War Truckin' - the Putilov-Garford Armored Truck

While the most enduring image of the Western Front is trench warfare, the Eastern Front was more open. Armored cars delivered valuable service. One of the more eye-catching ones is the Russian Putilov-Garford, built by the Russian Putilov factory on an American Garford truck body.

The Vespers War goes on a field trip

This weekend, I took a little trip to the Virginia War Museum, since I had seen on Surviving Panzers that they had some World War I era vehicles. So, here's a bit of a photo gallery post for everyone.

Adventures in joint ventures - the Tank Mark VIII

Known as the Liberty or the International, the Tank Mark VIII was intended to be a pan-Entente joint venture, primarily designed by England, built in France using machinery and parts supplied by the United States. The plan was to build at least 1,500 tanks during 1918 in preparation for the 1919 offensive, with production starting in April and building up to a rate of 300 per month, with the factory being capable of expanding to 1,200 per month. This was a very ambitious plan, given that Britain's total tank production was around 150 per month.

A digression about armor penetration

Over on the boards at Juhlin, I've been involved in a discussion of armor penetration, since I was encountering some odd effects when trying to emulate modern body armor. I figured I'd repost some of the information here.

Fighting armor with armor - Sturmpanzerwagen A7V

After the deployment of the Tank Mark I, Germany engaged in a crash development program of their own tread-laying armored vehicle. What they ended up building was a large, boxy vehicle with a crew of 18(!), armed with captured Cockerill-Nordenfelt 57mm cannon and MG08 machineguns.

Fighting armor with infantry - the T-Gewehr

Even early in the World War, armor-piercing ammunition was developed for rifles to help defeat trench armor. The Mark I and Mark II were somewhat vulnerable to the 7.92x57mm steel-cored K bullet, but the Mark IV was essentially impervious. Thus, the Germans created a rifle around a 13.2x92mm steel-cored round that had been in development for the Maxim machinegun.

The first "modern" tank - the Renault FT

The Renault FT was the first tank that looked like what modern readers will consider a tank - an armored chassis with a rotating turret on top containing the main armament. The design was done by the Societe des Automobiles Renault, who had declined Colonel Estienne's original request to produce an armored vehicle based on the Holt tractor (the Colonel would move on to the Schneider company that produced the CA1). After Colonel Estienne approached Louis Renault again, Renault agreed to produce an armored vehicle, but to his design.