The Tank Museum
Published on 10 Feb 2018Welcome to the first in the Tank Chat Funnies mini-series!
In Tank Chats #45 David begins a series on one of his personal interests, the Funnies of the 79th Armoured Division. However the 79th and its Funnies would have been nothing without its inspirational leader Major General Percy Hobart, so David starts with the man and we promise will follow very shortly with his machines.
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April 3, 2019
Tank Chats #45 Major General Sir Percy Hobart | The Funnies | The Tank Museum
April 2, 2019
James May’s Things You Need To Know – Series 2 – Episode 5 – Engineering (S02E05)
Uninsulated Crimp
Published on 10 Apr 2013James May gives a straightforward guide to some of science’s big ideas, explaining everything from evolution and Einstein to engineering and chemistry.
March 30, 2019
The EU’s copyright regulation is a stalking horse for online censorship and control
To the amazement of many non-EU observers, the European Parliament passed blatantly authoritarian and corporatist changes to the rules on copyrights that will have potentially vast impact on the internet across the world, not just inside the EU. At City A.M., Kate Andrews explains why this is such bad news for all internet users:
The two most controversial points in the law – Article 11 and Article 13 – are almost certain to stifle digital activity, and interfere with the free way that people currently use online platforms.
Article 11, known as the “link tax”, would make online platforms compensate press publishers for links and article content posted on their sites.
As my colleague Victoria Hewson highlighted in her latest briefing, this approach has been “widely criticised as a distortive measure that seeks to prop up a declining industry”.
As many local and national newspapers decline in readership and revenue, governments have become increasingly protectionist in their attempts to “rebalance” the sector, by cracking down on online platforms.
The link tax has little merit, even if rebalancing is the goal. News outlets which require payment for readership already have logins and paywalls to protect their content from free access.
[…]
Article 13 will also be distortive to the market, as it makes online platforms increasingly liable for copyright infringement.
As Hewson’s briefing notes, major online platforms already have routine screening processes for content that violates copyright law or their own rules. But the new regulations “remove the protection for platforms previously available if they removed violating content promptly on receiving notice of it, and contravene fundamental rights such as free expression and freedom from monitoring”.
The Directive claims that safeguards – including pastiche, parody, and quotations – will be protected, and that meme content has been excluded.
But the algorithms which these platforms will have to implement to adhere to Article 13 are going to struggle to see the difference between infringement and fair use when comparing uploads to content that is registered as copyrighted.
March 29, 2019
How Does it Work: Long Stroke Gas Piston
Forgotten Weapons
Published on 28 Mar 2019http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons
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The long stroke gas piston system was in its heyday about 50 years ago, and was popular in both rifles and machine guns. The principle is that the gas piston is fixed to the bolt carrier, and both cycle rearward for the full length of the cartridge upon firing. The system was used in such distinguished designs as the M1 Garand, Kalashnikov, Browning Automatic Rifle, and ZB/Bren light machine guns among others. By including the mass of the gas piston in the reciprocating parts, the long stroke system potentially carries more momentum when cycling, this improving extraction and feeding. This generally comes at the cost of increased perceived recoil, as the extra mass impacting the rear of the receiver at the end of travel is felt by the firer.
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March 28, 2019
Parker Hale M85: Traditional Sniper in a Modern World
Forgotten Weapons
Published on 27 Feb 2019http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons
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The 1985 competition to pick a new sniper rifle for the British military came down to a closely fought contest between the Accuracy International PM and the Parker Hale M85. The M85 was a fantastically accurate rifle, every bit the equal of the AI submission and to this day there are still people who were involved in the trials who insist that the M85 should have been selected. Ultimately, the decision came down to the logistical issues surrounding the rifle, where AI’s chassis system was superior to Parker-Hale’s traditional construction. Despite being defeated, Parker Hale sold some 800 M85 rifles – nearly as many as the military contract would have procured (and in fact, a few M85s were purchased by several military units).
If you are interested in learning more, I highly recommend checking out Steve Houghton’s newly released book, The British Sniper: A Century of Evolution. It can be found at:
https://www.swiftandboldpublishing.co…
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March 24, 2019
Major Fosbery’s Automatic Revolver: History and Mechanics
Forgotten Weapons
Published on 9 Aug 2017http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons
George Fosbery, V.C., was a decorated British officer with substantial combat experience in India when he decided to design a better sidearm in 1895. True semiautomatic handguns were in their very early stages of development at that time, and Fosbery thought that one could have a more durable, more powerful, and simpler weapon by using a revolver as a foundation. He began experimenting with a Colt SAA, but soon moved to using Webley revolvers when he found the Colt internals insufficiently durable for his conversion.
What Fosbery did was to relocate the barrel and cylinder into an upper assembly which could move independently of the grip and trigger of the gun. Upon firing, the energy of recoil would push the upper assembly rearwards, re-cocking the hammer and indexing the cylinder to the next chamber. This gave the shooter the rapid fire of a double action revolver with the excellent trigger pull of a single action revolver.
The gun was introduced at the Bisley shooting matches, where it proved quite popular as a target gun. By the time production began in the early years of the 20th century, however, semi-auto handguns had improved significantly, and the opportunity for the Webley-Fosbery to be a big seller had already passed. Still, British officers were required to provide sidearms chambered for the .455 service cartridge, and more than a few opted to purchase Webley-Fosberys.
Thanks to Mike Carrick of Arms Heritage magazine for providing this Webley-Fosbery for this video! See his regular column here: https://armsheritagemagazine.com
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March 21, 2019
Tank Chats #44 T14 and A33 (Excelsior) Assault Tanks | The Tank Museum
The Tank Museum
Published on 13 Jan 2018The Second World War American T14 and British A33 (Excelsior) Assault tanks were made to the same specification as one another, neither ever went in to service and only one of each were made. They both survive at The Tank Museum.
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March 19, 2019
The dangers of over-relying on new technology
Ted Campbell discusses one of the potential problems when military organizations depend too much on new tech working as advertised by the developer:
I have been a constant critic, in these pages, and in other fora, of the Canadian military’s command and control (C²) superstructure. I believe it is overly complex and bureaucratic, too top heavy and it is ‘fat,’ even, I have said, morbidly obese. I think Canada has far, far too many admirals and generals, almost all (except for, perhaps, a half dozen, at most) being one or two ranks higher than is needed for the job they do, in too many headquarters that do little of value except talk
toat each other. I believe our C² has more do do with trying to emulate our (equally grossly obese) neighbour to the south than with meeting the needs of Canada.
The solution to the C² obesity problem is about 99% political … it needs a minister who will direct the Chief of the Defence Staff to chop something between ⅓ and ½ of the admirals and generals and commodores and Navy captains and Army and Air Force colonels and many of the HQs in which they sit. Of course that will require a massive (and overdue) revision to the entire military remuneration system so that admirals and colonels and corporals and privates, too, all get paid, appropriately well, for what they do for Canada. That needs to be agreed, by the prime minister, before the Minister of National Defence orders give the order to “chop.”But that’s the top level problem and I have, I think, ranted on enough about it … my readers will either agree or not.
I believe, as I said the other day, that there is also a serious problem at the operational and tactical levels of the military, and it involves more than just command and control (C²), it involves the command, control and communications (C³) systems and, especially, the degree to which they are reliant on modern electronics and, especially, yet again, the electro-magnetic spectrum to establish a global information network upon which the military is nearly totally reliant. When, not if, “nearly totally reliant” becomes over-reliant, as I believe is now the case, and is most pronounced, the military sometimes uses the acronym C4I, meaning command, control, communications, computers and intelligence or worse, C4I2 which means command, control, communications, computers, intelligence and interoperability according to the US Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. The mere fact that we seem to want to assign fancy acronyms to a few aluminium and plastic boxes full of solid sate circuits seems to me to indicate that we don’t actually understand that, beneath the blinking lights and flashy displays is a process than, in many respects, is little changed from what we did 75 years ago. The need to manage and handle information is unchanged, the technology we can use to do those things has changed.*
The problem, as I see it, is that the modern military is fascinated with what technology can do ~ and it can do a lot of really useful things ~ but are less willing to understand its limitations.
Don’t get me wrong: I think computers are wonderful; they make many mundane but time consuming tasks easy to accomplish in the blink of an eye. Ditto for radios and radars which seem to erase distance as show us things that used to be invisible. But all technology comes at a price … sometimes, as in the world of electronic warfare (EW), the price is fairly easy to understand: if you say anything on your radio then a modestly sophisticated enemy can, quickly and accurately, locate your exact position and send artillery or sir strikes your way; or the enemy can ‘spoof’ your communications networks, feeding false information into it and spreading confusion. The enemy can, also, use the radio spectrum to gain access to (hack) your computer network and make you deceive yourself. Or the threats may be physical, like the anti-satellite networks, such as the Chinese are developing, which according to Lieutenant General Jay Raymond of the United Stares Air Force, mean that “soon every satellite in every orbit will be able to be held at risk.” Our, Canadian and allied, national surveillance and air defence systems use satellite networks as do our strategic command and control (C²) networks which manage Canada’s armed forces at home and overseas. Even the most modern “networked” systems might be rendered deaf and blind.
March 17, 2019
Book Review: FN Browning Pistols by Anthony Vanderlinden
Forgotten Weapons
Published on 17 Feb 2019Get your copy here:
https://www.wetdogstore.com/NEW-FN-BR…Anthony Vanderlinden is a noted FN collector and author of a book on FN Mauser rifles as well as this volume on FN’s Browning pistols. Both are excellent reference works, with a remarkable amount of contextual information in addition to the very specific detail that appeal to the collector. This work begins with about 70 pages on the history of the FN company, detailing its work in firearms, automobiles, and other products through the Great War, the Great Depression, World War Two, and other events. It then spends a period discussing unique and interesting FN pistols, like the presentation guns made for FN’s celebration of producing a million Browning pistols and the guns used by Gavrilo Princip and his cohorts in the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. There are then sections on FN’s association with John Browning and on Browning himself, and on the markings and proofs used by FN throughout its history.
The remaining bulk of the book is broken up into chapters covering the development, production, and use of each model of Browning pistol produced by FN (namely the 1899/1900, 1903, 1905, 1910, 1922, Baby Browning, and High Power). These chapters do an excellent job of providing information on the early development of the guns as well as the commercial and military production, often broken down by the different contracts for each model. For instance, the 1922 chapter includes sections on Yugoslav, Dutch, Mexican, Greek, Turkish, French, Romanian, Danish, Finnish, and German procurement of those pistols. For the historian, the context presented does an excellent job of explaining each gun’s significance in larger events. For the collector, the attention to the details of differences in marking and production between each different variant is thorough and very useful.
My only real complaint would be that the book is entirely in black and white. While that does not really hinder the purpose of the photographs in showing variations and such, color photographs would make it nicer to look at. The book was first printed in 2009, with a revised and expanded second edition printed in 2013. That second edition is available direct from Wet Dog Publications for $67.95 plus shipping, and also from Amazon.
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March 15, 2019
What Computer Games get Wrong about Tank Combat – with a Veteran
Military History not Visualized
Published on 12 Feb 2019In this video I talk with Martin Carr (Ex-Cavalry Officer Australian Defence Force) on what computer games get wrong about war. We particularly focus on Tank Combat, since a) we are standing on a Panzerkampfwagen V Panther in the Panzermuseum Munster (Germany) and b) we both played War Thunder, etc.
Games mentioned: War Thunder, World of Tanks & Post Scriptum.
Disclaimer: We were invited by the Panzermuseum Munster.
Special thanks to VonKickass for the Thumbnail!
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March 11, 2019
How Does It Work: Patents and Blueprints
Forgotten Weapons
Published on 10 Feb 2019http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons
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What is the difference between patents and copyrights? If someone wants to reproduce an old firearm design, how do they get the rights to? Why can’t you reproduce a gun design from patent drawings? What information is in a technical data package? This and more, today on How Does It Work!
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March 9, 2019
Project Lightening Episode 08: Outtakes
C&Rsenal
Published on 7 Mar 2019Project Lightening is the first collaborative project between C&Rsenal and Forgotten Weapons. It features SEVEN World War One light machine guns put head to head to see which is the best!
March 8, 2019
Project Lightening Episode 07: Conclusions
Forgotten Weapons
Published on 7 Mar 2019Want to keep a copy of the entire series for yourself? You can download the entire series right now to keep for just $6:
https://candrsenal.com/product/lighte…
Project Lightening is a collaborative series with Othais and Mae of C&Rsenal in which we test all seven light machine guns and automatic rifles of World War One and put them through a series of tests and evaluations. Each week we will be posting one video on Forgotten Weapons and one on C&Rsenal. Today we have the final conclusions, with a series blooper reel posted right now over on C&Rsenal:
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March 6, 2019
How Does it Work: Long Recoil
Forgotten Weapons
Published on 7 Feb 2019http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons
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Long recoil operation is one of the most mechanically interesting of the main firearm operating systems. When the gun fires, the recoil energy generated forces the barrel to move rearward, and the bolt remains locked into the barrel until the two reach the full length of travel (the length of the whole cartridge). At that point the bolt is held rearward and the barrel unlocks and moves forward under pressure from a return spring. The empty cartridge case is held in the bolt face, and the barrel pulls forward off the front of it. An ejector kicks the empty case out when the barrel is fully clear, and when the barrel has returned to its firing position a trip releases the bolt, which moves forward under pressure of a second return spring and feeds the next cartridge into the chamber.
Long recoil system are very safe, as they allow the longest time of any system to let pressure vent from the barrel before unlocking. They are also mechanically complex, and tend to exhibit higher than normal felt recoil. The system was employed successfully in a wide variety of firearms including light machine guns (the Chauchat), rifles (the Remington Model 8/81), shotguns (the Browning Auto-5 and Winchester Model 1911), and handguns (the Former Stop). All of these date from the early 1900s, when designers were still exploring ways to safely and reliably build self-loading firearms.
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March 5, 2019
Project Lightening Episode 06: Total Damage
C&Rsenal
Published on 28 Feb 2019Project Lightening is the first collaborative project between C&Rsenal and Forgotten Weapons. It features SEVEN World War One light machine guns put head to head to see which is the best!
We’re releasing two episode a week but you can get them all at once over at C&Rsenal AND support both shows at the same time!
http://candrsenal.com/product/lightening
Episode 01: https://youtu.be/TVgkwQTo2n4
Episode 02: https://youtu.be/-hSZbo8Hvn4
Episode 03: https://youtu.be/A9ryJaj3mPw
Episode 04: https://youtu.be/I3ZA9rg8uKI
Episode 05: https://youtu.be/Eee7-5Oo0nU
