Meet the Team

Tank Encyclopedia was launched on December 4th, 2011. It was the brainchild of David Bocquelet, who initiated the website as an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) testbench and a place for his beautifully detailed illustrations. David worked alone on the website for quite some time, writing and illustrating most of our earlier articles. He was soon joined by more team members and, since 2011, the Tank Encyclopedia has grown to approximately 40 members of multiple nationalities.

This page will serve as your guide to the people behind the scenes at your favorite armored history website, from Writers and Illustrators to Researchers and 3D-Modelers. A few of our members have also given interviews about themselves to Mr. Alatabi, which will be published here as well.

David Bocquelet

The Creator

David, from France, started Tank Encyclopedia in 2011, and is still an active contributor. His first post was on December 10th, and was an article on the WW2 Polish TK-3 Tankette. As well as being the creator of the website, David is also our most prolific Illustrator. 80% of Tank Encyclopedia’s articles have an illustration created by him. David does not just illustrate AFVs, as he also maintains Naval Encyclopedia. A webmaster and graphic illustrator, you can find is website on dbodesign.com
David’s articles are mostly found HERE.
Artworks under the name ‘TheCollectioner’ could be found on his online shop


Writers & Editors

Writers represent the backbone of Tank Encyclopedia, constantly researching and writing new articles for publications. Editors are responsible for making sure that said articles are in good shape and ready to be published by reviewing content, grammar, and spelling.

Andrew Hills

Writer & Editor

Andrew Hills is from the UK, but currently lives in the USA. He joined Tank Encyclopedia in March 2016, his first article was on Zimmerit in German Use. He is our resident WW1 and 2 Italian expert, but his knowledge and source library encompasses a large palette. Andrew recently had his first book published ‘The Tanks of TOG‘, the definitive guide to the famous TOG tanks and runs; FWD Publishing, a private military publishing company. He is currently working on several more tank books.

You can read Andrew’s articles HERE.

Websites

Andrew Hills also has a Youtube channel called ‘FWD Publishing‘ where he posts historical tank films.


Craig ‘Tank Hunter’ Moore

Writer & Editor

Author Craig Moore has written many varied articles for Tanks Encyclopedia. He has his own full page column in the monthly ‘Classic Military Vehicle’ Magazine for which he also regularly writes five page articles on armored vehicles. Craig also writes articles for the ‘Britain at War’ and ‘History of War’ magazines. He has had an interest in military history since childhood. Eight of his close relatives fought in both world wars: only six survived. One of his uncles lost a leg when his Sherman tank was hit during Operation Totalize in 1944. In 2017 he was part of the team that recovered a buried British WW2 Covenanter tank from a Vineyard in Surrey. Craig lives in London but visits tank museums, military vehicle restoration workshops and archives around the world. You can find his tank books for sale on Amazon.

His first article was about the WW2 10.5cm leFH 18 (Sf.) auf Geschutzwagen 39H(f) SPG. Craig is our resident WWI and German WW2 SPG specialist. As an Editor, he makes sure that articles are ready to featured on the website. He has good experience in this field as he is also a published author. In 2017, Craig’s first book, ‘Tank Hunter: World War One‘ was published.

You can read Craig’s articles HERE.

Websites

Craig Moore manages a Facebook research group: WW1 Tank Hunter, and has his own website: tank-hunter.com
Craig has also done a ‘Top 5 Tanks’ video for the Tank Museum’s YouTube channel. You can watch that HERE.


Will Kerrs

Writer & Assistant Editor

Will is from the United Kingdom and joined Tank Encylopedia in March 2015, being one of the first members to join. Will has a formal education in history, and is eventually working towards a PhD. He is the resident Chinese pre-1950 and Spanish Civil War expert, and also speaks Spanish. To this end, his favorite article that he has written is the Panzer I Breda.

You can read Will’s articles HERE.

Websites

Will Kerrs also manages two Facebook research groups: Chinese Civil War Vehicles – Tanks, Armoured Cars, Aircraft and Spanish Civil War Vehicles – Tanks, armoured cars, and aircraft.


Dr. Dewald Venter

Writer & Assistant Editor

Dewald is from South Africa and has a PhD in Tourism Management. He is a senior lecturer in the tourism field and has a research focus in military heritage tourism. He works closely with the South African Armor Corps and is our in-house expert on South African military vehicles. His first article was on the Ratel ICV which was published in January 2017. He is currently working on a book titled “South African Armoured Vehicles: A history of innovation and excellence” due for release by Helion & Company as part of its @War series during the last quarter of 2020. He is also a contributing author for “Ratel: The making of a legend”  which was released in June 2020.

You can read Dewald’s articles HERE.

Websites

Dewald Venter managed two Facebook research groups: SA Armour Museum and South African Defence Industry & Military Related.


Gareth Lynn Montes

Writer & Editor

Gareth has been interested in tanks from a very young age and joined Tank Encyclopedia in January 2017. He is from Spain, but currently lives in the UK. His first article was The Swedish Königstiger. Gareth has a degree in International Relations and Modern History and is currently a postgraduate student. Gareth’s main area of specialty is the Spanish Civil War, but also researches and writes about conflicts and tank warfare in Latin America and Africa. Gareth is also one of our Librarians, in charge of our vast collection of tank literature.

You can read Gareth’s articles HERE.


Ed Francis

Writer

Ed is from the United Kingdom and volunteers at the Tank Museum, Bovington. Ed specialises in Cold War British armour and prototypes. Ed is currently working on several book projects, and is also a researcher for some of the world’s formost authors of armoured vehicle history. Ed joined the Tanks Encyclopedia team in 2016, and his first article was published the same year, focused on the Czech PM-1 Flame Tank.

You can read Ed’s articles HERE.


Harold Biondo

Writer

Harold is from the state of Pennsylvania in the United States, he was brought on board Tanks Encyclopedia in mid-2016. Harold is an independent contractor currently working as a researcher at the US National Archives, and in his spare time is working on an exhaustive history of the Panther tank and its derivatives. He is knowledgeable in all areas of tank study but specializes in the military vehicles of Germany, particularly during the Nazi period, and in American vehicles of the early Cold War. He prides himself on the thoroughness of his articles, and holds the Tanks Encyclopedia record for the longest article.

You can read Harold’s articles HERE.


Adam Pawley

Writer

Adam, from the UK, once served in an infantry battalion of the British Army Reserve. He now works in the construction industry and lives near Bovington. Adam is our resident M4 Sherman expert. His first article with us was on the M4A3E2 ‘Jumbo’.

You can read Adam’s articles HERE.

Websites

Adam Pawley manages a Facebook research group: The Medium Tank M4 (Sherman) Group.


Mark Nash

Writer

Mark Nash, from the UK, joined the Encyclopedia in August 2016. His first article was on the Soviet Object 416. Mark has had an interest in AFVs since a young age. This is thanks, in no small part, to his father’s interest in general history, and his Grandfather’s participation in WW2, in NW Europe, as a 17-Pounder Anti-Tank Gunner in the 20th Anti-Tank Rgt. Mark has no specialization field but enjoys studying history’s stranger vehicles. As of 2017, Mark is also a freelance writer for the UK based ‘Classic Military Vehicle’ Magazine with around 7 articles printed so far.

You can read Mark’s articles HERE.

Websites

Mark Nash is an avid amateur photographer. He displays his work on 500px.com.
Mark Nash is a Numismatist (coin collector), and runs the Facebook page ‘Dated Dosh‘.


Australia

Thomas Anderson

Writer & Comment Moderator

Australian Thomas Anderson holds a bachelor’s degree in science and an honors degree in history. He joined Tank Encyclopedia in 2017. He is our resident expert in AFVs used and produced by Australia. To this end, his first article was a look at the AC I Sentinel, published in January 2017.

As comment moderator, Thomas is responsible for ensuring a productive discussion is maintained on the site and to correct errors that our readers make known to us.

You can read Thomas’ articles HERE.


Leander Jobse

Writer

Leander is from the Netherlands and currently studies Art Conservation and Restoration at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. He joined Tanks Encyclopedia in March 2017 and has produced a modest but steady stream of articles since. Most of his articles cover Western European vehicles from the early era of AFV development. His favorite article that he has written is the Marmon-Herrington CTLS-4TA, whilst his most unusual article is probably the Soviet IT-28 armored bridge layer.
Aside from AFVs, Leander has an array of other interests, including history in general, cultural heritage, and nature. He also likes to draw and is currently experimenting with producing digital art of AFVs.

His first article was on the Czech Libenska-ČKD F-IV-H.

You can read Leander’s articles HERE.


Laurance Kenneth Robinson

Writer

Laurance is a proud mongrel of Manx (Isle of Mann), of Irish and British descent. Raised in a military family, he was brought up surrounded by military history and life. He joined Tanks Encyclopedia in 2017. His first article was the 37mm Bofors anti-tank gun. As a former Territorial Infantryman, he is more inclined towards destroying tanks than operating them and has become TEs resident anti-tank writer. Now living in Finland and working as a Chef, he has taken a liking to Finnish history and also writes on our Finnish armor and related pages.

You can read Laurance’s articles HERE.

Websites

Laurance Robinson also runs a Finish Military History Blog: finland-at-war.blogspot.com


Francis ‘Frankie’ Pulham

Writer

Francis is from Brighton, England, and is a published military historian. Francis has been writing for Tanks Encyclopedia since September 2016, and is our resident World War Two Soviet expert. Francis’ first book, ‘Fallen Giants: The Combat Debut of the T-35A Tank‘ was published in August 2017. When not writing for TE or writing his books, Francis is involved in two restoration projects, Both T-34 tanks. Francis favorite article he wrote was on The Battle Of Verba, about the T-35 tank, also the subject of his first book.

You can read Francis’ articles HERE.

Websites

Francis Pulham runs a Facebook page dedicated to his books: Francis Pulham Books.
He is also involved in the restoration of two T-34 tanks. These include a T-34/76 (Link) and London’s famous ‘Stompie’ (Link)


David Lister

David Lister

Writer

David originally hails from the East Anglian Fens, and thus thinks that hills are unnatural formations. He tends to specialise in British armor, and is a consultant to several large companies on the subject of British military history, and has even had evidence published by a Parliamentary Committee.

David has also published several books covering poorly researched areas of British military history, and can often be found rooting through the archives to gather material for such works. A full list of his books can be found on the publishers website:

Lister’s books

You can read David’s articles HERE.

Websites

David Lister has also got a Facebook page: historylisty. He also writes on the ‘Overlord Blog’.


Marko Pentelic

Writer

Marko is from Serbia and is an Economist in Tourism. He joined Tank Encyclopedia in 2017, with his main interest laying in World War Two and Cold War Yugoslavian, Polish and German vehicles. His first article was on the Škoda Š-I-D (T-32).

You can read Marko’s articles HERE.

Marko Pentelic also writes for one of our sister websites, Plane Encyclopedia.


Jeremy ‘CaptainNemo’ Rosenblad

Writer

Jeremy Rosenblad is from the United States, he joined Tanks Encyclopedia in 2017. He formerly wrote for For The Record News and now assists as a Consultant for Armored Warfare having informally assisted with World of Tanks previously. He received his degree in History back in 2013. His focus is in German Tank Engines, US WW2 Vehicle Development, US Tank Engines and Cataloging Tank Ammunition from all countries which remains a continuous work in progress with 2200+ rounds logged and counting.

Jeremy co-authored our article on the Grille 17 & 21 SPGs. Read HERE.


Joshua Martinez

Writer

Joshua resides in the southern portion of the United States and has been an avid tank enthusiast since primary school. He joined Tanks Encyclopedia in early 2016, his first article was the BMPT. His main field of interest was originally World War 2 Romanian tanks, but has now extended it to most Romanian ground equipment from all eras whether it be never built to mass produced weaponry with a mild interest in Romanian aviation. His constant need to be thorough, detailed, and accurate combined with his snail’s pace article writing has caused his articles to become constantly delayed with relatively few being published. He strives to become a published author sometime in the future.

You can read Joshua’s articles HERE.


Kittichart Boonyapakdi

Writer

Kittichart is from Thailand and joined Tank Encyclopedia 2017. He specialises in Second World War Thai and East Asian armor. His first article was on the Type 76 SPAAG. Kittichart is also an Horologist (the study of watches & time pieces), and works in Pharmaceuticals

You can read Kittichart’s articles HERE.

Websites

Kittichart Boonyapakdi also runs a Facebook Page: WW2 Japanese & Axis Army


Chris Tietz

Writer

Chris has strong ties to Germany but was born and raised in Canada, surrounded by the military. When he was ten his father and uncles saw service in Afghanistan. Chris joined Tanks Encyclopedia in 2018. His first article was the Type 2 Ke-To. When not writing articles, Chris is working on filling our public suggestions page and he has started working with our sister website, Naval Encyclopedia.

You can read Chris’ articles HERE.


Sonny Butterworth

Writer

Sonny grew up in Suffolk in the UK, where he quickly developed an interest in all things military. Impressed most of all by tanks, Sonny read widely on the topic until he began to develop a specific interest in early Second World War German AFVs.

Following the completion of his History degree, Sonny decided to use his spare time to take his hobby to the next level by volunteering to write for Tanks Encyclopedia, joining the team in March 2018. He subsequently became a TE editor in October 2018 and is gradually rewriting TE’s Panzer I and Panzer II articles.

As a senior analyst for Shephard Media’s Defence Insight business intelligence service, Sonny also studies contemporary armoured vehicles for a living.

Alongside fellow TE contributors, Sonny attended the inaugural Stompie Garden T-34 Open Day. He can also be found in uniform at military vehicle events across the UK re-enacting the Red Army’s 34th Motorized Infantry Regiment and 93rd Tank Brigade as part of the Krasniy Konserv Re-enactment Group.

His main aim is to expand and rewrite our articles on Panzer I & II. Sonny’s first article, which is yet to be published, will be on the Panzer II Ausf. G.

Sonny also helped at the first ever (Stompie Garden) open Day, along with one of our writers, Francis Pulham and Gareth Montes.


Will Hardwick

Writer

Will hails from the borders of Wales, and has been interested in History and Vehicles for many years, with World of Tanks and the Bovington tank museum being the original fuel of his interest in Tanks specifically, back in 2011. He joined the team in late 2017, though he made several previously unpublished writing endeavors. He is currently studying History and American Studies at Swansea University. As well as being interested in British vehicles specifically, he also enjoys tales of lesser-known vehicles with strange or bizarre stories behind them.

You can read Will’s articles HERE


John Stevenson

Writer

John lives in Croatia and first joined the TE Community Discord on 19th June 2017. He decided to join the TE Team as a writer on the 22nd of April 2018. His first article was on the Jagdpanzer 38(t) ‘Chwat’. His interest in tanks started from a young age. John is mostly interested in Yugoslavian and Polish armor of the Second World War and Cold War. Besides tanks, he is also interested in infantry weaponry, video games, sports, history, politics, natural sciences, and numismatics.

You can read John’s articles HERE


Darren Hazes

Writer

Darren is from The Netherlands and joined Tanks Encyclopedia in June 2019. His first article was the Sherman Repotenciado. Darren is currently in his final year of Mechanical Engineering. His field of interest are obscure vehicles and he specializes in Brazilian vehicles. Aside from writing for TE, he also manages our Spotify and is part of the Reddit team. In addition, Darren is an avid scale modeller and posts his self-proclaimed series, ‘Tanks with Darren’, on his personal facebook page for his friends to read and learn about the latest model kit he has built.

His first article was on the Argentinian Sherman Repotenciado

You can read Darren’s articles HERE.


Marisa Belhote

Writer

Marisa (also known under the pseudonym Waka) hails from Normandy, France. As a nerdy kid fascinated by history growing up in a region filled with museums and monuments dedicated to WW2, she quickly acquired an interest in military technology, including tanks but also planes and submarines. She joined Tank Encyclopedia for the first time in June of 2018, but ended up leaving due to being inactive and only really joined in April of 2019. Her first article was the Saurer-CAT and White-Saurer, though the one she takes the most pride in is the CDM armored car. Her main goal in writing for TE is to bring information only available in French sources to a more international public, though she is also very interested in North Korean armor developpements as well as makeshift vehicles and field conversions. Outside of TE, she is currently a student in History and Political Science, and pursues a number of hobbies such as fishkeeping, writing and gaming.

You can read Marisa’s articles HERE.


Arturo ‘ARTsigismondo’ Giusti

Writer

Arturo is from Northern Italy, in the historical Metropolitan city of Turin, Piedmont.
As a person who travelled a lot with his parents since he was a kid, he developed a strong passion for military history and armored military vehicles.
He wrote his first article, the one he is also the most proud of, for Tank Enciclopedia in November of the 2018, about the Italian improvised armored truck Lancia 3Ro Blindato.
He writes about tanks from the WW2 era to modern times, mostly Italian vehicles but also of some other nations such as Chile, Israel and North Korea.
For a living, he works to pay new military books or travel around the world.
In his spare time, he likes to play war-themed videogames and build models of tanks and military aircrafts.

You can read Art’s articles HERE.


Steffen Hjønnevåg/’Grimnir’

Writer

Steffen (preferably ‘Grimnir’) enjoys learning, reading and writing about vehicles from as early as the Cold War to modern day. He has a highly specialized preference in particular towards the Swedish originating CV90 armored fighting vehicle.

Origins of this interest can be traced back to Armored Warfare, where he joined the VIP team and developed this interest. Since he left the VIP group, he has been a part of Tank Encyclopedia. He does this as a simple side-hobby when he has time to work on articles, which could result in few articles being released.

Working as a chef whenever work is available, usually carefree and trying to take it easy, as the mental health is not always there.

You can read Grimnir’s articles HERE.


William Whynacht

Writer

Joined Tank Encyclopedia in July 2017, though due to laziness, he did not get anything published until 2019. Despite that, he knows a lot about US armor from the Second World War and Korean War, and that’s the period he writes about. Initial interest in tanks spurred from childhood interest in military vehicles, but was reinforced by the game “War Thunder”. Has a very strong interest in the specifics on tanks, and has measured the armor thickness on multiple tanks. TE is a fun hobby, and it’s always great to bring new details to light on armored vehicles.


‘Life_In_Black’

Writer

‘Life_In_Black’ hails from the United States, and has long had an interest in armored vehicles and military history. What started out as a hobby while wasting far too much time and money on a famous online tank game, soon turned into a fascination with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and Israeli military vehicles. While not always confident in his own writing, he can often be found helping out TE members with his accumulated knowledge of Israeli vehicles while trying in vain to correct the various tank myths that keep getting repeated.


Alex Tarasov

Writer/TE Magazine Editor

Alex Tarasov is Russian who lives in Riga, Latvia. His passion about history and in particular a history of armored warfare, arises in the early childhood and remained till this day. Probably one on the main reasons is the stories told by his grandparents. His grandfather was a veteran of the Great Patriotic War and the Winter War.

The other reason that sparkled his interest in history is the place where he lives, famous for its military past and particularly the history of armored forces.

Alex was born in 1980 and received his master’s degree (MA) in Business Administration from Baltic International Academy, Riga. For many years he worked as analyst and this experience helped him in his historical research.

Apart from his civil job he also writes for Tanks Encyclopedia, as well as for numerous Eastern and Western publishers and military news portals including Shephard Media, Pen & Sword, Izvestia, Oborona Rossii and others.

Furthermore, Alex works as a Tank Encyclopedia Magazine editor constantly trying to improve, enhance and make the better product for the readers.

In addition to the tanks, his main interests encompass questions of combat employment, tactics and development of the doctrinal thought. In his opinion, big picture matters the most.

In his everyday life Alex is a keen runner and traveler.

Websites

You can read Alex’s articles here – https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/author/alext/

Buy Tanks Encyclopedia Magazine here – https://payhip.com/TankEncyclopedia

Or say him ‘hello’ on Twitter – https://twitter.com/LeonDead


Illustrators & 3D Modellers

One thing Tank Encyclopedia is known for is high-quality illustrations. As already mentioned, David was the original artist, but over the years, more have joined the crew.

Jaycee ‘AmazingAce’ Davis

Colorist

Jaycee “Amazing Ace” Davis had been a tread head since 2011 and eventually joined the Tank Encyclopedia team in 2015. He currently serves Tank Encyclopedia as a colorist, or an artist who specializes in colorizing original black and white photos. Jaycee colorizes all military vehicle photos, land, air, or sea, that are requested by the team using the most accurate color sources available to ensure that the vehicles are portrayed correctly. These photos mainly appear in TE articles or in the Tank Encyclopedia Magazine. Colorizations by Jaycee also appear in armored vehicle related books commissioned outside of TE, written by fellow TE members.

While having wide general knowledge on historical and technical aspects of armored vehicles, Jaycee’s real mastery on the subject of military history and technology is in the Renault FT. He is the Author and Artist for the Operation Priority: Renault FT Variant Database series, an interactive series of books that document the history, strategy, and technical aspects of the Renault FT tank. The central goal of Operation Priority is to act as a database and repository for all things Renault FT, focusing around information on variants and function. Jaycee is your go-to team member for any Renault FT related inquiries.

In academia, Jaycee is currently enrolled at UCI (University of California Irvine) with a major in Specialization in History for Future Teachers and a minor in Business Administration. He is also currently an annual employee at the National Museum of Military Vehicles in Dubois, Wyoming, learning curatorial and vehicle restoration skills.

Jaycee has written one article on the FT which you can read HERE.

Websites

Jaycee Davis manages his own website which includes the PDF to Operation Priority as well as other FT related things: amazingace.wix.com/priority

Learn more about our Renault FT obsessor in this interview.

MR. DAVIS AND THE RENAULT FT – July 5th/6th 2018

Mr. Alatabi:I interviewed TE Team Member and FT enthusiast, Mr. Jaycee “AmazingAce” Davis. Davis has written an article and done many illustrations for Tanks Encyclopedia and is one of their most valuable team members. He then switched to doing colorizations of black-and-white photographs of military vehicles.

Nice to finally interview you, Mr. Davis

Mr. Davis: Pleasure to be here.

Mr. Alatabi: So, Mr. Davis, what got you into tanks in the first place?

Mr. Davis: As a kid, I liked cars and playing ‘army guys’ with my friends. I have always been interested in the military because I come 2 from a military family, with an interest in cars and military related things. I put two and two together and started looking at tanks.

Mr. Alatabi: Now, I’ve heard a lot about you. They say you’re quite an expert in the AFV field. Would you call yourself an expert?

Mr. Davis: I actually used to think I was, I ran around calling myself an ‘expert’ to my friends. That changed once I really started getting into the nitty gritty of everything armored vehicle and I realized that I was unaware of many things. I realized that I have much to learn before I can claim that I am an expert and that I have to keep learning to retain it. So I don’t believe I am an expert in this field but I will never stop trying to achieve more.

Mr. Alatabi: Now, I’ve heard about a project you are working on, something to do with the French Renault FT? Would you mind telling me about it?

Mr. Davis: Yes, I’m currently working on a project called “Operation Priority: Renault FT Variant Database.” It is an online resource of everything Renault FT, with the main document containing information on every Renault FT variant there is, including ones from other nations, and other smaller documents that range from interesting facts about the FT that one may not know to measurements and schematics with pure data.

Mr. Alatabi: Why are you so obsessed with the FT?

Mr. Davis: It marked the first breakthrough in tank design at the time and was “the tank” after World War One and the Interwar period. It could also be said that it is the most historically significant tank ever produced, as it was the first tank to ever place its tracks on many other nations who then started their tank production based off what they learned from the FT. The history surrounding the tank from its origins to its last use in combat is incredibly interesting to me.

Mr. Alatabi: How did you come across Tanks Encyclopedia?

Mr. Davis: I don’t exactly remember when I first came across Tanks Encyclopedia, although I do remember going down their list of tanks and reading every article when I started becoming interested in AFVs.

Mr. Alatabi: How and why did you join the TE Team?

Mr. Davis: I joined the TE team when I saw that they were asking for new members to join the site and forum around 2015. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to learn more about tanks and to meet the people writing the articles. I joined their forum at the time and requested to join, they were short on manpower back then so they let me on originally as a forum mod.

Mr. Alatabi: What is your opinion on tanks nowadays? How important are they today to the world’s militaries?

Mr. Davis: They are definitely still important if the military wants something well armed and armored. Currently, wheeled vehicles cannot carry the weapons tanks mount in regards to caliber and weight. They are not nearly as armored too. Wheels will also never be as good as tracks in terms of weight distribution over soft ground. Until Active Protection Systems are able to block all incoming fire and Anti-Tank missiles become cheaper, the tank will still hold its place as the most powerful military land vehicle. Of course wheeled vehicles may be more practical in some areas but the tank is still the most feared weapon on the battlefield and will remain so for a very long time.

Mr. Alatabi: Well said. Now, for our final question, if you were to command any tank, in any time era, what would it be?

Mr. Davis: You already know the answer, the Renault FT! I would absolutely love to be a gunner or driver in a Renault FT during its heyday in World War One. I would also love to have been in one of the Renault FTs involved in the French Victory Day parade of 1919, driving down the avenue of the Arc de Triomphe with my fellow tankers. One can only dream.

Mr. Alatabi: Alright then! Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions!

Mr. Davis: No problem, and thank you for supporting Tanks Encyclopedia!

Mr. Alatabi: That was Tank Enthusiast and TE Team Member, Mr. Jaycee “AmazingAce” Davis!

An interview by Mr. Alatabi


Bernard ‘Escodrion’ Baker

Illustrator/Writer

Bernard is British-Polish. His first illustration for TE was in 2017 (the fake Polnischer Panzerkampfwagen T-39) and his first article for TE was published in 2020 (PZInż.130). Bernard has a Bachelor’s degree in Philology specializing in Korean and a Master’s degree in Ethnolinguistics. As his day job, he is a English-Polish translator, though he has dabbled in translating from other languages. His main historical interest is WWI and the weapons the various armies fielded in it, as well as the Interwar period, mainly centered around the Polish Army. Outside his historical interests, he enjoys world building and has created several languages.

Bernard is currently working on illustrating every Polish vehicle (including tanks, trains, planes and cars) used by the Polish Army in WWII including a lot of prototypes and some ahistorical vehicles. Bernard has also illustrated for our sister website Plane Encyclopedia.

Websites

Bernard Baker’s work can be found on his DeviantArt profile.
His art can also be found on his website: Commonwealth Triumphant .


Ardhya ‘Vesp’ Anargha

Illustrator

Ardhya Anargha is from Indonesia, and he has particular interest in modern military conflict, history and hardware. He joined the Tank Enyclopedia team as an Illustrator in 2018. His first illustration work for the website was the IT-28 bridge laying tank.

Websites

Ardhya Anargha’s work can also be found on his DeviantArt profile.


Andrei ‘Octo10’ Kirushkin

Illustrator

Andrei Kiruskin is from Belarus and joined the team in 2018. Andrei produces all kinds of artwork, but overall tends to enjoy more comic book related stuff. He does enjoy the military theme, but not the historical part of it. Andrei says “I think it’s mainly because around where I live, we had quite a fistful of wars and all the horrors of it…” Andrei’s first illustration for TE was not a tank, quite opposite in fact. It was an experimental anti-tank weapon, the 60mm Lanciabombe.

Websites

You can also find Andrei Kirushkin on Instagram.


Oussama “Godzilla”

Illustrator

Oussama or better known as “Godzilla”, is an Algerian illustrator who has shown an interest in both military equipments and art since he was a child.
His first passion was for planes, which he inherited from his father, who had designed two plane prototypes, but his interest in tanks soon followed.

On the 13th of September 2021, he began his Tank Encyclopedia diary, with the L.K.A as his first illustration. Since then, he has helped create a number of other illustrations for TE.


Brian S. Gaydos

3D Modeller

Brian joined the team at the end of 2018 as a 3D modeler to help illustrate using renderings of his 3D models. His first illustration for TE was the Indien Panzer. He currently is attending college at The Ohio State University for mechanical engineering where he also works as a bicycle mechanic. He is an avid cyclist and rock climber, but has always had a passion for history fostered by his father and grandfathers. He has worked on a variety of armored vehicles with the Tank Encyclopedia, but his main interests are in prototype and turretless vehicles.


YouTube Team

The guys behind YouTube at Tank Encyclopedia.

Big Turn

Youtube Manager/Video Editor

‘Big Turn’ (or just, ‘Turn’) loves all things Cold War related. Their favourite armored vehicle of all time is the T-80U, a dazzling piece of wonderful Soviet engineering that had its reputation unfairly ruined post collapse. They have been interested in militaria since early childhood, and started gaining an interest in AFVs in their early teens after being recommended videos on War Thunder. They are also interested in photography, videography, computers, scuba diving and anime. Turn can generally be found clicking F11 every 7 or so seconds to check how the channel’s views are going. They also occasionally edit TE’s YouTube videos.

‘Turn’ started off as a video editor in February of 2020, and graduated to channel manager in August of the same year. Turn feels like the YouTube channel is doing well, and that it’s on track to becoming serious business by the end of 2021.

Unfortunately, this poor bloke has no access to any tank museums (or tanks for that matter), so if you feel like giving this guy some slack, support the channel by watching and giving feedback on our videos.

You can visit Big Turn’s channel here: Channel


Jim Zawack(y)i

Video Editor

Hailing from the great state of Missouri, Jim spent an unhealthy amount of time watching WWII documentaries as a kid, with a hankering for history quickly following suit. When he wasn’t running around the woods with his friends or doing front flips, he spent his time learning about the German big cats and the still purported ‘Ronsons’. As the years went by, he took many classes in high school about all things history, not just tanks. After some soul searching, he is currently working on an Undergraduate Degree in History. In Fall 2018, he saw Tank Encyclopedia’s help wanted post on r/TankPorn and noticed that one of the available positions was as a video editor. Ever the aspiring filmmaker, he emailed Stan and got his first assignment, The Bi-Weekly Report #18, and the rest is history. Though, in what little spare time he has left, he makes his own videos for his own channel, though he only uploads once in a blue moon. Regardless, he continues to exist and help the team in all the video-making matters.

Check out his channel here! Ya Boi Zawacky’s Channel


Louis Mendoza/’Sasuri’

Video Editor/Writer

Hailing from the desert state of Arizona, United States, ‘Sasuri’ (real name Louis Mendoza) joined Tank Encyclopedia in late February 2020. From a very young age, he was very interested in all sorts of military vehicles from just about any era in history, but in 2018, he developed a very strong passion for tanks and other armored fighting vehicles. He takes particular interest in American and German tanks from the Second World War, his all time favourite tank being the Panther Ausf.G with the “chin” mantlet.

After joining Tank Encyclopedia, he originally set out to become a writer, writing and publishing his first article on the fake Panther II mit 8.8 cm Kw.K. 43 L/71 in May of 2020. He would continue to work on two articles, publishing one in June of 2020 on the famous M8 vs Tiger encounter, when in that same month he would join the TE YouTube Team as a video editor to help out with the website’s fledgling YouTube channel. Since then, he has been primarily focused on helping to make YouTube videos for the website.

Outside of TE, he is currently studying to get a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Computer Science.

You can read Sasuri’s articles HERE.


‘Kraiger’

Audio Editor/Video Editor/Writer

‘Kriager’ has been a long time fan of all things Mechanical. He may or may not have “snuck” into the Fort Benning Tank Restoration Facility to get pictures of his favorite tank, the T28/95. He’s travelled the world and seen many things.

Considered an asset of sorts, he’s an aficionado of audio editing having worked on a number of projects over the years for national and international organizations.


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Kácser Gábor/“Gabe”

Audio Editor

‘Gabe’ joined Tanks Encyclopedia in February 2020, originally as a writer. After his first writing trial however, he quickly found that he wasn’t quite up to the task. He lurked around the Discord until June of 2020, when Stan asked around for help editing videos. Realising his previous skills could be useful, he applied. A few days and some help from Sasuri later, the B2 Centauro was uploaded. Ever since, he’s been cleaning audio and gathering bloopers.


Behind the Scenes

The guys behind the scenes at Tank Encyclopedia are just as important as our writers and illustrators. Their roles, such as librarian, liaison, and public archive digger all help the site to be the best it can be.

Doɔʇoɹ Sʇɐu ˥nɔᴉɐu

Team Manager

Stan the man with the action plan is a vampire from Transylvania, apart from his dayjob of some sort of high level science along with feasts of blood, he rises in the night to guide the passionate tankers of this encyclopedia. Dispensing his iron vampiric will to every Writer, Illustrator, and Editor alike. He hasn’t paid his taxes since the fall of Ceaușescu’s regime. Since he is a vampire, he is hundreds of years old and has personally witnessed both world wars, from which he gained an interest in armored warfare. Content to one day rule an encyclopedia of AFVs, he bided his time for over a century until David Bocquelet started our fair website. From there, he offered his services and gradually gained power with the motley crue of volunteers. Today, he stands as the Team Manager of the team in which he manages teamingly. Recently he has switched from sucking blood to huffing glue, and the results speak for themselves. We gained more influence than ever before and our thousand year empire will reign supreme. Also, he’s married.

His first article was about the Canadian M113 C&V Lynx.

You can read Stan’s article’s HERE.

Learn more about our Romanian Vampire in this interview.

STAN AND THE STUG III – August 21st 2018

Mr. Alatabi: Here, we have TE Recruiter and team member, Stan! So, Stan, what introduced you to tanks and what got you interested?

Stan: When I first got a computer, I was about 10 years old. Back in those days, game magazines came with CDs with game demos and other software. On one such magazine, I had two game demos, Freelancer and Blitzkrieg. I played them both to exhaustion, and they both lead to my love of Sci-Fi and my love of WWII and military history. I remember I loved the Ferdinand in the Blitzkrieg demo, it felt invincible.

Mr. Alatabi: And, what introduced you to Tanks Encyclopedia?

Stan: I was in the first or second year of university and I started playing World of Tanks. My interest for the actual history of these vehicles was rekindled and I started looking for more information on them. I read For The Record a lot (and I’m proud to say a couple of the writers from there are now on our team). In my searches, I came across WW2Drawings, which is a nice website with sort of the same idea as TE. It is done by a Belgian guy, really talented, but his English was kinda off. So I messaged him asking if I could help. Didn’t receive a reply (actually, I did, but 2-3 months after). After that, I found TE, which was in the same situation. I messaged David asking him if he wanted me to help proofreading, and he quite happily accepted. Been a part of TE ever since.

Mr. Alatabi: You were the second member of the TE Team, correct?

Stan: Yes I was the second one. David Bocquelet is the founder of TE (and main writer, illustrator, site admin and all that back then) and he was the first.

Mr. Alatabi: People say you’re highly knowledgeable in the AFV field, and you’re one of the top recruiters for Tanks Encyclopedia. Would you agree with these statements?

Stan: I am the main recruiter for TE, although nowadays we are less focused on recruiting new writers. I usually keep an eye on our comments and our Discord server for knowledgeable persons who would be valuable for us. I also go looking on the web when we need certain stuff, such as illustrators. As for the highly knowledgeable, I have no idea who told you that. I’ve read loads since I joined TE, but I don’t have the knowledge or the experience in the field to really call myself a highly knowledgeable individual. I am just a passionate amateur who strives to do his best.

Mr. Alatabi: Now, let me ask you something sort of off-topic. What is your favorite tank?

Stan: The Sturmgeschütz III.

Mr. Alatabi: Why is that?

Stan: Because it is an underappreciated bit of very good kit, with good reliability, mobility and protection, which was intensely produced and used during all stages of WWII in Europe. Plus, it really brings me pleasure to see the German fans rage when I argue it was more important than the Tiger II or Jagdtiger.

Mr. Alatabi: One could argue the StuG III truly was one of the most important tanks of World War II.

Stan: On the German side, definitely. Although, to be precise, it was not a tank and it was not a tank destroyer (although it seems to have gotten press-ganged into the role at times). It was an assault gun.

Mr. Alatabi: What do you think of tanks today? Are they useful too today’s militaries?

Stan: I think that, with few exceptions, few nations of the world are prepared both technologically and doctrinally for the realities of the modern battlefield. And I think this was best illustrated in the battle of Al Bab, where the Turkish Army, despite having a crushing advantage in numbers, armor and air support, was kept at bay by ISIS for more than two months. The Turks suffered heavy tank casualties in the face of ISIS defenses and AT missile teams, combined with TSK’s poor deployment and employment. When used properly, I believe the armored force is central and an anchoring point in modern tank tactics. But when used poorly, it’s just a big juicy target costing several hundred thousand dollars.

As for the future, there have been many predictions that the tank will become obsolete, and it still isn’t. On the other hand, there have been lots of people who said horses will not become useless on the battlefield. Who knows?

Mr. Alatabi: Agreed. Now for our final question, if you were to command any tank in any time era, which one would it be, and when?

Stan: Ah, now that’s a tough one, especially as I’m not very keen on actually being a tanker (unlike other folk). I’d probably go with an Abrams during the First Gulf War. Ripping through one of the most powerful armies in the Middle East with ease while incurring little-to-none losses seems just like my piece of cake.

Mr. Alatabi: Alright, thank you for your time, Stan!

Stan: Okay, cheerio!

An interview by Mr. Alatabi


Nathaniel MacDonald

Illustrator Liason & Weekly Report Narrator

Nathaniel is from the United States and currently works as both a park ranger and museum docent. Nathaniel attended university and has a Bachelors in History and a Masters in Social Studies and History Education. Nathaniel works in vehicle restoration with the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome to keep WWI planes and vehicles operational. Currently, he is assisting in the restoration of an M1917 tank, which he operated in the Aerodrome’s airshows. Nathaniel is a liaison between the writers and the artists for Tank Encyclopedia, ensuring that the writers receive the best illustrations they can for their articles. He also narrates Tank Encyclopedia’s Weekly Reports.

Nathaniel has written one article on the British Tetrarch light tank which you can read HERE.

Old Rhineback also has a website that you can visit: oldrhinebeck.org


Jeffrey Gaydos

Jeffrey Gaydos

Volunteer Web Designer

Jeff joined Tank Encyclopedia in 2020 after urgings from his twin brother Brian S. Gaydos to help create a dark mode feature for the website. He is currently a computer science & engineering major at The Ohio State University with an interest in game and web design. Aside from creating dark mode and other more custom features of the website, Jeff handles bug reports and suggestions from users as well as general website maintenance. For more specific information on Jeff’s work for Tank Encyclopedia, see his portfolio website below. Bug reports are best received via discord to user “Jeff_G#3210”.

Websites

Jeff’s Portfolio Website: https://jeffreygaydos.github.io/


38 replies on “Meet the Team”

There are no Russians in the team!!!

Thanks guys for the awesome job you do, bloody marvellous!!!

Brad

Thanks Brad !
This is going to change, just a test to pass; We should unveil a whole range of late cold war and Russian AFVs soon by a native dedicated author
Cheers,
David Bocquelet, TE funder.

Hello founder of this website. Is there a way for me to contribute to this website like becoming an author?
I would really like to add articles that i haven’t seen. Some examples are the Chrysler TV-8 (Soviet experimental), Fiat 6614 (Italian prototype), Object 120 (Soviet experimental), etc..
If i am not able to join, for specific reasons, is there any other way i could give information to this website?

Thanks,
TankLore

Mr Hills, mr Robinson and mr Pawley are all ex-Servicemen, mr Moore is an ex-Scotland Yard officer, mr Kerrs and mr Montes are both licensed historians. So, no, it’s neither odd, nor sad.

A number of us also have family and ancestral connections to armor as well.

– TE Moderator

Thx for all you do, this is my go to source for my current research in armored vehicles of ww1-modern era

Hey there Tank Encyclopedia team! I have suggested that you should add a page about the Lorraine 155 mle.51. This tank was an artillery piece and only existed in prototypes form. There are currently no surviving or intact prototypes, but what remains are only the hulls. It ran on the Lorraine 40t’s rubber road wheels. It is a French tank. Developed after the second world war. Hopes this information can help you write another great article! There are way more tanks out there waiting to be written.

PS: if you want to find more tanks to write about you should check out World of Tanks’ Encyclopedia here, b/c there are not a lot of people that use that other website while this website has gained some attention among my team.

Hello Jack,
Thank you for your suggestion. While we are aware of the Lorraine-based SPGs, you can put this suggestion and any others you might have into out Public Suggestion List:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1p0Ll9TITGDiF9_fdS-tv1797JBs0_-pB70ReE_kIRkE/edit#gid=1911430820
As for the article on it, it will unfortunately not be soon. The Tank Encyclopedia team has decided to heavily prioritize rewriting in order to fix some issues with our older articles and also to give us some time to illustrate our existing humongous stache of ready articles.
After this is completed, we will look at writing more articles about vehicles in WoT (and WT and AW). At least about the ones that are real.

May I commend you on the quality of your website. More strength to your arm.
However, a couple of small details to improve the quality of your content. Firstly, South African forces were not conscripted during WW1 or WW2. This was due to the still ongoing resentment against Britain after the Anglo-Boer War. In fact, there was some active pro-Nazi groups in South Africa during this period. Secondly, as a Capetonian, kindly spell Cape Town (two words) like that, it is incorrect to spell it Capetown.

Keep up the good work.

Your site is an incredible compendium of information about armored vehicles. I build 1\36 and 1\16 scale model armor and I ALWAYS refer to your site before beginning a new project. I especially appreciate David Bocquelet’s fine illustrations, since as a modeller I’m primarily more concerned with the actual appearance of a vehicle than it’s actual workings. Kudos and thank you to all at Tank Encyclopedia for your first rate site!

Hello. Is it acceptable for me to provide help to the rewriting of Cold War-era and modern Chinese armor with local official information and files?

You can help in two ways.
Either by sending us information sources and translating them (word for word).
Or by writing articles yourself.
If you’re interested in any, email [email protected]

I’m an illustrator and interested in contributing illustration to this site, is that possible?

Hi, I am editor of the Vauxhall Owners Club of Australia and would like to use some information on the Bedford B.T. Traclat in an article I am doing for our newsletter. The Newsletter is not sold, it only goes to members of the club. recognition of your source will of course be given. I hope this is ok with you.

Kind regards, Leigh.

How does one become involved?

I am retired from the US Army having spent 32 years in tanks; I crewed on everything from a brief stint with M47s, the M48 “Slick” through the A5 save the A4, M60 “Slick”, M60A1 and A3, and a few years with the M1IP Abrams. I was a Tank Battalion Master Gunner, the commander’s resident expert on all things gunnery, when I finally retired. I volunteer at two local military museums helping to “explain and maintain” their tanks as well as helping as a general US military subject matter expert, and I’m the local commander of our USABOT (“U-Say-Bo,” or United States Army Brotherhood of Tankers) chapter. In my spare time my team and I cosmetically restore tanks and armored vehicles displayed as monuments at local parks and veterans’ posts. Most recently we were restoring a US M1917 6 Ton Tractor (American Copy of the French FT17) when we were forced to “cease and desist” due to the pandemic.

Seeing all your fine work I was thinking that there was probably something I could do to help; seems like you could use a few more people with tank experience who could lend a hand. I reside in New Jersey USA and being retired I do have some time to get involved.

Yo, I am interested in Cold-War and modern Chinese armour, I have recently noticed that the Chinese pages for most of the Cold War and modern sections have been archived for editing, can I please know when the updated pages will be released again?

Thanks,

CN Enthusiast

P.S. I am interested in volunteering in the TE team to review, cross-reference and update Chinese armour pages

Dear CN Enthusiast,
We are currently lacking anyone to work on the Chinese Cold War (or modern pages). We require someone to rewrite both this page, the Chinese Modern one and most of the vehicle articles from scratch. The old articles are seriously obsolete and are not in a state to be improved.
If you’re interested, let me know

Dear Stan,
Thank you for the response, I am happy to volunteer to work on the Cold War and Modern pages for Chinese tanks, but unfortunately, I can only work on them part-time around mid to late December (December 10th to December 31st) as I am quite busy around November and early December, is there a way I can contact you and inform you when I am ready?

Thank you,

Regards, CN Enthusiast

Hello all writers and creator!

My name is Timur and I am artist, who starting to create the NFT-Tokens about Tanks topic which I will be publish on rarible.com. I just want to ask a question, is it possible if I borrowed part of text information from your website? I mean, to put on my work some facts and technical information about tanks, just only for educational issues.

Thank You.

Dear Timur,
If you are talking about using the information (but in your own words), there is nothing stopping you.
If you want to use our words exactly (copy-paste), then you should credit both the website and the article author and it would be highly recommendable to make a donation to the project, given that you will profit financially from our work.

Thank you for your answer!
I’ll put both information about website and author as well.
My works are illustrative in nature and show digital sketches and contain a small text description. If that Project starting well, the first transaction will donate to your website.
And also my nickname on rarible.com is: armorart

Hello, I am a WoT player and I noticed that you do not appear to have an article on the Soviet T-127. I am a big fan of this vehicle from my experience with in the game. I know it never saw combat, but it would be great if you could do an article about that tank.

Hi, whilst we hope to some day have an article on it, it is currently not in our sights.

Thanks
Gareth (TE Manager)

Good job! Really my only is that the VR Museum could use a few updates (maybe more information on the tanks that are on display, especially the 3D ones, and perhaps coloring and texturing the 3D models.) I do like the secret you-know-what, nice easter egg. Other than that, this is the best, most complete online public database of tanks I can find!

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