John Kettler

Tree grog with excellent qualifications! Regards, John Kettler

hank24, Ah, yes, the Leaping Horseman, subject of a Jason Mark Stalingrad book I really need to read: Death of the Leaping Horseman. Regards, John Kettler

Wow! Not at all what I expected to see as far as penetration size. Looks to me like the warhead grossly overmatched the turret's side armor. Never got to see a pic even remotely like this one during by military aerospace career. Regards, John Kettler

Saw the series, and those were Centurions, not Chieftains. The IDF never had Chieftains. Here's an IDF Centurion from the Yom Kippur War. Offhand, Iran was the only foreign operator of the Chieftain. Regards, John Kettler

From everything I've read and heard from US people who served there, the German farmers were prompt to file damage claims and charged dearly for damaging their crops. Also, there were considerable limits on where our vehicles could go because of of various host nation considerations. Regards, John Kettler

Isn't that exactly the scheme that MIkeyD showed an M901 in on Page 1 of this thread? Regards, John Kettler

DerKommissar, Harvard prof Tom Lehrer was in the US Army and wrote a bunch of Cold War themed songs, which you can find on YT, such as this classic. PPCLI (Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry) AKA Princess Pats? Shall have to hunt down that film you mentioned. Regards, John Kettler

In the mid-1980s, I had a US Army SECRET level study in my safe at work which concluded, following extensive analysis and wargaming, that the casualty rate for units in the Covering Force Battle would be 50%. Disturbing at best, to be sure, but vastly more distressing with a brother guarding the IGB as part of the 2/11 ACR! Regards, John Kettler

If Steve Zaloga was right, these guys had next to no AK ammo on them--one mag in the weapon and two spares carried. 90 rounds max, vs something like 300-400 M16 cartridges for US riflemen. Regards, John Kettler

It's from a Guards Tank Division, or so I interpret the Red Star and Soviet flag surrounded by a laurel wreath on the active IR searchlight. Regards, John Kettler

Must be some sort of combat exercise for the M113. Can plainly see a Blank Firing Adapter fitted to the Ma Deuce. Also, I notice both the M113 and the AVADS(?) have NTC style MILES kill lights fitted. Regards, John Kettler

Love this thread--in part, because it gives me insight into brother George's world with the 2/11 ACR on Bradley CFVs as gunner, vehicle commander and platoon sergeant. Regards, John Kettler

No Jefferson. Just a Starship. Did they call the tank in the foreground Sweet 16? Regards, John Kettler

Rice et al., Everything I could find is now up on FB https://www.facebook.com/john.kettler.50 Have annotated the pics to provide context as to what's shown and why. If this doesn't convince you, given the acute limits I faced in showing you my work product, then, short of talking to people who knew me and my work back then, I don't know what to tell you. Regards, John Kettler

Rice et al., Got the ABM system confused, for it was AERIE not ERIS. Also, I wrote the wrong designator for the design threat against the laser decoy system. It was the AS-10/KAREN version equipped with laser guidance. Found some of my docs, so shall post them shortly on FB, which was down for quite some time. These include excerpts from the ASSAULT BREAKER and laser jammer analysis briefings. Ref the HEAT round for the PT-76, I posted that because it was the first such direct data I had on ANY HEAT round for the PT-76 and thought it might contribute to the discussion. What Backofen told us at the conference was the HEAT round for the PT-76 he was describing would penetrate the original armor for the M1 Abrams. Please bear in mind, too, that he also told US. that dyanic penetration testing was yielding some 40% greater penetration than traditional static testing was. Was unable to find my hire docs for Rockwell International NAAO, so am instead providing most of my W-2s and pics of an award given to all the AERIE team members, most of whom were in my department. Am second from right in back row. Regards, John Kettler

Rice, Am still checking, but I thought he had a PhD, hence, Doctor. As for not having the right Backofen, you're either having severe information uptake issues or are being deliberately cantankerous and argumentative. Backofen's two part series in Armor magazine was as an expert in the field. Indeed, NEVER have I ever seen so many (and relevant) footnotes for an article in my life. My recollection was two solid pages in small type, single spaced. Here's more of Joseph Backofen's work. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268803563_The_future_of_warheads_armour_and_ballistics_paper THE FUTURE OF WARHEADS, ARMOUR AND BALLISTICS Bo Janzon1, Joseph Backofen, Jr.2, Ronald E. Brown3, Roxan Cayzac4, André Diederen5, Marc Giraud6, Manfred Held7, Albert W. Horst8, Klaus Thoma9 1 Chairman, International Ballistics Committee; FOI, Grindsjön Research Centre, Tumba. New address: SECRAB, P.O.Box 97, SE-147 22 Tumba, Sweden, e-mail: bo.janzon@secrab.eu 2 Brigs Co., 4192 Hales Ford Road, Moneta, VA 2412, USA 3 Naval Postgraduate School; 2682 Bishop Drive, Suite 212, San Ramon CA 94583, USA 4 GIAT Industries, 7 Route de Guerry, FR-18023 Bourges, France 5 TNO Defence, Security, and Safety, P.O. Box 45, NL-2280 AA Rijswijk, The Netherlands 6 Exobal, 15 Rue de la Roselière, Saint-Louis, FR-68300 France 7 TDW, P.O. Box 1340, DE-86523 Schrobenhausen, Germany 8 Business Plus Corporation, c/o US Army Research Laboratory, (Attn.: AMSRL-WM-B), Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md 21005-5066, USA 9 EMI, Fraunhofer-Institut für Kurzzeitdynamik-Ernst-Mach-Institut, Eckerstr. 4, DE-79104 Freiburg, German https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/prep.19930180503 The use of analytical computer models in shaped charge design† Joseph E. Backofen, http://www.gbv.de/dms/tib-ub-hannover/032126956.pdf Penetration of Shaped Charge into Water Manfred Held, Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm GmbH Joseph E. Backofen, Brigs Company (Note this is the same Joseph Backofen of Brigs company in The Future of Warheads entry, note 2.) The Effect of Aerodynamic Heating on Air Penetration by Shaped Charge Jets and Their Particles Show affiliations Backofen, Joseph E. Abstract Analysis of experimental data using theoretical models reveals that a very small portion of a shaped charge jet particle's kinetic energy shocking the air in front of it can couple convectively into the particle's leading surface to soften an already hot material enough to justify hydrodynamic modeling of the air cratering process. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009AIPC.1195.1461B/abstract Publication: Shock Compression of Condensed Matter 2009: Proceedings of the American Physical Society Topical Group on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1195. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1195, Issue 1, p.1461-1464 Pub Date: December 2009 1985 Shaped charge related patent with Joseph Backofen as Co-Inventor (1985 was the year The Soviet Threat Technology Conference (U) was held at CIA HQ) https://patents.google.com/patent/US4628819A/en Regards, John Kettler

What a great opportunity to see one in action, never mind vs a Chinese Type 96 and an Uzbek T-72B as a bonus. Apparently, the course was specifically configured for the T-72B3, which apparently was going to be a stressor on teams campaigning earlier T-72 versions. Regards, John Kettler

In my readings of Soviet military writings over the years, have noted they use precise language when it comes to discussing projectiles and terminal effects. Thus, charges of cumulative effect (HEAT), splinter (HE frag), etc. Consequently, it's impossible for me to buy that they wouldn't be well informed about a super incendiary invented in 1895 in Germany and patented in the US in 1897. Is there any evidence the Germans had thermite artillery shells? Yes. Found a (if caption's to be trusted) German 155 thermite shell, presumably for a captured weapon. So, far, have found no German 75 mm thermite shell. An online site called dandbmilitaria. (usual) has 155 GERMAN THERMITE SHELL WITH INTERNALS AND POWDER CHARGE CASE (82) (U) * Regards, John Kettler

Am reading Volume I of Soviet Documents On The Use Of War Experience (Frank Cass publishers, translated by Orenstein and Foreword by Glantz) and came across two major shockers on page 21. Carrying over from Page 20, from 14-16 May 1942, in the Kharkov area the Germans threw some 400 Panzers, broken down into smaller echelons, into an attack on the 13th Guards and 244th Rifle Division. Usually, the Russians are at pains to specify tank type, e.g. T-IV, T-V, etc., but from what little was said elsewhere in the account, "tanks of medium size", I suspect Panzer IVs. "The second group, consisting of 150 tanks, went over to the attack from another direction against the fire positions of the 244th Rifle Division Artillery (66 guns) from 3 directions; firing from the tanks was conducted using armor-piercing and thermite shells. Artillery personnel whose clothes were burning extinguished fire by using dirt and continuing firing. Two paragraphs later, in the final sentence, there's a tactical bombshell. "The sub-machine gunners advanced behind the third echelon tanks on armored personnel carrier; in the tanks themselves were also 1-2 sub-machine gunners who exited from the lower hatches of the tanks." Have studied World War II since childhood and never crossed paths with either of these things. It would be easy to dismiss this out of hand, but this is a declassified SECRET document produced by specially designated staffs of the Armies and Fronts at the express direction of the Soviet General Staff and Stavka. The material in these books (have three volumes) consists of lessons learned in blood and is juicy beyond words. These small clothbound hardbacks were not cheap when I got them two years back at a gun show, but they are astronomic now, likely because so few copies were printed. If the Red Army is your thing, though, at least borrow them on inter-library loan and read them. Regards, John Kettler

Got feedback on the above dealer's merchandise from a gentleman I believe is Russian. Other than a tiny edit for language, here's what he said. Apparently, farby is re-enactor speak for wrong. Since I don't recall seeing replica or repro mentioned, my operating presumption was unissued GPW or post-GPW to the same specs. Alex Wood Their RKKA stuff is farby as h___. If you want to look at repro dealers then better can be seen at voenspec.ru voin.zp.ua schusters.ru Regards, John Kettler

Husker2142, As far as sitting, and this sometimes is an issue for me in cars here, headroom is an issue, for I am long in the torso. Am 180 cm tall, in round numbers. Regards, John Kettler

BFCElvis, Had to go back and dig to find it, but it was worth the hunt! Really like the facial variety and voice variety being implemented (retrofittable to our CMx2 games?), but I would love to see height and build reflected, too. To put it in blunt terms, 6 foot tall Gurkhas are not on! Having everyone the same height and build is ridiculous in reality and really doesn't look right, either. This is one of my pet peeves when it comes to miniatures, too. Taking things further say, CMx4, maybe things like shoehorning bigger people into AFVs designed for smaller people would be worth addressing. Am 5'11, and my limited experience in Soviet AFVs was revelatory. I fit in a T-55 but had a horrible time in a T-62, for want of headroom and design that seemed calculated to effortless injure tank crew through overhead obstacles, sharp edges, rails with ends like tool steel cubes, etc. The back of the BMP-1 was hopeless, and I really tried to make it work. Too long in the torso. The back of the MTLB was doable. Barely. Here's the video to which you referred, and I think this is the first image I've seen of Steve in the best part of two decades. Never heard of getting a coin as an award, other than a military challenge coin. Congrats in any case! In closing, something I'd like to note about the British that I've noted from UK and CW shows, as well as various overseas news coverage, is that it''s quite common for all sorts of ethnic groups to sound posh British--e they black rappers, an Indian (SW Asia) spokeswoman or even an OxCam educated Kenyan official. Absent visuals, fairly often it's hard to tell anything about the race or ethnicity of the person speaking. In other cases, you can't miss it. But if they want voice diversity, they really ought to look into depicting UK regional accents, for they stand out and are found across races. Would also note that, generally speaking, black people in the UK don't typically sound or speak like black people here in the US The differences are dramatic in idiom, word choice, pronunciation, pitch, pace, pause, etc. And on a separate puckish note, imagine a soldier with a thick Scottish burr making a call for fire and sending the grid refs--through jamming! Regards, John Kettler

MikeyD, The female face doesn't look very female to me. Russian and Ukrainian CMers, Am feeling confused, for I have contradictory information on Russian women today in the combat arms line units. The US CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) in a 2020 article said Russian women were prohibited from the combat arms (bet they're in comms at HQ, etc.), but then how I reconcile that with: Female VDV trainees for BMDs 1,2 and 4 https://www.csis.org/blogs/post-soviet-post/women-russian-military VDV Female BAttalion Female military mountaineer team in what appears to be months old footage. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=318509702345573 MoD authorized female pilots. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/russia-now-letting-women-become-fighter-pilots-21968 Where, o Russophone CMers, do things stand today? What I'm seeing is highly contradictory. Tere is NO doubt in my mind that women can carry out combat roles today, because their ancestors served in line combat units during the GPW: infantry, artillery, tanks, not to mention combat aviation. Regards, John Kettler

That's 5'9", which I believe I could deal with. Is the average height you cite for the soldiers with or without helmet? Regards, John Kettler

Sgt.Squarehead, Don't get over here much, so just found this. Fantastic work! Regards, John Kettler