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Beer

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  3. Czechoslovak interwar bits

    in Historical Warfare

    Posted

    Few of my photos from Czechoslovak interwar tanks from Lešany museum. Pardon the quality, my poor old phone has an issue with non ideal lighting conditions. What is important is that all these vehicles are in running condition. 

     

    Škoda LT vz.35 / Pz.35(t) / R2 (in Romania), the main Czechoslovak tank by the time of Münich with 298 pieces in service (actually more because some Romanian tanks were temporarily confiscated directly in the factory but after Münich they were delivered to Romania anyway). I'd say a very good tank for its time whose reputation suffered in Russia in 1941-42 but that was in conditions for which it was never designed and also one has to take into account that this is a 1935 vehicle and it doesn't need a genius to see that this tank shall not fight the T-34 or KV. It was never very reliable even in Czechoslovak service but which tank was in 1930'? The main issues with Czechoslovak army were with the electric systems, however in Russia the problems came from the pneumatic system which had a tendency to freeze. Other than that it was a small, well protected (for its time and class) vehicle with very strong armament. It was not very fast but not badly slow either. What is very interesting is that it had a semi-automatic pneumatically-operated planetary transmission with 6 speeds in both directions (!). With that it was a very easy tank to drive, one can say even luxurious for the drivers. The well designed commander cupola was another of the very modern features. All visors also had 50 mm thick armoured glass inserts which was no standard at all at that time. The biggest drawback was probably the one-man turret but that was pretty standard at its time (the Germans added a second crewman in the turret by reducing the ammo stowage). Another drawback was that the original Czechoslovak radio vz.35 worked only in morse code and had relatively short range 2+ km (the Germans replaced the radio with voice one Fu-2 or Fu-5). Still morse radio is much better than no radio. From other interesting features I'd mention the fact that the coaxial vz.37 MG could be aimed independently on the main gun. The last thing to say is that by the fall of 1938 this tank could destroy all existing German tanks from reasonable distance while it was better protected than nearly all of those which were available for Wehrmacht at that time. AFAIK no Pz.III was in the combat units intended for the Fall Grün and only two dozens or so of Pz.IV were, otherwise it was only legions of Pz.I and II. 

    JumslaI.jpg

     

    ČKD LT vz.38 / Pz.38(t). Pretty well known and successful tank, so I don't think I need to write about it a lot. It never made it to Czechoslovak service before Münich and actually all the initial series went directly to Wehrmacht in Spring 1939. Just like with the LT vz.35 the Germans added a second man into the turret. Maybe just in short what was was better with it compared to the LT vz.35 - it was faster, nimbler, much more reliable, more mechanically robust, better armed (it had a new powerful gun) and didn't have the complicated pneumatic system while still being easy tank to drive. Instead it used a semi-automatic Wilson planetary gearbox with five speeds forward and one backwards. In the end the best Czechoslovak tank was designed by Russian (Alexej Surin), it had Swedish engine (Scania Vabis), British gearbox (Wilson) and was used by Germany against it which was intended to be used... 

     

    Variants of the tank were also exported to Iran (two are even on display in Tehran), Slovakia and licence-built in Sweden.

    FasyKH1.jpg

    j4gmZSR.jpg

     

    ČKD LTP - export tank to Peru. You can notice the older gun, simple cupola etc. These tanks were in use by Peruvian army till 1970' and in storage till 1990'. They were praised for reliability and good performance in the high mountains (for example in 1937 they measured the top speed 34 km/h at the altitude of 4200 meters ). Similar variant of the tank was also sold to Lithuania. 

    bDNi4S4.jpg

    unZxOAA.jpg

     

    ČKD LTH - export tank to Switzerland. Used till 1950. The most interesting on it is probably the 24 mm automatic gun (fed by 6-round magazines) and the water-cooled Maxim MGs.

    gqxMjM9.jpg

     

    ČKD AH-IV-S - export tankette for Sweden (1936). Crazy fast thing for its time. It was able to run 60 km/h with 15 mm armor and two HMGs. They were in use till 1953, I presume as scout vehicles. Different variants of this vehicle were used by Iran and Romania (with weaker engine) and funilly twenty were sold to Ethiopia even in 1950 (with diesel engine)! 

    vzdsros.jpg

     

    A short note about the strategy and tactics in which the tanks played a big role. The Czechoslovak defence strategy counted with the fortifications to slow down the advancing enemy for enough time to allow relatively highly mobile field units inside the territory to fight where it was necessary (mainly the four so called Fast Divisions with fully motorized artillery, tank regiments and cavalry). The ultimate goal was to defend for time long enough to allow France, Romania and Yugoslavia as the main allies to mobilize and start military operations against Germany (or possibly Hungary).

     

    Ironically today when we know way more than what the polititians knew by that time and we can say that the plan would most likely work because Wehrmacht was unprepared for anything more than one-two weeks long campaign (one week long operation was even the plan), it had near undefended western border with France (7 divisions only), had no reasonable numerical advantage over Czechoslovakia (except for number of planes and tanks but those had their issues in that time too - for example Legion Condor with modern planes was still in Spain) - 38 against 36 divisions if I remember right and more of the Wehrmacht ones were incomplete compared to Czecholsovak ones, four of them were Austrian of questionable quality too. Germany counted with Hungary to attack Czechoslovakia but from the archives it seems that Hungary was too affraid of repeating 1919 defeat and would most likely opt to stay aside (in 1919 Romanian-Czechoslovak alliance defeated Hungary in a war for what is today south Slovakia). There was no element of surprise. Czecholsovakia managed to fully mobilize (unlike Poland) and distributed all supplies to field units. The German plans were somewhat different compared to the Czechoslovak anticipations but basically not in a way which would make things worse. Czechoslovak high command counted with two massive armoured assaults in north-south direction which would either force the army to retreat to Slovakia or surround it in central Bohemia (unlike most of French generals many Czechoslovak generals studied the Guderian's book Achtung Panzer! and were very enthusiastic about the mechanized warfare concept and tried to addapt it). The final German plan still counted with these two directions but with relatively limited forces (north was considred to be too heavily fortified and south too bad for logistics - not enough bridges and roads in Austria). As a result the German attack would come in six directions with relatively limited forces on each one moreover those would not get in the fight at once but would engage as they would get to the area (to create an element of surprise they were not concentrated near the front, however no element of surprise existed at that time). The advantage in airfoce was further reduced by the weather. The war was about to start on 1st October when it was foggy and rainy weather. At least half of the first day attack would be without any air support at all. The rest of the month was not very good for flying either. Part of the plan was a massive airdrop behind the fortification line in the northern sector. AFAIK this operation was executed in April 1939 as a training event and it went terribly wrong even without any opposition. The experience was not yet there. In the end the big question was the impact of the local Suddendeutsche Freikorps units in Czechoslovakia (roughly 40 thousand very lightly armed men whose target was to sabotage military traffic and commnucations and to create unrest, they had mostly only pistols, hunting rifles and explosives).

     

    All in all we will never know what would happen but I'm fairly sure there was no blitzkieg to happen. The main reason being that the Wehrmacht didn't have the Czechoslovak manforce and weapons it had in Poland and the fact that the creation process of both the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe was still far from being finished. Little known fact is that Wehrmacht rose by hundreds of thousands men when the Sudettenland was taken by Germany - men who went through Czechoslovak military service in 1918-1938 while Germany alone started the mandatory military service only in 1936 and therefore had massive men-shortage before Anschluss of Austria and Suddetenland. I think that the most famous "Czechoslovak German" soldier was the tank ace Kurt Knispel. I have not found the complete numbers but it's estimated that 300-500 thousands of Sudettendeutsche soldiers died in the war which is an absolutely enormous number considering the population of only 3,2 million (in fact 2,4 million of Germans were forced to leave Czechoslovakia in 1945 and of those missing 800 thousand majority probably died in the war and part fled already before the war ended).   

  6. The Small Arms Thread, Part 8: 2018; ICSR to be replaced by US Army with interim 15mm Revolver Cannon.

    in Infantry Tools & Tactics

    Posted

    I have accidentally came across this (more info and pictures under the link). 

    Odkolek-1.jpg

    It's relatively recently identified gem of the Czech military museum in Žižkov, Prague (atm it's still closed due to the ongoing reconstruction). For decades it was stored there but until few years back nobody knew what it actually was. In fact it's 1899 experimental machinegun of baron Adolf Odkolek z Újezdce, the original author of the design solutions used in the famous Hotchkiss Mle 1914 MG (Hotchkiss bought Odkolek's patents). Baron Odkolek (whose name is known in here mainly thanks to the bakeries founded by his uncle and existing till today) was a military officer and weapon designer, he was born near Mladá Boleslav, central Bohemia, but in the later part of his life he lived in Vienna where he also died in 1917. 

     

    This particular weapon chambered in 7.92x57 Mauser has a serial number 1 and is functional although part of the sights is missing and the belt design is unknown. Its parts were patented in 1899 (in Germany) and 1900 (in Switzerland). It's surprisingly light, just 10,5 kg. 

  7. Anti-air thread: Everything that goes up must come down, and we'll help you go down

    in Aviation

    Posted

    23 minutes ago, Calicifer said:

    Drones provide negligible combat value and are not in mainstream service yet. Most of high profile projects are still under development. It will take a good decade when such things as drone artillery spotters, tanks using drones to extend their awareness or when drones will be able to perform roles of more complex machinery like military aircraft or submarines. 

     

    I disagree with you. 

  18. The Soviet Tank Thread: Transversely Mounted 1000hp Engines

    in Mechanized Warfare

    Posted

    9 minutes ago, heretic88 said:

    They have some, but who knows in what condition. Some museums certainly have running IS-2, ISU, etc. but they appear only on some events. Really, I dont know why they prefer T-34s on parade. Sure, it was the most produced tank of the red army, that may be a reason. Also the undeserved "legendary" status of the 34. But whatever is the real cause, it seems that restoration of T-34s is always the no1 priority over anything. Sad. Especially when other, far more interesting vehicles just rot away in outside exhibits. Like the KV-2... 

     

    IMHO it's simple and understandable. It's victory parade and the T-34 is a symbol of the victory. In the end it's not wrong at all because only the T-34 fought all Red Army battles through the war and bore the main burden of fighting. Those veteran tankers who still live also served mainly with T-34 and not with IS or KV. 

     

    By the way an off topic and unrelated question... Do you have any Turán preserved in Hungary? 

  20. General news thread

    in Open Discussion

    Posted

    LNA L-39 made an emergency landing in Nigerian desert close to the Lybian border. The crew was allegedly detained. The plane looks nearly undamaged aside of collapsed front gear. I'd say pretty good result of a landing in the desert! 

     

  22. The Soviet Tank Thread: Transversely Mounted 1000hp Engines

    in Mechanized Warfare

    Posted

    20 minutes ago, heretic88 said:

    Pity they even wasted time and money on these tanks. They have more than enough T-34s anyway. It would be so much better to see IS-2, ISU-152/122, SU-76/85/100/122, these all contributed greatly to victory, but no, only stupid T-34... :( 

     

    Don't they have those as well when even here in Czechia we have at least 3-4 IS-2 (out of which one is in running condition), at least two ISU-152 and one SU-100 (one in running condition)?  

  24. Syrian conflict.

    in Open Discussion

    Posted

    Was AGM-114 R9X used to target a motorcycle before? Today US drone killed two men on a motorbike near Turkish controlled Al Bab. One of them was identified as an IS security official. There is also a video from the site available but it's extremely graphic (the two men were literally cut into pieces). 

     

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