Zaloga Interview

[Walter_Sobchak 2,905]

I'm sure most of you saw this already over at WoT HAV, but I figured I would post it here as well. 

 

http://tanksandafv.blogspot.com/2015/01/interview-with-steven-zaloga.html

 

 

[Priory_of_Sion 914]

I really think that Forczyk is Zaloga's sidekick. 

[Walter_Sobchak 2,905]

I really think that Forczyk is Zaloga's sidekick

 

I picture Forczyk as much more feisty.  He likes to argue with people in Amazon book reviews. 

[EnsignExpendable 3,080]

Forczyk is more of a Linus Torvalds, Zaloga is The Woz.

 

Belton Cooper is RMS. 

 

Edit: should we keep a list of notable interviews, much like the documents list? This one, the Hitlerjugend one from HAV, and Carius' "I didn't destroy over 100 tanks" come to mind.

[SuperComrade 237]

I am quite impressed by Forczyk's versatility. He writes on naval material as well as on army stuff.

[Xlucine 330]

I picture Forczyk as much more feisty.  He likes to argue with people in Amazon book reviews. 

 

We need to attract him to the wehraboo hunting cause on the WoT forum

[Priory_of_Sion 914]

We need to attract him to the wehraboo hunting cause on the WoT forum

There is also Michael Kenny(mkenny) and Richard Anderson(RichTO90) who'd have been hunting wehraboos on a bunch of different forums before the glory days of the wehraboo hunts on the WoT forum. 

[Xlucine 330]

Richard Anderson is the hero tanknet deserves. Also, he wrote a very good book. Buy it if you want to know just about everything possible about d-day

[Priory_of_Sion 914]

Richard Anderson is the hero tanknet deserves. Also, he wrote a very good book. Buy it if you want to know just about everything possible about d-day

I have that book, Forczyk's book on tank warfare, and Yeide's Weapons of the Tankers in my Amazon cart. I just haven't bought them yet. 

[Sturgeon 3,902]

I approve of the interview compendium idea.

[Donward 3,053]

Zaloga talked about the cost of the Tiger versus its contemporaries in Reichsmarks (which we all have hashed over as being a very ineffective way to accurately measure the cost of the vehicle). I wish we'd all just agree to use man-hours as the accepted norm.

[LoooSeR 6,096]

Zaloga talked about the cost of the Tiger versus its contemporaries in Reichsmarks (which we all have hashed over as being a very ineffective way to accurately measure the cost of the vehicle). I wish we'd all just agree to use man-hours as the accepted norm.

Not just accepted, but necessary/required in any "cost of tank X vs cost of tank Y" analysis. 

[Collimatrix 3,715]

I'd be curious to know what about the panther's transmission made it a fire trap for the crews.  Any chance you can do follow-up Walter?

[xthetenth 257]

I'd always kinda figured the dry ammo storage in the sponsons thing would be the biggest problem for the Panther's flammability, at least in combat.

[Collimatrix 3,715]

A few months ago, someone chanced upon a combat report where a panther was lit on fire from a frontal transmission hit.

 

Might have been a freak occurrence, but given the whining in WoT about that, it was pretty funny to read.

[LoooSeR 6,096]

A few months ago, someone chanced upon a combat report where a panther was lit on fire from a frontal transmission hit.

 

Might have been a freak occurrence, but given the whining in WoT about that, it was pretty funny to read.

     Tank usually are getting hit into upper part of hull and turret (turret have higher probability to be hit, even if it is smaller). I have somewhere Israel-made report about that matter, although it is about T-72/62/55 tanks. In case of T-72 almost 70% of hits were turret hits, which is crazy taking into account size of turret.

     So yeah, lower plates were made to be less protected to save weight on a part that have very low chances to be hit. Which means that transmissions were shot very rarely in general.

[Walter_Sobchak 2,905]

I'd be curious to know what about the panther's transmission made it a fire trap for the crews.  Any chance you can do follow-up Walter?

No idea really.  I felt a bit bad that the interview ended up on my blog rather than where it was supposed to go.  The original idea was that there was a possibility that it could make it into a print magazine, but Scout.com pulled the plug on that.  The good thing is that at least the interview didn't end up buried in a subscriber only website.  And of course having it on my blog has helped me get a lot more pageviews.  Too bad I don't have any ads on the page....

[Zinegata 57]

Zaloga talked about the cost of the Tiger versus its contemporaries in Reichsmarks (which we all have hashed over as being a very ineffective way to accurately measure the cost of the vehicle). I wish we'd all just agree to use man-hours as the accepted norm.

 

His quoted RM figures are different from the usual Wehraboo babble, so it at least looks as though he tried to quote figures from the same time period and same level of production maturity; as opposed to the Wehraboos who tend to quote first-run MK IVs with higher cost versus late-run Panthers.

[Belesarius 1,475]

I've know about Zaloga for years, and IIRC, even met him very breifly once when I was a little kid at a hobby show down in the states.  His work were always very coveted by my Dad, but were kinda pricy at the time for us, as we weren't very well off economiically at the time and blowing $85 on a book was a no-go