Tank Thing: German StuG III

Sturmgeschutz III
Armament: 1x 75mm (based on the Pak 40 ATG) 2x 7.92mm machine guns
Armor: Max of 50mm
Crew: 4
Range: 96 miles
Speed: 25 mph

A self propelled gun based on the Panzer III chasis, this unit originally started out with a shorter barreled StuK 40 L/24 but was later up-gunned to the Ausf G model with a longer barrel 75mm StuK 40 L/48 (based on the Pak 40 ATG).
Intended to be used for direct fire close infantry support and as an assault gun, when the longer barreled 75mm was added the StuG III was often used in Panzer formations to provide a boost to the numbers. Not an Ideal platform for anti-tank work, it nevertheless served well in the German order of battle.

Tank Thing: The British Comet

The British Comet: Also known as The Cruiser Tank A34
Armament: 1x 17pdr. (aka 77mm HV), 2x 7.92mm machien guns.
Armor: 102mm (4.02in)
Weight: 32.7 tons
Speed: 32mph
Range: 125 miles.

This tank was the first British tank that came near to matching the mobility and firepower of the German Panther tank. It's arrival so late in 1945 resulted in the Comet playing little or no significant role in the war. At first the idea was that the Brits would up gun the Cromwell but those plans never actually happened as they wished to address several known flaws with the Cromwell.
This basically an reworked Cruiser A30 tank. So I will include the stats of the A30 Cruiser Tank (Challenger) here as well.


Looking at the Challenger we see the same 17pdr gun but it is housed in a tall vertical walled turret which was easily destroyed by German gunnery. Also noted is the lack of an off center mounted chasis machine gun on the front vertical plate, this MG was removed to facilitate storage of the longer ammo for the 17pdr.

Challenger (A30)
Armamament: 1x 17pdr (76mm), 1x 7.92 Machine gun.
Weight: 36 tons
speed: 32mph
Range: 119.86 miles

The A30 was a real loser in many respects, it's lack of speed in turret traverse, inability to ford rivers, and it's top heavy design. Only about 200 or so were produced as the M4 Sherman based Firefly equipped with the same 17pdr gun, was a better buy.
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The idea for the British tank forces were that there would be two types, fast moving lightly armored Cruiser tanks (and usually lightly gunned too) to act as modern Cavalry while the second type was the Heavily armored slow moving infantry support tanks, essentially moving pill boxes.

It wasn't until the round of tanks after the A34 that the British started to see well balanced Main Battle Tanks.

The Tank Thing.

In what may become a weekly event I present: The US M18 Hellcat
Armament: 1x 76mm (3in) gun, 1x 12.7mm .50 Caliber machine gun.
Armor: up to 12mm
Crew: 5
Weight: 17.9 tons
Speed: up to 50mph
Range: 150 miles

The M18 entered production in 1943, as an open turreted tank destroyer. A vehicle with a heavy punch, high maneuvering speed but little armor. The Hellcat first saw service in Anzio Italy and was used all over northwest Europe later in WWII. Smaller, lighter and faster than the M10 Wolverine Tank Destroyer the M18 relied on speed and agility and the heavy hitting power of it's 76mm gun. The 76mm gun however did not fare well against the heavier German tanks, such as the Panther and the Tiger. The development of the High Velocity Armor Piercing round (HVAP) helped mitigate the issue, but the round was never available in great quantity.

All in all the Hellcat was better in theory and on paper than in practice. High road speeds did not help much in open country manuvers and by the late war era the gun was just under powered.
Had it been developed a year or two earlier in the war it would have made a much bigger impact in my opinion.

Organizing and focusing a blog.

Studying blogs, or I should say "Successful" blogs, I see that they all seem to follow a theme. They appear to be written by dedicated and focused people, people who have deep interests in one or two particular issues. Like, Guns and Food, or Guns and Politics, or Politics and Food or dogs and politics. This isn't to say that these people are not deep or diverse. No, it is observing that they seem to have a real passion for a couple of different topics.

One reason I see me having a difficult time getting a blog going and gaining any readers is that I am not one of those kinds of people. I have always been disappointed that no single topics or areas of interest manage to really suck me in for long periods. I tend to tire of the subject all too quickly.

My main interests tend to be along the lines of Computers, Tanks (wwII vintage), guns of all variety, Various Reading Genre's such as Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Historical reading. However, not having an obsession with any subject, I have to wonder if I would be able to draw any kind of consistent readership, even if I were to become a talented writer, which is a real long shot.

So how much does obsession play into being a successful blogger, or writer, or artist or anything? While I am successful in my chosen career I could move up, IF only I could find that drive, the fire of obsession. All too often I think, naaaah I'm bored, lets move on to something else. Hmm this is turning into a blog about a quest to become a blogger :)