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Warsaw Pact and Friends, military equipment and media thread part deux.

Rubick

Well-known member
Continuing were I left of on SB.

German MiG-23BN's

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Czechoslovakian Su-7 They had the oddest camo choices.

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An-12's

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Classic Tu-22M's

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A Yugo MiG-21 I think. Partly because if I'm not mistaken The woman was a famous Yugo model.

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Polish made AK pattern rifle grenade launchers.
The first attempt was with rifle grenade.
Karabinek-granatnik_wz.1960.jpg

Locally called the Kbkg wz 1960 it was within a decade replaced with underbarrel grenade launcher the kbkg wz. 1974
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It was a 40mm granade laucher attached to a standard AKM.
Any AK could use this weapon provided you install this forward grip on the rifle.
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The 5,45mm Tantal and the 5,56mm Beryl AK pattern rifles can also use it.
This grenade system remains in service with the Polish army to this day. It will remain there likely till the last AK pattern rifle does.
So for the next 100 years give or take a decade. ;)

Polish service pistols.
P-64
P64.jpg

This simple blowback pistol was developed to use the then-new 9x18mm Makarov round.
It had a 6 round magazine.
While well made and robust the user feedback about heavy trigger-pull and small magazine size as well as high production cost give birth to new pistol:
P-83
Pistol_P83.jpg

Also a blowback pistol in 9x18mm Makarov.
Cheap reliable no thrill weapon. Currently in process of being phased out.
Funny enough this weapon outlived two of its would-be replacements. It is currently slowly being replaced by license made Walther P-99.



Lim 6 Bis.

This plane has a very simple story. Polish AF wanted a ground attack aircraft. So in the 1960s, they tested what they had in their inventory. MiG-21 Su-7 and MiG-17.
Turns out MiG-17 lowest speed made it the most accurate ground attack platform (duh).

So the later model MiG-17 that were produced in Poland under license as Lim-6 got a second pair of hardpoints and a landing parachute and rudimentary today but back then pretty advance all weather system. The plane was called Lim-6bis.


First deliveries of Lim-6bis stated in 1963. Later in 1970's when the usefulness of MiG-17 platform as a fighter became insufficient all remaining Lim-5 and 6 were converted to Lim-6Bis standard. There was also a recon version with an added camera.
The last were removed from service in 1992
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On a personal note as a young boy one of those flown over my head. I remember how archaic it looked.

Lim is short for Licencyjny myśliwiec eng licensed fighter.
Lim-1 was the MiG-15
Lim-2 was the MiG-15bis
Lim-5 was the MiG-17
There was no Lim 3 and 4.

And just for shits and giggles.
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A picture of SKOT-2 armored personnel carrier.
Pictured made during Polish Martial Law.
The vehicle stands in front of "Moscow" cinema in Warsaw. The billboard on it says "Apocalypse Now" a movie by Francis Ford Coppola.
 
Polish made AK pattern rifle grenade launchers.
The first attempt was with rifle grenade.
Karabinek-granatnik_wz.1960.jpg

Locally called the Kbkg wz 1960 it was within a decade replaced with underbarrel grenade launcher the kbkg wz. 1974

"The RiotBreaker"

From my part

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"Where military starts . . ."

(pay attention to these figures, sculptor have had a real sense of humor)

Sadly someone carefully edited out all avaibale photos of the reliefs on campus buildings due to the very specific undertones (Polish Soldier produly defending with bayonet The Country, supported by gifts giving Female Peasant and Male Worker, for example).
There was also the military park full of real pieces of military hardware (including aircraft), but it was dismantled, becouse they were "communist". The same fate have befalen the Seal on the departament's entrence.
 
A nice video about SKOT 64 inside and out. (Subtitles available)



Makes the BTR-60 and 70 really look fucking archaic for their time.


Czechoslovakians were always known for quality of their defense industry, I guess that cames with the fact that they were not twice thoughtly ploughed during World War II.
 
Czechoslovakians were always known for quality of their defense industry, I guess that cames with the fact that they were not twice thoughtly ploughed during World War II.
That is not it.
The reason is that the areas that ended up in the current Czech Republic were the industrial center of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

A nice video about SKOT 64 inside and out.

Makes the BTR-60 and 70 really look fucking archaic for their time.
I hated that thing, it stunk of lead paint. Brokedown constantly. One time it manage a stagering 300m from fully functional to dead stop in the middle of a village where it and we ended up being the town's attraction. Another time it stopped in the middle of the tracks, we managed to tow it of them just minutes before an passenger train blast pass the crossing. We bent the tow bar into a modern art masterpiece. Oh and in the garage the thing had to be stood up on blocks. Not because there was anything wrong with the tires. No the thing had a central tire inflation system. The said system was out of pressure within days.
In its defense, I can say it was 39 years old at the time I got to play with it.
 
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That is not it.
The reason is that the areas that ended up in the current Czech Republic were the industrial center of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

So exactly as I have said.

Besides, time for some educational films



Motorised infantry platoon in attack.



"OP. OCEAN"



Warsaw Pact military exercises from 1972, fighting for the peace and prosperity of the future generations.

Now fromt the other side of the Iron Curtain, appropriated training materials of NATO.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBPVfDFHzQY&list=PL_ZCBIcijUcCcW30ikS3rorU8t8pJexgu&index=16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVCMnLQ4-ZE&list=PL_ZCBIcijUcCcW30ikS3rorU8t8pJexgu&index=4
 
I hated that thing, it stunk of lead paint. Brokedown constantly. One time it manage a stagering 300m from fully functional to dead stop in the middle of a village where it and we ended up being the town's attraction. Another time it stopped in the middle of the tracks, we managed to tow it of them just minutes before an passenger train blast pass the crossing. We bent the tow bar into a modern art masterpiece. Oh and in the garage the thing had to be stood up on blocks. Not because there was anything wrong with the tires. No the thing had a central tire inflation system. The said system was out of pressure within days.
In its defense, I can say it was 39 years old at the time I got to play with it.


Was it just wear and tear. Or it was always problematic ?


Anyway, Skoda's 130mm Anti-Aircraft gun project R-14


Was Czechoslovakia analogue to 130mm AA KS-20. However KS-30 was already in production when the R-14 was just about ready for first prototype. That and it wasn't all out superior system. Due to a autoloader it had slightly higher rate of fire and was fire a heavier shell. On the other hand had lesser range and was heavier by almost 3 ton's

First draft on paper

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Final draft in life-size mockup

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Was it just wear and tear. Or it was always problematic ?
I cannot comment on always, out of vehicles we had it was the only one of that age. We had few older vehicles, but the rest was a decade newer than it. Most of the SKOT(Polish name for the OT-64) were gone or being modernized to become battlefield ambulances. Our was the command car.
The problem with the thing as I saw it was that while everything else had electric systems, SKOT was mostly pneumatic. The starter motor was pneumatic. The screws in the back were pneumatic, even what little electric systems it had were operated by pneumatic actuators. You couldn't just drive up to it with starter cables. You would need a compressor. And the arcane knowledge, no one seemed to have, where to connect it.

However, SKOT were mostly phased out of service before 1989, they have been replaced with BMP-1(a vehicle that I have nothing but good things to say about). So SKOT was by my time an odd duck in our army. The only thing that shared its chassis, still in service, was the DANA howitzer and the RM-70 rocket launcher. And our particular unit didn't have those.

So wear and tear, was just a part of it, it being an 'exotic' design was the bigger problem.
 
On 28.11.1957 ORP Kaszub, a coastal submarine of M-XV type(read as M-Fifteen in Roman numerals, to my knowledge this type never got a NATO code name) due to a navigational mishap in a heavy sea state ran aground.
As the ship began listing the commanding officer por. mar. Rajmund Pająkowski fearing the flooding of the battery compartment gave the order to abandon ship. 4 men lost their lives in the heavy sea.

The following image set is of the salvage operation.
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ORP Kaszub was laid down on 10.11.1951 in Ship Yard nr 196 "SUDOMECH" launched on 27.04.1952 commissioned in the Soviet Baltic Fleet as M-290 on 30.09.1952.
Transferred to the Polish Navy.
The ceremony of hoisting the Polish Naval Ensign happened on 24.05.1954.
Kaszub was removed from Polish Fleet Registry in December 1962.

The relatively short service life of the ship and the type was due to changing tactical demands. The small coastal submarines were replaced by units capable of oceanic voyages. The six M-XV subs were replaced by 4 Project 613 submarines.



Could you elaborate?
sure

BMP-1 was a comfortable ride, it was well insulated so it was cool in summer and warm in winter, it had a low silhouette so the hole you needed to dig for it was not that deep. It had great performance, it was leaving the MT-LBs in the dust.
The engine compartment was spacious so maintaining it was not a contortionist act. The gun was satisfying to fire, they didn't let me fire the guided missile (sad face) The PKT was not that much of a hustle as the KPVT that the SKOT and the BRDM-2 had. ( @Rubick will know what I'm talking about. I know you like the BRDM-2 but even you have to agree to put that thing in the turret was a hustle) and the thing never failed us. And when it did it was always the driver error.

Plus, some people were hiding alcohol in the radiator, some very rude people. People that never shared any.

So BMP-1 or how we called it BWP-1 was a fun thing to work with.
 
LWP uniform patterns over the years.
Wz.43 It is basically the Soviet Army Uniform with a diffrent hat and rank distinctions
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It is not a camo pattern really, just a plain color uniform.

Wz.58 "Deszczyk" (rain)
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A similar camo pattern was used in Czechoslovak and Republic of Germany uniforms.
EDIT: After reading up on the topic, the Germans were the ones to come up with this pattern. Poland Czechoslovakia and I believe Bulgaria just copied it.
As a bit of semi-interesting trivia. East German surplus uniforms found their way to Yugoslavia and Angola and were used by troops in combat. Usually irregulars.

wz. 68 "Moro"
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Personally my favorite camo pattern, and I guess I am not alone in that as the word "Moro" is colloquially used to mean "camo pattern" to this day in Poland.
Plus it was great winter uniform. It had a fur collar and thick underpin. It was replaced in 1989 by:



wz. 89 "Puma"
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The last of the WarPact era uniforms. Replaced officially in 1993 but it was made in such quantities it was still in widespread use by 2010s.
 
Squads of soldiers, each from the different Warsaw Pact nations.
 

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Soviet Marines on parade.
 

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