NATO days in Ostrava & Czech air force days

The Military Historical Institute will again bring one of the jewels of heavy armoured vehicles of the WW2 to the Mošnov airfield. A Soviet IS-2 tank will be presented at a dynamic display, a tank which was deployed in 1944 to counter German Panther and Tiger tanks.

“We are cheerful thanks to the participation of IS-2 tank from the Military Historical Institute (VHU), because displays of the historic vehicles are always very attractive for our visitors. We have mostly modern vehicles at our show, however even the historic ones have something to offer to the visitors. They also can help us remember our history, in which the IS-2 tanks played their role in heavy fighting at the Eastern front of the Second World War,” Zbyněk Pavlačík, the chairman of the Jagello 2000 Association, which organizes NATO Days in Ostrava, commented the participation of the IS-2 heavy tank.

CHANGE: From technical reasons the originally planned heavy WW2-era IS-2 tank is not going to appear at Mošnov airfield in weekend of September 22-23. The Czechoslovak LT-38 light tank, which was at NATO Day in 2004 already, is going to present itself instead. VHU is going to present LT-38 tank instead of the IS-2 (14 Sept, 2012)

The IS-2 tank is based on experience of Soviet tank units from the Battle of Kursk, when a need for heavy tanks with massive cannon for destroying German heavy tanks rose up. Thick armour to withstand German 88mm flak guns was needed too. The IS-2 tank, weighting 46 tons, is equipped with 122mm cannon, whose massive firepower made the tank suitable for use as a break-through tank in the most important offensive sectors. With more than 3,800 made it is the most widespread heavy tank of the WW2. The name IS is a shortcut for Iosif Stalin.

It is interesting that even though these tanks were not in arsenal of the Czechoslovak units, eight IS-2 tanks were transferred to the 1^st Czechoslovak Independent Tank Brigade in the Soviet Union right after the war ended. These eight tanks then appeared on a ceremonial parade of the Czechoslovak units in Prague, which took place on May 17, 1945.

One of them has found its way to the collections of the Military Historical Institute Prague, where it has been repaired, and it can present itself at NATO Days in Ostrava in September. Another well known IS-2 tank is a so called pink tank, which was painted pink by a Czech artist David Černý in 1991, and then it was put back to the original state and after that it has been painted again by a group of members of parliament. This pink tank now resides also in the Military Technical Museum in Lešany.

VHU continues with presenting jewels of its unique collection of heavies. It follows previous years of NATO Days in Ostrava, when last year the visitors could see a dynamic display of an American WW2 M-36 Jackson tank destroyed, then in 2010 a display of German Leopard 1 tank from the after WW2 period or in 2007 they could see a display of Israeli Merkava I tank, which is the only of its kind in expositions outside Israel.

See you at 12^th NATO Days in Ostrava, 3^rd Czech Air Force Days,
and the FLYIN 2012 Exhibition!

The General Partner of NATO Days in Ostrava & Czech Air Force Days is the company

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