Beer

Actually there were two vz.28 MGs. Both were used mostly in aircrafts and one was used in fixed and the other in movable installations during 1920'. The fixed one was a copy of Vickers and the movable a copy of Lewis. Some Lewis HMGs were used also in anti-aircraft role. Here You can see some photos of the preserved Lewis one: http://www.vhu.cz/exhibit/cs-letecky-kulomet-vz-l28/

Yes, it probably got to a point when evacuation convoy could get under fire which was riskier than to stay and wait for evacuation under Russian supervision. Anyway even if most likely no servicemen are about to be killed, they shot themselves in the foot pretty hard. They failed to protect the rebels and drove themselves into an embarassing defeat.

Can somebody explain to me what the Turks want to achieve by having couple of hundred soldiers surrounded at Morek? They had weeks to prevent that situation but for some reason they decided to wait for SAA to surround them. Why? I can imagine plenty of upcoming scenarios but I can't find one which brings any benefit to Turkey.

It's rather small news but our Czech MOD finally decided that it will buy 8 UH-1Y + 4 AH-1Z (orginally 12 multirole hellis were requested but the fact that these two helicopters have like 85% common parts probably lead to victory of those who wanted also some new gunships). Anyway since the number is so small everybody here is expecting that another batch will be bought later when the budget is available.

Liberec Technical University developed a special thermochromatic pigment for textiles which changes colors depending on the ambient temperature from yellowish desert pattern to dark green patterns. The color change is said to be repeatable infinitely and the pigment is stable on the sun or in the water. The temperatures in which the color change happens can be adjusted in production, currently it is said to be around 37-40°C. For the moment there is a certain disadvantage in rustling of the material but that is said to be solvable in the near future. Further development shall continue in cooperation with Czech army. You can see a video in this article (the interesting part is @ 0:21): https://www.idnes.cz/liberec/zpravy/univerzita-liberec-bunda-armada-vynalez-meni-barvy.A190821_144009_liberec-zpravy_tm

It looks like Houthis managed to down another MQ-9 Reaper. There is photo of the wreckage if you open the twitter post.

Something more from Anna news. 2S1 on ZIL-131 "cabrio" 2A20 (?) on Ural 4320

So now it's Houthis vs. Hadi + KSA + Sudan etc. vs. Southern separatists + UAE vs. AQAP vs. IS. Each one fo them fighting every other. That's a definition of mess.

That one sniper with Mosin have been appearing in nearly all Anna videos in the past weeks. It looks like the effective storming units of the SAA are very small in numbers hence they attack usually only one or two villages at time.

In the last 24 hours SAA captured the town Al Habit on the western side of the bulge and the village Sukayk (on two attempts) on the eastern side and it keeps pushing towards Khan Shaykhun from both sides. It is possible that in next days the Idlibi militanst will have to withdraw from the whole bulge south of Khan Shaykhun. There are unconfirmed reports that TSK already started evacuation of their observation post near Morek. Map source And a new video from Anna News

Pardon my ignorance but how the driver enters and exits the vehicle? Through the turret (aside of the escape hatch in the floor)?

There is a website which holds records about known aircraft crash sites in Czechia since 1918. Unfortunately it's all in Czech but with a decent translator you can dig a lot out of it (base data even without). It contains information about known circumstances of each crash site, its location and if possible also an information about artifacts found on the crash site. It can be particularly interesting for everyone interested in WW2 air war or for someone whose relatives were airmen who died somewhere over Czechoslovakia. This is the link to the website. Particularly interesting sections are these: WW2 per type WW2 per date Unfortunately there is only one-way link between the map and the database and that is from the map to the database. Of course not everything is in and with the time it's getting more and more difficult to search for what happened so long time a go... One example of what you can find is this. Capt. Robert B. Holmes from 82th Fighter Squadron 78. Fighter Group 8. AF was shot down by FlaK on 16th April 1945 during an attack on Prague Ruzyně (Václav Havel Airport today) airport. He died in the cockpit of the plane and was burried in a near Ruzyně cemetery. His body was later moved by the US officials to a French US military cemetery and later back to USA per wish of the family. The fragments of his Mustang were found in a forest and neighbouring fields in the period of 2007 to 2012 including some rather large parts such as a piece of the wing with the US star still well visible on it. The people behind this website were later contacted by a man whose father was one of the first responders on the crash site (he was working on the field nearby). This family built a small memorial dedicated to Capt. Holmes on the crash site and they keep taking care of it. There are some interesting records even after the WW2. For example this one. Two F-84F of the Luftwaffe crashed into a forest behind Czechoslovak frontier in 1959 due to navigation error in bad weather (both pilots managed to eject after first impact with the treetops). Long article (in Czech only) about this particularly interesting incident can be found here. Is there something similar for other countries?

Anti-tank guns will be rather short. The 4,7 cm gun used in the fortifications was already introduced. Here are the field ones. 3,7 cm KPÚV vz.34 was the first serial purpose-built anti-tank gun of the army. It was produced by Škoda as all other guns. Some two hundred pieces were fielded. The gun was 270-300 kg heavy (per traction variant). With muzzle velocity 675 m/s it could penetrate 30 mm armor at 1000 meters in 1934 testing (but only 30 mm at 550 meters in 1937 when tested against new cemented armor). It was capable to follow a target moving at 40 km/h and fire up to 23 rounds per minute (12 aimed). This gun is most well known as a tank weapon. It was used in LT vz.34 and LT vz.35 (Pz.35(t) ) tanks which were sucessfully used by Wehrmacht, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania in the early stages of the war. One gun is on display in Prague Žižkov muzeum (currently closed due to ongoing reconstruction). 3,7 cm KPÚV vz.37 was a new gun developed as a result of testing against new types of armor. This gun became the primary anti-tank weapon of the army (some 700 pieces were fielded at the fall of 1938). The gun had higher muzzle velocity (750 m/s) and an extreme rate of fire up to 40 rounds per minute. It used the same ammo with bigger propelant charges (or same). It managed to penetrate 32 mm at 1000 meters. It was heavier (around 370 kg) also due to the use of rubber wheels for motorized traction. In its time it was very powerful AT gun somewhat more powerful than the German PaK 35/36. Wehrmacht let the production run and in September 1939 had nearly 900 of these guns fielded (several hundreds were used by other countries such as Slovakia). Also this gun had its tank variant but this time rather different (shorter recoil etc.) even though the ballistic performance was nearly same. This gun was used in LT vz.38 (Pz.38(t) ) and some TNH-series export tanks. 4,7 cm KPÚV vz.38 was a new gun which was not yet fielded by the fall of 1938 but I place it here because this gun became pretty well known during the WW2 as a primary armament of the first tank destroyer ever the Panzerjäger I. This 580 kg heavy gun could penetrate some 55 mm at 500 meters and 32 mm at 1500 meters in 1936 testing (the muzzle velocity was 775 m/s). Later in the war it used even more powerful ammo. the rate of fire was 12 aimed shots per minute. Till 1940 it was the most powerful AT gun in Wehrmacht posession. Unfortunately the whole first batch for the army went directly to Wehrmacht when it was produced in the second half of 1939. Meanwhile Yugoslavia got some 300 pieces and used them in the war against Germany. Wehrmacht captured most of the guns and used them as well. Altogether Wehrmacht had around 600 pieces and they served until they were replaced with PaK 40. Also this gun had a tank variant. It was supposed to be used in the medium tank ST vz.39 but only one armed piece was built I think. Wehrmacht didn't order this tank despite it was much better armed than Pz.III of that time. One piece of this gun is on display in Lešany muzeum.

Can You please again name them?

The event with two Ukrainean cargo planes clearly made UAE very angry. There are reports that Wing Loong II strikes destroyed an Il-76TD (UR-COZ), this time loaded with Turkish arms, and two L-39ZO light attack planes during past few days on Misrata airport. Also hits in the hangar (Bayraktar UAV shelter?) of the Misrata airport are clearly visible on sat image. Possible Il-76 wreck Possible UAV hangar https://twitter.com/Obs_IL/status/1159114971491569664 One of reports about the twin L-39ZO destruction https://twitter.com/BabakTaghvaee/status/1159089452469432321

Something more related to the "Czech Puma". The time for formal objections has passed and all four bidders are still in. By the start of October the MOD shall receive preliminary offer including all items of the future contract. Article from the MOD in English about the mandatory requirements: https://www.czdjournal.com/defence/16-uncrossable-requirements-for-the-new-czech-tracked-infantry-fighting-vehicles-194.html Maybe the most interesting is the requirement for hard-kill APS with capability to cover 360° against at least three consecutive shots to the same place or a requirement for possible future up-arming with a higher caliber gun without exchange of the whole turret.

Is that AL-41F? Is it supersonic?

Any tank geek can tell me which one is which on the last picture?

Let's continue about the artillery. Now about the field guns of the pre-WW2 Czechoslovak army. 7,5 cm light gun vz.1897. This legendary French gun was still in reserve by the fall of 1938 (38 pieces). They were bought in 1919 as a stop-gap during the war with Hungarian Soviet Republic. I think that this gun was on display in the military museum in Prague Vítkov but I'm not sure (the museum is closed now due to ongoing reconstruction). 8 cm ligh gun vz.5/8. These Škoda guns fired the first salvos of the WW1. First series still had brass barrel, later production after 1916 was all steel already. Most of the guns in Czechoslovak army was of post war production, but not all. Even though the gun was old in 1938 it was very light and used in higly mobile cavalry units and on armoured trains. 86 pieces were in service in 1938 (part in reserve). You can see it in Lešany museum. There is one peculiar thing about this gun. Small number of them was converted into anti-aircraft guns and a battery of four guns was still in service in Prague in 1938. 8 cm light gun vz.17. Another škoda gun which was used in the late months of the WW1 on the Italian front. The Czechoslovak guns were from post-war production running till 1937 (the first series was actually originally ordered by Austro-Hungarian army before the end of war). The army had nearly 300 of these guns and despite many discussions about replacing the 76,5 mm barrels by 83,5 mm it was never realized because the army decided that in the future it's wise to replace the light guns with howitzers. The interesting thing about this gun is it's transport. Originally it was towed by horses but later it was being carried on the truck (not behind because its chassis could not cope with speed higher than 10 km/h). 8 cm light gun vz.30. This gun was a bit of cat-dog design. It had a light barrel but a heavy over-dimensioned support from the howitzer vz.30 which allowed high elevation (80°) for anti-aircraft fire (that was later found not very usable). Nevertheless it had a pretty good 13 km range for its time. Part of the 202 guns in the army was used in motorized units, part with horse traction. Wehrmacht completely missed this category of guns by 1938 and took around 120 pieces. The strange thing about that is that the guns were officially sold to Germany 4 days before the occupation on 11th March 1939 (Germany never paid of course). The government was trying to sell large parts of the military equipment after the Münich. The war preparations hit the economy hard because the army was absolutely enormous compared to the country's size (imagine that a country of 15 million managed to mobilize more than 1 million soldiers and give them equipment in September 1938) and after the Münich it was clear that no fight is possible on the rest of the country (for many reasons which may be discussed later). 7,5 cm mountain light gun vz.15. This is maybe the most legendary weapon of Škoda production ever. Very widely used in the WW1 and after by many countries. The gun was very easy to transport disassembled to six pieces with weight of 150 kg. It was capable of fire to 7 km distance and its crews were even trained to fight tanks. This gun was used by Czechoslovakia in the short war with Poland in 1919 and Hungarian Soviet Republic in the same year. Overall Czechoslovakia had some 235 pieces and sometimes in very unusual installations (in armoured trains, on Danube boats or as provisional equipment of the artillery blockhouses of the border fortifications). Wehrmacht took them and some other from other states and used them through the whole was especially in Italy and Balcan. This gun is on display in Prague Vítkov muzeum. Muzeum in Lešany has a more modern variant for Yugoslavia from late 20'. 10,5 cm heavy gun vz.13. This French gun was used after the creation of Czechoslovkia but none was in service in the fall of 1938. As other French weapons 13 pieces were bought during the war with Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919. One piece is on display in Lešany. 10,5 cm heavy gun vz.35. This Škoda piece was for sure the most modern gun in the army inventory and one of the most modern guns in the world of its time. It was capable to deliver 18 kg round to 18 km with its own weight just 4,2 tons. It was also designed to directly engage tanks if needed (that was of course a total overkill against Pz.I and II in 1938 but very useful in the future). The army managed to get 106 pieces before Münich. There was a lot of interest in the gun from abroad but due to the political situation most of the export orders were taken by Wehrmacht (Yugoslavia, Latvia, Netherlands). Even USSR decided to buy this weapon but the agreement was never signed due to the post-Münich situation. Wehrmacht used some 140 pieces, the rest was used by Slovakia. One of these guns is preserved in Lešany museum. Next time anti-tank guns.

Some curiosity related to the fortifications again. The MOD is selling another batch of 30 bunkers to private owners. Currently there is already around 1500 privately owned ones! Since these are mostly useless for anyone who isn't a history fan it's clear that there is a lot of such people. And the price? Pretty cheap. Starting from some 600 Euro for a pillbox vz.37...

That was half a century a go and I can't imagine that a 5,45 bullet fired at 735 m/s could have similar trajectory as RPG round at 130 m/s.

Why AKS-U?

According to Babak Taghvaee Ukrainean pilot of UR-CMC was killed in the attack by the Turkish drone. The second plane was UR-CRP, both from the infamous Europe Air. I would expect a big shitstorm about that as the planes were "civilian" belonging to a third party (even though they clearly carried military cargo). Moreover when I thought that Ukraine and Turkey had very good relations so far. It's definitely a big escalation which can trigger strikes against ships carrying Turkish cargo etc. In our news... not a single line.

Thanks. Is the navy using normal combat Su-25 or are they only "borrowed" for the parade?

Arere those the training Su-25 UTG/UTB ones?