The Ansaldo Magrini Mangiapan was designed in 1916 by major
Magrini as a "mobile fort" and was one of Italy's first tank designs.
It featured multiple sets of tracks to help it traverse the crater filled
battlefields of no-man's land. To power these tracks there were four 200hp
engines in the centre of the tank which then drove two electric motors at the
front and back, propelling this massive 70t vehicle to an estimated 20 km/h. It
also unusually for that era featured two rotating turrets equipped with 76mm
(some sources state 75mm or 105mm) cannons, as well as having multiple machine
guns fitted around the hull. The design was approved by the direzione generale
del regio esercito but was cancelled soon after because of the high cost and
feasibility of such a complex design. Instead interest moved to the Fiat 2000
and purchasing tanks from France and Britain.
Early and mainly pre-WWII technology, archaic throwbacks like RAF aircraft and Soviet monster-tanks, with a spice of War of the Worlds.
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Steel Chimeras of the Red Army
Steel Chimeras of the Red Army
Scientific and technical progress has always been on the other side of the coin from war. Aiming to obtain instant superiority over the enemy, people who have never thought about the subject were as determined as those whose job was weapons design.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Burgess-Dunne D8 Aircraft
During The Great Martian War, the humans quickly learned that one of the few technological advantages they had over the Martians was aircraft.Despite crossing the huge gulf of space to reach Earth, the Martians had no smaller aircraft. Humans were soon using aircraft for scouting. After that they began to use aircraft to attack the invaders directly. Despite the terrible vulnerability of wood and canvas aircraft to the Martian heat rays, bold pilots made desperate attacks. Losses were high and aircraft which could be built quickly and which were easy enough for hastily-trained pilots to fly were needed. One model, the Burgess-Dunne D8 was built in large numbers. Originally an English design, the Burgess-Dunne was built by Curtis in the United States. It's unusual swept-wing design proved to be surprisingly stable and was very popular with the pilots. This kit includes 5 aircraft models.
Paper Terrain - War of the Worlds
Welcome to Paper Terrain! We produce a range of paper structures in a variety of scales and periods. They are printed on a heavy cardstock and are ready for immediate assembly and use. Our structures are a sturdy, lightweight, economical and attractive alternative to resin.
World War Tesla™
World War Tesla™ is a 15mm scale alternate-history
wargame by James M. Ward (author of TSR’s Gamma World, Deities &
Demigods, and Metamorphis Alpha) and Thomas A. Tullis, where Nikola
Tesla’s more radical ideas such as death rays and force fields have come
to fruition, changing the face of a world at war. Giant walking tanks,
soldiers with rocket-packs, and flying machines armed with death rays
rule the battlefield!
World War Tesla™ is the forefront of print-at-home wargaming. Say goodbye to the days of spending massive amounts of money to even have a small army to play a wargame, with World War Tesla™ even the largest vehicle can be printed for less than a dollar. All 3D printer .stl files for vehicles, troops, accessories, and even some terrain are provided, so there is no limit on how large your armies grow. If you wish to expand your army beyond the offerings in the Starter Set, inexpensive expansion sets will offer even greater variety for your games.
World War Tesla™ is the forefront of print-at-home wargaming. Say goodbye to the days of spending massive amounts of money to even have a small army to play a wargame, with World War Tesla™ even the largest vehicle can be printed for less than a dollar. All 3D printer .stl files for vehicles, troops, accessories, and even some terrain are provided, so there is no limit on how large your armies grow. If you wish to expand your army beyond the offerings in the Starter Set, inexpensive expansion sets will offer even greater variety for your games.
World War Tesla Rules F.A.Q.
The World War Tesla™ official rules F.A.Q. can be found HERE.
Thursday, November 1, 2018
Forgotten Weapons: The 1917 Burton Light Machine Rifle
America's first assault rifle? Well, it does
meet all the requirements: select-fire, intermediate cartridge, and
shoulder-fired. It was never actually fielded, though.
The
Burton Light Machine Rifle was developed during World War One, with the
firing model completed in 1917. It was intended as an aircraft
observer's weapon for attacking balloons—a role which required
incendiary ammunition.With this in mind, Winchester's Frank Burton
adapted the .351 WSL cartridge from his 1905 and 1907 self-loading
rifles into the .345 WSL, with a spitzer bullet. He designed an
open-bolt, select-fire shoulder rifle to fire it, which became known as
the Light Machine Rifle.
Burton's rifle was to be usable both in an aircraft
where it could be fixed to a Scarff mount for a wide field of fire or
used by an individual on the ground, fired from the shoulder. It weighed
in at just about 10 pounds (4.5kg) and had a pistol grip and
straight-line design to bring the recoil impulse directly into the
shooter's shoulder and minimize rise during automatic fire. The barrel
was finned for better cooling, and infantry barrels were equipped with
bayonet lugs.
The most distinctive elements of the design, of course, are the dual
top-mounted magazines. Each one holds 20 rounds, and each has a pair of
locking catches. One position locks the magazine into a feeding
position, and the other holds it up above the cycling of the bolt. The
idea here was to keep a second loaded magazine easily accessible for an
aerial observer—so they could reload without having to find another
magazine somewhere in the aircraft. Contrary to some speculation, there
is no automatic transition between magazines. When one is empty, the
shooter must pull it back to the second locking position (or out of the
gun entirely) and then push the second magazine down into feeding
position.
Despite Burton's work—which was well ahead of its
time—the LMR had been rendered obsolete for its primary role by the time
it was ready. Synchronized, forward-mounted Vickers machine guns firing
11mm incendiary ammunition were being mounted on aircraft, and were
more effective on balloons and airplanes than Burton's weapon would have
been. Only this single example was ever made, and it was not presented
for infantry consideration as far as I can tell. It was lost for many
years before being discovered in a Winchester building, and eventually
ending up in the Cody Firearms Museum with the rest of the Winchester factory collection.
Ian McCollum is the founder of ForgottenWeapons.com, a website and YouTube channel dedicated preserving the history of rare and obscure guns from around the world.
Remote-Controlled Tanks of the 1930s
This Japanese-made,
remote-controlled tank got tech nerds all excited in 1931. But it wasn’t
just because they saw a new toy. Tech-minded folk of the early 1930s
also saw a utopian solution to war. A solution where, ideally, fewer
humans would have to die.
Ideas about
remote-controlled warfare have been around for over a century. And here
in the 2010s we’re acutely aware that wars can be fought from halfway
around the world. If our generation is remembered for anything, it might
be for our introduction of “drone” into the international lexicon. But
the thing that we so often forget is that the people who built
remote-controlled war machines in the interwar period (between the end
of WWI and the beginning of WWII) thought they were doing humanity a
favor.
There are
countless visions of radio-controlled tanks, unmanned aerial vehicles,
and even gigantic robot fighters from the early 20th century. But the
thing that might be most shocking to readers here in the early 21st
century is that these empty vehicles were all supposed to be fighting
amongst themselves.
The gigantic robots of 1934 were explicitly envisioned to fight “our battles” and whatever robot won, that nation would be declared the victor.
You also see this in the visions of robot tanks. From the April 1931 issue of Radio-Craft magazine (emphasis mine):
Writers of war stories, peering into the future, predict an approaching era when fighting will be done by machinery under remote control. Guns automatically operated will fire from deserted fortifications and from tanks which contain no living operators. Airplanes without human pilots will observe positions through televisors, and drop projectiles guided from a post at headquarters, many miles away. The casualties will be solely among robots of steel and copper, whose orders are conveyed to them by radio, or other subtle signalling methods. Such is the picture which is painted upon the drop curtain which conceals the next war—if it be true that war has not been abolished along with the dips in the business cycle.
Of
course, that bit about abolishing dips in the business cycle gives us a
hint that perhaps the authors of this article didn’t believe
wholeheartedly in the utopian promises of unmanned war.
The article
continued by explaining that the robot tank had recently been
demonstrated in Tokyo, Japan, and that it’s clearly just the start of
something much bigger.
A picture which appeared recently in one of our English contemporaries is reproduced here; the original, it is said, was taken at a public demonstration in Tokio of a tank which was operated entirely by radio from the post in the foreground. The tank went through numerous maneuvers, under full command of its operators, to the enthusiasm of a great crowd of spectators. While the picture does not seem to be of an official type, it is evidently genuine; the tank itself seems rather small and not too war-like.
When
World War II would rear its ugly head, robot tanks would indeed become a
reality. But unfortunately they were the exclusive domain of the Nazis.
The Germans designed two different remote-controlled tanks that carried
explosives: The Borgward IV and the Goliath.
Neither were wireless, so
their range was thankfully limited to however far the remote’s wire
would take them. Both were packed with large payloads and were designed
to explode on impact with their target of Allied troops.
Needless to say,
remote-controlled warfare has not led to a utopian world of robotic
fighting wherein nations simply let the machines battle it out and
declare a winner at the end. That seems about as likely as it did in
1931, along with abolishing “dips in the business cycle.”
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
PvE Halloween operation
Warships fans have been asking for submarines since day one and developer Wargaming has received the message loud and clear, and is finally responding. With submarines you’ll be able to sneak underneath the carnage and mayhem, quietly encroaching on your victim, attacking unexpectedly from beneath the waves. Each one of the subs will have a gorgeous distinct steampunk aesthetic complete with cogs, golden edging, and highlighted details.
These silent wolves of the sea will be available to play as a fifth class in the upcoming PvE Halloween operation, But, as with the intergalactic April fools event, they’ll be gone once the event ends, sinking away into the depths. So let’s go over what these subs can do, how they’ll switch up the Warships formula, and what to expect if you come up against one.
In that spirit, there’s more than the new submarines and map to look out for in the Halloween event. Specially for Halloween, Wargaming has added deep sea monsters to World of Warships. Bigger than any ship or submarine, these Lovecraftian creatures are colossal in size and loom in the shadows in the depths of the ocean. The sea monsters have some mystery behind them, as it’s not made obvious how they’ll work in matches, but they’ll certainly be a big threat for you to deal with.
As well as getting three steampunk subs, there will be nine new steampunk inspired commanders to choose from: one is a dapper mustachioed inventor; another comes in a trench coat and is inspired by Davy Jones with tentacle hair; a third has huge, shiny bulbous eyes and a leech-like mouth. This is all in the spirit of Halloween, and is matched by the new creepy map, which will have new ship builds to explore it in. That includes monster-machine hybrids, with one having a giant octopus wrapped around the ship, and another has its bow turned into a giant monster’s head with a hundred sharp teeth.
Monday, October 29, 2018
Acoustic Radar
Acoustic Radar.
Douglas Self, sound location, sound locator, acoustic locator, sound mirror
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
When is The War of the Worlds on TV?
The show was announced in spring 2017 and production began in April 2018, with filming taking place in Liverpool.
An exact air date has not been confirmed but it’s expected to arrive on our screens later in 2018.
Unlike Steven Spielberg’s 2005 movie adaptation starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning, the BBC’s version will be true to the original period and setting.
“HG Wells’ seminal novel has been adapted for the screen many times, but it’s always had a contemporary (and American) setting,” director Craig Viveiros said. “This is the first version to be set in London and [its environs] during the Edwardian period.”
However, George and Amy – Spall and Tomlinson’s characters – are a new addition.
Old Dogs Special: Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds
By Bill Gray
No one would have believed in the last years of the 19th Century that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized as someone with a microscope, studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets. And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us.
If you remember these words, voiced in deep
baritone by Sir Richard Burton, then fused with Jeff Wayne’s progressive
techno-rock background music, this article is for you. Here I speak of
Rage/GT Interactive’s (spelled Atari) 1998 release of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds (WOW for this article) for the PC. Based on the H G Wells novel and Wayne’s 1978 album of the same name, the game was an instant hit and today remains one of the most requested games on GOG.com.
It featured graphics drawn directly from the album art and envisioned a
Victorian England somewhat more Steampunk and advanced than reality,
all done in period style that has carried over current interpretations
such as the BBC faux documentary The Great Martian War and the popular miniature wargaming rules All Quiet on the Martian Front. WOW
was also one of the first PC games that used 3D terrain and unit
sprites, as well as missions determined by the player vice a scripted
set to follow.
READ MORE
No one would have believed in the last years of the 19th Century that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized as someone with a microscope, studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets. And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us.
READ MORE
Let's Play Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds (Human)
War of the Worlds PC game Companion
Let's Play Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds (Martian)
Monday, October 1, 2018
Monday, July 9, 2018
RPG NET: Review of The End of the World: Alien Invasion
by: Jonathan Hicks
"Massive, gleaming saucers appear over Earth’s major cities. The secret Illuminati that has ruled the world since time immemorial emerges to make its ultimate powerplay. Your own friends and loved ones suddenly seem… not quite right. No matter what weird or terrifying events are occuring, it’s plain to see that we are not as alone as we once thought. Earth has become the center of an Alien Invasion!
Alien Invasion is the third book in The End of the World roleplaying game line created by Álvaro Loman and José M. Rey. Like Zombie Apocalypse and Wrath of the Gods, Alien Invasion invites you to play as yourself, in your own hometown, as an extraterrestrial attack erupts around you. An elegant, narrative rules system keeps the game’s focus on the story as you experience one of five unique scenarios, each of which features dozens of possible adversaries and encounters. Watch out for UFOs, and prepare for close encounters with an Alien Invasion at the end of the world!"
Wow.
Look, I've tried all kinds of roleplaying in all kinds of ways; low-level crawling, high-level epicness, freeform, open world, linear, all kinds of genres, and I've even had a stab at playing in the real world, in my local neighbourhood, and even as myself.
It's not a new concept, and it's no doubt something that many seasoned gamers have tried at least once in their tabletop history, but in my experience they've always been games using an existing ruleset that wasn't designed for that kind of thing.
But this game is very different to all those other times you've tried to play yourselves in a roleplaying games, tried to act out those 'what if' scenarios you've had in your head. This game gives you the tools and the guidelines to actually have a proper go at a 'what would I do' situation, and it works exceptionally well... most of the time.
What we have here is a 144-page hardback rulebook that contains rules, guidelines and scenarios to give you and your group a great evening of survival horror. It may look a little on the slim side but it has everything you need, and includes some excellent atmospheric artwork. The quality is up to the usual Fantasy Flight Games standard and it's a hardy rulebook that'll last you a while.
The book wastes no time in getting you into the action, and after the obligatory intro it dives straight into 'Playing The game', and explains the rules system and tests before you even get onto character creation. There is an assumption that you are familiar with tabletop roleplaying games and it doesn't hang around, so is it any good for new-to-the-hobby players? I'd say not really; there's enough in here to give you an idea of what gaming is about but no real firm guidelines.
Character creation is easy, and fun in may respects. Although the game is designed around the players creating versions of themselves to play in the game there is plenty of flexibility to create different personalities so that you can game as other characters in other places.
Characters have six characteristics across three different categories: Dexterity and Vitality are the Physical aspects, Logic and Willpower are Mental, and Charisma and Empathy are the Social aspects. These characteristics are graded by a number between one and five but start at one, and players then spend ten points across the characteristics to create a character that suits them.
The fun bit, especially if you're playing versions of yourselves, is that the group then votes on each of the different characteristics and scores, secretly putting dice into a bag to try and change the outcome of the character. The dice are positive and negative, which is the core mechanic of the game, and positive dice increase scores and negative ones decrease them. It's a great way of keeping egos in check - and a great way of finding out what your friends really think of you!
Features are then assigned, and these are the talents and problems the player may have. What are you good at? Don't think about what you'd like to be good at - what are you actually good at? Do you have any illnesses or physical problems? Don't make stuff up - think about how you are right now! Have you injured yourself in real life recently? Sprained an ankle, broken a bone, got a bad cold? Then put that on your character sheet - the alien invasion is about to happen so your current condition is vital!
Now for equipment... and this was a great part of character creation for all of us. Choose items that are in your house right now. That's your equipment list. It was fun for us because in my attic I have a replica Roman gladius, which came in handy, and another player had an air rifle and some knitting needles that actually fitted in the barrel (we weren't stupid enough to actually try to shoot one, of course). We actually went around my house looking for things that we could use, and even went as far as making an inventory of tinned food and water. It was a hell of an experience, and we really got into it.
The game system is very simple. Tests are decided by D6s, and once the GM has decided what characteristic to use for the test the player creates a dice pool from the characteristic and any features, equipment and bonuses that might come in handy. The pool is dice of two different colours, one colour being positive dice and the other negative dice, and then they roll. Any negative die score that matches a positive die score removes both dice from the table, and any positive die that remain which have scored lower than the characteristic equals success - the action succeeds. Anything else is a fail.
I may not have done the game system justice with that brief explanation, but once you get two or three rolls out of the way and the pieces fall into place then it's actually a great setup, with plenty of dramatic moments as the dice are paired off and scores are counted, and even though the term 'dice pool' might put some people off it's actually pretty quick and there's no situations where you end up throwing buckets of cubes around.
READ MORE
Thursday, July 5, 2018
The Great Martian War: Counterattack
Following the disastrous defeats of 1910, the Americans have fallen back
to the line of the Mississippi River. This is the last natural barrier
between the Martian invaders and the utterly vital—and vulnerable—cities
of the east. To lose the Mississippi Line could well be to lose the
war. The Martian commanders know this, as do Theodore Roosevelt and his
Chief of Staff, Leonard Wood. Both sides mass all of their forces for
the titanic clash that will come in the summer of 1912.
Everyone has a part to play. Frank Dolfen leads his cavalry on risky scouting missions into enemy territory, Rebecca Harding raises a unit of women sharpshooters to defend Memphis, and Andrew Comstock rushes to complete the army’s newest weapons. But even a war between worlds cannot avoid politics. There is serious disagreement among the Martians about the proper path to victory. And 1912 is an election year in America. Millions of people have been driven from their homes and Roosevelt knows that to win in November it is not enough to just hold the line. They must counterattack! This is the third book in the first trilogy of The Great Martian War.
This is the third book in "The Great Martian War" series by Mr. Washburn. The first two books are "Invasion" and "Defender". (Don't judge the third book by it's comic book type cover.) . These books are interesting, exciting, and well written. The time period is the early twentieth century. Instead of WWI, the earth has to deal with alien invasion. Although the main characters are made-up, many of the historical figures of the time period are also there. His research of the time period, personalities, and geography is meticulous. If you enjoy alternate history, these books are as good as it gets.
Barbara J. Carges
I've enjoyed this series and the game universe it supports. Washburn does a very good job mixing fictional characters with historical ones. His extrapolated technology is also well done. The battle scenes are vivid and human casualties are always heavy. Generally I hit the sack early to be up for work but this book kept me up late several nights. Pick up the entire series and be ready for a good set of traditional war stories.
Terry Sofian
Everyone has a part to play. Frank Dolfen leads his cavalry on risky scouting missions into enemy territory, Rebecca Harding raises a unit of women sharpshooters to defend Memphis, and Andrew Comstock rushes to complete the army’s newest weapons. But even a war between worlds cannot avoid politics. There is serious disagreement among the Martians about the proper path to victory. And 1912 is an election year in America. Millions of people have been driven from their homes and Roosevelt knows that to win in November it is not enough to just hold the line. They must counterattack! This is the third book in the first trilogy of The Great Martian War.
This is the third book in "The Great Martian War" series by Mr. Washburn. The first two books are "Invasion" and "Defender". (Don't judge the third book by it's comic book type cover.) . These books are interesting, exciting, and well written. The time period is the early twentieth century. Instead of WWI, the earth has to deal with alien invasion. Although the main characters are made-up, many of the historical figures of the time period are also there. His research of the time period, personalities, and geography is meticulous. If you enjoy alternate history, these books are as good as it gets.
Barbara J. Carges
I've enjoyed this series and the game universe it supports. Washburn does a very good job mixing fictional characters with historical ones. His extrapolated technology is also well done. The battle scenes are vivid and human casualties are always heavy. Generally I hit the sack early to be up for work but this book kept me up late several nights. Pick up the entire series and be ready for a good set of traditional war stories.
Terry Sofian
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Armoured Trains
At the outbreak of WWI, only one of the combatants had any
appreciable investment in the concept of at the outbreak, and that was Russia.
Its immense size and lack of quality roads made it even more dependent on
rail-lines than any other belligerent power, and as such had constructed four
examples (Or two. Or ten. Sources disagree). In the west, there was no
pre-existing stock, but a few examples were hastily constructed by adding armor
and weaponry to existing boxcars and locomotives. The Belgians had two examples
in action, and the British Naval Division (an infantry unit of Royal Navy
reservists and Marines unneeded for service at sea) created two as well which
saw action outside Antwerp. The Germans followed suit on the Western Front with
a few examples they used to protect against possible partisan attacks in
Belgium, and a light armored train that ‘invaded’ Luxembourg in 1914, but the
quick stagnation of the fighting saw no further advancement of the concept in
the west.
The Eastern Front was a different matter though. As they
already had some number of trains, composed of armored locomotive and a couple
of armored cars carrying machine-guns or light artillery, and already having
trains ready to go at the very start gave Russia a leg up. They almost
immediately saw use both offensively and defensively. The Russians already had
experience with armored trains, having deployed improvised examples against
Japan in 1904 and during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. In one of the earliest
actions of the war, an armored train was used to capture a bridge at Stanislav.
In offensive roles, infantry cars would be stocked with troops to quickly
dismount before the shock of the train’s sudden arrival wore off, but the war
quickly ruined any track that crossed between the lines. There remained the
occasional case where the changing movement of the fronts left intact rail line
allowing for an attacking role, but more generally they were restricted to more
defensive roles through 1915 and 1916.
The use of a train would be to have it stay behind the
front, and if there was a report of an enemy attack, it would be switched to
the appropriate track and choo-choo off there to provide firepower - usually
two 76mm guns and numerous machine guns. They proved to be very effective in
this role of mobile defensive platforms, and the Russian Army had built nearly
a dozen more by the end of 1915, with at least 15 in service at that time, spread
out between various fronts. Inspired by the success of the Russian’s trains,
the Germans and the Austrians copied them, with the first Austro-Hungarian
example, the Pz.Zug I, entering service in early 1915, and a German train close
on its heel’s that fall.
The evolution of the trains between 1914 and 1917 was quite
incredible. The Russian trains at the beginning of the war were comparatively
crude affairs, essentially an armored locomotive with armored boxcars attached
to protect the crew for the guns and machine guns, but within a few years sleek
designs that evoked the image of a battleship on land, with turreted guns and
absolutely bristling with machine guns. The Austrians followed in the footsteps
of the Russians, imitating their opponent in design, and putting them into
action against both the Russians and the Italians. The German High Command
never put as much stock into the concept, so while a number were operating by
the end of the conflict, they were mostly assembled on the local level, with a wide
variation in workmanship, and never taking on the finished appearance of the
Russian examples.
Up to this point, armored trains had been been built in the
image of any other train. The locomotive was attached to some number of cars
which served various functions - infantry cars, artillery cars, command cars,
AA cars etc. During World War I though was developed the rail-cruiser. Cruisers
were single cars and capable of supplying their own power, giving them much
greater speed and flexibility than a regular armored train. Both Russia and
Austro-Hungary developed examples, ranging from the small trollies like the
Motorkanonwagen to the impressive Russian railcruiser [Zaamurets] (later to
become better known for serving with the armored train Orlik with the Czech
Legion). Rail-cruisers could be attached to a larger train, but if needed,
unhitched and sent off on their own. While incredibly useful in the defensive
roles that they filled, even on the Eastern Front the relatively conventional
fighting meant that armored trains weren’t used quite to their full potential.
It would take the next big conflict to see them at their height of power.
The Russian Civil War
With the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917 and ensuing
withdrawal from the war, the Russian Civil War gave the fleet of armored trains
a new purpose. The vast expanses of the country made control of the rail lines
absolutely vital, and both sides made use of armed and armored trains
extensively. At the beginning of the war, most of the Imperial Army’s fleet had
either been requisitioned by the Germans or else fallen into White Russian
hands. The Red forces quickly put into action a building program, churning out
not only the well developed and battle tested designs of the Tsarist regimes
from the factories they controlled, but improvising a wide array of ingenious
designs, perhaps the most interesting being to build an interior wall in a
boxcar and fill the gap with concrete to create a protected infantry car (these
semi-armored trains were known as blindirov). In all, well over 200 armored and
blindirov trains of varying quality operated with the Reds during the Civil
War, and another 80 or so with the Whites. While the Reds were able to build
quality trains using Czarist designs, the Whites generally lacked access to the
factories and their quality rarely equalled that of their opponents’.
With the front lines much more amorphous, a general lack of
air support, and neither side willing to uproot miles of vital track that would
prefer to fight for control over, the train could truly perform as an offensive
weapon, serving as a spearhead of the attack, instead of the savior in the
defense. Trains would travel with raiding teams “desantniy otryad” of infantry
and cavalry. The infantry would ride in armored box-cars providing protection
on the move, deploy out when stopped and vulnerable, and also allow the train
to strike away from the tracks, with the infantry operating under protection of
its artillery. The cavalry would travel as a screening force to protect the
train from ambush - although in numerous engagements the trains proved they
could hold their own against enemy cavalry formations, such as a veritable slaughter
outside Tsaritsyn in 1918. Many trains would carry an observation balloon,
primarily for artillery spotting but also to allow for more effective
reconnaissance outside of the narrow corridor of rail track.
With 37,000 miles of rail, and generally poor quality roads,
the importance of the armored train during the war can’t be understated, and
personnel were almost exclusively to be drawn from party members and the most
literate at that. Although how much this was done in practice is up in the air.
Railroad men were impressed into the service due to their existing expertise,
and at least one foreign observer described the crew of a train he traveled on
as “a choice selection of human scum”. Whether they were the cream of the
communist party or the scum of the earth, the crews were certainly capable of
great deeds, and when used at their best, could take on all comers, perhaps
best exemplified during the Civil War by Train No. 1 Rifle Regiment in Honor of
Karl Marx, which sped into the town of Liski, catching the garrison by surprise
and capturing the town and two idling White trains to boot! Describing the
Soviet use of trains in 1920, a Polish officer noted that, “Armored trains are
the most serious and terrible opponent. [...] Our infantry are powerless
against them.” It isn’t much of an exaggeration to say they they were simply
the best weapon of the war.
The Whites lacked the organization with their trains
displayed by the Reds, and not just because they had few facilities for
manufacturing. While this certainly meant that there was a lot of diversity in
their fleet, the much more fractured force simply couldn’t develop a unified
doctrine, although they certainly emulated the successes of the Reds when
possible. In addition to the anti-Bolshevik Russian groups, both the British,
French, and Americans operated lightly armored trains during their fruitless intervention
of 1918-1920. And while the Whites generally were playing second fiddle to the
Red in terms of effective train deployment, no one used them better than the
Czech Legion as they fought their way east.
Perhaps the most famed armored train of the war - if not
period - was Orlik. Originally a Russian rail-cruiser named Zaamurets that was
captured from the Bolshevik’s by the Czech Legion as they trekked east in their
effort to leave Russia and join the fighting on the Western Front, Orlik Vuz
cis. 1 (Vehicle One) became part of their armored train Orlik. The train helped
the Czechoslovakians control a vast swathe of the Trans-Siberian Railroad from
late 1918 through early 1920, until they finally were able to evacuate Russia
via Vladivostok. Orlik ended up in White hands before finding its way into the
hands of Chinese Warlords, and eventually the Kwantung Army, a puppet force of
Japan, some time around 1931.
By the end of the Russian Civil War, the Soviets had a well
established armored train doctrine, originally with light trains revolving
around the raiding parties on the one hand (bronyepoyezd), and heavy trains
more centered on providing heavier fire support (bronyobatoreyo). In both cases,
they generally consisted of a armored locomotive in the center flanked by two
gun cars, and control cars on each end. The variation was in the armament, the
light train carrying 76.2mm pieces, and the heavy trains armed with between
100mm and 150mm (the heavy trains would be the least armored though, as it
referred simply to the armament. A Heavy train was not meant to get close to
the fighting, so was lightly armored compared to the light trains, which needed
the protection. Confusing, I know!). Infantry cars could be added if needed, as
well as a rail-cruiser. This was changed to three classes, of ‘A’ - the
heaviest armored train, with 4x76.2mm guns; ‘V’ (or ‘C’) - 4x152mm or 203mm
guns; and ‘B’ - 4x107mm or 4x122mm guns, in 1920. Type ‘M’ trains also existed,
but more akin to railroad guns, mounting heavy naval artillery for coastal
defense.
The Interwar Years
The years between the wars saw considerable use of armored
trains, aside from the Russian Civil War that is, and few more so than the
Poles, who fully embraced the concept and were running about 70 of them in the
early 1920s. Their initial fleet was made up of examples captured either from
the Austro-Hungarians and Germans at the end of World War I, or else from the
Soviets during the Polish-Soviet War in 1919-1921, a conflict that saw numerous
use of trains as raiding weapons, and even duels between Soviet and Polish
trains! One of the greatest innovations of the Poles during the war was the use
of flatbeds with Renault FTs placed on them, allowing the tank to fight from
the train if needed, but able to dismount and range outside of the corridor of
track if needed. Given the limitation on tank designs at the time, the speed
and firepower offered by a train was simply unsurpassed at the time, and in
regions where rail-lines went, there was no weapon a Polish or Soviet commander
was happier to have at his disposal.
The other major utilization of armored trains in the period
occurred in China. Plagued by warlords in the 1920s and the Japanese in the
1930s, and lacking major roads, the rail-lines were just as vital in the as in
Russia, and consequently much of the fighting happened within a stone’s throw
of them. The long travels of the Orlik, but it was
hardly alone in traveling the rails of warlord-torn China in the 1920s. The
defeat of the Whites saw many of them flee from Vladivostok into northern
China, where they offered their equipment and services to Chinese warlords as
mercenaries. In his efforts to bring down the warlords, Chiang Kai-Shek
followed suit by paying the Soviet’s for their expertise in constructing
armored trains for him and training men in their use. By the time the Warlords
had been mostly suppressed in the late 1920s, the National Revolutionary Army
was fielding 20 trains, and the Manchurian Army under Zhang Xueliang had
another dozen to support them with. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931
would turn most of the latter over to the invader’s Kwantung Army.
The Japanese would add a few new construction to their force, but their favored vehicle for patrolling the rail lines were armored trolleys, similar in function to the rail-cruiser, but essentially an armored car fitted with rail wheels. The Type 91 could have road and rail wheels switched, allowing it to function in either capacity and the Type 95 was a tracked vehicle with rail wheels that could be lowered from the hull onto the tracks.
The Japanese would add a few new construction to their force, but their favored vehicle for patrolling the rail lines were armored trolleys, similar in function to the rail-cruiser, but essentially an armored car fitted with rail wheels. The Type 91 could have road and rail wheels switched, allowing it to function in either capacity and the Type 95 was a tracked vehicle with rail wheels that could be lowered from the hull onto the tracks.
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