Prophecy of Land Cruisers
The supply of new info is low, so I decided to repost some articles from the WoT portal.
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“In that flickering pallor it had the effect of a large and clumsy black insect, an insect the size of an ironclad cruiser, crawling obliquely to the first line of trenches and firing shots out of portholes in its back. And on its carcass the bullets must have been battering with more than the passionate violence of hail on a roof of tin”.
Herbert Wells, the British author, wrote this text in 1903, thirteen years before the first armoured vehicles rolled over the Somme River. His imagination and foresight inspired military engineers to develop armoured vehicles equipped with guns, and significantly changed the face of modern warfare. This prophetic story was known as “The Land Ironclads”.
Vehicles Used by Devitalized Townsmen
Wells described an abstract war between countrymen – hunters, farmers, and trained horsemen – confronting the aggression of urban dwellers. The townsmen were ahead of the rural population in terms of culture and technology. The young countrymen lieutenant said ironically about the townsmen: “They’re a crowd of devitalized townsmen, and that’s the truth of the matter. They’re clerks, they’re factory hands, they’re students, they’re civilised men… They’ve never slept in the open one night in their lives… They ride their horses as though they were bicycles – you watch ‘em!”
Nevertheless, the war reached a deadlock. The war correspondent who listened to the lieutenant complained that there was not much to write about. The ironclad monsters appeared right when the correspondent came up with the name for his article about the war losing intensity.
Continue reading “The Centenary of Tanks. The Prophecy of Land Cruisers”
Tier 9 Medium Tank Suggestion for the Polish Tech Tree
I have a possible tier 9 tank to suggest for the upcoming Polish tech tree. (short article)
Continue reading “Tier 9 Medium Tank Suggestion for the Polish Tech Tree”
Cruiser Corner #1
Our reader, GrimmaceNA is back with a new series of historical articles!
Greetings everyone, it’s been a while since I posted on here. I decided since I am stuck at work most of my life now, I started to take one of my books with me. I will be calling these posts Cruiser Corner, as the book I have is “American Cruisers of World War Two” by Steve Ewing.
In these Cruiser Corner articles, depending on the history of the ships, some will be short and some will be long posts. I will also be posting about other ships as well that could be in WOWS. Look for a post about an alternate tier 7 German Battleship.
A while back Seb had posted a leak with pictures of Cincinnati (CL-6) (Seb: I cannot find the article guys, sorry). Here is a little history on her.
Cincinnati (CL-6) was laid down in May 1920 and was commissioned January 1924. She sailed the Pacific and Atlantic in the 1920’s and 30’s.
Cincinnati was assigned to the Neutrality Patrols in the early part of the war and continued doing Patrols and convoy escorts after December 7. She also searched for blockade runners and her claim to fame is the successful interception of the SS Anneliese Essberger. She patrolled the Mediterranean during the invasion of southern France and finished the war doing some training cruises. She earned 1 battle star.
The Narco’s Mexican Monsters
Here is another awesome article from Tanks Encyclopedia. Check them out. More of these types of articles are coming soon. This article inspired me to write about Heemeyer’s armored bulldozer. Monstruo = monster in Spanish for those who didn’t know.
Author: Willkers
Illustrator: David Bocquelet
The most famous, and perhaps one of the most heavily armed Narco Tanks, “Monstruo 2010“. It is believed to be one of the first Narco Tanks ever discovered by authorities. It features a satellite communication device to track police and military communications. It also has smoke-screen, oil-slicking, and nail-dropping devices. It has a heavy steel battering ram on the front, which is also electrified with up to 700 volts! Seized in Jalisco, May, 2011.
The real Mad Max cars
Narco Tanks (known as “Narco tanques” in Spanish) is an umbrella term made by the media for all of the improvised fighting vehicles used by drugs cartels in Mexico. They are seen mostly in the states bordering the USA because these areas have become zones of intense conflict between cartels competing for drugs smuggling routes. These vehicles look like something from the post-apocalyptic film, Mad Max, and were first reported at some point between 2010 and 2011, although the media in Mexico often waits to report on certain cartel-related stories for fear of reprisal attacks. They are based on SUVs and commercial vehicles, and they are tooled up with armor, turrets, mounted weapons, and even James Bond-like gadgets. Created in illicit workshops, these vehicles are well-known for their exotic designs, but for the local Mexicans, they are weapons of an ever-escalating and ever-deadlier inter-cartel war that even the military has been involved in for over ten years.
Review of the French tanks – Part 2 : tier IX
If you haven’t already, please read, at least, Part 0 : Introduction (link below) before reading this one. It will help you to understand the goal and logic of this serie. Thank you, and bonne lecture !
Summary :
This post deals with the following tanks :
- AMX 50 120
- Lorraine 40t
- AMX 30 1erprototype
- AMX 50 Foch
- Batignolles-Châtillon 155 mle. 55
Notes :
- giving many times the same hypertext link from one source for a tank will be avoided, even if it’s used several times. So, keep them open while reading !
- even though it got removed with the recent 9.15.1 update, the Lorraine 40t will be commented nonetheless, and not the Batignolles-Châtillon 25t AP
AMX 50 120
1) Top speed
According to Wikipedia.en as well as tanks-encyclopedia.com, speed tests from the AMX 50 100 indicate a maximum speed of 51 km/h. The notice from 1959 from the AMX 50 TOB also indicates this value. However, the AMX50 120 is equipped with the same engines, while being heavier. So its maximum speed reaches at best 51 km/h. In addition, the AMX-50 120 is very close to the AMX 65t, which maximum speed is only 40 km/h. This second value however seems quite small, compared to the first one. So the maximum speed achieved by the AMX 50 120 is at least 40 km/h. We then have a top speed nerf, from 65 km/h to [40-51] km/h.
Note : this nerf doesn’t impact much the tank’s gameplay, because it rarely exceeds 40 km/h, and very rarely 51 km/h.
2) Weight
As Wikipedia.en indicates, the second prototype of the AMX 50 120 (on which the AMX 50 120 in the game is visually based) reaches a mass of 64 tonnes. This therefore results in a weight increase, from 60 tonnes to about 64 tonnes.
Note : this implies a buff of its ramming ability, but also a nerf of its acceleration (so, even if the maximum speed is 40 km/h, the tank will reach it even more rarely than now).
Continue reading “Review of the French tanks – Part 2 : tier IX”
Eyes of the Fleet – WW2 American Seaplane Operations
Source: Imgur user dzibanorama
Picture heavy!
Eyes of the Fleet – Seaplane Operations
Cruiser-based seaplanes provided the ability for small flotillas and single ships to scout vast areas of ocean in the search for enemy activity. Additionally, seaplanes afforded a small measure of offensive capability–against submarines, for example, or lightly armed merchant ships. The usual complement for a cruiser was four seaplanes. Pictured are Curtiss SOC Seagulls, the mainstay scout aircraft of the late 1930s.
Continue reading “Eyes of the Fleet – WW2 American Seaplane Operations”
TR-125 Pictures and Short Description
The Romanians made their own semi-copy of the T-72 with only a few prototypes built in the 80’s. The TR-125 was possible because of reverse engineering. They used the few T-72Ms that they received from the Soviet Union as a template. This tank was kept in secrecy for decades until it was refurbished and revealed to the public at the Bucharest Military Museum recently. The TR-125 isn’t entirely a copy. The hull is quite different in terms of size, general design, and road wheels (seven smaller road wheels on each side). It is longer, wider, and taller. However, this caused it to weigh 50 tons instead of the T-72’s 40 tons. The plus side is that it features increased armor and a more powerful engine. The turret is almost a copy, but I suspect some Chinese technology was a part of the development. Continue reading “TR-125 Pictures and Short Description”