#article

Tanks have been in service for over 100 years, starting in the trenches of WW1 and still fighting today. While the first designs were slow, massive, and under-armed, they were still revolutionary, introducing an entirely new way to fight wars. Many tank designs from many nations aimed to create the fastest, the toughest, and the strongest tanks. However, one of the most famous of them all is the United States' M1 Abrams. First fielded in the 1980s, it has since fought across the world from Europe to Iraq and it has gone through over 40 years of combat and upgrades. Today, we will explore the history of the Abrams and its impact on American tank design.

We’ve already discussed the T14 (more about the T14 here in my article: T14: The Super Heavy Sherman). Now we want to take a closer look at its British counterpart, the Excelsior. Like the American T14, the Excelsior resulted from the same development project, although the Excelsior also never went into serial production; only two prototypes were built.

The Ratel 20 is a South African Light Tank in the British Tech tree, which is typically disliked. With a top speed of 65 mph, and a missile with maximum 530mm of penetration, the Ratel 20 is — on paper at least, a good light tank. However, with a poor acceleration and a rather slow missile, this vehicle does not perform too well when in combat.

The Soviet KV series, most notably the KV‑1 and KV‑2, were among the heaviest tanks of the early war. When they were put to operational use during the midst of Operation Barbarossa, German forces found most of their anti‑tank weapons far too weak against the thick armor; even a single KV could stall an advance and demonstrate capabilities the Germans themselves lacked. That display of strength made captured examples highly prized. Yet the tanks were far from perfect. They consumed fuel at alarming rates, broke down often, and were difficult to supply, and as such many were left behind in retreat or captured intact. The Wehrmacht quickly put these tanks to use, repainting their insignia and assigning them new designations as Beutepanzer (lit. loot tank).

The T-26-4 was an experimental “artillery tank” designed in the interwar period by the Soviet Union. In War Thunder, this tank can be tricky to play and requires some experience. Its several weaknesses, such as thin armor and slow speed, force the player to maneuver it cautiously in battle. However, it can be fun to play once you master both its drawbacks and advantages.

The Fokker D.XXI was a single-seat fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by the Dutch aviation company Fokker. It served primarily with the Netherlands’ Luchtvaartafdeeling (LVA) (Aviation Department) during the late 1930s, the Finnish Air Force in the Winter War and played a notable role during the opening phase of the Second World War. Although already obsolescent by the standards of 1940, the D.XXI demonstrated surprising effectiveness in combat, particularly in Dutch and Finnish service, where skilled pilots exploited its strengths to compensate for its technical shortcomings. This article focuses chiefly on the Dutch and Finnish variants and their operational history, while also addressing foreign use, like Danish variants.

During Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, the Third Reich ran into Russia’s secret weapons: the T-34 and KV-1. While German engineers came up with move advanced tanks to combat Soviet armor, a quick solution was put together to face the Russians on somewhat equal terms. This stopgap would be known as the Marder.

As World War II reached its final stages, Japan faced increasing challenges in maintaining air superiority. The introduction of the Type 5 Fighter (Ki-100) marked an important attempt by the Imperial Japanese Army to adapt to wartime conditions by replacing unreliable liquid-cooled engines with more dependable air-cooled alternatives. Developed from the Type 3 Fighter (Ki-61 Hien), the Type 5 Fighter proved to be one of the most effective Japanese interceptors of the war.

The Kfir C.10 (Block 60) is a modernized variant of the Israeli Kfir multirole combat aircraft, which is in turn a derivative of the French Dassault Mirage 5. With the addition of four DERBY active radar-homing missiles and a top-of-the-line avionics suite, combined with the excellent airframe of the Kfir C.7, the Kfir C.10 is a force to be reckoned with in air battles, and it excels in medium to close range engagements. However, a small missile payload limits the Kfir C.10's ability to engage multiple targets simultaneously.

Today I’m going to tell you a little more about trains, but not the Br 52 this time. Today it’s about the EMD F series. The EMD F is an American diesel-electric locomotive from General Motors Electro-Motive Division. It was designed as a heavy freight locomotive, but it was also used for passenger trains. A total of 1,807 units were built between 1945 and 1949: 1,111 of type A and 696 of the cabless units of type B.