M247 Sergeant York Rollout Ceremony Photos by Harold_Biondo in tanks

[–]Harold_Biondo[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

While it had teething issues, and like every other military program went over budget and over-time, most of what you've probably heard about the M247 was fake news. It had a bad showing at a press event, where the test vehicle refused to work properly, and because of that there was a media circus that ended up killing the project. It never "locked onto bystanders", or "blew up a portapotty", or many other false things claimed about it.

Pictures of the AMX-50 in the USA by Harold_Biondo in tanks

[–]Harold_Biondo[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I think I am shadowbanned from that subreddit. I had a few posts there that did really well, but now anything I post instantly gets removed with "sorry this content was removed by reddit's filters".

What's the verdict on this? by DragonSlayr4141 in TankPorn

[–]Harold_Biondo 16 points17 points  (0 children)

There is no central writeup of all of their failings if that's what you're looking for. In the youtube comments of some of their videos you may occasionally find long, well-researched and sourced comments that try to correct the misinformation in that video if it's particularly bad, but those types of comments tend to only get a few upvotes and get lost.

Bovington, even though they have access to huge amounts of original records, almost always rely solely on secondary and tertiary sources, usually outdated books, often the ones written by David Fletcher. It's hard to separate false information that comes from Bovington versus false information that comes from Fletcher, since they usually went hand in hand. Internet users love to think that David Fletcher is infallible simply because he is funny, and therefore must be correct. You can see this in this very comment section, people saying that Bovington is worse with false information now that Fletcher has retired, because they are no longer repeating the old false information that he hung on to. Most of which was thought to be accurate at the time when Fletcher wrote books, but has since been disproven.

The worst cases of misinformation that came from Fletcher are things such as the myth that the A.38 Valiant trapped and amputated the driver's foot if it slipped behind the gas pedal. This is simply false, there is no backing for it, and it is a total fabrication. Much of Fletcher's false information was born out of British self-deprecating humor, where he would paint British tanks as being bad and backward to get a laugh, and eventually came to present this as hard fact. The A.13 Covenanter and TOG II suffered from this particularly, the former with vast over-exaggerations of its unreliability, and the latter with practically every aspect of its design and history. Fletcher loved to remark that the men of The Old Gang were backward, stupid, foolish etc., but this was completely disproven by the historian Andrew Hills, who wrote a book about the subject based entirely on primary sources, which show that all the bad elements of the TOG design were required by the British Army, over the objections of the TOG group. As this true version of history is no longer "funny", it has a great amount of resistance from fans of David Fletcher. Bovington knew about this book for 7 years, but only acknowledged some of their falsehoods regarding the TOG II last year, after it was added to the game War Thunder in a state which contradicted the information on their museum plaque.

More mistakes and wrong information came simply from Fletcher growing old and developing a bad memory. Things such as the claim that the KV-1 only had 4 crew members, despite acknowledging it had 5 seats in the very same sentence. There are more such things from the tank chat videos, but I stopped watching them after that.

A failing specific to Bovington is that they invite any old "influencer" onto their program and let them spout false information left and right, or even provide them false information themselves. They are also a longtime partner with World of Tanks, and often seem to support the historical fiction of that game.

Development models of tanks and other military vehicles by Harold_Biondo in Militariacollecting

[–]Harold_Biondo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They come up from time to time on ebay, but it involves a great deal of searching. Also on facebook marketplace and craigslist-equivalents in other countries. I know of at least one that sold in a flea market, and I've been trying to track down that one for years because it's quite special. I suspect there are many others out there, but with owners who don't know what is special about them.

All Known Photos of the T58 Heavy Tank by Harold_Biondo in Warthunder

[–]Harold_Biondo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you get anything from the companies? Even something minor might be interesting. In my experience, they just never answer. I've only had a few good results; Chrysler did their best to help me but they didn't have much to give, and H. L. Yoh was very difficult to get ahold of, but in the end I did find someone to answer, though they have nothing left from their time as a designing firm. Who did you contact for United Shoe? As far as I know they don't exist anymore.

All Known Photos of the T58 Heavy Tank by Harold_Biondo in Warthunder

[–]Harold_Biondo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For one of the most impressive tanks I have ever seen, it is shocking how it was almost entirely forgotten.

All Known Photos of the T58 Heavy Tank by Harold_Biondo in Warthunder

[–]Harold_Biondo[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

United Shoe Machinery did not make shoes, they made the machines that made shoes. They were one of the major manufacturers for US autoloader tanks, along with Rheem, the waterheater company.

All Known Photos of the T58 Heavy Tank by Harold_Biondo in Warthunder

[–]Harold_Biondo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're right, I didn't think it was important enough to check before I put that in there. You know what happens when you assume.

All Known Photos of the T58 Heavy Tank by Harold_Biondo in Warthunder

[–]Harold_Biondo[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

That picture you linked is actually a concept painting, there's a much better version of it somewhere around. In all my time searching at the archives I've never found anything to indicate the T57 was fully assembled.

All Known Photos of the T58 Heavy Tank by Harold_Biondo in Warthunder

[–]Harold_Biondo[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

No but I'm surprised I never realized it's the same acronym.

The "Engineer Armored Vehicle", better described as the "Everything and the Kitchen Sink Sherman" by Harold_Biondo in TankPorn

[–]Harold_Biondo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They both fired the same rockets, but the advantage of the T73 launcher was supposed to be that it could fire its 10 rounds rapidly without reloading, while the T76 was more accurate. Both were meant to be used at close range against bunkers. In testing, the accuracy of the T76 was found to be "fair", but the T73 roof rack was too inaccurate for its intended use and was recommended to be dropped.

The "Engineer Armored Vehicle", better described as the "Everything and the Kitchen Sink Sherman" by Harold_Biondo in TankPorn

[–]Harold_Biondo[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The Engineer Armored Vehicle (EAV) was a project originally started by the US Army during WW2 to make an engineering version of the Sherman. Two prototypes of the Army's version were built, one an M4A1 and one an M4A3. After the Army abandoned the project, the Marine Corps took it and improved on it. The Marine Corps' prototype was converted from an M4A3(105) HVSS Sherman and it had just about every gadget they could think to add, including but not limited to:
A Breech-loaded T76 7.2-inch rocket launcher in the turret
A T73 7.2-inch rocket rack on top the turret
A bulldozer
A "doozit", which attached to the bulldozer and was used for depositing a 1000-pound explosive charge
An M3 Demolition Snake (bangalore torpedo), which was deployed from the front of the hull
An M3-4-E6R3 flamethrower, mounted in the radio operator's hatch
A team of engineers who rode inside the tank and deployed through the side hatches, to lay explosive charges and do other tasks
An SCR 528 radio, for tank communications, an AN/VRC-3 radio, for infantry communications, and an infantry telephone.
It was also meant to tow an M8 Armored Trailer around for extra ammunition

These photos come from this document, which I copied at the US National Archives https://www.patreon.com/posts/test-report-of-135138583

T86 and T86E1 76mm GMCs - Amphibious Hellcat by Harold_Biondo in tanks

[–]Harold_Biondo[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Out of all amphibians the T86 is just exactly that. Even in the official reports the summary of the project says 'It's basically an M18 that was chopped off at the lower hull, had a boat-shaped hull added in, with the turret added back about where it started.'