David Fletcher looks at the M22, dubbed the ‘Locust’ by the British during WW2. The M22 saw service with the British Airborne during the Rhine Crossing in 1945.
For TANKFEST 2019, The Tank Museum was extremely lucky to be able to display the Leopard PRTL courtesy of The Historic Collection of the Royal Netherlands Army, in cooperation with the National Military Museum of the Netherlands.
David Willey explores how the self-propelled anti-aircraft system, based on a Leopard 1 tank, works and operates, alongside some footage of the PRTL in action.
Zeller, “Estimates concerning the effectiveness of some contemporary American fighters in
defeating a defended and undefended IS-III tank”,
⚜ Music ⚜
Music and Sfx from Epidemic Sound
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#CAS #GroundAttack #Typhoon
Comments Off on ⚜ | The Great Tank Destruction Myth ft. The Chieftain
J.F.C. Fuller has been described as a satanist, Nazi and bigot. Director Richard Smith, explores this highly controversial character, who was pivotal to the story of armoured warfare, using Fuller’s personal diary.
The British began World War Two with the Boys antitank rifle, but like all antitank rifles it rather quickly became obsolete. The replacement for it was adopted in 1942 as the PIAT – Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank. This was a unique sort of weapon which fired a 3 pound (~1.35kg) hollow charge projectile using a combination of a massive spring and a firing charge much like a rifle grenade blank cartridge — a spigot mortar, really. The large (3.25″, 83mm) projectile was able to defeat almost any tank that would be developed during the war, as it could burn through 3-4 inches of hardened armor. However, it had a terrifyingly short effective range — 110 yards on paper and more like 50 yards in practice.
The PIAT would recock itself upon firing, but the initial cocking was something like a crossbow, requiring the shooter to brace their feet on the buttplate and pull the body of the weapon upwards, compressing the 200 pound (90kg) mainspring. When fired, the weapon has a pretty harsh recoil, although it did not have any flash or backblast like the American Bazooka did. By the end of the war more 115,000 PIATs had been made, and they would serve the British military into the 1950s, when they were replaced with more traditional rocket launchers.
The Tank Museum has the only surviving example of the Second World War prototype tank, the A43 Black Prince. The designers of the Churchill tank were commissioned to build a tank which could hold the larger 17 pounder gun. The Centurion was chosen to go into production instead of the Black Prince, due to its superior engine and armour.
Chieftain returns to the World War Two channel this week for Part 2 of his deep-dive into the Soviet armour in the first months of war on the Eastern Front. This week, the focus is on medium and heavy tanks.
Written and Hosted by: The Chieftain
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson, Bodo Rittenauer
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: The Chieftain
Edited by: Miki Cackowski
Sound design: Marek Kamiński
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)
Sources:
Bundesarchiv
RIA Novosti archive, image #613694
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
Picture of K2, courtesy Ein persoon from Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi…
Picture of MBV-2 at Patriot Museum, Kubinka, courtesy Alan Wilson https://flic.kr/p/ZhtG6k
From the Noun Project: Shield by Nikita Kozin, Weight by Vadim Solomakhin, company soldiers by Andrei Yushchenko
Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Rannar Sillard – “March Of The Brave 4”
Johannes Bornlof – “The Inspector 4”
Fabien Tell – “Last Point of Safe Return”
Reynard Seidel – “Deflection”
Johannes Bornlof – “Deviation In Time”
Phoenix Tail – “At the Front”
Max Anson – “Ancient Saga”
Fabien Tell – “Other Sides of Glory”
The Tankgewehr antitank rifle was developed by the Mauser company and adopted by the Imperial German military as an emergency measure to counter the introduction of tanks to the WW1 battlefield. The question is, did they really work? Could a 13.2mm AP bullet from a Tankgewehr really perforate the armor of a British tank? Well today we find out!
The armor on a British tank was steel plate of 6mm, 8mm, and 12mm thickness, through-hardened to Brinell 440-480. We have replicated this with a plate of AR450 (ie, Brinell 450) armor, which we will be shooting at a distance of 50 yards. The ammunition we are using is original 1918 production German AP, and the rifle is a Tankgewehr captured by Allied troops late in the war and brought home as a souvenir.
This video was only made possible with help from three very helpful folks:
