Move to Melbourne 1. BT-5

Hi All! I am sure you are all wondering why haven't I updated my Factory Blog for such a long time. Sorry to keep you guys waiting. You see, I have faced these situations, 1. IS-2 construction incomplete 2. Move to Melbourne And with that second reason I had to leave all my manufacturing base behind and restart anew over here in Melbourne. Hence retooling and material sourcing has become a major obstacle for me to restart production. However, due to stress of studying (or at least worrying about studies) I have found the need to retool and restart production. This time, I shall start off with early WWII machines first before moving to late WWII juggernaughts. The first machine is (or should have been) an easy machine to craft. It is the BT-5 from the Soviet Union. This machine is the predecessor of the famous (or infamous) T-34 tank (I have made at least 3 of those and posted them onto my blog) and is a usually overlooked tank. The tank originated from the 1928 Christie Tank design, designed by J. Walter Christie as a fast tank which could travel on both Tracks or Wheels, since track technology was very poor in the 1920s-1930s thus the option was available for the tracks to be removed for movement on wheels. The suspension was revolutionary however, with each wheel being independently sprung with a huge coiled spring, allowing for extremely high speed travels up to 70mph while contemporary tanks could only move at an average of 10-20mph. However, the US Army found Christie to be a difficult man to work with, and so they gave up on creating a machine based on the Christie Tank. The Soviet Union on the other hand, was desperate for any kind of tank technology so they bought 2 1928 Christie Tanks out of the USA as 'Tractors' since USA did not recognize the SU. It is funny to note that when Germany was developing their own tanks in the SU (yes they did) they also classed it as 'Tractors' as well since they were banned from owning tanks after WWI. The Soviets went right to work with the Christie tanks and began to improve on it. First was the BT-2, which was a direct copy of the Christie design, then came the BT-5 (showcased below), and lastly the BT-7 with a smoothed front and conical turret. The BT-5 was built in large numbers with its other variants and saw combat in 3 major conflicts. First was the Spanish Civil war when they had far bigger guns than any other tanks sent over to Spain, but was found to have armour which was too thin. It then saw action at the Battle of Khalkin Gol where they were used to great effect to eradicate the Japanese presence from Mongolia (the battle was fought 1 day before the beginning of WWII on August 31st 1939). Lastly at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa they were finally outclassed by the Germans in terms of tactics (the BT-5 at least was faster and had better firepower than the Panzer III with the 37mm gun)

Thanks to the RMIT Old Melbourne Gaol lawn where I took this fantastic photo =D