Article made by SovietTenkDestroyer and of course with a bit of help from me, Seb.

Due to the all of the understandable criticism from some of the vehicles “being too new” or out of the time span, I felt like I had to type this and defend one of my tanks. I’ve seen comments criticizing of my choice of tanks in some of the higher tiers. One of these tanks are the TR-77-580. If you look at the date it was created, you would be mistaken that it was an advanced main battle tank firing APFSDS, composite armor, advanced stabilization, ballistic computers, etc. However, it lacks many of these qualities that were later introduced in other variants and other domestic tanks (TR-85. TR-800/TM-800, and TR-125 (Seb’s favorite tank) ). The reason for the lack of technology can be the fault of Romania itself. Understandably, Romania did not want to participate in the Prague Spring (Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia) which ruined relations with the Soviet Union. (Seb: and because of this Romania had a period of appreciation from the Western powers, through us the USA aquired diplomatic relations with China) This caused Romania to not obtain any Soviet weapon exports (In the end they did obtained some T-72s which were kept in total secrecy) and had to rely on reverse engineering for vehicles such as the TR-125 (reverse engineered version of the T-72 that was a bit stronger) and to gain information from the Chinese in order to spite the Soviets. This happened after the TR-77-580 that was already built and put into service. (Seb: or before, not really sure)

Continue reading “Can the TR-77-580 fit in WoT?” →

Seb: I am super busy until Wednesday when I can finally rest and focus on TAP. I will try to post everything I can tonight too. Sorry for inactivity and for just posting the „basic” stuff. I will make up for it.

Time for another historical article translated by Vladimir:

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In the ’30s and ’40s, military engineers tried to solve a non-standard task – to provide a light tank with significant firepower. The light BT-5 tank served as an object for experimentation.

For its’ time, this tank was well armed and protected, but still quite ordinary. In 1933, the chief of the mechanization and motorization department of the Red Army I.A. Halepsky issued the task to turn the “private” into a highly destructive combat vehicle. The aim of the engineers was to “create a torpedo-carrying tank, armed with 250kg torpedoes, intended to destroy enemy resistance pockets…”

One and a half centners of heavenly thunder

The tank torpedoes for the BT were two shell hulls of streamlined form containing 130kg of TNT and equipped with four stabilizers. A light tank carrying at least two of these shells turned into a machine of collosal destructive power. The tank rocket torpedoes 250-TT were designed for usage against heavily fortified positions, pillboxes, railway junctions etc. With their help, the BT could also destroy heavy armor of the enemy.

The designers had many questions on this topic. For example: if a BT-5 turret is equipped with 400kg on each side, can it still rotate? Will the launchers be powerful enough? How will be the range and precision of the torpedoes? None of these questions could be answered in theory, experiments had to be conducted.

Firstly, the engineers tested how durable the hulls of the torpedoes themselves were. They put 95 gunpowder charges inside and lit them up – the hull withstood this. The time had come for firing tests.

The experimenters took six torpedoes – two were filled with wet sand, the other four with TNT. They launched them. The experiment showed that “the flight of all six bombs is correct, stable, the range at an elevation angle of 50° is about 1450-1500 meters”. The four craters in the ground were measured – they were about 10 meters in diameter and 4 in depth.

Not good enough

The time had come to shoot some torpedoes from the tank itself. On the 19th July 1936 a BT-5 arrived at the shooting range of the station “Podsolnechnaya” with torpedo launchers mounted at the sides of the turret. To protect the radiator lattices at the back of the tank from jet streams, the designers provided it with special shields.

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Continue reading “Bizarre armor projects of the ’40s. BT tanks with a rocket twist” →

Time for another historical article translated by Vlad! This post is the one I teased a few days ago.

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The construction of a tank is notable because for the first time in history, not only the gun and its crew were protected by armor, but that the resulting fortress also could move by itself. Debuting in 1916 on the battlefield, tanks opened a new motorized way of warfare and moved horses to a secondary role.

Some two decades later, enthusiasts decided to turn back time. They thought that the engine component of the tank is unnecessary. Two such projects reached the GABTU and landed in the archives.

Yushko’s machinegun capsules

The first (chronologically) project arrived in April 1941. The author was engineer S.P. Yushko from Dneprodzerzhinsk. The whole point of his project was summed up in one sentence: “To increase the firepower of tanks… modern tanks should be equipped with armored “wagons” without engines housing two machineguns each”.

The author reasoned his thoughts based on the following argument: tanks have powerful engines and usually a high passability. But fighting vehicles also require powerful armament, but a tank cannot be equipped with additional barrels or machineguns right before battle. Yushko proposed a solution from his point of view.

On the draft, he presented some of his “engine-less tanks” as trailers for conventional tanks. Thus, he achieved additional cover for the main tank by four machineguns from behind its rear. The author noted that during battle, these armored trailers had to follow the towing tank at a distance of about 10-15 meters, during marches this could be shortened to about 2-3 meters.

Instead of tracks, Yushko proposed to use “wheels – hollow, cylindrical ones, mounted on axes”.

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Continue reading “Bizarre tank projects of the ’40s. Tanks without engines” →

I guess that after the awesome 7-6 win NA’VI had (with the help of the magical rock), a translated historical article from Vlad will make you even more satisfied.

Let’s begin.

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The saying of generalissimo A.V. Suvorov that the best defense is offense is known, but not undoubted. If this would be undisputable, the history of war wouldn’t have known any fortresses. For thousands of years, people hid behind their walls, enduring sieges and assaults. The 20th century came, which gave the war engines – and some minds thought: what if we make our fortresses move?

Guards’ major Derkach was a pilot in the 7th Rzhev Fighter Air Division of the 2nd Fighter Air Corps. However, he took on inventing a land vehicle with an enormous firepower. Its’ description arrived in fall of 1943 at the war council of the Red Army Air Force and was transmitted to the GABTU.

Absolute power on tracks

Firstly, Derkach outlined the “combat characteristics of the “Mobile Fortress”. He wrote:

“Thanks to its’ large area inside it is possible to place strong firepower, equivalent to one artillery and one infantry regiment…”

The inventor planned to arm his vehicle with 16 medium-caliber guns and 35-40 machineguns, and also with “means of chemical attack”. The main purpose of the “mobile fortress” would be breaking through heavily fortified enemy lines. At the same time, enemy fire couldn’t harm the destructive machine.

Continue reading “Bizarre armor projects of the ’40s. Major Derkach’s “mobile fortress”” →

Time for another historical article translated by Vlad. He also pulled a nice 1st April joke on me, hehe 🙂

In this article we talk about Stanislaw Lem’s tank proposals. There are several, and this article is a treat I dedicate to our Polish readers. Spread the word!

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The books of this man are read by millions. His works of art are included in the world’s most renowned science fiction literature, and his philosophical theses laid the foundation for the science of predicting the future – futurology. He predicted the emergence of virtual reality, artificial intelligence and exploration of space by mankind. All of these are also achievements by Stanislaw Lem.

But only recently, the first works of the author were found in military archives. And these weren’t novels or stories, but tank projects.

Tank of “grand” dimensions

When WWII started, Stanislaw Lem was studying to become a doctor in Lvov. He couldn’t leave the occupied city and lived there on forged documents. Stanislaw worked as a welder working on damaged German armor. He saw tanks in Hitler’s echelons traveling through Lvov. One could say that the future writer and futurologist studied tank building by practical means.

Stanislaw remembered that at this time, waiting for the liberation from the Germans, he “focused all strength in one direction – to create new and improve old means of fighting based on the incomplete data available to me”. The Red Army liberated Lvov on 27th June 1944. Some two months afterwards, he sent a voluminous letter in Polish to the people’s commisariat of defense of the USSR, explaining his ideas regarding technological advancements in the defense industry.

The first topic in Lem’s proposal was the project of a “Large-sized tank” (Czołg wielkich rozmiarów). The ten meter long hull firstly surprised with its chassis. The author considered that thanks to four independent track components, his tank could comfortably cross rough terrain. The arrangement of the chassis should help the vehicle to cross anti-tank ditches, ramparts, ruins etc.

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Continue reading “Bizarre armor projects of the ’40s. Stanislaw Lem and his tanks” →

Hello! I’m back to show you more Romanian tank destroyers! As it stands now, the Romanian tank destroyer line has little to no chance of being implemented because of one simple thing that is the scourge of the WoT community. Premiums… With that being said, I have some tank destroyers, I believe that most of them are fairly unique. However, some of these tanks have little information to make accurate real-life statistics and in-game ones. The only way we can find more information on these tanks is that if we investigate the Romanian and Russian archives (The Soviets confiscated many military vehicles and archives).

Seb: I am planning a trip to the Romanian Military Archives soon. This should help.

SovietTD: Right now we have two options that we may pursue. A full fledged Romanian tech tree that includes post-war tanks used by the Romanian military or a small low tier mini-branch that will accommodate the current German tank destroyers with no post-war tank destroyers. If you want to see our Romanian tech tree concept, scroll down near the end.

Part I: https://thearmoredpatrol.com/2016/03/20/romanian-tank-destroyers-in-world-of-tanks/

Tier 2: TACAM R-1

Continue reading “Romanian Tank Destroyers in World of Tanks: Part II – Premiums” →

Big thanks to Vlad for translating this fresh historical article.

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Next to military inventors who didn’t burden themselves with a connection to reality, there were also others. Willingly declining to let their minds wander freely, they set themselves specific and more or less manageable tasks. For example, improvement of characteristics of already existing vehicles.

Balkan recipe

In March 1945 the Military Institute of foreign languages (VIIY) recieved a request from GABTU major Goncharov. It was supplied with a text in Serbian, waiting for translation. The topic was a tank of unprecedented design. (Seb: Piroman, take notice)

The author was named Mikhailo-Mile Velimirovich, a combatant of the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. He began his work back in 1939. Taking the French Renault R35 as his basis, the inventor considered to turn it into a vehicle with a shiftable center of gravity. “Such a tank could cross various natural and artificial obstacles (pits, ditches, elevations etc.) which hinder any normal tank” – the author explained.

In Velimirovich’s project, the turret would basically replace the whole body. It contained the engine, fuel tank, armament and crew. Aside from the turret, the tank only had a chassis, where on the inner sides of the tracks, some kind of gear levers were installed which were connected to the wheels and the transmission. According to Velimorivich, the levers could move the turret from the back to the front and viceversa. Further actions were described as follows: “The tank arrives at a ditch, having the turret at the back and slowly moves over the ditch… The turret is moved to the front so the center of gravity is moved to the other side of the ditch”. The vehicle should cross elevations in a similar fashion. The author recommended to move through marshy grounds with the turret in the middle so that the tank doesn’t get stuck.

Velimirovich realized that his tank is quite exotic and ambiguous to operate alone. But it would serve as a good infantry (and tank) support vehicle. The Soviet military engineers studying the project didn’t share Velimirovich’s confidence and thus the “tank with shifting center of gravity” was never realized in practice.

Lend-lease tuning

In the beginning of 1944, a proposal has arrived: modernize the foreign tanks which were in service in the Red Army. Engineers of the Central Artillery Design Department (ZAKB) A.S. Chasovnikov and S.D. Kazarin claimed that the British infantry tanks Mk. II Matilda, Mk. III Valentine, Mk. IV Churchill and the American M3 Lee, M4A2 Sherman have too large dimensions and insufficient armament. Their effective firing distance does not exceed a half kilometer. They just cannot compete with the superior armed and armored tanks and tank destroyers of the enemy. “This causes mistrust of our officers and generals to this armor, and in best cases they are used as second line tanks” – the authors wrote.

Continue reading “Bizarre armor projects of the ’40s. Tank “tuning”” →