Tuesday 29 October 2013

Vickers' Legacy

The Vickers Mk. E (6-ton) was an excellent tank for its time, and spawned two tanks that will be around for a number of years: the Soviet T-26 and Polish 7TP. I already discussed T-26es being around in the late war, but at least the country producing them was still independent. The 7TP, on the other hand, had no such luxury, and yet, the Americans ran into some in 1944.

An American soldier poses in a twice captured 7TP. More photos here

That's pretty impressive, but not as impressive as the T-26.

T-26 tanks being loaded for transport by the Kuomintang in Shanghai. More photos here.

The photograph is not very unusual by itself, at least until you learn that it was taken in 1949. A full 18 years after the Soviets started building the T-26!

No comments:

Post a Comment