NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 26 OCTOBER 2009

Hello and welcome to the newsletter of what’s new on Miliblog this week. As we write this, it’s Sunday November 1st and Haloween is over for another year. Hope you didn’t get tricked last night !

Following on from last week’s 120 e-photos, we have a further 70 of them added this week to The Tank Collection and I’ve got some samples below to tempt you have a look at the Collection. As we said last week they are far from perfect, but being slightly grainy and a little out of focus, I think it brings some atmosphere to them. As always we love to receive your emails about all sorts of items, so we will wait and see if we get any feedback. The first one is a nice photo of a Valentine Tank in Malta and the reason we are sure it’s taken in Malta is because of the camouflage pattern. If you have ever visited Malta, you will see many dry stone walls separating the fields and the army adopted a similar style of camouflage to the walls. Have a look at the picture and you will see what we mean. The next British smple is a nice little Light Tank MkVIA taken in North Africa with the commander standing on the turret with his binoculars. The last British sample this week is a lovely Churchill Recovery Tank complete with what looks to be twin-Bren guns as armament. Look at the Canadian Ram Tank in the background, which is a rare beast indeed.  

Our sample US Tank featured this week is a nice M4 Sherman with a Cullin devise fitted on the front. The big problem for troops in the Normandy campaign both for US and British troops was the Bocage countryside, which featured many fields edged with thick hedges and then sunken roads between them. The problem was when an Allied tank went up and over the hedge, it revealed the soft under-belly which was an easy target for enemy bazookas or panzerfausts. It was solved by a Sergeant Bill Cullin of the US Engineers who came up with the idea of chopping down the German anti-invasion metalwork on the beaches and attaching pieces to the front of a tank. This way the tank went through the hedge and so saved many tanks from being hit.  

From our German section we have a nice Panzer IV at speed on the Russian Steppes. Next is a Jagd Tiger, here seen in Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset, UK. Just look at the size of this animal compared to the people standing by it. What a monster ! How would you stop that thing if it was coming at you ! Then we have a really atmospheric photo of a Panzer III motoring along in the desert in North Africa. This is an example of where despite the photo being grainy and not in much detail, I just had to include it in the collection.  We have 5 Stug III photos this week and my favourite is the one below, which is in colour. Last sample this week from the German section must show an excellent idea for all our modellers amongst us. Although not strictly not a tank, it’s an Sd Kfz 7 Half Track towing a nice piece of artillery over a bridge.   

We are still amazed here at Miliblog when we look at out website statistics. October was the best month since we started, with just under 7,500 visitors in the month resulting in over 600,000 hits, so a big ‘Thank You’ to you all. This means that the average visitor looks at around 80 pages per visit, so we must be doing something right for our fellow enthusiasts come back to have another look !

Next weekend on November 7/8, we have the IPMS (international Plastic Modellers Society) ‘Scale Model World 2009′ Exhibition at the International Centre in Telford, Shropshire. With over 270 trade stands it’s going to be a cracker of a show and Miliblog will be visiting and reporting back to you. Hopefully we may be able to take some photos as well ! I’ll be wearing a Miliblog badge so if any one of you are there and spot me, then please stop me and say ‘hello !’

So without further delay, I’ll get back to the scanner and conjure up some nice new photos for next week.

Cheerio !

Simon

Valentine Tank in Malta

Light Tank MkVIA in North Africa

Churchill Recovery Tank

M4 Sherman with Cullin Device, Normandy

Panzer IV at Speed in Russia

Jagd Tiger in Bovington Tank Museum

Panzer III in North Africa

Stug III in Russia

Sd Kfz 7 Half Track & 105mm Howitzer