David Vaughan

@lennylaw I like the Cromwell but its 75mm gun was not a good late war gun vs German heavy tanks. That's why Fireflies were deployed with them, and the Comet introduced. A late war Sherman with a 76mm gun, sloped armour and wet storage was better than a Cromwell.

Phenomenal photo and it emphasises how low-profile the Cromwell was compared to the Sherman. This, along with its high speed and manoeuvrability allied to a powerful main gun, made it a tricky opponent for the heavy German tanks in the latter part of the war in Europe.

@Tank_Archives Leading to the question, what did they ignore?

A comparison of the VK 30.01 (D) and VK 30.02 (M) began #OTD in 1942. The former had every advantage, but Daimler-Benz snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory by ignoring crucial requirements when designing their tank. #tanks #history #WW2 #WWII

@InsiderGeo @grok is this true?

NBC's out with damage estimates from the first weeks of the war and everyone's talking about the F-5. The Iranian F-5 is a 1972 airplane. Slow with a bomb load, big radar signature. Against a modern air defense it should be an easy kill. So how does it get through and put bombs on a US base? Two things. The defenses were saturated — Patriot and THAAD were busy with ballistic salvos and Shahed swarms, AWACS prioritizing the stuff that could actually kill people, ROE still being written. And the plane flew low. From Bandar Abbas you cross the Gulf in forty minutes at fifty meters off the water, ground radar loses you behind the curve of the earth, AWACS is looking somewhere else. Slow and old, in the right thirty seconds, gets through. Happens in every war. The other thing worth flagging is the cost. NBC and WSJ are reporting "billions" in damage, citing a former Pentagon budget official who's tracking it for AEI. That's an outside estimate, not a Pentagon figure. The real number isn't confirmed yet. And the F-5 isn't where most of the damage came from anyway. Hangars, runways, radar, satellite comms, dozens of aircraft; that's ballistic missiles and drones in saturation salvos.

@VoicesofWW2 I never understood whether Kangaroos were RAMs without turrets, or RAM modified Sextons with the 25pdr gun removed....

Soldiers of The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada aboard a Kangaroo armored personnel carrier converted from a Ram tank, Europe, 11 Apr 1945

@Tank_Archives It could fire HE rounds, and a HE round was developed. However, it was not widely issued as the 40mm was considered an anti-tank gun, and secondly, the HE was considered ineffective due to its small size. Later, the British issued HE rounds to its 6pdr and 75mm armed tanks.

#OTD in 1938 the A12E1 was sent to the Mechanical Warfare Experimental Establishment for trials. This tank evolved into the Infantry Tank Mk.II or Matilda. The Matilda proved itself in North Africa, earning the nickname "Queen of the Desert". #tanks #history #WW2 #WWII

@RomeInTheEast The Byzantines reinforced the walls with earth, and the breaches with rubble and earth at night - they absorb the cannon ball shock better than stone. It worked pretty well for six weeks.... Orban offered his services to the Byzantines first, but they could not afford it....

On April 6, 1453 the Ottomans began their bombardment of Constantinople.! The ancient Theodosian walls had to face a new test in a new age of warfare. “They could hold off any conventional attack…But they had not been built to withstand bombardment by heavy artillery…” “Pride of place was taken by the huge cannon constructed by the Hungarian engineer Urban. It had been brought from Adrianople by 60 oxen and manned by 200 soldiers. When its deafening roar was first heard inside the city, people rushed into the streets in terror calling the name of the Lord. The cannonballs it shot weighed 12 hundredweight; and though it was an unwieldy and complicated piece of machinery that could only be fired seven times a day, it had a deadly effect in wearing down the ancient structure and the masonry of the walls. The smaller guns added their contribution to the damage, and before many days were out a section of the outer wall had collapsed into the moat.” At night the defenders would go out and try to repair the damage as best they could, despite the “sickening monotony” of daily bombardment by the Ottomans. However, despite all this, it is not like the walls were ever totally destroyed. It took great concentrated effort over many weeks to heavily damage select sections of the walls. The defense of Constantinople never failed simply due to cannons destroying the walls. It was multi-faceted. The defenders were too low in number. Mehmed was able to get ships inside the Golden Horn and attack the sea walls, forcing some of the limited numbers of soldiers to be diverted there. The walls did take damage over time, and the moat in front of the walls was gradually filled with rubble and degree making Turkish assaults easier. Despite all these problems, the defenders were doing surprisingly well in repelling the final assault of the Ottomans until the commander of the defense, Giovanni Giustiniani Longo, was mortally wounded. It had been him and his elite heavily armored Genoese troops which had been holding back the enemy. Even in the breaches the cannons had made, they had valiantly held back the numerous Ottomans Once Giustiniani retreated and his elite troops left the fight, the Turks continued their ferocious assault and the defense collapsed soon after. Thus, Mehmed’s final gamble paid off. Constantine XI and his soldiers died in the struggle and the city of Constantinople fell for a second and final time. However, it was NOT a simple story of cannons destroying the ancient walls. All things considered, the Theodosian walls did very well to hold up against cannons for such a long period of bombardment , a scenario it’s architects could never have imagined! Source: The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453 by Donald M. Nicol

@deaidua @Oboronka1 The metallic "twigs" as a drone defence is novel.

@Oboronka1 The full article can be found here, where some images of said upgrades are also included. I didn't want to simply upload them here, as they deserve your visit to their website for this great story. oboronka.mezha.ua/ukrajinski-leo…

The 1st Tank Battalion of the 5th Heavy Mechanized Brigade has shared some very interesting details about the Ukrainian Leopard 1 MBTs and some upgrades in an interview with @Oboronka1. Apparently one heavily up-armoured Leopard 1A5 withstood the impact of 52 (!) FPV drones over the course of a full day this February, with all crew members surviving the Russian attack. Another interesting fact was shared about upgrading the Leopard 1A5s. @CharityPrytula is funding a proposal from the 1st Tank Battalion to retrofit an in-house 360° view into the Leopards. The system itself consists of four cameras and a single 10-inch monitor, through which the commander can see everything happening around him. The cameras were mounted on the turret, and for reliability, the footage is transmitted to the turret via cables. Thanks to Starlink terminals installed on each tank, the footage from the cameras is uploaded to the battalion's command post, where the officers in charge are now able to more effectively assist the tank commander in carrying out his mission and warn the crew of approaching enemy drones. Currently, the first 10 Leopard 1A5s are being equipped with these systems, which interestingly only cost about 40,000 hryvnias (€800) per unit. H/t @NedSnow2019

@clement_molin What are we seeing with these corridors? Are they some sort of defensive position?

To cover the roads, the ukrainians are now also digging a small corridor of around 100 meter along key roads, which will complicate the crossing of these roads.

100 km of kill zone, let's dive inside one of Ukraine's 🇺🇦 best defensive line The Verkhnya Tersa line -with only 18 crossing over 100km- is one of the strongest and best prepared fortified line in Ukraine. Here is a detailed analysis : 🧵THREAD🧵1/18⬇️

@Tank_Archives What was the average distance of tank engagement in NW Europe? Surely quite short in the bocage?

#OTD in 1943 the British shared penetration trials results with the USSR. Their 57 mm 6-pdr gun could reliably penetrate the front of a Tiger at a range of only 300 yards. The Soviets obtained similar results and thus more powerful guns were necessary. #tanks #history #WW2 #WWII

@Trois_Ponts Very interesting! The British were so impressed with the French 74s that they copied them.

C'est la fin de ce "thread". Merci de l'avoir lu. N'hésitez pas à poser vos éventuelles questions, j'y répondrai dans la mesure du possible. RT apprécié !

Quelle différence entre un vaisseau de 74 canons et un vaisseau de 80 ? On pourrait naïvement imaginer qu'ils étaient relativement similaires : six canons de différence, soit trois sur chaque flanc... A priori rien de bien significatif. Voyons ça ! #thread

@Michael89529595 @Tank_Archives The Valentines were used by the Soviet army in its invasion of Manchuria in August 1945.

@Tank_Archives Little known fact, last combat for Valentines was September 1944 in Netherlands at Uden-Vaghel as part of 52 Infantry Lowland Airlanding Division (Mountain) [light establishment] during Operation GARDEN.

The Infantry Tank Mk.III (later called Valentine) was only accepted into service #OTD in 1939. Even though the General Staff didn't want it at first, the Valentine tank became one of the best British tanks of the Second World War. #tanks #history #WW2 #WWII

@FennellJW Yes, Monty was loved by his soldiers who understood his clear speaking, good training, careful plans and he didn't sacrifice lives. That does not exclude his social awkwardness possibly being hardwired by today's standards....

@Stray_Pilgrim More myth, if anything Ike was the one with mental illness. He was forthright and didn't suffer fools gladly. He had incredible empathy for his men and was loved by them unquestionably, he was also a team player and built an incredibly effective staff, who also loved him.

Are Monty, Ike and the end of Admiralty connected? It was on the fields of Europe that the future of the post-war world was settled in 1944. Twenty short years later Britain had handed over the reins of leadership and a narrative was crafted to explain the transition to the USA.

@FennellJW From what I've read, Monty would today be described as being on the spectrum. This badly affected some inter-personal relations. These 'flaws' were exacerbated by his detractors, and have unfairly marred his military reputation.

Monty, the victor of El Alamein and military architech of D-Day was lambasted by Ike and his bookish acolyte Omar Bradley in their memoirs, and by Ike's trumpet Cornelius Ryan. The myth they created echoed through Hollywood for 50 years from the Longest Day to Band of Brothers.

@Muppetsdad2 @robert_ivanhoe @grok is this true re fps 132 radars?

@robert_ivanhoe The USA had 6 of these radars. They are apparently not protected from drone attacks. Is US military overconfident or daft? Sensitive radars need gallium. The USA imports 100% of gallium. China controls 98% of world gallium. Is anyone learning lessons ? #FreeTrade & friendship

Missiles like the Tomahawk—and the advanced defenses against them—consume vast quantities of critical minerals far beyond just copper. These systems increasingly depend on scandium-aluminum alloys to reduce weight, extend range, and enhance payload performance under extreme conditions. That’s exactly why these are designated ‘critical raw materials’—national security hinges on secure, diversified supplies of scandium, rare earths, tungsten, gallium, and more. I’m backing @surisemetals to help delivery the solution: innovative, responsible sourcing to meet this growing demand.

@robfox45 People want better hospitals, schools etc & have not got over Iraq war adventure. There's no public appetite for sacrificing public services for more defence spending. The UK spends a lot on defence, just on the wrong things. Look at French procurement.....

I think the remaining type 23s are deteriorating faster than expected even under MoD revised plans. HMS Portland looks next to go. I don’t think there is recognition of general antipathy to defence across Westminster- Whitehall…

@Barchart Hey @grok explain this post to non-investor

BREAKING 🚨: Stock Market Timberrrrrrrrrrr 📉📉📉

@militaryhistori Did the US have sufficient assets to intervene on a sustained basis and defend regional allies in January?

Op Lion's Roar latest: Iran caught unawares, but quick to launch retaliatory missiles. Analysis: US missed its chance to intervene effectively in January when opponents on the streets of Iran. Local population will not rise up again until the regime collapses. Air attacks on Jersulaem/Tel Aviv.

@robert_lyman I think it is brave to state that Mutaguchi's "original plan would have brought success in India". I appreciate you are an expert in this field, but it seems to me that the Japanese army wasn't up to it in 1944 - whereas British Indian forces were getting better....

My arguments about IJA weakness at the operational level of war (a) no sensible campaign plan and (b) poor tactics. It’s behind a Japanese pay wall, but the arguments are resonating in Japan. Mutaguchi claimed in 1963 that his original plan would have brought success in India. He was right. Kawabe, Terauchi and Tojo messed it up for him, by insisting he struck 4 Corps in Imphal rather than launching, as he wanted, a pincer movement into the Brahmaputra. Without strategy one is dead; with bad tactics (e.g., a crazy predilection for frontal assaults) your bravest and irreplaceable men die. Where is the glory in battle if one can’t enjoy the glory of victory? Sun Tzu was right. More to come in my new book on Kohima @OspreyBooks 2027. nishinippon.co.jp/item/1458809/

@Tank_Archives Slow, simple, small, well armed and was upgunned to the 75mm.

@Tank_Archives Soviet Union used them throughout the war. The production line was kept open for them. UK forces used a few Mk XI tanks in NW Europe campaign.

The Infantry Tank Mk.III or #Valentine was one of the UK's most successful tanks, despite not meeting the Army's initial requirements. Many variants were produced and fought on every front of WWII. #tanks #history #WW2 #ValentinesDay