Yesterday, we had the opportunity to visit Serbia's "Zastava 2024" military exhibition at the Batajnica airfield. Here are the highlights that caught our attention: 🧵 The stars of the tank section were the modernized M-84AS1/2 main battle tanks, equipped with thermal cameras and a remotely controlled weapon station. Their protection has been improved with the addition of explosive reactive armor and slat armor.

Tangently related to today's Flashback Friday, there is a specific atrocity committed during the campaign of France in which Panzer IV, seemingly Ausf D, were involved, on which more light was shed back in 2019.

https://twitter.com/tanksenc/status/1664601610670964738

On June 20 1940, German troops massacred a number of French African Tirailleurs of the 25th Senegalese Tirailleurs Regiment at Chasselay, near Lyon after they faced significant resistance there

A retired T-80UD rusting away following the type's retirement from service in Russia (picture likely from the early 2010s)

The T-80UD is somewhat unique in relation to the current invasion of Ukraine (thread, 1/17) An argument could easily be made that the vehicle is superior to the average tank of both Ukraine (T-64BV) and Russia (T-72B or early B3). However, despite a non-insignificant production run at Kharkiv in the late Soviet era (around 650 vehicles pre-91 often mentioned) (2/)

When it comes to one tank being used to portray another in cinema, one that I've always found to be very interesting are French M24 Chaffees that were used to portray Panthers in 1966 movie "Is Paris Burning" and subsequent movies. These were surprisingly high effort, being given fake zimmerit, fake bun barrel with muzzle brake, modified mantlets, new sideskirt, fake exhausts, and even an MG42 stuck on top.

tanks-encyclopedia.com/kv-4-object-22…

The KV-4 program can be regarded as one of the most unsuccessful and short-lived tank design ideas of the Soviet Union during the WW2 period. This is especially true considering its expectations, the caliber of the engineers behind it, J. Y. Kotin and N. L. Dukhov, to name a few, and those who ordered it to begin with, including Stalin himself.

With little attention paid to the idea of fighting another major European land war or another peer-military in the decades since the end of WW1, the British military had, for the most part, focussed along two lines of thought:

tanks-encyclopedia.com/tog-citadel/ a fast and light strike force emphasizing manoeuver and an infantry-dominated force supported by tanks. It was not until 1939, on the eve of war with Germany, that the idea that the Army might need special tanks...

The United States entered WW1 late and came without any tanks. They finished the war with none of their own tanks seeing combat either, having to rely on the French and British for this new weapon of war.

tanks-encyclopedia.com/ford-3-ton-spe… The closest they came in 1918 was the diminutive Ford 3-ton tank, a two man turretless box with barely enough armor to keep out enemy bullets and a pale shade of the sort of tank they would need.

Following the disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the early 90s, the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia inherited a relatively huge stock of various armament, equipment and weapons.

tanks-encyclopedia.com/samohodna-haub… One of these was the Soviet 122 mm D-30 and the domestically modified D-30J (with improved ammunition) howitzer.