Military History Visualized

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5 months ago | [YT] | 251

Military History Visualized

Only 2 Days left to get your T-Shirts: everpress.com/mhv
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6 months ago | [YT] | 282

Military History Visualized

Only until tomorrow 20 % off on the new T-72 book and about 10 % on our other books, get em at militaryhistorygroup.com/ #t72 #books

7 months ago | [YT] | 255

Military History Visualized

Ryan A. Then: About the T-72's Gun and its Limits

Note: Only 3 days left!!! The book is currently 20% OFF until 27 September exclusively on Lulu Press, additionally other books the Military History Group are reduced up to 10%: militaryhistorygroup.com/

At first glance, the T-72 seems like a small tank with a turret to match... then you notice the gun. The 125 mm D-81 smoothbore gun was larger than the 120 mm Rh120 L/44 on the Leopard 2 and matched it in muzzle energy. It seems impossible to reconcile the size of the T-72's turret with the size of its gun without exacting a heavy sacrifice from something else, but with Soviet tanks, appearances can sometimes be deceiving.

Good stabilization quality and ease of control comes naturally to a tank gun balanced on its trunnions, but achieving that balance can be difficult when it's so much easier to add weight from longer barrels and thicker mantlet armour than it is to counterbalance it. The designer's options are to enlarge the breech ring or to move the gun inboard by putting the trunnions further up the barrel.

Soviet designers chose to instead abandon the gun mantlet for a narrow gun embrasure that would need only a small, lightly armoured gun mask. The recoil system was placed beneath the gun's breech so as not to add extraneous width. The gun stabilizer's parts were put to use as counterweights by mounting them to the underbelly of the gun cradle. Then, to slim down the gun as much as possible in width and height, the walls around the barrel chamber were thinned down with the help of advanced metallurgy, and the top of the breech ring was lowered to give more clearance for the gun to depress.

All this meant that the D-81 acquired a bottom-heavy appearance typical of many Cold War era Soviet tank guns, but it sacrificed no gun depression and its breech ring was slender for a 125 mm gun. It was just 505 mm wide, practically identical to the 115 mm U-5TS gun on the T-62 and the 120 mm Rh120 L/44 on the Leopard 2. It also took up little space in depth; its swept length, which is its inboard length plus the recoiling distance, was just 1,560 mm against 1,652 mm on the U-5TS and 1,745 mm on the Rh120 L/44.

There was, however, one downside: a short inboard length meant that the base length of the supports for the gun was also quite short - just 890 mm. The support base on the Rh120 L/44 was nearly twice as long (1,640 mm) because its cradle could extend far forward of the trunnions under the protection of the gun mantlet. The D-81 cradle was later redesigned in the 2A46M model to extend the support base length to 1,300 mm, and the 2A46M5 model we see most often today achieved a base support length of 1,460 mm by extending the front end of the cradle further into the gun mask.

A tank in its very essence is just a means to bring a powerful gun to a fight. Its tracks may let it to go off-road, because that's where you find the enemy. Its armour might take a hard knock, because the enemy tends to shoot back. But without its gun, a tank is just a very heavy tractor. In T-72 - The Definitive guide to the Soviet Workhorse, the design of the D-81 gun is taken apart analytically to understand how it works and why it was made the way it was, because apart from the log, it is the most important big stick on a T-72. The book is currently 20% OFF until 27 September exclusively on Lulu Press, additionally other books the Military History Group are reduced up to 10%: militaryhistorygroup.com/ It is also available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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7 months ago | [YT] | 232

Military History Visualized

Short reminder, only 9 Days left to get your T-Shirts: everpress.com/mhv
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7 months ago | [YT] | 247

Military History Visualized

Ryan A. Then: About Tank Machine Guns

In the formative years of tank design history, machine guns were often incorporated as a standalone weapon in an independent mount or in a turret, only occasionally supplementing a larger main gun. The role was usually filled by whatever medium machine gun was already currently in service. In the postwar era, very little had changed except that a machine gun coaxially paired to the tank's main gun was now universally regarded to be essential. Putting a machine gun in a tank sounds simple, but like many things in life, doing it right demands a great deal of attention to detail.

Since machine guns aren't air-tight, gunpowder gasses tend to accumulate in the crew compartment unless special measures are taken. As a rule, the crew compartment ventilator had to be turned on while firing at the very least but ideally the problem was addressed at its source. In the Leopard 1, Leopard 2, and Merkava series, an extractor fan was positioned next to the openings on the machine gun receiver. In the M2 Bradley, the coaxial M240C was mounted outside the turret. In the M1 Abrams, the front of its M240 was enclosed in a large-diameter pipe called a "smoke tube" or "smoke box" so that the gas system would vent outside the crew compartment.

The T-72's overpressure ventilation system kicked in when the gunner pressed the trigger for the coax, but the machine gun installation itself was otherwise totally basic. The issues of gas contamination were solved in its PKT machine gun itself with special modifications from the basic Kalashnikov PK.

Like the M240, the PK had a long-stroke gas piston mechanism that vented gas from its adjustable gas regulator once the piston received enough energy to cycle the action. The gas tube behind the gas regulator had vent holes so that gasses blowing past the labyrinth grooves on the piston head would not foul up the receiver. This was fine for infantry use, but the vent holes in the gas tube meant that even if its gas regulator was sealed off, the PK was simply not suitable for tanks without a something like the Abrams' smoke tube. The PKT largely solved this with a sealed gas regulator and gas tube. Air quality tests showed that one shot fired from a PK inside an inhabited enclosure released 83 mg of carbon monoxide while a PKT released just 23 mg.

This was well within tolerable limits, but it was still much higher than expected. Of the 83 mg of carbon monoxide the PK released, 75 mg was from its gas system. The remaining 8 mg escaped from its chamber. If the PKT gas tube was completely impermeable the chamber would indeed be the only route for gasses to escape, but the lack of vent holes meant that gasses blowing past the piston ended up in the crew compartment through the receiver. In 1988, a modification was made to the PKT gas regulator so that it would once again vent, but through a small duct leading outside the turret. In its final form the PKT solved the problems of gas venting and piston blow-by without needing fans, smoke tubes, or any other equipment that could take up space in the turret.

Of course, this solution was not perfect - the PKT could not use standard PK barrels, and the T-72 carried no spare barrels for quick-swaps. In T-72 - The Definitive guide to the Soviet Workhorse, you will not only read about the T-72, but also learn the nuances of its famous PKT and NSV machine guns, never revealed before even in books dedicated to these guns.

In T-72 - The Definitive Guide to the Soviet Workhorse, you will find an in-depth examination of the T-72's design and all the ideas, technologies, and design solutions that went into its creation. It is one thing to read a list of a tank's technical specifications, but another entirely to understand how they were achieved, and what consequences followed. The book is currently 20% OFF until 27 September exclusively on Lulu Press, additionally other books the Military History Group are reduced up to 10%: militaryhistorygroup.com/
It is also available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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7 months ago | [YT] | 349

Military History Visualized

Post by Ryan A. Then about Tank Turrets

A tank turret is an aggregate of equipment, its shape depending on more factors than any one designer can control. However, the turret designer can at least try to find an optimal shape to deal with the intermarriage of firepower with crew space, crew visibility, and protection with the fewest compromises in volume and weight. The domed turret of the T-72 was one such shape. Even so, it usually takes a closer look to see the real qualities of a design.

When the four mightiest NATO members each brought a new tank into service in the 1960's, each of them chose a conventional, low-risk turret configuration with manual loading of the main gun. Compared to the American M60A1 and the British Chieftain, the German Leopard 1 and French AMX-30 were the lightest and most compact, and in a hull-down position, the Leopard 1 (depicted here as the 1A4 model) had the smallest silhouette area at 2.03 m². Thanks to the absence of a human loader in the T-72, the roof on the left side of the turret over the gunner's position was contoured into a domed shape. Even though the maximum dimensions of the T-72 turret in overall height (commander's cupola included) and width were almost the same as the Leopard 1A4 turret, its silhouette area was only 1.48 m².

Considering that the Leopard 1 was armed with a 105 mm gun and the T-72 had a 125 mm gun, this was a remarkable result. However, looking closely we see that the Leopard 1's gun was set much higher in its turret, while the T-72's gun practically sat on the turret ring. In a real hull-down position, the T-72's turret practically lost its advantage in height and silhouette size, even at night once the Leopard had its infrared spotlight mounted. Well, no one said tank design was easy!

In T-72 - The Definitive guide to the Soviet Workhorse, you will find an in-depth examination of the T-72's design and all the ideas, technologies, and design solutions that went into its creation. It is one thing to read a list of a tank's technical specifications, but another entirely to understand how they were achieved, and what consequences followed. The book is currently 20% OFF until 27 September exclusively on Lulu Press, additionally other books the Military History Group are reduced up to 10%: militaryhistorygroup.com/
It is also available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

7 months ago | [YT] | 534

Military History Visualized

For a historical commentary on the first two missions on the German Men of War 2 campaign check out this video on my second channel. It features me for history and ‪@VulcanHDGaming‬ for game play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAOUe...

11 months ago | [YT] | 209

Military History Visualized

Only 1 day left to get the limited bilingual Edition of TANK ASSAULT and 10 % off of all our other books! And 15 % off ACHTUNG TIGER!
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11 months ago | [YT] | 300

Military History Visualized

HAPPY 1 YEAR BIRTHDAY DISCOUNTS! Yes, that's right - our publishing house - made possible by you - celebrates it's first anniversary and we have a very special book launch discount to celebrate. ACHTUNG TIGER! is our new book by Peter Samsonov, detailing the Allied evaluation and counter to the famous heavy tank! You can get it 15% OFF until May 5th! Also, we have a 10% discount on our whole collection including the final change to get yourself the limited edition of TANK ASSAULT, which will be replaced with the regular edition after this sale. Check it out here: militaryhistorygroup.com/

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1 year ago | [YT] | 456