About Me

My real name is Pete Blanchard and I grew up in 1960s England, where young boys were surrounded by the cultural reflections of the Second World War. Victor and Commando comics, war films on the TV, Airfix model kits, you couldn’t escape it. And thus I got interested in WW2 aircraft first, then tanks.

But as I got older, the comics gave way to wargaming, which then gave way to guitars, gigs and beer. My teenage years ended as I went to London to study Spanish & Linguistics at Queen Mary College (rebranded as ‘QMUL’ these days). As part of my degree course, I spent two years in Burgos, Spain which deepened my passion for the country and its peoples. And after a year out after graduation, I joined the Ford Motor Company, where I spent 32 years primarily in financial analysis in various areas of the business.

But the interest in WW2 and, in particular, tanks never really went away. I’d still buy & read books on these subjects. And by now I’d also acquired a growing interest in the Spanish Civil War.

Upon retirement in 2019, I finally had the time to dig deeper into the subject of tank development to try to satisfy the curiosity that had stayed with me. And now with over three decades of experience in the automotive sector, understanding how tanks were designed, developed, refined and manufactured now made much more sense. And the analytical skills I’d acquired in my career could now be put to use understanding, say, British tank evolution between the world wars or German AFV production reports from 1943.

Am I a military historian? No, I feel I can’t claim that; I have no qualifications, experience or profession in the military history sector. So I stick to the terms ‘historical researcher’ and ‘armour enthusiast’ which seem to best describe my interest & activity.

My preferred historical period is from 1915 (the dawn of the tank) to around 1942 (when coherent tank development & supply seems to start getting its act together). This is the fascinating experimental period where lots of varied ideas were tried, both in terms of tank design and tank technology.

When looking at tank development, you have to look at all of the tank-building nations of the time. But for me, it’s what happens to tanks in Czechoslovakia, Germany, Sweden & the UK that really holds my fascination.