Quote from: Wardukw-NZ on March 03, 2023, 11:37:30 AMI'm wondering how long it will be before we see the ol T-55 make an appearance...because the way its going and how desperately tanks are needed by the russians ya just never know.

This week, apparently.  Which is about three weeks from when you asked Dukwy

Quote from: scooter on March 25, 2023, 05:05:30 AM

Quote from: Wardukw-NZ on March 03, 2023, 11:37:30 AMI'm wondering how long it will be before we see the ol T-55 make an appearance...because the way its going and how desperately tanks are needed by the russians ya just never know.

This week, apparently.  Which is about three weeks from when you asked Dukwy

Scooter matey that's what I've seen too..refurbished T-62s being used for a few weeks now and the 55 is on the way too.
That's desperate to the extreme 😳.

Quote from: Wardukw-NZ on March 25, 2023, 08:52:25 AM

Quote from: scooter on March 25, 2023, 05:05:30 AM

Quote from: Wardukw-NZ on March 03, 2023, 11:37:30 AMI'm wondering how long it will be before we see the ol T-55 make an appearance...because the way its going and how desperately tanks are needed by the russians ya just never know.

This week, apparently.  Which is about three weeks from when you asked Dukwy

Scooter matey that's what I've seen too..refurbished T-62s being used for a few weeks now and the 55 is on the way too.
That's desperate to the extreme 😳.

Read here for more information.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/signs-point-to-russia-sending-ancient-t-54-series-of-tanks-to-ukraine
When it comes to reading about current events with the war in Ukraine or other military matters and issues, I tend to follow the website The War Zone.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone

I saw a news report where the Ukrainians were dug in, using Morse signalling and a Maxim gun.

I've still got some pretty good contacts from my military days and it's not abnormal for us to have a good yap over this conflict..there's no doubting it's a good site Seadude mate but even they don't have all the info..not saying my buds do either 

Mossie if you look deeper you'll find a lot more than just the Maxim guns..you'll find WW2 DP machine guns with Eotech sites  . BARs..Mosin Nagants..PPSH smgs ..39s and 41s.
It's a come one come all sort of deal and if it still works then it can still work .
Ammo for the DP and Maxim ..also the Nagants is still widely used as it's 7.62 X 54R ..the R means rimmed ..there's a rim at the bottom of the shell case..it don't mean russian which some ppl thinks it does.
That rd is over 100 yrs old now but still used with the PK series of machine guns and SVD sniper rifles.

If it chucks lead it's lethal I guess.  Many modern guns are not far removed from WWII weapons.  I can imagine Morse signalling still has some operational use, low power and bandwidth requirements, resistant to jamming(?), easy to prearrange simple signals without needing to encrypt.

Quote from: Mossie on March 25, 2023, 10:54:03 AMIf it chucks lead it's lethal I guess.  Many modern guns are not far removed from WWII weapons.  I can imagine Morse signalling still has some operational use, low power and bandwidth requirements, resistant to jamming(?), easy to prearrange simple signals without needing to encrypt.

Plus you can use any light source with an on/off switch, or in daylight - heliographs. 

Never mind the T-55's and T-54's, I have seen pictures of T-34/85's on trains heading to who knows where and one picture of some getting blessed by a priest as well.

Gondor

I know for sure that one T-35/85 was used by the Ukrainians but it didn't fire a shot..it was used as a diversion to make russian troops go off towards another direction..towards a trap as it turned out and it turned out pretty good good for the Ukraine.

As for its use..the ammo should still be out there as the 85mm gun is the same one used by the M1939 85mm AA gun which russian reserve units still use.
As for combat..it would utterly useless ..maybe at a guard station or as a static defense but on a modern battlefield it would be cannon fodder.

The Morse code thing is brilliant..like Scotaidh said..you can use anything reflective..a watch face and sun..touch/flashlight..anything with a off and on switch.. ya can't block it and if your sending it via a touch backwards away from the enemy and not receiving the bad guys can't see or hear a thing.
The only annoying thing about a light is line of sight ..if ya loose that..you loose contact..but I'm sure the guys know that 😏

If you are defending a dug-in position, then a Maxim gun is still relevant. It's cumbersome, heavy, and the mount is too tall, none of which really matter in a static defense (when you can dig the mount in ground), in fact, the weight only makes it more accurate due to being less affected by recoil. Rate of fire is comparable to PK series, also Maxim was designed for sustained fire. Firing outside of prepared positions however it has been surpassed long ago (even by the ancient DP), but even then a clumsy machine gun is better than no machine gun just as long as the cartridge works (Russian body armour is supposed to withstand 3 rounds of 7,62x54R... of course this is in the fictional world where troops were actually equipped with it, probably the same fantasy world where T-14 and Su-57 are being mass produced).

Using a T-54 or T-55 without some serious modifications is not a good idea however, considering that T-90's with Relikt reactive armour, Shtora IR jammer and Arena hard-kill countermeasures have been defeated by Javelins and NLAW's. Just about any handheld anti-tank weapon today can achieve frontal penetration on the poor T-54, even the upgraded models, plus the sensor suite is still 30+ years old at best, 40+ years old at worst. I find it implausible that back when they were a third-line last-measure reserve tank they would have been upgraded much further, or that the Russian tank industry that's currently struggling to produce 250 T-72B3/T-90M tanks a year would somehow be magically able to refurbish hundreds of older tanks at the same time.

Claiming (as some commentators do) it's more "economical" to feed these old tanks to modern anti-tank weapons rather than activating T-80's from the reserves is downright silly. Rather, this just proves that the thousands upon thousands of T-80's and T-72's in open-air storage could not be activated in time (if at all). If the tank cannot fight effectively, then it's not achieving its objectives and will just end up killing its crew, and experienced tank crews is what the Russian army is currently having shortage of. Using them for rear-area security does not make much sense either, if the Ukrainian partisans have anti-tank weapons, then the T-54's are just as outdated as they would be on the frontline, and if there is no threat of anti-tank weapons, then an armoured car would be a much more suitable choice (not to mention much less taxing on the already overstreched logistics).

In a defensive, sustained fire role the old water-cooled machine-guns are far superior to any air-cooled machine-gun because they can just keep on firing for thousands of rounds without overheating the barrel, as long as there's a water source (urine was used by the 8th Army in North Africa quite often, drink the water & recycle it for MG coolant).

Quote from: Mossie on March 25, 2023, 10:54:03 AMIf it chucks lead it's lethal I guess.  Many modern guns are not far removed from WWII weapons.  I can imagine Morse signalling still has some operational use, low power and bandwidth requirements, resistant to jamming(?), easy to prearrange simple signals without needing to encrypt.

Agreed. When I was playing at soldiers (mid to late 80s)  we were  still using the BREN . Rechambered to fire the NAT0 7.62mm x 51 round . It may have been old but, it was a good, solid, durable and reliable weapon . Every bit as lethal to those on the recieving end as any more modern machine gun. As an NCO, my personal weapon was a Sterling L2A3 - a weapon originally of 1944 vintage. Probably shouldn't be saying such things but, I was rather fond of it! Compact, light, simple and reliable. Great fun firing on full automatic! . Of course, unlike movie machine guns, a 34 round magazine does run out of bullets pretty quickly.

BBC has an oft repeated  series on at the moment about the development of weaponry from 1066 through to 1918 and has shown the preview clip of the famous sustained fire test of a Vickers MG when it just kept going (some say for 48 hours others for a week) and the only modification was the need to add an extra crewman to shovel up the spent cartridges. 

Quote from: Beermonster58 on March 26, 2023, 12:10:14 AMAgreed. When I was playing at soldiers (mid to late 80s)  we were  still using the BREN . Rechambered to fire the NAT0 7.62mm x 51 round . It may have been old but, it was a good, solid, durable and reliable weapon . Every bit as lethal to those on the recieving end as any more modern machine gun.

Absolutely! I loved the BRENs we had in the CCF, so much so that a buddy of mine and I won a couple of competitions with ours. 

I surprised even myself by still being able to strip one that was being demo'd by a group of re-enactors at  RIAT show on year. 

Quote from: NARSES2 on March 26, 2023, 05:27:37 AMBBC has an oft repeated  series on at the moment about the development of weaponry from 1066 through to 1918 and has shown the preview clip of the famous sustained fire test of a Vickers MG when it just kept going (some say for 48 hours others for a week) and the only modification was the need to add an extra crewman to shovel up the spent cartridges. 

In a lecture  I went to by Andy Robertshaw (National Army Museum) his version of this story was that the trial started on  Monday morning and  finished on the Friday afternoon.  The gun would have kept going  much longer, but everyone wanted to get away for the weekend.