March 4, 2008
A timewaster for lunchtime.
Let's see who can really find some obscure stuff, Treadheads, especially.
So, what're we looking at here?
Here's a slightly larger version, if you think it will help.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �February 20, 2008
This is a vehicle you do *not* want to try and rush...
...from the side.
Senior Airman Travis Hummel (standing) and Airman 1st Class Adam Giebitz patrol Feb. 10 in an M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier at the Theater Internment Facility at Camp Bucca, Iraq. Airmen Hummel and Giebitz are deployed from Robins Air Force Base, Ga., and are assigned to the 886th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron's quick response force. The QRF responds to issues within the TIF in which a show of force or escalation of force is required beyond the capabilities for the TIF's guard force. (U.S. Air Force photo/Capt. Jason McCree)
Those Claymore mines on the side of that M113 make that a very dangerous vehicle, and clearly only usable in a very specific situation - i.e., crowd control where the crowd contains no one but legal targets. Which is the purpose of this vehicle, as the caption notes. Not coming to a police force near you anytime soon. But something like this might well come to a police state near you...
If you want a larger version of the picture, click here.
Update: In the comments, Murray makes an important point. While the vehicle and it's mines may be scary - the guy inside is who you have to be *really* respectful of...
Update 2: The strength of blogs... someone usually knows something you don't - in this case, OldGaijin. His contribution in the comments were that the "Claymores" are far more likely to be M5 Modular Crowd Control Munitions, or MCCM's. So, I went trolling for them - and what I found likely confirms OldGaijin's information - and my reaction to the picture validates the concept:
M5 Modular Crowd Control Munition The M5 Modular Crowd Control Munition (MCCM) is a non-lethal munition used to incapacitate large group of personnel with the Flash Bang and Impact of rubber balls. It can be deployed by mounted or dismounted troops and provides a visual deterrent due to similarity in appearance to the M18A1 Claymore munition. The MCCM can be fired singularly or in a group and has an effective range of 5 to 30 meters with a 60 degree coverage.
Info courtesy our friends at GlobalSecurity.Org.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �February 14, 2008
Something about this picture...
...asks more questions than it answers.
As an added bonus, here's a fascinating little photo-essay on the raising of a BT-5 from the bottom of the Neva River at the site of the fighting at the Nevskij Bridgehead.
They also got a KV-1 and a T-38 Amphibian Tank.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �February 6, 2008
MRAP's are tough.
This Caiman MRAP protected 11 soldiers from a road side bomb in Iraq.
The vehicle shows several hits by fragments including ones that 1) removed the passenger side door handle, 2) put a large hole through the air filter and 3) removed the fuel tank, which should be visible between the legs of the soldiers under the door. It looks like the window in the door took a beating but held it's place, too.
Of course, you put enough explosive into your bomb, you can kill anything, so they aren't going to be perfect. But they're a heckuva lot safer than an armored HMMWV!
H/t, Strategy Page.
January 17, 2008
Today is be mean to tankers day...
This is sooo awful (and fulla pictures) that to spare the faint-of-heart (and dial-up customers) I've put it in the Flash Traffic/Extended entry... continuing the theme of pink weaponry...
Flash Traffic (extended entry) Follows � Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �
January 8, 2008
If you find a tank in your tool shed...
...when you move those boxes and artillery pieces, you might be an Australian Redneck!
Buddy of mine in Australia has decided it's time to get his M3 Lee in shape.
It looks bad - but it runs. Well, it did until he broke the fuel pump when they starved it trying to maneuver the tank into position to get it on the trailer.
And yes, he has the turret, too.
Hopefully, this will be a project we can keep tabs on. Be fun to watch it morph from what it is now, to a fully restored beast!
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �September 24, 2007
Yes, They *DO* Make White M16s!
Well, actually, White made M16s. Not the Plastic Fantastic Rifle -- this:
This beastie made the annual Summer Camp trip from West Orange, NJ, to Fort Drum, NY, between 1946 and 1967, along with about thirty others. Legend has it that the traffic backups created by the convoys got so intense that New York State created the Thruway just so vacationers could speed on their way to the cooler climes of Canuckistan without having to nip between the half-tracks and the Shermans whenever oncoming traffic appeared on Route 9W.
This sterling example was still operational in 1992 -- *and* for the measly sum of one dollar (all the cash collected went into the Scour The Junkyards For Spare Parts Fund), you could get a two-minute trip around the parking lot during Heritage Week.
Now when John bogs the armored Lawn Boy mowing the creek bank, he'll be able to winch it out *and* give Neffi some practical exercises in evasive maneuvers...
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �February 16, 2007
The 'Phibian asks...
Whatziss? He threw down the challenge in his Fullbore Friday post and then slapped me across the face with his dainty lacy white glove.
Since I torture you guys with this game, it's only appropriate that I periodically make my bones at it too.
'Phibian - I say it's this: British Cruiser Tank Mk.IV (A13 - Mark II)
This was the first British tank to use Christie's suspension system. A prototype Christie vehicle was purchased (A13E1), from which the eventual design was developed. There were two production prototype vehicles, A13E2 and A13E3. They were used by the 1st Armoured Division in France, 1940 and in small numbers in Libya, 1940 - 41.
Since they were used by the British 1st Armoured Division in France, 1940, and in some small numbers in Libya, and given the actual location (and condition) of 'Phibian's exemplar, this might technically be a Kreuzer Panzerkampfwagen Mk.IV 744(e).
At least that's my answer.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �February 1, 2007
This is a nicely obscure whatzis...
Yadda yadda if you get the aircraft. That's easy.
Anybody got the skinny on the whole thing? What're we looking at here?
Yes, I do.
Mind you - I just stumbled across this, it ain't something that was stuck in the brain housing group as actual knowledge or anything.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �
January 20, 2007
So, what *is* the Whatziss of a Different color?
In his late comment to the thread - Moose has the right of it.
That DUKW honks with a Portuguese accent. Confused? Click here.
It's a CAMANF, a CAMINHÃO ANFÍBIO, or in english, amphibious truck, used by the Corpo de Fuzileiros Navais, the Marines. The Brazilians had DUKWs, and used them well into the 70's, rebuilding and tweaking them. In 1975 they designed and started building their own, based on a Ford truck chassis using a Detroit Diesel engine vice the mogas engine of the original DUKW.
Brazilian CAMANF in 1990 at the Brazilian Marine base in Rio de Janeiro. Photo by César Ferreira
Well, *that* was fun! Drew some people down from the rafters, too, which is always good.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �January 17, 2007
How depressing it must have been...
...to be a German soldier in late 1944/early 1945, with broad experience in the West and East to find yourself on the Eastern Front facing these.
US-built White M3 Scout Cars (Armorer want!), with a US-made M2 .50 cal machine gun and a M1919A1 Browning .30 cal machine gun... and realize that your enemy on the Western Front has *so* much materiel and industrial capacity that he's giving huge numbers of vehicles and small arms to the guys on the Eastern Front. Then you duck because you're getting strafed by P47s and P39s and P40s with the Avirex (Red Star) on them...
That musta been a real morale crusher - if you had time during it all to think about it.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �January 16, 2007
Strange sightings in Kansas.
Sharp-eyed camera-toting reader Larry K, also our source for most things Coast Guard, snapped this photo in Junction City yesterday or the day before.
I know what it is - but I'll let you have fun demonstrating your vehicle ID skillz - and does anybody have any earthly idea why one of these is transiting the country? It might be destined for Fort Riley - but neither Larry nor I know.
More pics here, here, and here.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �
January 9, 2007
The T-95, yesterday's Whatziss.
Fred identified the vehicle - and found the second of the two that survive. I didn't know where that one was, so I learned something yesterday - and that one, at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, is within striking distance of the Castle.
Here's the picture that I modified for the snipe hunt.
That picture came from the American Fighting Vehicle Database website - specifically this page, which has several more pictures and explanatory text.
Most of you went where I expected the visual would take you - though the orangish-tan background color I chose my have given a subconscious cue - that was accidental, not deliberate.
I honestly thought some of you tankers out there would get this one more quickly than happened, in the event. Hey, you must have jobs or something...
Hey, if you've got pics of odd-looking stuff you want to submit for a whatziss - send 'em along! Those of you who have - thanks!
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �January 7, 2007
Thinking outside the box.
The Russians have always been a fan of artillery. And they've been pretty competent users of it, as well.
They also think differently from us, and take novel approaches to things. There's some pictures of a putative new Russian artillery piece making the rounds, and it's shown up in my email box a couple of times.
It looks to be a derivative of this SP artillery piece, the 2S19 "Mstas".
Artillery by Beretta... this thing, called 'Koalitcia-SV', or Coalition, hit the web over at the Cannon, Machine Guns and Ammunition website (which is a treasure trove of stuff, btw).
Murdoc noticed it last week, and the comments over at Strategy Page harbor some sceptics.
Interesting concept. Over and under 152mm cannon. They definitely aren't worried about trans-global power projection with this puppy - unless they're driving. However, the reinforcing plates on the travel lock (that gizmo that is framing the driver in the pic above) looks like it would really restrict the drivers vision to the corners - which could be an issue driving through urban areas. But, mebbe not. Of course, being a continental power, like Germany was, and not a sea power like the US and Great Britain, they've been more prone to this sort of thing anyway. Take this example... the Tsar Tank.
The Tsar Tank was designed and built in 1915. It was one of the largest attempts at tank-building during the war, reputedly weighing in at a lean(!) 40 tons. In comparison, the Brit Marks I-IV of the 1st World War weighed in at a sprightly 28 tons. The German A7V weighed around 33 tons. The French St. Chamond weighed 22 tons, while the other major large French tank, the Schneider, came in at 14 tons. It wasn't until the Mark VIIs, the "Liberty" tanksjointly designed by the Brits and US did anyone else approach the 40 ton mark that I'm aware of (but who knows, lots of people were tinkering back in the day). This sucker had two huge wheels each driven by it's own 250 hp motor. It had two small wheels in the rear. Some sources suggest the guns were placed outside the wheels, others suggest that machine guns in the small turret were all the armament. I've never seen a photo or drawing showing weapons on this baby - they may have realized what a clunker it was before they bothered. Two prototypes were made but they proved unable to handle mud (I can't imagine crossing a shell-pocked battlefield in one of these) and high costs caused the project to be cancelled, mercifully, in 1916. These photos show a partially scrapped vehicle without wheels in the rear. The last of the two was dismantled for scrap in 1923.
Then there is this puppy, the Object 279.
In 1957 the Russians developed a prototype of a new heavy tank. Take a look at that body and those quad tracks. It was intended to lower the ground pressure of this vehicle, to give it better cross-country mobility in soft ground. I'm sure if it had ever made it into service, crews would have hated it. Twice the track to break. The hull was intended to protecting it against HEAT ammunition by deflecting the rounds. Putatively this shape would also assist in preventing the vehicle from being overturned by a tactical nuke blast. I'm sceptical of that, but... hey, maybe they did the modeling. It was canceled by Khruschev in favor of his preference - missile tanks. I believe they built two of these - the survivor is at the Tank Museum in Kubinka, near Moscow. That's one museum I want to get to. [note to self, lottery tickets]
Not that the US and Britain didn't have their own behemoths, mind you. The Brits built the Tortoise. Intended to kill tanks and help fight through the Siegfried line.
We built the T28/T95.
This sucker had removeable outer tracks, which could be towed behind the vehicle so it would be able to cross narrow bridges in Europe. Also intended for breaching the Siegfried Line, we only built two before cancelling the project, and the survivor today sits outside the Patton Armor Museum at Fort Knox.
December 14, 2006
I find this photo fascinating.
Anybody guess what I find so interesting in this photo?
To take away those first thoughts amongst the grognards - no, not the markings.
November 29, 2006
A few moments of deployed Zen
Marines.
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Nov. 21, 2006)- Marines from C Company, 2nd Tank Battalion, Regimental Combat Team 5 let loose with the M-1A1 Main Battle Tank's 120 mm main gun. Tankers recently fired on Camp Fallujah's Eagle Range to zero all their weapons, including lanyard firing some tanks for their first shot. Tankers said all the maintenance and care that goes into keeping the tank rolling is worth the effort when they get the chance to fire the Marine Corps' largest direct-fire weapon. Photo by: Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva
Air Force.
Staff Sgt. James Guidry, center, speaks with an Iraqi policeman Nov. 23in the Hy Al-Amil district of Baghdad, Iraq. Airmen from Detachment 7, 732nd Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron deploy into the city streets of Baghdad assisting Iraqi police in achieving self-sufficiency. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Steve Cline)
Navy.
061127-N-8197M-017 Pacific Ocean (Nov. 27, 2006) - Landing Craft Utility (LCU) 1617 enters the well deck of amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) during onload-offload operations off the coast of Southern California. The LCU brought aboard 80 pallets of ammunition to assist in preparing Bonhomme Richard