John Kettler

Friends of the Tank Museum posted this great pic on FB. Too good not to share. Regards, John Kettler

MIkeyD and akd, Since I don't own that game (and haven't been able to play ANY CM since late August), I wasn't aware the mesh screens were in CMRT or were modeled. From what I can see, in akd's and the one in that to another article, these screens were almost exclusively BoB period, with anything earlier being the usual story of crews desperately improvising. Appreciate the pic and the links. Regards, John Kettler

Relatable sculpture--Vernon Mine Warfare and Diving School Beautifully executed and most ingenious! Regards, John Kettler

Impressive and fascinating article. Thanks! Commanderski, The solution is obvious--wargaming, reading about wargaming, reading military history, building models, painting minis, posting about these and more. There's no excuse for boredom. Frankly, I find the expression "I'm bored" incomprehensible. Ref call centers, they are a people heavy entity and not conducive to preventing virus transmission. Besides, if they stay open, someone might decide to attack them. Never underestimate how irate people in home quarantine can get! sburke, If you bothered to read the article, it's not some crazy assemblage of of ideas. I worked directly on BW protection and decontam, know quite a bit about the history of BW, have had to see and read horrificCW, BW and N things in conjunction with my work, etc. With 11+ years as an intelligence professional and who worked on everything from TOW to the military derivatives of the National AeroSpace Plane, plus a bunch of other things, what I read caused me genuine major concern. The novel intelligence from Michael J. Kahnke showing 14.5 million Chinese were almost certainly dead in a not far advanced 2020 only heightened that concern. If this is BS, it's super high grade stuff and I see no payoff, given the way it's been deployed. But let me draw a distinction between what's apparently been happening in Wuhan and surrounds and here. What we have here can't possibly be what the alleged Chinese spook calls the Agent, for there's no way in this society that such news could be hidden from the American public, especially prior to the declaration of National Emergency. That this isn't your cup of tea I get, and I certainly DON'T want what I've seen in CORONA UNMASKED and the Chinese telecom data to be true, but for me to sit on what I've found and know about would be grossly irresponsible on my part. What I've posted here is entirely On Topic, but it happens to be so ghastly the mind wants not to think about it as even a possibility. Erwin, I tweeted POTUS based on the analysis I did. That analysis embodied direct experience evaluating BW threats and protection against them, 11+ years as a Soviet Threat Analyst, the parallel 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax leak from a TOP SECRET Soviet BW manufacturing facility (later confirmed by a scientist who'd worked there and defected), Chinese historical behavior for millennia and more. My initial conclusion was that the story was credible on multiple axes, and my concern was heightened considerably by the Chinese telecom data. As I said on FB, the information is such that I would've had zero compunction about taking it to my boss, his boss and up. With far less information that what I had here, I've uncovered all sorts of things, including a CODEWORD orbital protection scheme (outed before some 250 assuredly NOT CLEARED personnel when several known CIA types abruptly stood up and publicly demanded to know how I knew, since it was CODEWORD) and critical system vulnerabilities on a missile program. Ref the latter, I was informed some time later that what I'd found had been quietly address by seamlessly replacing certain modules in the missiles, with no one the wiser, unless cleared. Bottom line? I know my stuff. My job, as a US citizen with a unique blend of knowledge and extensive relevant experience, is to pass the word. It matters not whether it makes people happy or enrages them. Liveload, Was NOT aware of that. That's a lot of armor, which I wish I could see better. More info I turned up on that video and its provenance. https://hoax-alert.leadstories.com/3472048-fact-check-tanks-not-arriving-in-san-diego-no-martial-law.html On a lighter note, a prepper would have a reasonable chance of hanging onto survival supplies with an enhanced bed like this one. Regards, John Kettler

Though you'll probably be immensely frustrated you can't follow what's being said, other than generally, the visuals will get you through, and they cover much more than the ostensible subject. Stills, live fire, forward recon (if you can believe it), use as artillery proper, tank descents, lots of Panzer wrecks, firing range impact results vs a number of Panzers, plus lots of other goodies. Image quality compared to usual GPW offering is superb. SU-152, ISU-152, ISU-122, Emchas, ZIS-2, etc. Tons of German pics I'd not seen before, too.Imagery not confined to Eastern Front, either, since discussion apparently contextualizes the ISU-152. Visual reference par excellence! Regards, John Kettler

LukeFF, It's the best quality one I've ever seen. AsI indicated in the OP, I have seen others, but the image quality was poor. Even as thumbnail, this one is very good and shot from close range. Ironically, my understanding is that these screens really didn't help, other than give the crews a certain amount of comfort. My understanding is that the distance was helpful to the HEAT threats, rather than imeding them. Certainly, the air gaps are considerably less than for German skirt armor. Nor did either the Panzerfaust or the Panzerschreck projectiles use the RPG style inner and outer gapped nose cone construction wherein fuze defeat could result from hitting chain link fencing other than directly nose on. Regards, John Kettler

Have been seeing accounts, plus the rare and blurry pic occasionally, for years, but here is a crisp clean pic of a T-34/85 (shot at Brandenburger Gate in 1945) with two different kinds of protection: one for the turret and another for the upper hull. Below pic expands when clicked. Regards, John Kettler

Botched the pricing on the Zamulin book, for during the now concluded sale it was $2.99 on Kindle. At the time I posted, though, $9.99 was what the site showed, but hours later, it was $2.99. Now, it's back to $9.99. Regards, John Kettler

Zamulin's groundbreaking Demolishing the Myth (Prokhorovka) is on sale ($9.99 on Kindle) at Amazon today only, but that's how I found the book which is the topic of this post. Reviews are wide in their rating swings, but it appears the low ones have a lot to do with perspectives. For one, the book was done in the Soviet era, so is propagandistic to a consdierable degree, For another, for reasons unknown, formations are identified by numbers (Arabic or Roman) and such, but their commanders' names aren't given. Stalin isn't mentioned, either. Both things are weird.. Also, it's considered too dry. Have read similar docs, and I still think Glantz is worse. Have not read the subject of this OP myself (just learned of it), but since it's as CMRT topical as it gets in terms of understanding the Soviet side of this crucial operational-strategic op, thought I'd pass the word. https://www.amazon.com/Operation-Bagration-June-29-August-1944-ebook/dp/B074P463Q5/ref=pd_sim_351_12?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B074P463Q5&pd_rd_r=227281d3-4a60-478d-994b-a0cf7b1b7ecc&pd_rd_w=uLf8r&pd_rd_wg=WlKDb&pf_rd_p=bab57536-7c8f-4781-a8ed-3e270b9cd303&pf_rd_r=ZWZSFCYHRQT10RV17TG7&psc=1&refRID=ZWZSFCYHRQT10RV17TG7#customerReviews Regards, John Kettler

Erwin, No zombies yet, but if if an alleged high level Chinese intelligence officer's shocking disclosures are true, then China should have a superabundance of POed ghosts. He's claiming a Chinese BW agent got loose; that China has a super lethal epidemic in progress and is hiding it. I dissected his claims on FB, from the perspectives of a former Soviet Threat Analyst at Hughes and Rockwell (11+) years (including working on CW, BW an N protection for aircrews and aircraft decontamination on Rockwell's entry into the competition that resulted in the F-22), plus familiarity with how the Chinese operate and concluded the case made was credible, though not necessarily true. In fact, I found it so credible and disturbing, I tweeted, including POTUS as one addressee. Putting the story together would be super intricate, time consuming, expensive and easily disproven if even one element was out of place, so would be a huge effort involving a slew of disciplines, extraordinary knowledge and experience. China has everything to lose from promulgating such a story, and the writer was quite clear he was a dead man if Chinese authorities figured out who he was. Would further note there's a direct parallel incident in the 1979 anthrax leak from a TOP SECRET Soviet BW facility in Sverdlovsk. The official explanation then was "contaminated meat", but eventually the truth got out. The Soviets used decontamination methods like what the Chinese are using (the hordes of people with what look like dust blowers) but found there was no way to get the anthrax pores out of the pavement, so paved them over. If the disclosures by the purported Chinese spook China bashing, the place where the story was surfaced was so obscure as to be all but nonexistent, so that didn't make sense, either. If China felt it was being bashed by that story, then where are China's vehement denunciation--by it and its tame Congress critters, lobbyists and such here? Here is the story I refer to. Can provide it only because a colleague sent it to me. Never heard of that site before. But as the infomercials always blare, "But wait. There's more!" Should tell you that new information has surfaced which powerfully supports the referenced article, and the collection approach was truly ingenious. Apparently, the Chinese run their lives through their phones and do NOT change numbers because of the havoc it would cause for them. What a guy named Michael J Kahnke posted on FB are links showing that for this year and this year only 14.5 MILLION phone numbers have been permanently retired. This is wholly consistent with the spook's claims that the Chinese are incinerating vast numbers of bodies after people die from it while housed in what are shown as containment and recovery facilities for the CV infected. He says the real cycle is contained infected (showable), then not showable disintegrating and weak (left uncared for and worse), then burned after death. sburke Appreciate this info. Reports of empty aisles at Walmart confirmed by several people who've been to local Walmart Super Center. But at local Sprouts, about the only things noticeably deficient were TP and larger sizes of water. Neither were to be had. Read an interesting claim lately that the TP shortage rumor was a benign US government psyop to get people to be better prepared if things get unstable for a time. YT site owners with sources in the NG, military, law enforcement and the like say their are talking about several weeks of US martial law and soon. The alleged psyop's logic goes: Spread rumor of TP crisis, which gets people to go the store, during which they not unreasonably pick up other things they might need. Net result? Preparedness improved, but without the kind of panic which might ensue in the event of an official announcement by the government. Weird, but it makes sense and is pretty clever. In other news, I'm ahead of trend on self-quarantine, in that my lack of a car and other issues have caused me to be de facto that way for a long time. Also, I've lost no sleep whatsoever fretting--to being terrified over getting CV, this in a house with the CV fear and panic news blaring (via housemate) almost all day and well into the night! Regards, John Kettler

Finished the fabulous Island of Fire, by Jason Marks, and have tentatively decided to avoid withdrawal syndrome by starting the only other book I have by him, Death of the Leaping Horseman, which is about the destruction of 24 PD at Stalingrad. Wasn't joking about withdrawal syndrome, for have been intermittently fretting about what I could possibly read of such astoundingly high caliber as that. Had the real deal after reading James Clavell's phenomenal novel Shogun back in the early Seventies. In fact, went around for several weeks in a kind of literary daze before discovering he had two other novels which were related. They were good, but for me, weren't even close to being as good. Besides, I find samurai vastly more interesting and appealing than great trading houses! If I get ambitious, I may break out Zamulin's Demolishing the Myth, a top-down then new study in what really happened at Prokhorovka, Kursk. Zamulin is a real heavyweight author, too, for he is curator of the Kursk Museum and holds a Candidate in Military History degree, which is equivalent to a Ph.D. Happily for us, it was written before Putin closed the State Archive. It also has some priceless advantages over my last read: larger point size type, easier to read typeface, and bright white enamel stock. Not only is this a winning combo by itself but it also makes photographs far more viewable. Uttered some choice curses over the ones in Island of Fire because I could hardly see a thing in them on that yellowish far from smooth paper. Regards, John. Kettler

TS4EVER, That one's got pics, a good description and tabular data in my book on trophy weapons. It appears the Russians didn't know the actual designation and for resons unknown dubbed it (or learned) it was called) "the Salashi needle". Here's a good article on Hungary's rocket programs, including the 44M KPV (not about to try to write the actual name) and the one you posted. https://hungarianweaponryww2.wixsite.com/hungarianmilitaryww2/single-post/2018/01/07/PartX-Anti-tankinfantry-Rockets It's unclear form the text in my book (weapon covered pp. 75-78) whether each projectile has a precursor charge and a main charge in one (term used was "double cumulative") in order to first defeat skirt armor, after which the main charge would defeat the primary armor (serious ordnance engineering to do that) or whether what was really going on was that what really was happening was a "ripple two" of both projectiles launched in rapid succession such that one cleared out enough of the skirt armor (if present) to allow a clean hit on the AFV proper by the other. Regards, John Kettler

Believe Ian Hogg listed PIAT range as something around 700 yards/640 meters, but that's not for shooting tanks. That's for hitting a barn with HE or lofting an illumination projectile. PIAT had a bunch of different projectiles by war's end, I believe. Would imagine the bazooka was somewhere in such range, too, but as I've shown, Patton found accuracy to be so poor he forbade shooting it against tanks at more than 40 yards/36.6 meters. I don't have the ballistic data for 44M KPV, the bazooka or the Panzerschreck, so can't readily compare them. Fortunately, further research yielded some answers. It so happens the German Army's weapon testers (WaPrufAmt) got hold of the 44M KPV and experimented with it, concluding it was inferior to the Panzerscreck, with substantially lower penetration. The figure listed was 100 mm, but no angle was listed. I believe the Germans used a 30 degree from vertical angle for their DF AT tests, but that memory may not be accurate. What's certain is the figure listed was 100 mm and the effective range was 150 meters. Have already shown the Panzerschreck, operated by someone good with it, could hit tank after tank at 200 meters. Since penetration for HEAT is directly affected by liner cone diameter, obviously what fits in an 88 mm tube, holding tech used constant, is going to out perform a 60 mm projectile. THis is precisely why the RPG-7 has oversized HEAT projectiles to overcome the far poorer penetration possible via what would fit inside the launch tube. Also of note is that the Hungarian AT rocket, because of lower velocity than the Panzerschreck, had a higher trajectory, which complicated range estimation some but also resulted in better angle of strike vs sloped armor. If I can find my CMBB Strategy Guide (note conditional) I'll see whether BFC has it in the weapon lists there. https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=81303 Apparently, the CMBB Strategy Guide is still packed up after I had to clear out one of the rooms here, but a rare book (published briefly by the now defunct Champlin Air Museum) called Trophies of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War, Volume I and authored by the Senior Curator of one of the Red Army's major museums, listed effective range as 200 meters and 1943-1944 as the period of introduction into service. The facility was the Red Army central study point for captured weapons everywhere the Red Army fought. Sadly, we'll probably never see the full set of books (was intended to be a series) published. Count myself extremely fortunate to have Volume I. http://www.aberdeenbookstore.com/books/general-world-war-2/the-trophies-of-the-red-army Regards, John Kettler

What I thought were Panzerschrecks in a Hungarian newsreel turn out to be homegrown and weird, for the weapons shown are bizarre meldings of elements from the bazooka and Panzerschreck. The name is head-breaking, never mind writing it properly for English speakers. Regards, John Kettler

This was found in my YT sidebar and started out looking like OPERATION BAGRATION, but is in fact about Prokhorovka. Content, even absent English, is enormous, with loads of pictures, clips, maps, tables and such, as well as what appears to be a literature survey. Looks like it goes into the events leading to Kursk and finishes with the Russian recapture of Orel. Would hugely appareciate it if Haiduk, IMHO or one of our other people who speaks Russian could provide even a brief summary of the POV of the piece. New info, or is Prokhorovka still being presented as the biggest tank battle ever, etc.? Regards, John Kettler

American ingenuity displayed! Regards, John Kettler

There's been a coup, for CIWS used to be called R2D2 because of its resemblance to that famous bot. Regards, John Kettler

Instant karma! Did the, ahem, motorcycle stunt valndal genius learn from this experience or is still kicking cars? Regards, John Kettler

Here's some eye-popping video of RPG-29 use in Syria, Was unaware Russia kept none, but it seemed reasonable to posit it was too big and awkward for BMP and BTR type vehicles, never mind heavy to carry. It turns out, though, it can be disassembled like the airborne version of the US WW II bazooka. This I was completely unware of until I watched the extremely informative English language video, which revealed a great deal about this weapon, which has a tandem charge and numbers among its intended prey the US M1A2. Range is 500 meters. Empty weight is 11 kg, and the projectile adds 6 more, 17 kg, so not light. For forces consisting of mostly infantry and open bed technicals, they make much better sense, and there's no denying their potency. The Houthis in Yemen apparently have them, too, for I've seen video of a guy schlepping the monster across rocky terrain there. To say that big pipe on his shoulder stands out like crazy against a background fill of highly irregular in form low rocks doesn't begin to state how instantly detectable he was. Regards, John Kettler

Here is a most interesting Kornet video. Not only does it cover the tank-killing Kornet-E and other variants of the missile, but there's much more than the shocking to me range numbers, with some as high as a staggering 10 km. For reference, that's over three times what the 3000m Gen 1TOW had. What makes this video particularly valuable is that it provides a great overview of Soviet (later Russian) man-portable ATGMs, starting with the AT-2 and going forward from there, as well as the data placards, live fire and damage to both range targets and combat post-strike imagery (demolished a Merkava) from super close range. There's also imagery of recovered Kornet-E missile debris from Syria. Of particular interest is the Kornet-E double teaming approach to defeat the Abrams, with two separate launchers illuminating it and the second missile arriving almost immediately after the first strike--both against the front. For me, even absent Russian language capability, other than some military technical words and such, this video was gold. Probably would've been platinum if I'd understood the commentary. Regards, John Kettler

If you're going to build a scale model (and you have the space and budget) consider 1/1 scale! Regards, John Kettler

Erwin, Believe the Finns were in from the get. Pretty sure there was a huge demand that this be so (not least by OUR Finns) but far less interest in the Hungarians and Romanians. Do recall researching the last two was a bit of a pain. Regards, John Kettler

tagge, That was CMBB, which was absolutely staggering in forces included and time span covered. Regards, John Kettler

Here's that T-34T ARV (Armored Recovery Vehicle ) pic I mentioned previously. The caption says this is at Kursk, but the VIew File comes back with Forbidden. Even so, if we take this image at face value, it shows the Soviets were evacuating tanks under fire. As I noted, this, depending on time and dates of Luftwaffe recon imagery, scope and scale of Soviet recovery efforts and other factors, at worst suggests the real possibility I named: that evacuations of damaged tanks by the Soviets would've had the effect of reducing effective Panzer lethality figures. Here's a later model T-34T, now fitted with a cupola. Regards, John Kettler

Serious question for Russians, Ukrainians, possibly others. Have noticed many times, both in documentaries and old Soviet war films, that troops run around ungloved in conditions where my hands would be uncomfortably or worse cold almost instantly. Is this some sort of immunity that's developed from growing up in places where the winters can get terrifyingly cold? The notion isn't as crazy as it may sound, for one of my brothers, who'd been transferred on his job from Los Angeles, California to Minneapolis, Minnesota, returned and joined my friends and I, bundled up in our jackets and such, while we were wargaming on our sand table, our only weather protection the patio roof. To our consternation and shock, his attire was tennis whites, the ones with shorts! Blown away by this, we asked how he could do this in such cold. His astounding response? "Oh, this is balmy weather to me." Regards, John Kettler