Soviet Equipment Blog

[IronCat60]

Here is a blog site run by some World of Tanks gamers with the intent of introducing historical information on Soviet Equipment translated from Soviet documents. Word of caution, no idea what expertise these gentlemen have in this field. http://tankarchives.blogspot.com/

Mech.Gato

[Vanir Ausf B]

There's a lot of good information on that site, but if you look around long enough -- or if you read some of his postings on the World of Tanks forums -- you'll come to realize the guy who runs it has a bit of an axe to grind.

[John Kettler]

mech.gato,

I consider the site a gold mine tapped into a rich vein of largely unknown treasures. For example, there was some coverage of firing trials on Russian Battlefield, but most of the good stuff was lost as the result of a disastrous site crash. But Archive Awareness has gobs of that stuff, together with the fascinating military-technical reports, orders and other goodies. It's an immersive experience of a sort even a grog's grog would appreciate. The Russian assessments of LL gear are engrossing. See particularly the 17-pdr and how it compares to equivalent Russian weapons. From such, it's easy to see that the Russian view is not at all the same as the Western view on military-technical matters and that there is an overarching system of strategic resource allocation which simply doesn't show up in similar analyses done by the Western allies. I do agree with Vanir Ausf B's alluded to position that there is a certain pro-Russian vibe-stridency in some of the writing there. Almost as though it's a counterbalance to the ever vibrant Panzer uber alles crowd. That said, to someone interested in the design, testing and combat use of military technology, as well as weapon effectiveness analyses (going both ways), this site is tremendous. Still, he hasn't produced the combat reg (which I know exists, having seen it cited repeatedly by Russian tankers over a period of decades) about Russian tank hatches having to be closed before entering battle. E-mailed him directly and still no joy. Grr!

Regards,

John Kettler