Comments on: Praga Export Tanks – Part II: LLT

By: Praga Export Tanks – Part III: LTS, LT Vz.40 | For the Record

Praga Export Tanks – Part III: LTS, LT Vz.40 | For the Record — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 14:02:45 +0000

[…] today, we are going to talk about what happened to the 21 LLT tanks, produced for Lithuania, but never delivered. If you are interested in that story, please get back to part 2 of the series. […]

By: Alexander Fransen

Alexander Fransen — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 16:02:25 +0000

.
Well good analysis mecha_bill, but you forget an important point: The germans knew that France expected the germans to attack through the Netherlands and then Belgium. For this reason they sent troops to the Belgium/Dutch border.

The German trick was, that the attack on Belgium and Netherlands was a fake, a feint. The real attack was through Luxembourg/ardennes, cutting the BEF and elite french off of their main force, ultimately ending in UK troops barely fleeing Dunkirk.

By: mecha_bill

mecha_bill — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 03:03:58 +0000

France had suffered 1.4M casualties, or 4.5%, in WWI. Germany had suffered more losses, but due to a higher base population, only lost around 3.8%. In addition, birth rates were higher in Germany and they were well on the way to overpopulation (hence the rationale of “lebensraum”).
(See http://www.voxeu.org/article/demographic-consequence-first-world-war for details).

For these reasons, France was gripped by a defensive mentality. Shocked by the horror of WWI, France could not commit to an offensive mindset. Hence the Maginot line. Hence the Char IB and other heavily armoured but slow french tanks.

Given the political and social environment, the construction of the Maginot Line was not especially “stupid”, nor was leaving the Belgian border open since the Belgians had their own defences (eg. Eben-Emael) and the best units of the French army were ready to move in.

The main mistakes that were made were (in my opinion):
1) thinking that the Ardennes forest was impenetrable to large numbers of mechanized troops
2) refusal of the Belgians to allow the allies to preposition themselves in Belgium
3) splitting their armoured divisions into small “penny packets” rather than concentrating them for a decisive counterattack.

By: Alexander Fransen

Alexander Fransen — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 00:21:48 +0000

afaik CZ had their own “maginot line”. So the tactics weren’t too modern probably.

By: rabiesdog

rabiesdog — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 22:25:26 +0000

Most military prcurement is hell and riddled with conficting requirements

By: Abrieduks

Abrieduks — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 20:53:30 +0000

This is so “overrated” ouh look im CZ im da best :D, shit is shit and you cant do it better, i understand why WG dont making “CZ” tree for SS :D

By: Nagas

Nagas — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 19:09:00 +0000

I knew from history lessons that Lithuania was going to acquire some tanks before ww2, but did not knew that it was such a mess. From your articles it looks like we were picky bitches :) or maybe it’s normal in arms business because of money? I don’t know, but it sure is complicated story.

By: LatvianTroll

LatvianTroll — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 18:18:07 +0000

No trolling here dude .

By: nixxxie

nixxxie — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 18:05:27 +0000

And that’s basically what happens now in Ukraine :( …

By: nixxxie

nixxxie — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 18:02:50 +0000

I can’t find any technical info on that engine whatsoever :( (pics, at least). I’m not that surprised, though. And if it’s as you say, V4 than it’s even easier to imagine and doesn’t need any special tech ;) .
Still, power output would be severely reduced, and that one is obvious.

That’s why i think that you either misunderstood or overestimated some info from your sources, or CZ pulled some marketing trick on their LT customers ;) and they put too much value to it.