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Beer

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Everything posted by Beer

  1. Beer
    Dana M2 during Ukrainean trials.
  2. Beer
    Well, the crew compartment size and its access in BMP-3 is not very good but then there is also the Dragun.
  3. Beer
    Photos from the military trials scrutineering of the three contenders for the Czech IFV tender. Interestingly the CV90 is on rubber tracks while the ohters on metalic ones. https://www.idnes.cz/zpravy/nato/bvp-obrana-metnar-havlicek-vlada-pasove-vozidla-armada-vybor.A210428_131259_zpr_nato_inc/foto/nahledy
  4. Beer
    Is the complete Vystrel hul made of double-layered armor plates? It looks so.
  5. Beer
    Sprut-SDM with some addon armor seems to be a logical choice also because of ammo commonality with the T-90S but...
  6. Beer
    Yes, it is still in the tender although there was no noise whatsoever about it for months. Only KMW left the competition due to the change of requirements. The final trials shall start any day and will finish on 6th June. Few more photos of the CV-90 CZ here: https://www.idnes.cz/zpravy/nato/bvp-testovani-ascod-lynx-cv90-armada-zakazka-obrana.A210426_155418_zpr_nato_inc/foto/nahledy#INC8afde1_IMG_4472red.jpg
  7. Beer
    Correct me if I am wrong but wasn't the only major thing taken from the T-43 to the T-34/85 the turret and even that one with different gun? I mean the torsion bar suspension, the new gearbox, removal of bow-gunner/radio operator, different fuel tanks and other new features never migrated to the T-34 and thus claiming that T-43 evolved into T-34/85 seems to me to be a bit over the top.
  8. Beer
    I wonder what's the point of this obsession with propaganda-driven made-up stats of several individuals leaving the other millions of common German soldiers looking like a useless inept crowd. That applies twice more if those individuals are hardcore nazi from SS. That's not only weird but also rather sick fetish.
  9. Beer
    Are you really comparing that with total losses of two entire armies? Get real. Tens of thousands of German soldiers contributed to those soviet losses.
  10. Beer
    Let's switch to small arms for a moment with a very special SMG which actually saw some combat during WW2 - the ZK-383 which is a particularly interesting weapon of a kind of its own... I have added some more info bellow which adds to what Ian said (most of his information is correct aside of mixing ČZ and ZB companies). It's a product of Zbrojovka Brno (ZB) designed by Josef Koucký in 1938. The weapon was first tested in September 1938 too late for being addopted by the Czechoslovak army and moreover at the time when MOD already addopted much cheaper and simpler competitor SMG vz.38 from Česká Zbrojovka Strakonice. In the end it was the first weapon from Brno which was produced in series, although small ones while the second one, while formally addopted, was never produced due to the historical events. Why is ZK-383 special? Because it has a quick-exchangeable barrel, selectable ROF and an integral bipod while it is still a relatively lightweight SMG in 9x19 Prabellum (4,3 kg without ammo). The reason for this very unusual layout is in the original army requirement which considered SMG to be a good option for replacing more expensive LMG vz.26 in some fortification objects which were close to each other (that was rather usual in difficult terrain where lines of fire were very short - and that was pretty common on our borders). The result was an (ultra)light squad automatic weapon - sort of. Originally it was developed in .380 ACP which was the standard pistol ammo in Czechoslovak pre-war army (as 9 mm vz. 22), later it was modified and produced in 9x19 Prabellum and a sample in .45 ACP was built for Argentina. The weapon got its final shape in 1941 (shown on the video) and as such entered limited production. It's a recoil operated weapon firing from open bolt equipped with a removable ballast from the bolt, by which the ROF can be switched between 500 and 700 RPM. It can fire also in semi-auto mode. It had either 30 or 100 rounds magazine but I haven't seen any photo or drawing of the large one and I think that it was never produced. It's all machined in rather ridiculous quality for a WW2 weapon (which probably explains why so few were built). In fact it is not known how many were built. Some were built for SS but nobody knows how many. 4000 were delivered to Bulgaria and 190 to Slovakia (used as SMG vz.42). Others were ordered by Ustasha forces from Croatia and again from Bulgaria but nothing was delivered (that was rather common because Czechoslovak factories had to give priority to German orders and the other countries often got nothing but a promise). Some weapons somehow got to Yugoslav partizans where they were very higly regarded. Those were probably captured from SS units or delivered from Bulgaria after it switched sides in September 1944. Two weapons are preserved in Prague Žižkov museum of the Military History Institute. One from Slovak order (drawing included): http://www.vhu.cz/samopal-zk-383/ Prototype of Bolivian police variant from 1939 (without bipod but with a foregrip) in nice original package with spare barrel etc.: http://www.vhu.cz/exhibit/ceskoslovensky-vyvojovy-samopal-zk-383-p/ Preserved JIG for filling the magazine: http://www.vhu.cz/exhibit/plnicka-zasobniku-pro-samopal-zk-383/
  11. Beer
    It doesn't matter at all how the battle is called, what matters is the beating the Nazis suffered around there.
  12. Beer
    It's not unclear case. It's complete nonsense.
  13. Beer
    This is also humble Nazi reporting... On 29th April 1945 Karl Körner from SS S.Pz.Abt 503 was awarded a Knight's cross for destruction of over 100 tanks in the past week including an encounter in which he claimed destruction of 39 tanks in matter of several minutes (that was supposed to be part of an encounter in which his platoon of three Königstigers allegedly destroyed 11 IS-2 and 120-150 T-34 at once, i.e. roughly 3 brigades destroyed with 3 tanks). Not John Rambo, not even Topper Harley could do this. With all seriousness the only person ever walking this Earth capable of something like that is Chuck Norris and he's the only one.
  14. Beer
    Man, millions and millions of automatic gearboxes in past eighty years all around the Globe have been equipped with torque converter. If you never heard about the most common coupling solution in automatic gearboxes, it means without any doubt that you have zero clue about transmissions and since differentials are rather difficult topic to grasp I think you shall not argue about them. Even what you just wrote is simply stupid.
  15. Beer
    That tank at the back looks indeed like a Sherman M4A2(76)W. It could be a mistake in the report but the fuel consumption doesn't add up, it is way too high for a diesel tank, albeit 3 tons heavier than M4A4. As for the torque converter. When driving very slow and uphill it makes a great difference - that's one of the reasons why it exists in first place. In very slow speeds the torque converter works like a torque multiplier. That's not possible with the mechanical clutch and transmission. The reason is simple - when a clutch is engaged the engine RPM and the vehicle speed is bound together, i.e. at very low speed the engine RPM is also very low, unlike with the torque converter which allows the engine to run in high power RPM even in ridiculously low vehicle speed for the cost of low efficiency, i.e. high fuel consumption. Another important advantage is that it increases traction because it delivers the torque very smoothly. I have never suspected that it was a navigation course. Not at all.
  16. Beer
    Video compilation from the Military Historical Intitute related to the 1938. You can see a lot of shots mainly from 1938 including May partial and September full mobilization. You can see a lot of weapons such as tanks LT vz.35, tankettes Tč vz.33, Avia B-534, Avia/Fokker F-IX, Aero/Bloch MB-200 planes, light howitzers vz.30 and heavy ones vz.37, light field guns vz.17 and vz.30, AT guns vz.37, mountain guns vz.15, AA guns vz.22, heavy mortar vz.16, mortar vz.17, HMG vz.24, LMG vz.26, some fortifications and of course rifles vz.24 (Mauser). The troops use mainly helmets vz.30 but some still have the old vz.20 (similar to WW1 German and 1917 Austro-Hungarian ones). From what is being said in the video the most interesting things are probably this - by 1938 Czechoslovakia had the 5th highest defence spending (in relation to GDP) in the world behind USSR, Germany, Japan and Italy. The peace army size was roughly 200 thousand men (60% infantry including armoured units, 20% artillery, 6% airfoce including AA units, 6% cavalry and 6% engineering). After the partial mobilization in May 1938 it had 370 thousand men, by the late September 1938 the number crossed one million due to the succesfully finished full-size mobilization (35 divisions including 4 of gendarmerie if I am not mistaken). The airfoce had 55 squadrons of which 38% were recon units, 38% fighter units and 24% bomber units. Not said in the video but added by myself for the overal picture. The armoured units had 298 tanks LT vz.35, 50 tanks LT vz.34, 70 tankettes Tč. vz.33, 50 armoured cars vz.30 and several dozens of other armoured vehicles such as 15 armoured cars vz.27, 8 training Renault FT tanks, 6 armoured cars vz.23 etc. (not counting temporarily seized export vehicles), trains, armoured trolleys and river boats. Most of the armor was concentrated in 3 fully-motorized so called fast divisions which were mainly concentrated in Brno-Opava area where a flanking attack was expected. The fortifications shall have given the field army a time to move and regroup for counter attack where necessary. Another video taken from 1937 movie showing Czechoslovak army during military excercise. Quite interesting footage because it captures a lot of rare equipment. Mainly LT vz.34 tank which was the first serially produced Czechoslovak tank and even ancient Renault FT armed with HMG vz.24. Other than that there is field and heavy artillery, some airforce (Avia/Fokker F-IX bombers and Avia B-534 fighters) and a very funny concealed HMG nest at 2:06 What is also interesting is that quite a lot of the soldiers don't wear helmets vz.30 but older vz.20 or vz.28. Considering that those were stopped being used in 1936 it gives an idea that the video was taken probably in 1935-1936.
  17. Beer
    Does anyone have Panzer Tracts No.9-3? This is alleged quote from there. It would be good know more info especially when that report was created.
  18. Beer
    27 degrees but most of the vehicles of that time were rated more. IMHO it has most to do with the vehicle mass and its ground pressure. The modern tanks are pretty bad in that regard. At least at that time I see a clear pattern of lighter vehgicles being better climbers. For example our pre-WW2 tanks were rated up to 45° (10,5 ton LT vz.35 and 16 ton ST vz.39).
  19. Beer
    My three cents. Things are much more complicated than what can be conculed by looking at non-scaled pictures. Panther has higher engine output than Pershing. Panther has 4 tons higher weight than Pershing. Panther's transmission is subject to more shocks than that of Pershing (the torque converter combined with the planetary geabox must have eased the shocks in the transmission a lot). All points worse for panther but that's only the base factors. The main point IMHO is that Panther's final drive housing was designed very opened and thus weak (there is very little material mainly from the inner side due to the space taken by the double gears and their bearings) while Pershing assembly is basically a fully enclosed massive box which means it must be much more rigid. It is well known that one of the major problems with Panther's final drive was its weak housing and its fixation to the hull which deformed and caused oil leaks damaging the gears. Another result of such deformation was the gear misalignments further worsening the situation. In my understanding the resulting defects were also very often related to the breaking of the screws from the resulting shear stress. The September 1944 modification is not related to the gears but instead to the housing strength and its fixation. You are searching for the wrong thing. Anyway it looks like it never solved the problems completely which seems logical because there is no way to add material from the inner side or in the return roler area. As for the gears alone inside the final drive assembly there is one gear more in Panther while the completele assembly isn't larger. I dare to say it looks even smaller especially in gear depth (considering there is a space used for the return roller on it as well) which logically means that the two gears in Pershing are larger than those three in Panther but without being able to determine torque on each gear it may be misleading (but I doubt the torque processed by Panther final drive was smaller especially considering the shock peaks which must have been flatten a lot by Pershing's torque converter). Straight-cut gears didn't help too. The herringbone gears like on Sherman would help for sure. Centurion final drive assembly is clearly much larger even judging just by the naked eye. As for the material IMHO the situation with it is relatively the easiest to establish. Even if you have bad material you know what you use for the design or at least you shall have some quality control which guarantees that you get material which is equally bad every time. In short it means that with worse material you simply end having things larger and heavier but having worse material does not prevent design of a reliable machine unless the issue is non-existent material quality control and the defects coming from quality differences in material supplies. Nothing seems to point in that direction though. Of course designing a complex shape of a final drive housing without simulation SW is difficult but they had experience and were able to do that with proper and in-time given inputs. Having things larger isn't always easy. In case of Panther it simply looks like the tank weight grew so much that a larger final drive simply couldn't fit on the vehicle without a radical redesign. How that could have been prevented is also rather easy to establish - the most obvious way is to stick with the design specifications and not to throw tons of additional armor on it late in the development phase. The other option is to start the design anew with new specifications but that takes time. Then there is the third option and that is to pray... Pershing final drive: http://afvdb.50megs.com/usa/pics/m26pershingfinaldrive1.jpg http://afvdb.50megs.com/usa/pics/m26pershingfinaldrive2.jpg
  20. Beer
    Partial replica of Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer Starr is now on display in the muzeum called "On the demarkation line" in Rokycany near Pilsen, Western Bohemia. It's built of a damaged original chassis found on a waste dump in 1994 (overall there are two more Hetzers in Czechia, both in Lešany muzeum, one of them is original makeshift combat vehicle without gun used by Prague insurgents, the other is a vehicle used by Czechoslovak army post-war). https://www.czdefence.cz/clanek/hetzer-starr-v-muzeu-na-demarkacni-linii Hetzer Starr was a simplified late-war variant of Hetzer with no recoil device on the 75 mm L48 gun and a new Tatra V8 diesel engine. Although only 14 vehicles were built, they actually saw combat in and around Prague in May 1945 (4 prototypes and 10 preproduction ones with most of them still equipped with petrol Praga NR engine were built). Four vehicles including one powered by diesel engine were used by SS tank school Milovice (partially manned by staff from S. Abt. 507) and few more vehicles were used by other units. It is known that they were engaged in figting against Czech insurgents in Břevnov (part of western Prague today) and it is possible that they were involved in the only armoured engagement during Prague uprising on 9th May when the first coming Soviet scout platoon of three T-34/85 was ambushed by four Hetzers in Klárov (directly under the Prague castle, basically at today's Malostranská underground station). Leading T-34/85 driving with opened hatches and even a civilian sitting on it (a man from liberated concentration camp) was hit and a ricochet shell hit a house behind. A brick from the house somehow struck the tank commander lieutenant Goncharenko in the head and killed him. He was a veteran fighting from the very first day of the war on the eastern front and he died on May 9 1945 from a brick, shit happens... After that the combat went pretty bad for the Germans. Two Hetzers were destroyed (one with catastrophic ammo explosion) and two more were abandoned by the crews and left in place. The Soviets lost one dead and two wounded, the civilian was also wounded (lost leg). At least two other Hetzer Starr vehicles managed to retreat to the Americans in Rokycany. In the post-war account of the Czechoslovak army there are 8 Hetzer Starr vehicles but they were re-equipped with recoil mechanism. More information about Hetzer Starr including wartime photos from Prague fighting or serial numbers can be found here. Hetzer Starr replica. Source of the image is the linked article.
  21. Beer
    Some time ago I stumbled uppon this. I knew there were secret comparison tests of LT vz.38 (aka Pz.35(t)) against T-26 held in Kubinka in the fall of 1938 but I didn't know that the Soviets built a variant of T-26 with a suspension copied from the LT vz.35 and wider tracks. Just like the comparison test the prototype T-26-5 (or T-26M) also showed that it was way faster in terrain than the one with the original Vickers suspension and narrow tracks, more reliable and less prone to loosing tracks (in the comparison test the original T-26 was basically unable to turn sharply on a slope higher than 8°). However the tank was never built is series. The article also mentions that a planetary gearbox for KV-1 designed by N.F. Shashmurin (not used in the final vehicle) was based on the LT vz.35 semi-automatic gearbox. http://www.tankarchives.ca/2020/06/courtesy-visit.html In the Kubinka comparison testing the measured speed was: Top speed: LT vz.35 - 36,0 km/h; T-26 mod.37 - 38,4 km/h Cobblestone highway average: LT vz.35 - 29,09 km/h; T-26 mod.37 - 23,8 km/h Dirt road average: LT vz.35 - 20,66 km/h; T-26 mod.37 - 15,5 km/h Off-road average: LT vz.35 - 16,25 km/h; T-26 mod.37 - 10,0 km/h The T-26-5 compared to the regular T-26: Cobblestone highway average: T-26-5 - 26,74 km/h; T-26 mod.37 - 19 km/h Combined dirt, icy road average: T-26-5 - 21,4 km/h; T-26 mod.37 - 15,2 km/h
  22. Beer
    I doubt it is possible to compare slope driving tests between each other due to difference in soil composition, weather etc. M26 was rated to climb 27° gradient which isn't much but here the test states it was able to climb 35°, surprisingly more when usually it was less than the rating. Probably the conditions in the particular test were good (soil offering good traction mainly). I think that the value is very difficult to use for any comparison except for the situation when one has the tanks at the same time on the same place, unfortunately the article doesn't give values measured for the other tanks in the test.
  23. Beer
    Just my guessing but it might be an average speed including necessary breaks while the pure average speed might be taken only from time spent driving.
  24. Beer
    I thought more about the limitation in track width, however it is noit specified in the article whether standard or extended tracks were used on the Sherman.
  25. Beer
    I was also surprised with that to be honest.
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