The Marder (Marten) II was added to the German forces in response to hardships in battle on the Eastern front in 1942. Initially the Marder was built upon the chassis of a Panzer II, Ausf A, B, C and E, with a 75mm L/46 Pak 40 anti-tank gun. Then version two was built on a …
Author Archives: J Malory
Tank Truck Decoy Disguise
During World War Two the Allies and Germans both used many kinds of tactics to fool the enemy, creating false radio transmissions and placing decoys that looked like groups of tanks and trucks, so when the enemy went there they found nothing and wasted their time, or used up bombs on worthless decoys. On the …
Famous WWII German Panzer Generals
It may be hard to understand now, but in their heyday, much like U-Boat captains, Panzer General were worshipped as heroes. After all, they were commanding the cutting edge in warfare technology, at the forefront of battlefield tactics with their panzer divisions. If you’re a war historian or WW2 German tank buff you will probably …
Panzerjager I
The Panzerjäger I was an unusual mobile anti-tank gun in that it was a 4.7mm Czech gun mounted atop a Panzer PzKpfw I Ausf B chassis and was the first German ‘tank destroyer’, AKA Panzerjäger, of Word War Two. Its initial intended use was to destroy the French Char B1 tanks, which were more heavily …
TK3 Tankette
When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939 the TK3 and TKS Tankettes, small tanks, made up much of the Polish Army’s armor, which was still largely supported by old fashioned cavalry horses. The TK3 itself was based on the British Carden-Loyd Mark VI tankette, which the Polish military had been impressed with and obtained a …
K2 Black Panther Tank
The prototype XK-2 became the K2 Black Panther MBT of South Korea and began service in 2014, a few years later than originally scheduled. The K2 has advanced sensor packages and fire control systems, as well as a built-in inter-tank network that allows for coordinated massive attacks and on-site control of auxiliary unmanned vehicles and …
Blacker Bombard 29mm Spigot Mortar
The Blacker Bombard was a relatively inexpensive World War Two anti-tank weapon devised by Lt-Col Blacker in the early years of the war. It was originally designed for use in the battlefield, but was relegated to use by the Home Guard after being replaced by the more portable PIAT (Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank). Blacker was …
Uran-9 UCGV
Russia’s Uran-9 Robot Tank began development in 2016 after an announcement by Rosoboronexport (part of the Rostec State Corporation) at the end of 2015 and first saw active combat during the War in Syria in 2018 and was officially adopted into the Russian Army in January 2019. The Russian Ministry of Defense saw the automated tank as …