Tag: history
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AMX-50/120 surbaissé
Type: Heavy Tank Nation: France Period: Cold War Location: Musée des Blindés, Saumur, France Cold war colossus The AMX-50 was a French attempt to build a functional modern heavy tank intended to succeed the archaic ARL 44 in the 1950s. The first of only five prototypes was visibly inspired by the German Tiger II and…
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Light Tank M5A1 Stuart (Replica)
Type: Light Tank Nation: USA Period: World War 2 Location: Dead Man‘s Corner Museum, Carentan les Marais, France All in the family The Light Tank M5 was an improved version of the M3 Stuart. It was developed from late 1941 to early 1942 to free up Continental W-670 engines which were needed for aircraft production.…
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Centurion Mk 5/2
Type: Main Battle Tank Nation: United Kingdom Period: Cold War Location: Nationaal Militair Museum, Soesterberg, Netherlands One size fits all The Centurion is widely considered one of the best tank designs of all time. Its origins date back to 1943, when the development of a heavy cruiser tank was ordered. Up to that point, the…
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Jagdpanzer 38 „Hetzer“ (Sd.Kfz. 138/2)
Type: Tank Destroyer Nation: Germany Period: World War 2 Location: Bastogne War Museum, Belgium Caught on the back foot Following their 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany’s troops were facing an ever-increasing number of enemy tanks on the Eastern Front. Craving for capable anti-tank vehicles, the Germans upgunned their Panzer IIIs, Panzer IVs…
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Sherman IC Hybrid Firefly
Type: Medium Tank/Cruiser TankNation: United KingdomPeriod: World War 2Location: Klein-Willebroek, Belgium Best of both worlds The “Composite hull” Sherman combined the welded hull of the standard M4 with a rounded M4A1-style cast front. Chrysler came up with this design in 1943, because a large part of the time-consuming welding work on the first generation M4…
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Grizzly I „Robin Hood“
Type: Medium Tank/Cruiser Tank Nation: Canada Period: World War 2 Location: Vrijheidsmuseum, Groesbeek, Netherlands Full metal footprint The Grizzly I cruiser tank was basically a Canadian licence-built M4A1. It is sometimes falsely referred to as the M4A5, but the Americans had actually applied this designation to the Ram II in February 1942. Apart from a…
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M4A4 Sherman „Argyle“
Type: Medium Tank Nation: USA Period: World War 2 Location: Airborne Museum Hartenstein, Oosterbeek, Netherlands From filler to killer The shortage of radial engines for the M4 and M4A1 had led to the production of both the M4A2 with an improvised twin diesel engine as well as the Ford V8-powered M4A3. For the same reason…
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M4A3(75)W Sherman „Barracuda“
Type: Medium Tank Nation: USA Period: World War 2 Location: Bastogne, Belgium Major redesign Following the M4A1 and M4A2, the M4A3 was the third Sherman variant to enter production in June 1942. Rated at 500 hp, its liquid-cooled Ford GAA V8 was the most powerful of all five Sherman engines. Before production was stopped in…
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M4A2 Sherman
Type: Medium Tank Nation: USA Period: World War 2 Location: Montfaucon-d’Argonne, France Necessity is the mother of invention The M4A2 was the first welded hull Sherman that went into production in April 1942 – just two months after the cast hull M4A1. With 8,053 completed units, it was the single most produced Sherman variant. To…
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T-72B (Ukraine Memorial)
Type: Main Battle Tank Nation: Soviet Union/Russia Period: Cold War/Modern Location: Embassy of the Russian Federation, Berlin, Germany Ageing backbone Following 1978’s T-72A, the T-72B was the second upgraded version of the standard T-72 Main Battle Tank. First introduced in 1985, it featured an improved 125mm gun and fire control system, a more powerful engine…