Free Republic

The Pensioner Who Hid a WWII Panther Tank in his Basement Collecting war memorabilia is nothing uncommon, but rare are the people that have collections as impressive as the elderly German gentleman we are going to talk about today. Under German privacy laws, his identity was kept a secret, being dubbed as Klaus-Dieter F. Klaus was a millionaire and he loved collecting Nazi Germany memorabilia. Guns, uniforms, medals, the things in his collection grew in both number and size and included things like torpedoes, 8.8cm flak cannon and, as a crown jewel of his collection, a partially functional demilitarised PzKpfw...

General Dynamics Land Systems has officially unveiled its AbramsX future main battle tank concept in the flesh — or should we say in the steel. Earlier this week we wrote up the latest on the feature-packed M1 Abrams evolution, but now we get to see the actual hardware ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army's big conference in Washington, D.C., this week

I think that I'd have to be an active duty Ukrainian soldier or ally to truly appreciate the humor of this video. I know that these ppl are fighting and dying for their families and countrymen so the humor factor is not all there for me. I couldn't imagine being inside that tank or outside on the offensive. War is hell. But I'm posting anyway. :O)

For the first time since the Cold War, the U.S. Army is set to acquire and field a new light tank. The service announced today that General Dynamics Land Systems has won its Mobile Protected Firepower program competition and has been awarded a contract worth up to $1.14 billion. The initial Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) contract award will cover an initial low-rate production order of 96 vehicles. The Army expects to take delivery of the first examples, from an initial lot of 26 MPFs, in December 2023 and have its first unit fully equipped with them by 2025. The service...

Former President Barack Obama has made an unusual request to install a massive 2,500 gallon commercial-grade propane tank at his Martha’s Vineyard estate, according to reports. The cost of installing the large tank and filling it with gas could reportedly cost up to $75,000.

In yet another harsh crackdown over Tiananmen Square massacre, China seems to have silenced a popular blogger. The personality had just livestreamed footage of a cake, which was shaped like a tank. The incident happened just before the anniversary of the massacre on June 4. The issue has sparked debate among tens of millions of young fans. But even discussion about the 1989 crackdown is forbidden on the mainland. In the massacre, China had set troops and tanks on peaceful protesters at Tiananmen Square. This blogger is Li Jiaqi, who is now a household name in China. Li was born...

Russian tanks with their tops blown off are just the latest sign that Russia's invasion of Ukraine isn't going to plan. Hundreds of Russian tanks are thought to have been destroyed since Moscow launched its offensive, with British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace on Monday estimating it had lost as many as 580. But Moscow's problems go beyond the sheer number of tanks it has lost. Experts say battlefield images show Russian tanks are suffering from a defect that Western militaries have known about for decades and refer to as the "jack-in-the-box effect." Moscow, they say, should have seen the problem...

Chances are your local news affiliate has already reported on it happening in your neighborhood: criminals drilling into and draining gas tanks to steal the sweet, expensive nectar inside, leaving their victims with not only no fuel but also a hefty repair bill. It happened to one Pennsylvania woman, who said the thief stole the gas right out of her Nissan Rogue as it sat parked outside her home. There are similar stories coming out of California, too, and Missouri, and Wisconsin.

Drone footage recorded in the area of Bovary located northeast of Kyiv shows an NLAW initiated point blank ambush on a Russian tank unit in the middle of a road.From the footage it seems a Ukrainian forward infantry element took position in and around the wood left west of the Russian armor column and started to engage the vehicles from close range with anti-tank weapons such as the NLAW, some RPG variants and small arms fire.Russian forces reacted with counterfire from their tanks and infantry fighting vehicles and quickly began to disperse after the first shoots.The ambush occured on the...

Everyday bravery is on display in Ukraine as powerful video harkening back to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests shows Ukrainians trying to stop Russian tanks with only their bodies. Video filmed in the northeastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmach shows unnamed men confronting a line of invading Russian tanks.

A video which apparently shows a Ukrainian man attempting to block a Russian military convoy has gone viral online, with comparisons being drawn to the “tank man” of Tiananmen Square.

U.S. stock markets opened sharply lower Friday morning as investors grappled with the fears of a new Covid variant found in South Africa but now spreading to Asia and Europe. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by as much as 890 points, or around 2.5 percent, after the opening bell. The S&P 500 tumbled 1.9 percent and the Nasdaq Composite slipped by 1.4 percent. The small-cap Russell 2000 sank 3.25 percent.

An 84-year old German man has been fined 250,000 euros ($297,000 USD) for storing a collecting of World War II-era weapons in his basement, including a 45-ton Nazi tank, according to German media reports. The court in Kiel, Germany convicted the man under the country’s War Weapons Control Act after a search of the octogenarian’s home resulted in the discovery of a large collection of wartime military weapons stored in his underground garage, including the Panther tank, a torpedo, mortars, anti-aircraft guns, machine guns, automatic pistols and 1,500 rounds of ammunition, the Register reported. The defendant, whose name was kept...

An elderly German man is facing a suspended prison sentence for storing a WWII tank, anti-aircraft gun and torpedo in his basement. The case is moving through a German court, after Germany's army was called in to remove the tank and other weaponry from the 84-year-old's home in 2015. According to man's lawyer, a US museum is keen to buy the 1943 Panther tank, which weighs 50,000 kilograms and measures 6.7 metres long. Authorities were alerted to the remarkable collection after the home in the wealthy town of Heikendorf, a suburb of Kiel, was searched during an investigation into stolen...

This 1941 M3 Stuart tank is a riveted-hull light tank that was produced in November 1941 and reportedly sent to Australia for training purposes until 1946. It remained in the country until it was acquired by the current owner in 2018 and reimported to the US. The tank is powered by a replacement gasoline-powered 668ci Continental W-670 seven-cylinder radial engine that sends power to the tracks via a four-speed manual transmission. Equipment includes a manually rotating turret, a de-milled M22 gun with a shoulder mount, a Mark 19 radio set, and canvas seatbacks. The fuel lines and filters were replaced...

This 1941 M3 Stuart tank is a riveted-hull light tank that was produced in November 1941 and reportedly sent to Australia for training purposes until 1946. It remained in the country until it was acquired by the current owner in 2018 and reimported to the US. The tank is powered by a replacement gasoline-powered 668ci Continental W-670 seven-cylinder radial engine that sends power to the tracks via a four-speed manual transmission. Equipment includes a manually rotating turret, a de-milled M22 gun with a shoulder mount, a Mark 19 radio set, and canvas seatbacks. The fuel lines and filters were replaced...

A water tank exploded in a Central Valley community, lifting 70 feet into the air, killing a man and prompting a state of emergency in the city of Lemoore this week. The incident was captured on astonishing surveillance video. When the 1.5 million-gallon city water tank ruptured Monday afternoon, the massive container flew into the air, then crumpled on impact, authorities said. City officials released new footage Tuesday night that captured the moment the tank exploded, hurting a city employee and killing a contractor.

House conservatives successfully derailed two bills that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attempted to fast-track through the lower chamber of the U.S. Congress on Tuesday evening, a victory the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus told Breitbart News was “stunning.” “That’s stunning,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), the House Freedom Caucus chairman, said in a phone interview on Wednesday.

A pink tank quickly became the star of the Czech weapons amnesty program. (Photo Credit: PolicieCZ / Twitter) When police in the Czech Republic used a tank in their ad to promote weapons amnesty, they didn’t realize someone would take it so seriously. The Czech weapons amnesty program is designed to help people who own weapons but not the required paperwork to bring those weapons in and have the police help them obtain the proper documentation so they can keep those weapons legally. Weapons that are known to have been used in a crime are not eligible for the program....

There is a myriad of excellent tanks that have been built since the first British MkI rolled across the battlefields of Western Europe during the First World War. However, for every T-34, Leopard and M1 Abrams, there are tanks that rightfully belong on the scrap heap of history – yet instead of rusting away from memory, we should use these as examples of everything that went wrong. While I am sure many can make different choices based on a whole host of different factors, here are my picks for the five worst tanks ever.