Category: Cold War
The Iranian Embassy Siege: The Myth of the Wall
On 30th April 1980, terrorists stormed the Iranian Embassy in London and took twenty-six hostages. A six-day siege ensued, during which the embassy’s press attaché, Abbas Lavasani, was murdered... Read More
Project Prodigal and the British Army’s Flying Cars
On a visit to the National Archives, I ordered document AVIA 65/1540, “Project PRODIGAL: army vehicle with limited airborne capability”. I was expecting it to be about FV4401 Contentious, ... Read More
Soviet 73mm SPG-9 Kopye Recoilless Gun
Introduced in the late 1960s, the SPG-9 was a light anti-tank gun mounted on a tripod. It had a four-man crew, and could be carried by two soldiers.... Read More
Transporting The Bear: Vehicles In The Bear’s Claws
Rakovich’s Ride: The BMP-2 Infantry Fighting Vehicle In The Bear’s Claws, the main character, Praporshchik Vladislav Rakovich, rides in a BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle. Like an armoured ... Read More
Soviet 100mm T-12 & MT-12 Anti-Tank Gun
The T-12 was developed as a replacement for the D-48 85mm anti-tank gun, and was the first smoothbore anti-tank gun to enter service, in 1961. The decision to adopt a smoothbore barrel led to improved... Read More
M65 “Atomic Annie” Was Not The Only Nuclear Gun
Recently, I saw a link to an Atlas Obscura article about the M65 “Atomic Annie”. The M65 was a US 280mm artillery gun that could fire nuclear ammunition. The article claims that it was the world... Read More
The Swedish Strv 103 (S-Tank)
Development of the Stridsvagn 103 began in 1958, led by Bofors. A contract was awarded in 1959 for two prototypes, followed by a pre-production order from the Swedish army for 10 vehicles in mid 1960.... Read More
Czech vzor 77 Dana SP Gun-Howitzer
In the late 1970s, Czechoslovakia began development of a wheeled 152mm self-propelled gun-howitzer. The result was the vzor 77 Dana, which entered service with the Czech army in 1981. It had an eight-... Read More