Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Sad News Of A Great Wargamer's Passing

Just received the following from another group I belong to

Dear Members,
I received this today From Pat Condrey....

Good evening Pat,
I am sorry to be the bearer of sad news but I have just heard that Don Featherstone passed away. I saw him a few weeks ago for one of his military dining club dinners and he was in good spirits but very frail. Unfortunately he had a fall and was discovered collapsed by a neighbor. He was taken into Southampton hospital and had been there a while but his general conditioned deteriorated. I have no other details only that he died yesterday. As I said I am so sorry to have to give you this news but thought you'd like to know.
I will also tell Duke Seifried and Bob Giglio as I have their email addresses but I would be grateful if you could let others among his many friends in the US know of his passing. He will be sorely missed.
Chris

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Named Regiments Dromonia


Tanker's Tuesday:FCM F1

 The FCM F1 was a  French super-heavy tank developed during the Interbellum by the Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée company. Twelve were ordered in 1940 to replace the Char 2C, but France was defeated before construction could begin, a wooden mock-up being all that was finished. The FCM F1 was large and elongated, and had two turrets: one in front and one in the back, with a single high-velocity gun in each turret. The rear turret was higher so it could shoot over the first one. The vehicle was intended to be heavily armoured. Its size and protection level made it by 1940, at about 140 tons the heaviest tank ever to have actually been ordered for production. Despite two engines its speed would have been low. The primary purpose of the tank was to breach German fortification lines, not to fight enemy tanks. The development path of the FCM F1 was extremely complex, due to the existence of a number of parallel super-heavy tank projects with overlapping design goals, the specifications of which were regularly changed. For each project in turn several companies submitted one or more competing proposals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCM_F1